Ruleopoly

I would like to start this post off by saying that none of the ideas in this post are my own original ideas.  I did not come up with any of them on my own and will not take credit for them (however, I did come up with the name "Ruleopoly" so that I will take credit for!).

I hummed and hawed about what to do for a behaviour incentive thing.  I wasn't sure if I was going to do anything for a while (although I did know that I wasn't going to do what the previous teacher was doing - only because I did not understand the colour chart at all).

In the end I channeled me 5 years ago and decided we were going to play a rule version of Monopoly.  Basically, if the students follow the rules of our classroom for the week (they are allowed slip ups but they must prove within a reasonable time that they have learned their lesson to earn the right to play again) they get to roll a dice and move their name around a giant game board that is on the wall.  When they don't follow the rules of the class I turn their name over and they don't get to play. 

This week I had multiple names turned over at Ruleopoly time and I saved those players for last and we had a discussion about what I want to see as an improvement for next week before letting a couple of them roll the dice and a couple of them didn't get to play because I had to talk to them too often.

Anywho, without further ado, here is our game board

Inside the game board on the left is the rules to play the game... basically what some of the spaces mean and how they get to play.  On the right inside the game board is a short version of our classroom rules - the rules they agreed to follow in order to play.

Their ames are currently all near the beginning/middle of the game.  I think all their names are turned the proper way right now because they get a fresh start at the end of the week... but when they misbehave their names get turned the wrong way so you can't read them until they can prove they have learned their lesson.

For example, I had one student who wasn't raising their hand the other day.  I turned their name over and told them I would turn in the proper way when I saw them raising their hand instead of talking out of turn.  The student did start raising their hand by the end of the day and was able to play.

The computer room and chance cards are just jobs that I would have my students doing in the classroom anyways (like emptying the compost, being my helper, line leaders and enders, etc) and then things like running a class madlib (or other game), reading to the class, or teaching us all something.  I gave them a warning that just like in real Monopoly the chance card or computer lab cards are not always good things.

When they land on math question or spelling question I give them a math question from something we learned that day or a spelling question from their list.  If they get it right I give them a candy and there is no penalty if they get it wrong.

Below is our classroom constitution.  They all signed it on the lines on the bottom and it is up in our classroom.  I highlighted the important parts because it is a little wordy.  But it was a great lesson in descriptive language!  

At one point recently I was just tired of the way some of the students were leaving the classroom at the end of the day so I left them a note on our whiteboard...

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Want to play "Ruleopoly" in your classroom?

Homeworkopoly is where I got my idea from (including the board)

Do you believe in incentive programs (last year I didn't use one and the year went mostly okay so I don't feel the need to necessarily use one)?  

If you do use one what do you use?