We are bucket fillers in my kindergarten class! I wanted to share one of my favorite parts of my classroom and that is my classroom management system! This was one of my biggest concerns while I was learning how to be a teacher. I saw this idea from another teacher about a year ago and fell in love with it! Here is a little break down on it 🙂
Each of my students has their own little bucket with their number on it as you can see lined up below my smart board. Every day the students are trying to earn little pom poms to put in their buckets. To earn a pom pom it could be for just about anything that I am proud of a student for doing. From working hard, being kind to others, or displaying amazing behavior. I gave out ALOT of pom poms the first couple of weeks of school to let the students realize what kinds of things can get them a pom pom.
This management style has worked great so far, and the students seem to really love it! I didn’t plan on “taking away” pom poms as part of my classroom management, but I did implement it and it seriously works so well when I am trying to correct behaviors. Though I hate to take pom poms… it really does help the classroom behavior.
Now to the fun part 😉 THE REWARDS!!! Every Friday, the students have the chance to turn in their pom poms for prizes. I have it broken up into 3 categories.
5 pom poms = 1 mini eraser
10 pom poms = a trip to 1 gumball machine- either 2 starbursts or 1 larger eraser
15 pom poms = a trip to the treasure chest 🙂
This is where I keep my mini erasers for kids to choose from! As you can see, I have a TON of room for more, haha! Please let me know if you ever see any because it is so hard to find them at a reasonably price right now! The zoo animal erasers were found here on Amazon and the organizer is linked here. Although the price has changed drastically since I got it, so wait if you can!
I have each student grab their bucket and count their pom poms themselves (I double check) to practice their counting skills. I also give the option to save their pom poms if they are working towards a larger prize and want to save for it! Believe it or not, I have had quite a few kids choose to save their pom poms and work towards the treasure chest.
We also have a classroom bucket that is in the first picture! Not only do I want my students working individually to earn pom poms, but I want them working together as a class to earn a pom pom for that day. Each day they start off with 5 tally marks on the board. I might have to take a tally mark if I notice that the class as a whole is getting out of control, they are constantly interrupting, or if they are not working when it is quiet time. As long as they have at least 1 tally mark left on the board by the end of the day, then they will earn a large pom pom to add to their classroom bucket. Once the entire bucket is full, they will get some type of little party such as ice cream, popcorn, popsicles, etc.
Classroom bucket fillers is so much fun to implement in the classroom and has been really effective so far! Check out our instagram @delightfullydorn for a little more info on the prizes they can get each Friday! Does anyone else use bucket fillers as apart of their classroom? Please let me know if you have any further questions 🙂