All About Behavior Contracts

• Sometimes this is super obvious. If a kid is punching other students in line, target safety. In fact, if the student has any unsafe behaviors (running out of the classroom, hitting/kicking, climbing things) target those first. If the unsafe behaviors are pretty rare, you can include one or two other behaviors on the contract as well.

• For non-safety behaviors, think through what is most impacting the student’s success at school. Is it academic behaviors like not turning in homework or classwork? Is it social behaviors like insulting other kids or getting in their space? Is it disrespectful behaviors like swearing or arguing with teachers?

• To figure out what behaviors to target, talk to people. When teachers are frustrated with a student they will complain. What behaviors do they complain the most about? What do other students tattle tale the most about? What does the student themselves say is their most challenging behavior?

• Come up with a list and then pick two or three that seem the most important.

• Now that you know what it is you DON’T want them to do, figure out what you DO want them to do. This is not scientific—use any wording that makes sense to you and the kid.

Here are some examples:

Negative Behavior                                        Positive Behavior

Hitting other students                                  Keep hands to self

Leaving the classroom                                  Stay with the group/ Be where you are supposed to be

Swearing                                                                Use respectful language

Staring at space in class                                Try your best in class

Not doing any work                                        Complete classwork

Not turning in homework                             Turn in homework

Late to everything                                            Be on time

• Students who are very young or have significant challenges with behavior might need rewards right away. They can’t wait until the end of a day or a week. They do best with 5 stars and a reward contracts.
• I print out a copy of my contract and put it in a plastic sheet protector. Depending on where the student is academically and in their communication skills, I either put a picture of what they can earn or the actual item on the top of the contract.
• As we work together, I give them a star for every good behavior. The instant they hit five stars, I give them a treat/high five/break/whatever their reward is.
• These are VERY teacher time intensive. As soon as kids can handle it, move them on.

• Give a child a chart. When they fill up the whole chart, give them a prize from a prize bin or other reward.
• These are often the easiest to use. I have seen teachers use them for independent reading (you get a sticker every day for independent reading if you read), speech pathologists use them to reward good behavior in speech groups, and counselors use them to reward good attendance.
• While you can spend money buying the charts at Lakeshore, you can also print some from Stickers and Charts that are super cute.

• These are the most commonly used contracts for behavior at an elementary school level.
• Basically, you keep track of the kid’s behavior during the day and they get a daily reward based on their behavior that day.
• Daily contracts are ideal for kids who can handle waiting to the end of a day for a reward but can’t handle waiting until a chart is full or until Friday.
• Choose how often during the day you want to check on their behavior– after every activity? Before lunch, before recess, and at the end of school? Just once a day? For these to work you actually have to check in with the child about their behavior at each time written on the contract.
• With follow through (multiple check ins per day, consistent rewards), daily contracts work wonders but without it, they are a waste of your and the student’s time.

• Some students, either because of age or because of the type of challenge they are working on (often ones that are more mild) might only need a reward once a week.
• There are a few ways to do this. In my groups, I keep track of stars for good behavior over the course of a week. On Fridays, we count their stars and they get classroom money to spend. Other teachers have a weekly behavior contract for individual students. They keep the contract in the student’s homework folder or on their desk for the week. On Friday, the student adds up their positive behavior points and gets a reward.
• Some students need to have their contract right in front of them at all times and others are cool just seeing it once a day.

• Students LOVE to earn time. A lot of my students work for free time on the computer. They get one minute of free time for every yes on their contract which they can cash in at the end of school every day. Some of my friends let kids earn double recess— the kids who get it are normally on a weekly contract. If their contract has been good all week, they can get double recess on Fridays.

• I run a classroom store. My students can earn fake money for positive behaviors (yes I do print my own money. Hopefully Treasury doesn’t care too much) which they spend at my store once a week. I like using the money because I can also teach they about saving, financial responsibility, and how to count money. My friends mostly use a prize box.
• With a store a student would earn money for positive behaviors on their contract. Each week they would have the choice to spend or save that money. With a prize box a student gets to pick out a prize every time they fill up their contract.
• While you can spend money buying the charts at Lakeshore, you can also print some from Stickers and Charts that are super cute.

• You need to keep your prizes/rewards fresh and you don’t make enough to keep buying stuff. New teachers are awesome and spend about half their paycheck on cool stuff for their classroom but I promise—sooner or later you are going to want to keep your money for selfish things like vacations.
• Here is an important thing to keep in mind. Kids are not picky. Really. We think they just want the cool new toys but they like weird gifts they can give their parents, stickers, time with you, sitting on a bean bag…. After about a decade of running a store my take away is that kids like EVERYTHING. I have sold picture frames, stickers, scary mangy cat dolls, glass statues, pieces of paper, song lyrics, seaweed, and belts. So be open minded when you are stocking your store or prize box!
• If you do decide to do a store you need to print your own money. Just as an FYI it is REALLY hard to get the money to copy correctly two sided. Run demo sets through the copier and try cutting them out before you copy. I made each of my students a “bank” out of an envelope that they keep in a hanging file folder with their teacher’s name on it.

Here are some places to print money:

• Printable Play Money
• Printable Behavior Charts

Hit up co-workers

• I like to blindly email my co-workers to get donations for my store. I get the most incredible donations from Barbie dolls to picture frames. Co-workers who are moving or having growing children are the best. They love getting rid of stuff and will bring bags and bags of things in for you! I once got an entire bag of sparkly purses.

Sell copied/printed coloring pages

Print off a bunch of popular singers/superheroes/cute animal coloring pages. Make a few copies and sell them. We also make copies of the pretty mancala style pages that older students like.

Places to get printable coloring pages:

• Mom Junction Coloring Pages
• Color Cut and Create
• Print Mandalas

Sell song lyrics

This sounds weird but kids really like to buy song lyrics. For a price, they can tell you what lyrics they want you to print. We sell each song’s lyrics for $10.

Places to get printable song lyrics:

• AZ Lyrics

Sell coupons

Students LOVE coupons. You can sell coupons for writing in pen, sitting in a teacher’s chair, getting a phone call home—pretty much anything! I keep mine in a binder. There are lots of pictures on the internet of fancy, color printed and laminated coupons in cute bins. If you have that much time, more power to you. Mine are black and white copies in sheet protectors in a binder. It took me about ten minutes to set up—including the copying and cutting.

Places to get free, printable coupons:

• Sanchez Class Coupons
• Progress Cards Coupons
• PB Works Coupons for Rewards
• Franklin Elementary
• We Are Teachers Coupons

• There are students who struggle with behaviors like paying attention during every single activity of the school day. They might need a quick check in at the end of every activity—“How do you think math went today? How much work did you get done?”
• These are pretty common for older students who change teachers. The student needs to bring the contract to each classroom to get the teacher to sign. The goal is to increase communication within a team about a student and to reinforce the positive behaviors across teachers. However, if you get one teacher who won’t fill it in or who always forgets the whole contract can fall apart. In that case, you will have to choose either letting a student self-report how they did, leaving that teacher off the contract, or switching to a daily check in instead.
• When most people think contracts, this is what they are thinking about. It is incredibly powerful for a student to get feedback (positive and negative) on their behavior constantly during a day. However, it is really hard on teachers to check in that often with a kid. What tends to happen is that a teacher starts out checking in with a kid at every time period on the contract and then, after a week or two, starts to forget. Instead of filling it in at the end of every activity the teacher will go back at the end of the day and try to back fill.
• Consistency is what makes contracts work. If you notice that you aren’t checking in with the kid as often as the contract says, change how often you are supposed to check in.

• This is the next step down. Instead of checking in with the kid at the end of every activity, check in with them a few times a day. Maybe check in with them on the way to lunch, right before recess, and at the end of school.
• If you have a student who needs frequent check ins (they call out during every activity) but checking in after every lesson isn’t working for you, try this. You get to choose how often you want to check in. A student of mine struggled in line on the way to class, right before lunch, coming in from recess, and kind of overall. So we checked in with her when she got into the class in the morning, as she was about to walk to lunch, after recess, and right before she went home. It wasn’t often enough to drive us crazy and was frequent enough to change her behaviors.
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• As student’s behaviors start to improve, decrease how often you are checking in with them. Students aren’t always going to need you hovering. Once they start to get what you want them to do, you can start checking in with them only once a day.
• If you are only checking in once a day, make sure that you have a real conversation about the day. “I noticed that this morning seemed kind of rough but then you really turned it around after lunch. What changed? How could I support you in making your mornings look as awesome as your afternoons?” Don’t just focus on the negatives of the day. Call out a few good things that the student did during the day. If these conversations are just another lecture, a kid is going to shut down and the contract won’t work.
• Use the daily check ins as a chance to make a plan for the following days and weeks. “I noticed that you had some trouble being focused in math today. There is going to be a test tomorrow in math. What can you do to stay focused during the test? How can we help you?”

• I get kids every year who are great in the classroom and hit kids out at recess. If that is your kid, make a recess contract. Check in with them after recess every day and make a contract just for recess. If you kid is great at math but shuts down in writing every day, make the contract just for writing and remember to check in with them at the end of each writing class. Talk to them about how they did during the writing lesson and how their work was compared to other days.
• This works really well for kids who consistently struggle with only one or two activities in a given day like recess or writing.

• This is the least work for you!
• Don’t promise to check in with a student at the end of every activity. Instead, create a reward chart where you will give them a star whenever you happen to notice them doing the good behavior.
• Let them know that sometimes they might do the behavior without you seeing it—you will give the stars when you happen to see the behavior NOT every time they do the behavior.
• This is also the best training for the real world—no one actually notices every time we do something good.
• This time frame works to generally increase positive behaviors but isn’t as good at teaching specific behaviors like raising your hand.
• Normally, random check ins are used for students who have already learned a positive behavior and just need some reinforcement to maintain the behavior.