I have been using the traffic light system in my classroom for behavioral management for many years. Plus, we are required to use this system in my school for grades K-2 to provide behavioral consistency as our students progress through the grades. I am allowed to tweak the system to meet my needs, although, so this year I decided to use a puppy theme as my motivator. I am going to share with you details as to how to use it and you can create it yourselves with your own clip art if you want OR if you would like all the components ready to use, then you can click on the image below to find it in my TPT store!
Here are the details:
The
chart to the left shows you the way I arrange the pieces on my poster board. It
can, of course, be arranged in any way that works the best for you! I attach
the pieces to the board with Velcro. The bones have dog commands written upon
them. Green is stay – We want to stay on green!
Yellow
is wait – Be
careful! Wait and think!
Red is sit – Please sit and think about a
different way to behave.
I have a stuffed puppy sitting in my wait
chair. I also have plain bones printed on paper that my students attach to a
clip board and draw a picture or write a note about why they are in the wait
chair. I have a large plastic dog bowl sitting next to the wait chair. When the
child has finished their bone, they put it in the dog bowl and return to the
group. I do move my students from yellow to green if their behavior improves.
At
the end of the day, students color the correct dog paw on their behavior
recording sheet the color of the bone that their puppy is sitting next to at
the end of the day.
The puppy clip art that you see at the
top of my chart is from DJ Inkers. Because of copyright rules, I cannot include
that puppy in this package!
The
chart to the left shows you the way I arrange the pieces on my poster board. Again, it
can be arranged in any way that works the best for you! I attach
the pieces to the board with Velcro.
The
title of this board is “Best in Show.” I attach 3 dogs to the board with
Velcro. The dog house, the bones, and the sign can be permanently attached.
I
use this board as group behavior management. My students start with 3 dogs out
of the doghouse at the beginning of each day. If the class is
being too loud, being unkind, not following directions, etc., I remove one dog
and place it in the doghouse. This dog must stay in the doghouse for the rest
of the day. As the day progresses, the dogs stay out of the doghouse if
classroom behavior is positive. But I will remove another dog if classroom
climate does not improve. At the end of the day, we count how many dogs are out
of the doghouse; that is how many bones come out of the jar and into the dog
bowl. I use a mason jar to hold the bones and a plastic dog bowl in which to
place the bones earned. I do this at the end of every day. When all the bones
are gone from the jar and are in the dog bowl, the class earns a treat such as
an extra recess, a movie and popcorn, popsicles – whatever works for your
class!
The
number of bones that I put in the mason jar varies throughout the year. At the
beginning of the year when my students are just learning this system, I have
fewer reward bones in the jar. 
Until next time! Blessings to you!