I found this idea on Pinterest from the blogger teachingchick.blogspot.com . She found these from another blogger and titled them the Quiet Critters. The idea is that each student receives a quiet critter at the beginning of a lesson. If the student is talking when he/she is not supposed to, the teacher/counselor will move the critter to the corner of the desk. If the student continues to talk, the critter is put back into the container. Those students that have quiet critters on their desks at the end of the lesson receive some type of reward in the classroom.
I will be using it slightly different as a school counselor. This will be my behavior incentive from K-2, possibly 3rd grade. The students that have critters on their desk will be nominated for a monthly character trait award. Their names will be entered into the Character Trait Award Raffle. At the end of each month, I will have the raffle and choose two winners at random. For example, at the end of October, I will announce the Respect Student of the Month winners. The students will come to my office and receive their award along with a prize of their choice in my treasure bucket. I will be using a behavior incentive for grades 4-6, which I will write about shortly. While I only come into the classrooms once a month, I am hoping to establish my own set of expectations. I think the students will be excited by this and come to look forward to seeing the Quiet Critters during my monthly visit!
