"Fun Friday" Suggestions?

[SocialStudiesRocks]

I'm looking for suggestions.

Last year my team had a monthly reward activity for students that met our expectations.  Independently my team leader and I came up with the idea of doing it weekly (I got my idea from the videos on Helping Teachers Grow).  It's a great idea because many times the kids that were excluded from the reward activity forgot why they were excluded by the time it rolled around.

Last year we had organized activities.  We had a kickball game, iPod & Nintendo DS time, movie time (related to the anti-bullying program we were running), basketball, and board games.  I'm looking for some ideas of what sorts of activities any of you have used or if you think just a half-hour of "free time" would go over just as well.

Thanks!!! 

[Darren Barkett]

I would avoid "free-time" just because if trouble is going to happen, it will happen then.  We did things similarly to what you planned.  As you work with more people at your school, the possibilities for rewards increases too!  We give the students choices of where they want to go for Fun Friday: the gym for basketball, outside for football, frisbee, and hackysack, one room to listen to music and play on the computers, one room for video games, and occasionally a movie room (even though that is more difficult with copyright restrictions).

Weekly rewards seem to work better for my students, for the same reasons you've mentioned.  Longer than that, and you'll have lots more students failing to receive the reward, and your system becomes more punishment focused.  We'll occasionally run team vs. team competitions, too!

Food celebrations work great, too, especially if you have different classes with different food options.

Darren

[SocialStudiesRocks]

I should have been specific when I said "free time".  I sorta meant students were free to choose what they wanted, whether it's reading, drawing, playing hand-held video games, or listen to iPods.  I know it would be chaos letting them do whatever they wanted.

The biggest worry I have is that students will get bored with having the same activities over and over.  Maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks for your input Mr. Barkett!   

[Darren Barkett]

Glad to help!  That's why we're all here. 

As time goes by, if you notice more and more students failing to get the reward, whatever it may be, then perhaps it's time to rethink the reward.  Throughout the course of a year, my team and I rework our rewards, occasionally tying in some portion of a really fun collaborative unit to the reward system.  Be flexible, creative, and observant.  Administrations are loathe to support programs that allow extended periods of downtime for their students unless they can clearly see the benefit, either in time spent on task or in increased motivation.  But if your reward ends up causing more problems for the administration (student fights, etc.) then you will see your support fade fast.

You might even ask your students what would motivate them to do well.

Darren

[SocialStudiesRocks]

We had our first reward activity this past week.  We call ours "Fun Fifth".  We have a thirty minute period each day where each team can choose to do whatever they want with the kids.  Our team has four classes, so we rotate between the four classes and we hold the reward on the fifth day.  This way we see each class equally (especially due to three and four day weeks).

Our first reward went well.  We played kickball.  The kids loved it!  There were a few kids that didn't want to play, so they brought books and sat on the benches and in the grass.  We had two students that were excluded.  One because of behavior and one because of missing math homework.  The student that misbehaved sat very politely with our science teacher and the student with missing homework sat on one of the benches and completed his homework.  Both students were very respectful and seemed to really wish they had the opportunity to participate.

My team was happy with how this went.  We even received quite a few thank you's from our students.

Thanks for your help Mr. Barkett.

[Darren Barkett]

Glad to be here for you. 

Darren

[MagicOPromotion]

Our reading series will end in mid-May. I plan on leveling my class into two groups and read a different chapterbook with each group. What chapterbooks would you suggest? Thanks