Classroom Management: The Race Track

The RACE TRACK Classroom Management System

The race track is a simple method of encouraging your children to follow your class rules with no yelling, or frustration, on your part.  Without a word you can point out unhelpful behaviors in your class, or joyfully point out when your students are on track.  The best part is that the rewards are fun, exciting, and won't cost you anything!

Here's how it works.  

1.  You make a track with about 25 squares that goes across the top of your entire magnetic whiteboard.  Mine is about 4 inches tall by 5 feet.  I made it curvy and wrote good behaviors on various squares.   Write "start" on the first square, and "prize time" on the last square.  

2.  Next print a squirrel and nut on cardstock, laminate and cut out.  I made several sets of pictures to have variety.  (a surfer and a wave, a leprechaun and a pot of gold , wise men and the star etc...)

3.  Come up with a variety of prizes and print on cardstock so they are ready.  

I used things like:

       1.   10 minutes extra recess

       2.  Go to lunch early

       3.  Play pictionary on the board

       4.  Have hot-chocolate

       5.  Make special art project

       6.  Any special thing that I was planning to do anyway, I can instead use as a reward.

       7.  Pajama Day

       8.  Movie Time

4.  Choose one of your prizes and hide it under the "nut" at the end of your track.

5.  You are ready to go!  Put the squirrel on the start with a magnet and whenever the kids do what they are supposed to do the squirrel moves up towards the goal, whenever they don't he moves back.  

6.  You should be moving the squirrel about 15 times per day, hopefully with a gain of about 5 spaces by the end of the day.  It should take about a week to get to the prize.