Spin a Surprise {Classroom Management}

Learning about classroom management techniques in teacher education classes sound easy enough: Make sure you have established rules, you are making eye contact with your students, and calling home if the student continues to act out beyond what is expected.

But sometimes you just need a little extra in the way of strategies.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to play spin the wheel games where a lucky student wins a prize!  It allows for fate to decide a random option, much like an online random generator would choose when the stop button is pressed.

Students will never again be able to equate what prize they earned with the teacher choosing it.  Instead, it is completely random per the spinning wheel!

While those are all good tips, school in the real world looks nothing like you think it will according to a textbook.

The Best Effective Classroom Behavior Management Strategies

Whether you are teaching Kindergarten or any other grade level, classroom management involves motivating students (whether that’s internally or external motivation), making sure to engage students to be a part of the discipline plan, and then giving students choices.

Everyone wants to feel a part of a team working towards an end goal – and that you have a say in how you get there and what the goal is as well.

Lesson plans that encourage students to be a part of teaching and learning aren’t any different than planning for how you wish for them to be expected to act during those times.

Spending more time modeling (talk volume ranges, how to ask to use the restroom, etc.) can be a huge effect on the outcome – and definitely showing how group work management should flow as well!

What Classroom Management Techniques Work Best for You?

Here is a list of several options of classroom management systems in which you could try in your classroom. Keep in mind that every student is not the same. What works for one, might not work for all.

You will need to implement individual accommodations depending on the set of students and the teacher.

• Cooperative Learning Group Work Roles Made Easier
• Does Screaming At Your Class Work? {Classroom Management Tips}
• Classroom Management: Why & How
• Classroom Management: Peer Pressure
• Teaching Tip: Keeping Students Engaged

Spin the Wheel Challenge

How about a fun take on a classroom management behavior reward system?   I am calling it “Spin a Surprise!”

Pretty much everyone loves surprises, right?  This idea can be used with any behavior management system you already have in place in your classroom.

When it is time for a student to pick a prize, instead send him or her to the fun spinning wheel to choose a prize!

All envelopes are blank on the outside so they never know what they will get!

Here is how to set yours up and a few logistical tidbits to keep the rewards easy to maintain:

1.  Get one of these.  Now, the box says it is $35, but I scored mine on Hobby Lobby’s website for 50% off.  I am guessing you should be able to find them other places as well.

2.  Put it together.  You will need a hammer.  Other than that, everything else is included in the box.  I felt pretty accomplished after assembling.

3.  Find some cute library card pockets and inserts.  These ones were mini sized found at my local craft store.

Can’t find any you like or in your classroom theme colors?  Make your own by downloading the freebies files below.

After assembling (super easy to fold and glue or tape), put a prize on the insert cards, leaving room at the bottom for student names.

Make the prizes be something you do not have to pay for.  Most students love eating lunch or breakfast with the teacher as much as a sticker.  Or getting the chance to work with a friend on a project which may never happen otherwise.

Now, one suggestion that you won’t see in the picture because of the glare (but you SHOULD do):  After placing the prizes on the cards, LAMINATE each.  There is a reason for this.  Keep reading.

4.  Last, clip your pockets on the wheel and you have a super fun incentive for students to reach their behavior, homework, or reading goals!  This basic idea can work for whatever you wish to hone in on during the year.

Now – after a student earns his or her spin, he or she spins (gently) and gets the closest pocket with a card inside.  (If there is no card, go with the next closest pocket with a card inside).

The student takes out the card and writes his or her name on the card with a dry erase marker (which is why we laminated them), and hands it to you.

You then place the card on the corner of the board somewhere.

On Friday (or whatever “rewards” day you want), ALL students get to redeem their reward during the same day.

You can then start over again the following week by erasing the student names, replacing the card in the pockets, and repeat.  Makes it easy to keep track of throughout the week and not taking the chance of forgetting anyone’s prize (been there, done that).

NOTE: Can’t find a “Clip and Spin”? Maybe try a “prize wheel” like THIS ONE. Same idea. Just clip the prize pockets to the board with binder clips instead.

How else could you use this spin the wheel tool in your classroom?  We would love to hear in the comments below.

Need some pockets and cards to print and go?

I’ve got you covered! Download them below.

Click here to email your freebie

~Charity