It's Friday!! I thought I would share about how I do something called "Free Time Friday" in my classroom. Every Friday I carve out 20 minutes at the end of the school day for my students to enjoy themselves for working hard all week long. It is basically a free choice time for students to do whatever they like (within reason of course). Free Time Friday allows you to reward students who have behaved well and completed all their work. However, if students did not have good behavior that week and/or did not complete all their work....this time allows for them to make up for that. My students love it and it helps me reinforce classroom management and make sure all my students stay up to speed on all their work.
Who Does Not Participate in Free Time Friday
For students who cannot participate in Free Time Friday because they have incomplete work, they can join in on the fun once their work is complete...talk about high motivation....all of a sudden my slow working students become very quick! If a student cannot participate in Free Time Friday because of behavior I sometimes send them out of the room...either office or a team teacher's room depending on their behavior, with approval of course. Give them something to do like incomplete work or a book to read.
How to Establish Free Time Friday
When I introduce Free Time Friday, I do an anchor chart of what it looks like and what it doesn't so I set clear expectations: volume level, behavior, and the choice of activities. We discuss what types of activities they can do during this "choice time." Some examples are: computer time, play a game, read a book, draw, etc. Some students even choose to be a peer tutor and help those who have incomplete work to finish.
Free Time Friday is a privilege and not a right...remember you are in control and if they don't deserve it one week because as a class they were not good....you can do that.
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