Just this past Friday was the second time my students had the opportunity to turn in their BAM’s for Treat Tokens. (Want to read more about my BAM’s then click here.) They were all so excited! Many of them had been working so hard for the past 2 weeks trying to earn BAM’s so that they could trade them in for a specific Token that they had in mind.
I began by calling students up in groups of 3 with their BAM containers. They then looked over the 3 sheets I have that list Tokens that cost 5 BAM’s, 10 BAM’s or 15 BAM’s.
Of course, the more valuable Tokens such as NO Homework, Free Time, or Back Up (on your behavior card) are worth the most because they are such a Hot Commodity in 3rd grade! Only a few students had enough BAM’s to by either of these. But that’s okay, it gives students something to work for.
The most popular Token which was a suprise to me was the Lunch Bunch Token. The person who has this token can trade it in for lunch in the classroom with yours truly :0) and with 2 friends of their choice! At least 4 students chose this token… it seems like my kiddos never cease to amaze me.
In case you’re wondering how I store my Tokens it’s simple… Baseball Card Pocket Page Protectors that I purchased at Office Max. It’s funny but they used to house my coupons when I was coupon crazy. Now it’s where I neatly store my Tokens.
Moving on to my update on Week 2 of Whole Brain Teaching… things couldn’t be any better. My students are doing FANTASTIC at answering when I call CLASS. I can even say CLASS when we are in the halls and it’s amazing how they all respond. Even when I whisper it. It must be because whenever they do a great job they earn points on our class scoreboard (happy/not so happy face) and they have finally realized that it is tied directly into deciding whether we have free time, extra free time, or no free time. I must say that my 3rd graders LOVE their free time. So after 2 days of no free time they have been working so hard as a TEAM to earn their reward. I’ve also added a new rule. If we are able to earn 10 “Oh Yeah” points as we call them then everyone in the class earns a BAM! So needless to say we are big on TEAMWORK in this class.
Well that’s all I have for today! Have a wonderful day!
XOXO,
Miscellaneous
BAM… and Whole Brain Teaching Week 2
Previous Story
Whole Brain Teaching (week 1) and Pink Eye…
Whole Brain Teaching (week 1) and Pink Eye…
Next Story
Fantastic Friday + FREEBIES!!
Fantastic Friday + FREEBIES!!
5 Comments
Cristina Decardenas
September 17, 2012 at 9:25 pmI am loving all your positive reinforcement activities. Keep up the great work!
Kristin Martin
November 12, 2012 at 9:30 pmWhenever I click the "click here" button to learn more about "BAMS" it doesn't work. I'd like to know from head to toe how you run it…if possible?? Could you email me if possible?
kris10martin44@gmail.com
Melissa Yalesias
November 13, 2012 at 1:54 amThank you for letting me know about the link… I'm sorry it was not working earlier :0(
Feel free to click on it now to read more about BAM's. If you still have any questions feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help.
Let me just say that my students absolutely LOVE them and it has been a TREMENDOUS source of MOTIVATION.
:0) Melissa
susan soliman
April 27, 2018 at 7:27 pmHi
Thanks for the BAM system. I’m planning on implementing it on Monday. Question: do they keep the token? If so, when do you get it back?
Melissa
May 15, 2018 at 5:43 pmHi Susan…
You’re very welcome! I’m so excited for you… Your kids are going to absolutely love BAMS! Remember to have fun with them. If you have fun with BAMS your kids won’t be able to get enough of them, LOL! Yes, when the kids trade in their BAMs I hand them their token. Many of my students store them right inside of their BAM containers. Whenever they want to “cash them in” they return it to me for whatever incentive they selected. My rule is that they have to approach me about cashing in their token before the morning announcements are over. This prevents them from trying to do it in the middle of a lesson. I hope this helps! If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to ask :0)