The Color Chart - Behavior Management

The Color Chart

Now that we have established our community values, I need to provide a structure to reinforce those expectations throughout the year. After struggling with several other management systems, my friend Lindsay introduced me to the color chart, and I have never looked back. Yes, you can buy premade behavior management pocket charts, but since I had an unused pocket chart in my closet, I decided to make my own.
I bought a pack of colored index cards, and trimmed the cards into squares. For each of my students, I wrote their names onto four cards, one of each color. I slipped the cards into the pocket chart, wrote up a chart explaining the consequences, and I was set!

When I introduce the color chart rules, I have students practice changing their colors independently without disrupting the class. This is essential – if I ask a student to change her color, I expect the student to do so quietly without a verbal response. In turn, I make sure to keep my voice level and dispassionate when asking a student to change her color. This is not a punishment, simply a reminder to adhere to our classroom values.

Think Sheets

If a student changes to "orange" on our class color chart (after two poor decisions,) they need to fill out a "think sheet" to reflect upon their decisions and how they can improve their behavior. I review the think sheet afterwards, and the student takes the form home to be signed by a parent or guardian. I keep a supply of think sheets in a manila envelope attached to the wall under the color chart, so that a student can take a think sheet and work on it without disrupting a lesson or getting any extra attention from me.
Download Think Sheet

Friday Reward

Students who earn four or five stars throughout the week get to participate in the “Friday Reward." "Friday Reward" is intentionally vague. At the beginning of the year, it is usually a teacher-directed game that we play as a class at the end of the day on Friday. Later during the year, I sometimes give them a half hour of "free choice," with several options of activities, (e.g. art projects, chess, Legos, computer games, etc.) Other weeks, we spend extra time on the playground. I've even led short yoga classes for my students when we all needed a calm yet physical way to end the week.  I like how "Friday Reward" is open-ended, so that I can adjust for the time at hand and the mood of my students.