Behaviour Systems for Infant Classes

A behaviour system is an important one to get right from the beginning of the school year. Depending on your group, it may take a bit of trial and error to get the system that works best for your class. Here are some I have used in junior classrooms over the years.

Class Dojo

A favourite with teachers across the country, and I’m sure across the globe, Class Dojo is an American based website whereby teachers, students and families can share what is going on in the classroom. The teacher signs up and creates their class, they then add students and an avatar monster will be created for each student in the classroom which the children can change when they like. Codes will be generated, and teachers can share these codes with parents if they wish so that parents can connect with their child’s portfolio on Class Dojo. Teachers can assign points for good behaviour or take points away for bad behaviour. These points can be edited, and their value can be increased or decreased. Parents can see how many points their child lost or received and why this was e.g. +1 for great listening. I use a reward system with class Dojo in my classroom which I have attached below, each Monday their points get reset to 0 and we start again. These points are looked at on a Friday so that its is easier to keep tabs of which children have or haven’t gotten their reward for reaching points.

I use Class Dojo for table points too. When a table gets a point, each child on that table also receives an individual point. The table with the highest points at the end of the day got the ‘VIP Box’ the next day. This box included Twistables and colouring pencils, fancy rubbers and pencils and markers which they could only use on worksheets (Sharpies come through worksheets onto the table so AVOID). I used a little caddie for this which I got off Amazon but I think ABC Book Supplies sell them too (this is not an ad or a collaboration). Table points were reset each morning. This could be altered this year so the table of the week gets the VIP Box, which can then be quarantined from Friday- Monday.

Strikes

Strikes are quite easy to set up and I used them along with Class Dojo in my room. I had a area of the whiteboard sectioned off and if a child was breaking one of our class rules their names would go into the box and a line would be drawn beside them. After three strikes a Dojo point would be taken (it was very rare that a child would get three strikes in one day). If their behaviour improved, they could rub out the strike from the board.

Clouds and Sun

I used this when I had junior infants and it worked really well and can also be used for senior infants. I had a sun, a rain cloud, and a happy cloud. All children started on the sun and they moved to the cloud if they broke a rule and then on to the rain cloud. If they were on the rain cloud, they would either lose a Dojo point or a note would be sent home. Again, it happened very rarely where a child would have been on the rain cloud.

Traffic Light System/ Noise Meters

This is a great one for controlling noise levels in your classroom. I use a chart which has an emoji on it with his finger to his mouth saying ‘working quietly’, the next step is of children whispering and it says ‘talking quietly’, the next step is an image of children during station time and it says ‘talking normally’ and the last step is a picture of children playing on the yard with ‘outdoor voices’. These all need to be discussed and modelled for the children and they should be placed in an area where they are very visible to the children. A traffic lights system has the same concept except of course there are three steps, green is for ‘quiet work’, orange is for ‘quiet talking’ and green is usually for station time for ‘normal talking’. I’ve seen some teachers buying lights for these charts and although I haven’t tried this I can imagine it being a very effective way to engage the children.

Behaviour Meters

Before my Class Dojo days, right at the beginning of my teaching career, I used a behaviour meter. I had the name of each child on a peg or on a label. They all start on the card in the middle which says ‘I am ready to learn’, above that is a card saying ‘I am having a great day’ and the top card says ‘I am having a fantastic day’. Any children who reach the top card get a note sent home to tell their parents the reached this card. Underneath the middle card ‘I am ready to learn’ is a card that says ‘I need to think about my behaviour today’ and the bottom one says ‘I need to work on my behaviour today’. The child will receive a note home if they have to go on the bottom card.

Quiet Spray

I mixed a spray bottle of water and glitter and food colouring last year and sprayed this each time the class were getting noisy. In the beginning, with this particular group, it was having the opposite effect. They wanted me to use the spray so they would talk to make me use it so I changed strategies. Instead I sprayed it near a child who was working quietly. You’ll need to see how your class take to it. You could also make it very clear at the start that the quiet spray is used at the beginning of the lesson to ensure everyone is working quietly and wouldn’t be used again. I read a little story about fairies the day before I started this so I said the fairies left the bottle for us.

Quiet Critters

I have never used this concept but it is also a nice one. The child creates a critter at the beginning of the year (these can be made with pom poms and googley eyes). When the child is working quietly I allow their Quiet Critter to sit beside them as they work. Alternatively each child could have their quiet critter with them at the beginning of their work but the teacher can remove the critters if they aren’t working quietly or if they are getting distracted by the critters. This is one though that may not be practical this year with every class group due to Covid.

I hope this was useful for some of you and if you have any further questions let me know.

Sarah