Celebrating the Great!

As I've mentioned before on this blog, my school has a strong PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports) committee. We use data to track student behavior and use positive reinforcement to celebrate the great things our kids do. Part of our system is the monthly class award - The Golden Paw. Each month, every classroom is given a blank Paws board to hang outside their classroom. Over the course of the month, as the class follows PAWS rules, the class is awarded a sticker for their board. Stickers are awarded when whole classes come prepared for PE, are particularly quiet in the hallway, and a myriad of other reasons. At the end of the month, the class in each grade level with the most stickers on their board receives the Golden Paw! The winners are announced during morning announcements and the class receives a foam paw with gold paper and golden paw stickers for everyone in the class. Additionally, this class earns a special privilege the following month. Often this privilege can be an extended recess, a special kickball game, ice cream party, etc. This past month the PBIS team noted students were struggling. Cold temperatures had led to many indoor recesses. The lack of snowfall this year in our area was also noted. The team decided the best way to reinforce the great behaviors we'd been seeing was to arrange an indoor snowball fight. Snowballs were fashioned out of yarn and the cafeteria was the snow grounds. The students loved spending time throwing these Pom Pom snowballs around the cafe and especially at the Principal and me! I was able to catch some slow motion video and I think it highlights just how much this was reinforcing.

Indoor Snowball Fight from Ace Thompson on Vimeo.

snowball fight matrix style from Ace Thompson on Vimeo.

Snowball Attack from Ace Thompson on Vimeo.