Blue Moment / Blue Day (Happy Times)

Instead of the "Moo-la" store, I am doing Blue Moments, Blue Day for part of my citizenship plan.  I have the stoplight but do not like doling out only negative consequences therefore, my children can earn their way to the top of the chart for a blue day.  A blue day is an outstanding job.  At the end of the day the children who earn blue receive a ticket for the Star Student drawing.

The Star Student drawing is done on Fridays.  Basically the current star student pulls a ticket out of the bag (without looking) and whoever has his/her name on the ticket is the new star student for the following week.  The star student gets to have a star student seat cover (found in the dollar bin at Target), a star student cone to sit on his/her desk, and his or her name up on the star student chart.  The star student is also our line leader for the week.  I think I will also pass out a star pencil or eraser to the star student.

Some children have difficulty maintaining self control throughout the whole entire day even with interventions in place.  Blue moments (when a child is caught being good) is a way to not only motivate children who may have given up on getting a ticket but also reinforcing good behavior.  It is a gateway to positive discipline.

I like the idea of going up to a child who is sitting beside someone who is messing around and saying "Name, you are working hard and staying so focused, this is a blue moment.  I'm proud of you,. "  I give the student who is modeling appropriate behavior the ticket.  No sooner has this happened then the five sitting around her are focused and on task too!  I can give each of them a blue moment if they can maintain focus briefly (long enough for me to know they are really trying).

This method is much more positive.  It is my goal for my children to have mostly green or blue days.

At the end of the day, each child colors their calendar square based on their citizenship score for the day.  It is a great visual and you can see patterns.  For instance if the child has a blue day every Tuesday but a Red day every Friday, it's a red flag that something might be happening at home over the weekend. 

Also, the quick visual in the calendar helps, determine who was on blue or green all week fairly quickly.  Students who stay on those two colors the whole time earn a "behavior bonus roll" on our Homework/Behavior game board.