Spread love in your class

Do you remember buying and receiving Candy Grams from friends in school? I always looked forward to the times I could send a little bit of love to my friends or people I knew might need a little extra something in their lives…

One of the benefits of having a Classroom Economy, is that you can create ways for students to practice planning, saving, and spending for purchases they want to make.  In my class, I use CLASS DOJO and turn student points into “DOJO DOLLARS,” as a way to keep things exciting and new for my students. I have a Dojo Store and let them buy little goodies and fun school supplies, as well as other fun seasonal items. Last year, I decided to let students use their Dojo Dollars to purchase Candy Grams for others! I sold them for $10 each and was surprised to see how many students were saving up for them! Being my first year at the school, I was unsure how many students would bring those little Valentine’s cards they sell at the store. I thought this might bring some equity to the process of giving and receiving.

Making them was super easy! All you have to do is print a template, use hot glue gun to add the candy, and you’re done! It works best if you print on card stock and doesn’t take too long. I definitely did it pretty mindlessly while catching up on one of my favorite shows: New Girl. CLICK HERE to download the FREE templates shown above.

The students actually requested that I write all of them so that it could actually remain anonymous and others wouldn’t try to decipher who sent it or wrote it! This also gave me the added benefit of being able to give them to any of the students in my class that I wanted to as well without them knowing who it really came from! I was fortunate to have the students initiate this idea because it helped me bring another layer of equity to the Candy Grams!

One final little touch: We were practicing alliteration at the time, so my students had to use it to say who the Candy Gram was from! Some of the different ways they came up with are below.

• A Silly Scholar
• Your Funny Friend
• A Kind Kid
• A Tall Ten Year Old
• An Energetic Eleven Year Old
• Your Fantastic Friend

How do you bring equity to your classroom during Valentine’s Day?