The idea is students start on green and then move up or down according to their behavior. My issues have always been worrying about parents. I hear students being scolded by their parents if they are green or blue, "Good Day" or "Ready to Learn". Heaven forbid I correct a behavior and move them to "think about it". I had a girl cry for two hours because she was moved down to purple because she would get in trouble.
Aghh! So of course, everyone is mostly on pink all the time, unless they do something really wrong so I don't have to deal with parent reactions. But then there's the talking, running in the hall, little things I tend to let go for this reason. So these little things get worse and worse!
I spoke to another teacher who expressed the same problem. She told me she doesn't color their folder each day or tell the parents anything unless they get on red! This got me thinking... I came up with a new chart that I can actually use.
All those little behaviors that I want to work on I can give consequences for, but they are still on pink! Someone's making weird noises just for fun. Ok, pull your stick. It's only been one day so far, but one little girl who sometimes like to try my patience is so proud because she's up on 2 pieces of candy. She keeps saying, "I'm being so good today!" So proud.
I did make it clear that for larger offenses we will be sent straight to green. Being mean to someone, being disrespectful, etc... We discussed these for a while.
I also added "Fun Friday". A mystery reward at the end of the week. Anyone that gets on yellow or red will not be able to participate in this reward. The rewards I have so far are: play four corners, heads up seven up, make cookies, popsicles, extra recess, free crafting time, sidewalk chalk, Simon Says, Charades, etc...
