Problem:
Have you ever had an amazing bunch of students who function as a well-oiled machine in your classroom, only to fall apart at recess? Several years ago, this was my class. Every day after recess, I had to spend precious class time settling recess and lunch disputes. I was so frustrated with dealing with problems stemming from unstructured time! How could I manage my students when I wasn’t with them?
Obviously, this is a complicated issue. I realized that my students’ behavior away from me revealed some underlying issues in our classroom. After I put my finger on those issues, I tried read-alouds, role-playing, and discussions to address these problems, but felt my students needed something tangible to link our classroom values to the unstructured time they spent outside of the classroom. This is where the float jar comes in.
Solution:
My float jar is simply a large clear container – I use an empty pretzel tub. I introduce it to the class with a dramatic demonstration. Before the lesson, I hot-glue five or six plastic bottle caps together in a row. Then I add water to the jar and float the bottle cap “fleet” on the surface. “These little ships are like our class,” I explain. “We are a community, and together we all float.” Then I drop a stack of pennies into one of the bottle caps, and the students shout out warnings as the entire line of “boats” slowly sinks. “What happens when one member of the community sinks?” I ask the class. My students call out, “They ALL sink!”
I drive home the metaphor with an explicit conversation. I explain that when we float as a class, all of the members help each other solve problems, follow school rules, and generally take care of each other.
I tell the students that I’ve brought in the float jar to celebrate when they do a wonderful job of floating together when we’re not in our classroom. After a problem-free recess, lunch, or special class, one student measures out a predetermined amount of water and adds it to the jar. When the water reaches the top of the jar, we celebrate with a special team-building activity – a “float party.” Everyday before our lunch and recess period, my students sing our “Float Jar Song” to the tune of Row Your Boat.
Float, float, float as one, helping out a friend,
Together we float, let’s not sink, floating till the end.
