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A Teeny Tiny Teacher

Gold Tags Behavior Management Plan

A week from today, I will be in my classroom and there will be children staring at me.

And not the neighborhood children who keep seeing me in my pajamas in the middle of the day, either.  Nope.  It will be real, live, actual, human first graders.

I cannot even believe it.

We go back officially this Wednesday for staff meetings and continental breakfasts and how was your summer and look at you and I love your hair and you’re so tan and where did you get that shirt stuff.

Ohhhhhh.  It makes my tummy hurt a little bit.

Because we are heading back, and I’ve been prepping unofficially for weeks now, I am back to talk about Gold Tags.  Or Gold Tickets.  Or whatever you want to call them.

You can read the original blog post {HERE}.

Let’s start off by saying that I am not here to tell you that this is the end all-be all classroom management plan and you shouldn’t be doing what you might already be doing.  I say if what you’re doing works for you, then keep on doing it.

I started using Gold Tags about thirteen years ago because what I was using (a clip chart in which the kids only went down, there was no up, that had not been invented yet and I wasn’t smart enough to think of it on my own) wasn’t working for me because I forgot that I had it and I was a new teacher and I was just trying to keep my head above the water.

The reason I am still using Gold Tags is because it still works for me and I haven’t had a class {yet}where it didn’t work so there you go.

Okay, I’m going to do a quick refresher on Gold Tags and what they are, but if you want all the ins and outs and the nitty gritty and the what ifs, then you have to go read the original post.

I will start using Gold Tags on DAY ONE.

I will show my kids the Gold Tags and act as if they are actual gold and that I got them from a Gold Tag Factory specializing in gold, and they will believe this until someone cuts a piece of yellow construction paper during an art project and holds up the left over piece and says, Look! A Gold Tag!


That’s why you must laminate them.  Don’t let your kids fool you.  (It only happened the one time.)
I will explain to my kids how important Gold Tags are in our classroom and how my students can earn them.
That’s when you need to make a big spiel out of being kind, and helpful, and following directions the first time, and lining up quietly, and blah blah blah, etc. — whatever makes you a happy teacher.



You could role play, too.  I tend to like to role play and it might have to do with the fact that I love acting.  And making a fool of myself.

I give every kid a Gold Tag pocket (seen in the picture above) and we talk about how we are going to keep our Gold Tags inside.

I have had people ask me where the kids keep their pockets.  I used to have the pockets glued onto poster board and laminated and I would hang it on the wall.  But that was back when I had 20 kids and I could get 20 pockets on a poster board.

Now that I can have up to 32 kids, I just have the kids keep their pockets at their desk.  And, believe it or not, I have never had a kid lose their Gold Tag pocket.  Ever.  They may lose their pencil or their scissors or their textbook or their shoe, but they will not lose their Gold Tag pocket.

One time, a kiddo thought he lost his, but it turns out that it was in his desk the whole time, and he just couldn’t find it because his desk resembled an extremely full land fill.

SO!

After I give my kids their pockets with lots of dramatic flair, I also give every kid TWO GOLD TAGS to start.

Oh, the looks on their wee little faces when I give them their first two Gold Tags.  People, they don’t even know about Fun Friday yet, and they are dying to get these Gold Tags.

SO THEN we either take a break or sing a song or Go Noodle or whatever because we have been on the carpet for seven whole minutes and that’s enough, thankyouverymuch, we just came from Kindergarten and that’s all we can do.

Then I show them the Fun Friday chart.

And I tell them a little bit about each center and they start asking when can we play, when can we play, First Grade Is The Best, when can we play, you crazy teacher, when can we play!?
I tell them we can’t play until Friday and I show them the title of the chart and I spontaneously have a little mini phonics lesson about the letter F and the Days of the Week.
I explain that every Friday, they will count their gold tags, and whoever has the most gets to choose a clip first.
Then there are gasps!  And some of the cutie pies even clap.
So then I role play kids taking clips off the chart and show how once all of the clips are taken from a particular center, well then, all of the clips are taken and that’s it.
That’s it.

Again, you might hear some gasps as kids begin to grasp this concept.
All week long, I will show kids a Fun Friday center or two each day.  Number one, this gets the kids excited for Fun Friday.  Number two, this encourages the kids to earn gold tags.  And number three, it shows the kids where the centers are located and the behavior expectations for those centers.
If I haven’t gone over a center (or 3 or 4 or 7) before the first Fun Friday, then I just take the clips off of those centers so that no one can go there.  That just means I’ll have to introduce more centers the following week.  Most of them are self explanatory, such as, here are the legos, please don’t put them in your mouth or your nose, please build something fun and appropriate and not a gun and don’t pretend to shoot people, and please clean them up when Fun Friday is over, or I will close the center next week.

Yes.  You can close a center.  I have to do that a lot with the Art Center because, for some reason, it is just not cleaned up that well and is basically a tub filled with water, wadded up paper, and floating paint brushes.  So the following week, I make a big thing out of removing the Art clothespins and saying THIS CENTER IS CLOSED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH I HAD TO STAY LATE AND CLEAN UP THE MESS AND I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO PAINT A PICTURE, GOSHDARNIT!
So.  Anywho.
All week long, I will pass out gold tags for good behavior and for good choices and for whatever it is I want the kids to be doing so that we can learn and fill our brains with new knowledge (like how to line up and walk to the carpet quietly and go to our cubbies without shoving) and we can do it with very little behavior issues.
The first Fun Friday is always the hardest because the kids have to count their gold tags.  I teach my kids to put them in tally mark formations so that I can easily double check their count.  You will get a little kiddo who says he has 97 so when you spot check his twelve gold tags in tally mark formation, you’ll know what to do.
Just be patient.  It gets easier.  Really.  And it’s worth it.  Just give yourself plenty of time for this.
Then have Fun Friday.
And start again the following week.
That’s it.
Here are some questions I always get emails about.
1.  What do you do if a kid has no gold tags?
Wellllll, first of all, that almost never happens because I am always giving out gold tags.  I carry them with me, they are in the pockets of everything I own, and I wash them all the time on accident.  Teachers on my staff find piles of them and bring them to me because I dropped them.  I ALWAYS have gold tags!
I believe in looking for the positive and giving kids gold tags for all kinds of reasons.  So I can’t really think of a time in which that has happened to me.  You have to be able to find the positive in every little kid.  Even if he is hard to take.
2.  Do you take gold tags away?
Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  I tell my kids about this on DAY ONE, too, but I try not to dwell on it too much.  Again, I just try to look for the positives.  So I would rather GIVE Sally a gold tag for ignoring the talking kid on the carpet next to her than TAKE AWAY a gold tag from the kid who is doing the talking.  
It speaks volumes when I stop in the middle of my teaching and say, please pass these five gold tags back to Sally, thank you for listening so carefully, Sally.

But yes, I will take gold tags away.  Of course.  That also speaks volumes.
But I would much rather give a gold tag to someone than take one away.
In my original post, I talk about setting the rules with your kids and letting them tell you how many/why/what rewards and consequences should be.
3.  What if gold tags don’t work for a particular kid?
Again, it has always worked for me, but I have also had to use an independent behavior plan for a student in addition to gold tags.  You have to do what works for you.
4.  Do you take recess away?
No.  I think first graders need recess.  I need recess.  We need to get outside.  Well, they need to get outside and I need peace and quiet.  
But, if you take recess away, that’s fine.  It’s however you want to do it.  Every gold tag lost could mean a minute lost of recess.  Or every gold tag lost could mean a five minute time out at recess.  I don’t know.  However you want to work it and manage it is how you would want to do that.  I am not in charge of how you run your classroom.  😉
5.  Would this work in kindergarten (or second or third grade)?
Yes.  Definitely.  It’s like upper grade’s money system, but it’s not money.  And instead of having an auction, the kids “pay” for Fun Friday.  But you could have an auction instead of Fun Friday.  The gold tags could buy things.  Or you could use the gold tags with Mel D’s Reward Coupons!  One of my teammates has Fun Friday, but also has a system where if the kids earned over a certain amount each week, then they get to go choose a coupon.  
6.  Do you have a parent letter?
Yes.  It’s included in this pack and it’s editable, as is everything else!
I also created a Rules book for my class.  We are going to work on it for the first couple of days and review it all week.  We are going to write “will” on each page.  I’ve offered a couple of extra pages in the book that say “Welcome to Kindergarten” and “Welcome to Second Grade” in case you teach something other than first grade, and I’ve included a page of the “We will earn gold tags” without that on it in case you don’t.  You can put your own text box on that page and write whatever you want.  The font is KG Miss Kindergarten and you can download it for free on TpT for personal use!  🙂  
Clipart from Melonheadz and Whimsy Clips
Fonts from KG
The bottom line is there is no right way/wrong way to use this system.  It’s however you want to use it.
Make it work for you.
If your current system is working, keep using it.
If you want to try something new, try it.
I don’t know.
All I can say is that our last week of the school year was two and a half days and my kids came in that week asking if we were still having Fun Friday.  When I said I didn’t think so, they were very upset about not earning gold tags.  
NO GOLD TAGS? they said.
WHAT? they said.
ARE YOU CRAZY? they said (with all of the respect in the world)
So I passed out gold tags and we had a Fun Thursday.
I just love this plan.  It works for me.  It works for my team.  I cannot imagine doing anything else.  
Anyways, does this help?  I have no idea.
Shoulder shrug.

Comments

  1. alwayslearning says

    I have used your Gold Tag and Fun Friday system since I read it originally. I love it and so do the kids! Thank you for all of your freebies to go with it!
    Holly

  2. Lori Huhne says

    I used purple tickets and had kids earn them to go to the class store. This year I might make them gold and link it to fun Friday. Good idea!

  3. catherine says

    Our first grade team uses a system close to yours but they use blue and red tags. Blue earns, red you have to pay and one of the jobs is to be in charge of the tags. Our team (kindergarten) uses tickets, BUT I love the idea of earning fun friday centers (perhaps I could use centers they don't get everyday). Now I need to make some "gold" lamenated tickets, so much better than the paper ones I'm using. Thanks for resharing!

  5. traci527 says

    Love, love your updated fun Friday board. I think this one is the best one yet!!!! Q

  6. Erin De Young says

    I've loved reading all your posts on this topic. I've been wanting to do away with my clip chart for awhile, but never did it. I finally decided to toss out the chart this year and do this system. Except I'm using popsicle sticks because I'm much to lazy to make gold tags. I'm also adding Mel D's Reward Coupons and getting rid of my treasure box. So excited to start this, thanks for the motivation!

    Erin
    Come What May

  7. judyjones says

    I've used a modified version of your plan for two years now and it has worked great. I cut up 12×12 glitzy, gaudy, sparkle-embedded cardstock into 1×6 pieces and we called them Sparkle Tickets.

  8. Karen F. says

    I have done something very similar to this but not quite as organized .. ah hem… anyway, I got some french fry boxes from McDonalds and created a bulletin board with them and the kiddos could earn french fries… I like this idea a whole lot more!!! Thank you 🙂
    Karen

  9. Lee Knapp says

    I used your system last year and it worked like a charm. Because I'm lazy, I just laminated a bunch of yellow star raffle tickets and I use those. I love how Fun Friday eliminates the need for a prize box. Whenever kids are getting squirrelly, I hand out "golden tickets" to the students who are on task, and everyone else falls in line. Thanks so much!

  10. kathy says

    Thanks for the rules book! I am just leaving out the first grade page for my kinders and second graders ( I teach K-2 special ed)!

  11. First Grade O.W.L.s says

    Oh my goodness! I'm loving the gold tags! I'm going to try them out this year instead of the clipchart! Can't wait!

  12. Amber O. says

    I have used your Gold Tag system for 2 years now (WITH my clip chart) and this will be the first year I use only the Gold Tag system…on its own. Not chart:) We shall see, but I'm expecting good results. Because it was invented by a super genius:) Thanks for the refresher!
    SweetSchoolMoments

  13. Lisa says

    Hey there…love the system that you've explained. We pass out green tickets which is a part of our PBIS plan. We use green because that is one of our school colors. I would love to use the certificates that you posted in your original blog, but they say gold. Any chance that could be editable so I can change it to green? Just wondering…thanks for sharing the wonderful ideas! I am looking forward to changing things up a little this year.

  14. nbafitis says

    I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SYSTEM!!! I am a first year teacher (teaching firsties – YAY!!!) and had a completely different plan in mind (school starts in three weeks – AHHHHH) – a variation of something that was done in my mentor's room last year. Well, after reading your post, I realized how very complicated the other system is, and I really just don't think I want to do it anymore…

    Soooooo…I may be adopting a variation of this…well, who are we kidding…I will likely use your Gold Tags now, because THEY ARE AWESOME! Thank you for being a wonderful teacher full of brilliant ideas!!! I joined bloggy world because teachers like you inspire me everyday – I hope to inspire a new teacher someday as well!

    ~Nadya
    New Adventures in Elementary

  15. Patty Rutenbar says

    Thank you for the rules book. I'm going to be teaching kinders for the first 12 weeks. . . Yikes, I only know about 2nd grade! So your book will be a good help to me!
    thanks!
    Patty

  16. Amy says

    I LOVE this! I haven't used a clip chart in a few years now, but THIS is just amazing! We have what we call "free choice" at the end of the day, but the powers that be want it to be more "structured"….and I think that I have found the answer! 🙂 SO excited to try.
    Question…I have looked on your blog for past fun friday posts, and am curious as to what you have in each center…specifically like ABC, Science, Math, Writing…do you have a certain activity they do at those centers? Or do they rotate through regular math and literacy centers during the day, so they can revisit that if it is their fave? Just trying to get a little more info! Thanks! (I teach K)
    Amy

  17. Net says

    When I found out I would be teaching Year One after Year Six I was slightly terrified. I found your blog and you saved my life. parents, kids and I love the gold tags. Mind you I call them Golden Tickets….an Australian twist on it perhaps?!

  18. Net says

    One mother actually cried as she loves the system so much! I also love your pinning and plays:)

  19. Dalynn Holling says

    First of all, I can't wait to do this in my classroom. I actually laminated and cut them out last summer but ended up not getting a job. Fingers crossed for this year! Secondly, I was just unfollowing some teachers on Facebook because my Newsfeed was COMPLETELY filled by them and I said to my husband, "I'm still going to follow a few of my favorites because I love them." And my husband said, "Like A Teeny Tiny Teacher? … Is it sad that I know your teacher bloggers' names?" NO! Absolutely not! I loved it. 🙂

  20. Carol Polston says

    This is such a great idea! Thanks so much for the adorable freebie book- I just downloaded it & sent it to our print shop to be run for our first grade classes. Thanks- you're the best 🙂 Carol

  22. kathy says

    Thank you so much for adding the kindergarten and second grade pages to the classroom rules book!

  24. Erica says

    I LOVE your gold tags. I hope to, one day, use this idea in my own classroom. This is DEFINITELY going on the Pinterest board for my Class Management class!

    The Blossoming Teacher

  25. Fran Shea says

    First of all I want to tell you that I love your blog! You are so funny and keep us all entertained! I've been reading your blog for a while and use your gold tag system. I love it! Had a lot of positive feedback from it! The only thing I do differently is that I give each child a ziplock bag and they keep their tags in their supply boxes. I had two kids obsessing on them when they saw them on the bulletin board, so I changed it up for my needs, but I love it! Can't stand dealing with 5 or 6 levels of behaviors, this is quick, simple and does the trick! Thanks for great idea!
    Just started my own blog after reading all of your posts and am hoping I will do ok with it! Thanks for being such a great role model!
    Funinkwithmrsshea 🙂

  26. Jen R says

    I am so sad that i have to use the darn clip chart this year… for 12 years I've been doing my system that works for me… NEVER have I had to do anything different…it has just worked for me. Now, my new pal is making me do the clip chart…boo!
    But I'm going to be doing something in addition to the clip chart …which is something like yours! 🙂
    ♥ Jen
    Teacher by the Beach
    A Splash of Life Blog

  27. Misty Van Staaveren says

    Where do you keep the Fun Friday clips when they are not on the chart? Before the kids choose them?

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  37. Patti D says

    Thank you for your blog. I am going to try the Fun Friday instead of a treasure box. You are a great writer – so funny!

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