Spark Student Motivation-Clip Chart & Bubbles and Giveaways

I have been wanting to link up with Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Student Motivation Saturdays but I keep posting something else on Saturday before I remember about this linky. But not this week!

I am a big believer in positive reinforcement. I try, whenever possible, to praise my kiddos to success. One of the major ways I try to do this is to catch them being "good." To do this I use "The Clip Chart."

My clip chart at the end of a day

I have seen quite a few posts about the clip chart, some people love it, others aren't sure about it and a few don't seem to like it at all. I first saw it on Pinterest, and I liked the idea of it, but I was happy with the management system I was using...until this year. My class this year is a bit more trying than others. There are a lot of strong personalities, which makes for great class discussions-but can be a bit tricky to manage. I thankfully knew that before the year started, so I decided to add the clip chart to my management system from the beginning.

What I like about it:
Everyone starts on Ready to Learn (green) and depending on their behavior and choices they can move up or down. I can choose to move the students, or have them move themselves. I hang my chart on a back cabinet in my room. The kids can easily walk up to it, but everyone isn't staring at the chart all day.
I also like that students can "redeem" themselves-if they have a rough start or moment, they can still turn it around and end the day well.
I also love that I can praise the positive behavior. All I normally have to do to get kids on track is clip up those that are listening and the rest of them "shape-up" quickly.

What I do differently:
There are a few things I do a bit differently than others who use the clip chart. Most of my students come from a third grade teacher who uses the clip chart, so the initial excitement has worn off. I wanted to do something to make them excited to clip up each day. So I assigned points to each of the "positive areas" of the chart.
Ready to Learn-green-2 points
Good Day-yellow-4 points
Great Job-orange-6 points
Outstanding-red-8 points
Top of the chart-10 points
Off the chart-15 points (big jump in points because it is a big deal! They also get to decorate their clip-which is a recommendation by the creators of  the clip chart.)

At the end of every day the students fill in "bubbles" based on the number of points they earned for that day. Every student has their own bubble chart-which is one of the shapes pictured below that I have copied onto card-stock.

I use the honor system on the bubbles, I normally have a good idea if someone is filling in more bubbles than they should and will call them on it, but that rarely happens. When the students fill their chart they are able to trade it in for a prize in the prize basket.

What do you use to motivate your students? Be sure to link up with Joanne to share your ideas, and to pick up some new great ones!

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