One thing that I learned very quickly about first grade students is that they make a MESS in their desk! Luckily, a really amazing teacher that I know told me that her class has a "desk fairy" that leaves the students a reward at the end of the day if their desk looks nice. You better believe one of the first things I did when I took control of my coop's classroom was implement the desk fairy!
I took a picture of a clean, organized desk and uploaded it into Notebook. That way, I just pull up the picture on the Smartboard at the end of the day for students to refer to. Monday-Thursday the mysterious desk fairy left a dollar ("Monarch Money") in each clean desk, but on Fridays the students got something special like a shamrock pencil, sports erasers, hawaiian lei, mini tub of PlayDoh...
It was not only effective (until the pesky leprechaun trashed their desks and the students didn't want to bother cleaning them - oops), but the students loved it! Now that I'm done, my coop teacher is the "mean desk fairy" who makes students with messy desks pull sticks. Nooooot their favorite...
I LOVE this idea!! Messy desks are a HUGE problem in 5th grade too--probably in every grade, actually! I am always baffled by how they get so messy. I mean, where do all the stray papers COME FROM??? I am definitely going to start implementing the desk fairy, although I might pick the cleanest desk each night and give one kid a prize. :) LOVE the idea of the "clean desk" visual each day...no smart board in my room, but I can definitely print a big picture and put it on the board! Thanks for the idea :)
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