From Shore to Sea

From Shore to Sea is a behaviour management technique that I created for use within the classroom. I was recently placed at a school with a positive behaviour management policy, therefore this strategy was perfect to implement into my lessons. The idea is simple, each boat is assigned to a different table and the aim of the game is to see which table is the first to sail to the reward zone over a set period of time. This could be a particular lesson, a day or even a week, you can choose what suits your teaching best. Whenever you notice positive behaviour from a table group collectively within your class, move their boat towards the reward zone.   

I mainly made use of this teaching and learning strategy to motivate the children to work in a calm, sensible and productive fashion when on task. I also used it to reward the transition the children made when moving around the classroom, for example between carpet and table time, or lining up for assembly.   

Below is an example of how the chart might look during use:

As you can clearly see the table with the pirate ship would win on this occasion. Normally I like to give the children, on each table, an opportunity to agree upon a name to label their boat with and decorate them. This is so that the boats are special and represent each group of children. Ideally I like to use many kinds of rewards such as stickers, sweets or even a prize box. However, the reward can be anything you decide as long as it motivates your class and maintains the effectiveness of preventing behaviour management issues.

You could also use the strategy to work on key vocabulary:

Here is an example reinforcing terms based around distance:

This would allow children the chance to describe where their boat is situated in relation to them reaching their target, the 'reward zone'. I believe this would provide children in lower year groups support with ordering spoken language, as well as support with spelling and implementation in writing with higher year groupings. 

As it is a positive behaviour management technique I would strongly recommend against moving the boats backwards, in result of any kind of negative behaviour. This would ensure that you remain positive in your approach and maintain a real life scenario, of a boat sailing towards a location. Overall I believe it would make a very creative and engaging display for your classroom, but do not over use the technique. This could result in a negative impact on what you are trying to achieve through its use. 

  

I hope you really like my idea and put it to good use! If you would like any of the illustrations please drop me a message and I can forward them to you personally.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Joe Sutherland for these awesome illustrations to my concept and it would be great if you could support his blog:

http://joe-sutherland.blogspot.co.uk/

That's it from me until next time,

All the best, 

Ben :-)