Bright Ideas Link-Up: A Simple Classroom Management Idea

Hey everyone!

I am so excited to be linking up again this month with all of these wonderful teachers for the Bright Ideas April Link-Up!  

This time of year can get very hectic in the classroom.  The kiddos (and teachers ;) ) are getting into "summer mode."  This is the time of year that our regular classroom management systems that we've used all year begin to fail us.  Sometimes we just need a little extra something to help those kiddos stay focused and keep their behavior on track.  A few years ago I was perusing Pinterest, I saw the simplest and most adorable classroom management idea from Teach-a-Roo.  It is called "Pickle and Ketchup".  :)  

 This is the Pickle and Ketchup I made for our classroom.

Many teachers use these differently, but in our classroom I have the pickle and ketchup stuck on our whiteboard.  Everyday if a student doesn't get work completed, they write their name in red under the ketchup.  This means they need to "catch up" on their work at recess time.  I LOVE this because it makes it easier for me to keep track of who needs to finish some work.  To pick a "pickle," I will sometimes pick a student that was an excellent role model that day and had great behavior.  Sometimes I let the students vote on a classmate that they think should be the "pickle."  Then I let that student pick their reward (we have a list of choices such as: pick first at recess, pick an item from our treasure box, pick up a duck buck from their teacher, etc.).

Pickle and Ketchup- So simple! :)  The kiddos look forward to finding out or helping pick the pickle for the day.  I love this little classroom management tool.

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For more bright ideas from 150 different bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you.  Thanks for visiting!