Washington Elementary

Affection

Children need to have routines, predictability and structure in their lives in order to feel safe.  Some of the children come from homes where any type of structure is missing.  I try to provide structure in the classroom so that my students feel safe, that they know that I care for them and that I want them to succeed.  I try to have mini -conferences with them where I ask them how they think they are doing and we can talk a little about what is going on in their lives.

Acknowledgements

In kindergarten we have a monthly awards assembly, where we give an award to three children; for academic achievement, for behavior, and we also pick a student of the month.  All the parents are invited to come to the assembly. 
In the classroom, each child has a sticker book and he/she is able to pick a prize out of the prize drawer every time she/he gets ten stickers.  I also try to acknowledge positive behavior immediately and ignore negative behavior if it is not hurting someone.

Achievement

Achievement is acknowledged in various ways in my classroom. We applaud each other achievements. I try to model to the students how to praise each other for a job well done. As a result, they hear it not only from me but also from their classmates.  I give my students stickers and stars and I let their parents know if they did something exceptionally well that day.