It’s Back to School Season… Dun, dun, DUNNNN!
The combination of Reward Tags and this Star Tag bulletin board with unlockable achievements have seriously transformed my classroom management! That being said, I have been in my classroom for a total of 3 days – 36+ hours already (and they say teachers spend regular work week hours doing their job… Phooey to them). I have been working on setting up my bulletin boards, unpacking all my boxes of crap stuff that had to be packed at the end of last year and making about a hundred lists of things to do.
One of my favorite bulletin boards in my classroom is my
‘STAR TAGS’ Reward Tag Bulletin Board with Unlockable Achievements!
This. Thing. Is Awesome. It has exceeded my expectations.
Let’s check it out!
This is my STAR Reward Tags with unlockable achievements! Here is where my students will put the tags that they earn throughout our days at school. Each student has a necklace with their name above it. They will start out with one reward tag each (a back to school reward tag) and earn new ones for several accomplishments or achievements that they earn throughout the year.
Why did I call them STAR Tags?
I wanted my students to always remember 4 main things.
S – Sharing (ideas and/or things)
T – Targets (goals that were created with me)/ or Teamwork
A – Attitude
R – Respect
How does it work?
In my case, Reward tags with unlockable achievemts starts off by giving each student a tag. They are name tags to get us started. In my case, we have 18 reward tags to start the year off because I have 18 students in my class. After I initially give them their name reward tag, I have come up with a reward system that adds the fun of earning reward tags, with a whole class teamwork aspect. It’s sort of like a classroom version of a video game. Earn rewards individually, add those to a running total, then reward the class as a whole when you reach those milestones.
How do I do this you ask?
Each of my students has their name on a star where their necklace will be housed for the majority of the year (as seen above).
Each of my students also has a hook, a necklace and a tag with their name on it to avoid confusion throughout the year.
In the center of my board, I have a running count of how many tags our class has earned as a whole. When students come for meet the teacher day, I allow them to put their first tag on (their name tag) and add 1 to the count. So, the first student will write 1. The second student will write 2, and so on.
When a student earns a new tag, they get to wear their necklace for the whole day. They really love that part!
The Unlockable Achievements
Above all the tags are the UNLOCKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS! This is the best part of the board! Each level is locked! No one knows what is behind them! Students need to unlock the achievements by earning reward tags! Every tag they earn is added to the count in which the whole class is working toward earning a reward!
The Locked Levels!
How many Reward Tags Unlock a Level?
The amount of Reward Tags that you set for a goal is up to you. 50 Reward Tags was a perfect fit for the pace that I handed them out, but you could change it up depending on what meets your needs. I also have this achievement chart that we use to keep track of. I keep this in my teacher binder and when I pass them out, I keep a tally of how many I handed out so I know when we unlock a level.
Student Involvement
This classroom management strategy has been AHHH-MAZING so far! I can’t wait to post updates on how my kiddos are doing! I have 3 bulletin board sets available in my TpT store. Find them below!
3 Comments
This sounds FABULOUS!
I think I need a little more of an explanation. Are you saying you set your goal at 50 for each level? What types of things do you pass out brag tags for? Will you share each of your level rewards? Thank you!
Thanks very helpful. Will share site with my pals.