Behavior Pins

I'm in a classroom this summer for the extended year program. I have seven little boys and two of them have some mild behavior issues. I've been using positive reinforcement  and shared duties and so far, they have been a blast! Since I have to travel during the school year, being in a classroom over the summer helps keep my teaching skills honed and I just love it! I have the best paraprofessional and a great Foster Grandmom.

I've been using checks on the board to reward model behavior. The boys helped author the rules and I posted them on the board. I have all their names next to the rules with four checks that they try to keep. I can use that to keep data on the one with the behavior plan. 

I have promised the boys that I would bring some clothes pins that they will put on each day. I have used this method before but my neighbor at my regular school gave me an idea for personalizing the pins. So I have their names on four pins each. I have glued some buttons shaped like little vehicles on each pin with their names written on them. They are all sighted so I tried to stay with one color for each boy.

 The cute beads in the shape of vehicles were found at WalMart. I threaded them through some light blue ribbon I already had at home and then stuck them to the ends of the clothes pins using a low temperature glue gun.

 I found some magnetic strips with adhesive backing and stuck the strips on the back of the clothes pins. They can store their pins on the metal parts of their desks or on the metal edges of the dry erase board in the class.Their names are written with permanent ink markers. I used the variety pack of colors by Sharpie (C).  

When the summer is  over, each of them can take their clothes pins home an use them to stick their A+ school papers and art work on their moms' fridges.

 I usually use the rolled magnetic strip but these were in strips and less expensive for just seven boys. It took less than one hour to make these for seven boys.

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The pins are convenient because an adult doesn't have to wait until returning to class to erase a check. There is an immediate consequence for behavior because the child knows a rule is broken immediately. Students can also earn their pins back.

Each day the students earn stickers on their folders for keep all of their pins. On Thursdays, the para and I have brought treats for everyone who has made the week with most of their pins in tact.