Behavior Bingo

Yesterday, I drove the Fun Friday Bus through town and today it's making a stop at the bingo hall. I loved the Fun Friday Bus and I may go back to it in the future, but last summer I created something a bit different which simplified things. Behold~Behavior Bingo!


This little chart is laminated and mounted on the side of my filing cabinet. I used to use raffle tickets as extra rewards and collect all of those tickets in a big jar. Then on Friday we'd pull 5 tickets from the jar and those little luckies would get to go to the treasure box. Two things bothered me about that. Number one: getting, giving and keeping track of tickets. Number two: hearing kids (and parents!) complain they never get picked for the raffle. So, with behavior bingo I now pick one bingo number at the end of every day and whoever is in that bingo square gets to go to the treasure box that day. So, still only giving 5 trips to the treasure box, but once a day so it's not such a big once a week deal.

I use Behavior Bingo in conjunction with the clip chart. When a kid moves their clip up they automatically walk over and write their number in a square on the bingo chart. Sometimes I'll offer bingo numbers for things like bringing back field trip forms the next day, great hallway behavior, the team that wins a class game, etc. It just adds a little something extra to the positive reinforcement I try to maintain with the class.

The bingo jar is an old hair conditioner jar (Matrix Biolage~looooove it!). I added some matching graphics  and inside there are Scrabble tiles for B-I-N-G and O and extra plastic numbers from a math manipulative kit from 1-10. At the end of the day I pick one letter and one number from the jar. If I choose B7, the kid in square B7 trots over the treasure box and his number gets erased from the chart.

Keeping the treasure box stocked is always a bit of a challenge. So I started to use reward coupons and the kids ended up loving them way more than any little trinket in the box. Here's a sample of some of the ones I used. Click on the picture to scoot on over to Google Docs to download some for yourself.
You can easily create your own behavior bingo chart, but I do have one for sale in my TpT store if you're interested. It also comes with extra graphics to decorate your jar and directions for use. It's normally $3, but it's on sale for $2.40 from now until 8/6. Click here to take a look.

Just a few more days until I can get back in my classroom. I'm always so excited to get back in there and then I stand there so overwhelmed and wonder what the heck I was so excited about! I'll be taking lots of pictures of my progress along the way to share. See you soon, friends!

BREAKING NEWS! Our 600th follower celebration winner is Becki! 

Becki, email me at ShopSunnyDays@me.com :) Thank you all so, so much for entering and for being here with me on the sunny side of the street!
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11 comments

  1. Such a cute idea. I pinned that. Like if they get on a certain color or something that day they can put their number in the chart, then on Friday....
    Lessons Learned

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  2. I love your behavior bingo! I just might have to steal the idea :)

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  3. What a great idea! I too have found it overwhelming to keep track of tickets and this is a great way to simplify my life. Thank you! Question...do the rest of the kids who didn't get picked at the end of the day keep their number in their slot for the next day's raffle too or do you erase the whole thing and start over the following day? Thanks Denise for another awesome idea!! I love it!

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  4. Good question Lisette, I should have explained that. I keep the numbers on the chart until the whole chart is filled. Kids keep erasing one number a day so it takes a while to get filled up. When it's all filled up and there are no more blank spaces, I'll pull a few extra numbers to make some room (like a Friday special event) You want to have it almost full or when you pull a number your more likely to choose a blank space.

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  5. I big-puffy-pink-heart this idea!! Thanks for sharing :)

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  6. I can relate to your frustration with the tickets and have felt the same way over the past few years. Thank you for sharing such an awesome solution! I will definitely be using this idea in my classroom. Love your blog :)

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  7. Sorry, silly questions... You said kids erase a number each day. Is this the "winner" of the day that erases? What do you use to choose the "winner"? So, if I'm 18, and I put my number under B, that's B18, would that student write that on a slip of paper so they have a chance?
    I'm a visual learner :D

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  8. Hi Sunshine (Great name btw!)
    All of my students have a class number, so they can put their number in any box they choose. At the end of the day I pick a letter and number from the jar. So if I call out B7, the kid whose number is in square B7 is the winner. So in the above picture, kid #18 is the winner.

    The winner erases his number from the chart. Now if the chart gets totally full, sometimes I'll call some bonus numbers to free up extra spaces. From time to time I'll even erase the whole chart, but it's best to keep lots of numbers on the chart so that when you call a number you won't hear them yell, "no one's there!". ;0)
    Does that help?

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  9. I was wondering how I would manage all of those reinforcement tickets...now I don't have to! Thank you! Also, I would love to print your reward coupons (so cute), but for some reason in Google docs the bottom is cut off. This has happened on a number of Google docs I tried to print...is anyone else having this problem?

    Thanks for sharing such beautiful materials!
    Jessica

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  10. Jessica,
    Glad you like it! Email me ShopSunnyDays@me.com and I'll send you another copy of the reward passes when I get home. Google docs doesn't always cooperate for me either!
    :). Denise

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  11. Love this! Definitely trying it in my 2nd grade classroom this year. I, too, am about to trash my treasure box!!

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