Time for Good Behavior
It’s always time for good behavior if you were to ask Behavior Bear! This character has a book to help teach children how to tell time on an old fashioned clock. It’s filled with pages which you can use in your home or classroom. First, discuss what it means to have good behavior as this is the opportunity to introduce our character Behavior Bear. Children relate to them. Then, look through the book, find Behavior Bear, let your child color the character however they want! Next, there is a clock template to put together with the hands. You can glue the hands on for a specific time, or you can use what is called a brad so that the hands will turn. Use this template to help your child transition into different activities. I used it in our classroom as a visual to show the students what activity would be next on our daily schedule. I printed the template out on card stock and laminated them as they got a lot of use. Having visual reminders has always worked for myself and I know that they work with most children. I even depend on visuals as an adult, think about how many positive quotes you have displayed? Visuals are important! Here are some of the ways that I used Behavior Bear to transition at home which was displayed in the kitchen on the refrigerator and I just moved the hands to show the kids what was next:
Breakfast was at 7:00 a.m.
Get ready for school at 7:30
Time for the bus at 8:00
Team Practice was at 4:00
Dinner at 6:00
Homework at 7:00
Bath time was 7:30
Bedtime was 8:00
This helped with routine in our home as best we could do. Today, life is much more busy than when we raised our three adult children. But, with this visual it helped keep us on time, it taught our kids how to tell time, to use their time wisely and to make time for the other things that needed to be done. Of course you would choose a schedule that best fits your home. I used this in the classroom as a visual, it helped with our special needs students as they required time to transition into the next activity. This clock also was used at our Center activities to introduce telling time. I even found the students playing with the clock at free choice with their friends pretending to go on adventures! You see, there is always time for good behavior and when we can communicate with our children and let them know the routine or schedule laid out before the day, it involves them, helps them understand what lies ahead and they can process the activities that come in our every day lives. I found it much easier to use this clock than to constantly say, “come on, we’re going to be late” or “hurry up, the bus is coming” or “what time is practice today?” it brought a sense of peace in our home on top of all the chaos.
May I just share, that today, our kids use their time wisely, they are familiar with how fast time flies and their behavior is pretty darn good!
Book available on Amazon