Welcome To My Classroom!

This is an example of a newsletter I sent home to the families. I gave a general understanding of what our classroom was looking like at that point in the year. Then, I wrote about the individual subjects so they knew what the students were doing in each area. Lastly, I listed important dates and reminders for the parents. 

Positive reinforcement was a huge part of my day. Having the ability to reward behavior encouraged students to follow directions. The first piece of positive reinforcement was something called the 'Undercover Dog'.  At the beginning of the year, students drew a picture of a dog on a small sheet of paper. Then, we laminated them and picked one random dog each morning. When the students came in at the beginning of the day, they were unaware of who the dog was. Throughout the day we encouraged the 'Undercover Dog' to follow directions and praised the dog when we saw positive behavior. At the end of the day, we revealed the 'Undercover Dog' to the class and they were able to sing a song to the whole class. My students were very enthusiastic about being the dog and getting the reward. Once we had ten students in a row that were able to sing the song, the class received another eraser to add to their pet's house on their desk. 

The next source of positive reinforcement we used was raffle tickets throughout the day. To ensure every student had an opportunity to be rewarded, we passed out tickets to students who set a good example. At the end of the week, we had a raffle and gave out ten vinyl stickers that the students could add to their desk.