Tallies for Treats

Hello.

Hello Spring.

Hello Spring Fever.

It’s that time of the year when my kids are super super super comfortable with me and with one another.  We have worked for the past seven months on becoming a TEAM and a FAMILY and then BAM!

Now we are.

And just like a real family (and maybe a real team, but I wouldn’t know because I am not athletic, and I was never on that kind of a team), we are now getting on each other’s nerves.  We are pushing each other’s buttons.

We are taking each other for granted.

And some of us . . . well, some of us are just downright snappy.  And by that, I mean when a simple no, I don’t have your pencil answer could suffice, it turns into one little girl saying to another little girl, I! DID! NOT! TAKE! YOUR! PEN! CIL! 

And the rest of the class turns around to see what in the world could possibly be the matter because we have two clearly marked cups that say Sharp and Please Sharpen and we share all the pencils even if dull ones are in the sharp cup, which happens every single day no matter what.

Also, my class has started to take advantage of how nice and sweet and Mary Poppins-eque I am.  If I do say so myself.  And I do.

Because they just will not stop talking.  Ever.

And they think that I’m just suggesting we do this or that when I give a direction.

So it was time to switch things up to get us through the last seven weeks.

First, I put away the Music Box.  It wasn’t working anyway.

Then, we started Table Points.  Generally, when I do Table Points, the winning table earns extra gold tags and a starburst.

But with this particular class, I couldn’t give the winning table a starburst because I have a few other kids who would cry about it.  Seriously.  And I don’t want to end the day that way.  Because that’s sad.  And when I was in school, I never talked (believe me, I am making up for lost time as an adult) so I always sympathize with those kids who can’t win Table Points no matter what they do because it’s out of their hands anyway.

If this doesn’t describe how nice and sweet and Mary Poppins-eque I am, then I don’t know what else to tell you.

SO!

Table Points earn extra gold tags.  And that’s it.

But I have a gazillion starbursts (which is really an exaggeration because I tend to snack on them at every recess) and I need to give them away.

SO!

I started Tallies for Treats.

And the class has to work together AS A TEAM to earn tally marks throughout the day.  I know I could do this with a marble jar, but when you only have a jar and no marbles, and you don’t feel like going to wherever it is they sell marbles, you use what you have on your computer and call it a day.

And no, I didn’t want to use pom poms or this or that or the other.  I wanted to make my life easy and watch a reality TV show and call it a day.

I started out with 7 in the circle the first day.  Students had to earn 7 tally marks (AS A TEAM) throughout the day to get a starburst.  I was hoping to give tally marks for walking in line quietly, lining up quietly, transitioning quietly (can you tell we are a chatty bunch?), etc.

But 7 was way too high of a number and/or I expected way too much because we didn’t reach it on day one.

We didn’t even come close.

So I Magic Erased the 7 and now we work for 5 tally marks.

Click {HERE} for your free copy!

It’s been fun and we’ve been earning our tally mark goal almost every day to the point that I’m about to increase it soon.

It’s been just the thing we’ve needed for a little extra boost through the end of the year.

Because no one should be talking to their friends like this:

I! SAID! NO! OKAY!?!

I mean, seriously.

😉