Child Motivation Tip: Lip Smacker Part Deux

Borrowed from KARE Givers

Educators (and parents) are commonly urged to focus on positive behaviors that are occurring in the classroom (and home).  For example, if the class is a little rowdy, you find the one child who is behaving appropriately and praise them, "Oh! I love the way Johnny is sitting criss cross applesauce!" Guess what happens?  Most of the other kids in the class will scurry to sit criss cross applesauce to get Mrs. Barr's praise just like little Johnny.  Sometimes, however, a verbal statement is just not enough, especially at this point in the school year, when all you want is to be finished!  It's very easy to forget to focus on the positive and call out behaviors that are not appropriate, "Excuse me! Why did you just do that!? You go apologize right now." or "Do I need to call Mrs. A.P.? Well, then follow directions!" Not that I have ever said, anything like that.......

So I will reach into my bag of tricks and share with you something that works like a charm.  Please keep in mind I work with 3-5 year olds, so this may not apply to your 6th grade social studies clan.  It's incredible and I have gotten a lot of feedback lately on the sheer brilliance of it.  I  feel that I can call this practice brilliant because I borrowed it from a brilliant educator, Dr. Jean, not because I am an arrogant narcissist. She is fabulous and you can read more on her website to find out more about her if you care.  I had the opportunity to attend one of her conferences about 3 and 1/2 years ago and this was one of the best things I took away from the experience.

     Smellies: the simple practice of dabbing chapstick of any kind (obviously I prefer Lip Smacker) to the back of the hand of the children who are behaving well. 

It might go a little something like this:

The class comes in from recess and are still a bit hyped up.  

The teacher instructs students "Go to your color on the circle" some students follow the direction, most, like in my class, do not.  

The teacher says "Wow, I really like the way Sally is standing on her red spot.  Here Sally, you get a smelly!" and the teacher gently swipes the pink chocolate flavored stick across the back of Sally's hand.  

Sally smells her hand and grins from ear to ear!  

The teacher then finds a few more students, who have picked up on the reinforcement and gotten with the program, to praise with the smelly.  

Students without smellies pout.

The teacher reminds them that they must follow directions the first time to get a smelly.  

Now you might think it's really mean to not to give it to everyone, but for those who don't get the smelly, they will work that much harder the next time.  I absolutely swear by this motivational tidbit.  My mom just sent some Vitamin Water Lip balms down with my dad yesterday, and the fruit punch one is already packed and ready to go reinforce America's future tomorrow! I look forward to sharing more from my bag of tricks with you in the future.  TTFN!

**As always and as promised, this is a tip that can be used in the home or school setting**

Why Re-Invent the Wheel

For Wednesday posts, I will tap into my bag of teaching ideas.  These ideas can be used in the school setting or at home.  Some I have thought of myself and some I have borrowed from others.  I have used them in my classroom and am sharing them with you to use, hence the title, Why Re-Invent the Wheel.  Over my past 11 years of teaching (ouch!) I have perfected being an underachiever and I am not ashamed.

This week we are talking about Fairy Tales.  Everyone loves a good Fairy Tale and almost everyone knows the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  This is the version I read today.  There are MANY versions!  We did a simple sort/size activity following the read aloud as follows:
Biggest to Smallest

Draw pictures of three bears using a stencil, going from biggest to smallest. Copy the pictures so that there are enough for each of the students in your group. If you don't have a stencil, simply draw different size bears.  Let them decorate each bear, and discuss the differences between them.Cut out the bears and place one set of bears on a surface everyone can see and label them “Small,” “Bigger,” and “Biggest.” Take three similar toys of different sizes, such as blocks or cars, and have students sort them beneath the picture appropriately.
You can take this one step further (to keep in a portfolio) and glue the bears on a large piece of construction paper in order from biggest to smallest.  Label the picture, "The Three Bears" and call it a day :).  

I like this activity because it uses other items to help children generalize the skill of sorting and awareness of size.  I also like the artistic element that children can create their own interpretations of Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Baby Bear.    

*If you plan to complete this activity in one sitting allot at least 30 minutes, including reading the story.  

Silly Willies

Get your mind out of the gutter! Or am I the only one who thinks of inappropriate things when I hear the word willy?  How can I not after actually going to see the Puppetry of the Penis show back in Fall of 2004 (?) at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre.  I can't remember the exactly, but I DO remember the show.
Getting back to the subject, today in school we had a few moments before lunch where I had nothing planned (shocking) so we explored this CD, which has one of our favorite movement songs, The Mack Chicken Dance is awesome (song list and music samples). It's a medley of the Chicken Dance, Its Bitsy Spider (not eensy weensy, which I don't understand why people say that and find it infuriating) and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.  We found that we also now love Silly Willies!  Great beat and fun moves for the littles.

Is it me or are these guys (or at least their pose) a little reminiscent of the Ambiguously Gay Duo on SNL??

*Remember children ages 2-5 benefit from 1.5-2 hours of DAILY physical activity!  If you would like more information and/or ideas for implementing structured physical activities into your daily routine, feel free to contact me via email.