Have you heard of Secret Star? You’ve probably seen me talk about it before… and that’s because I *love* this trick! Secret Star is a classroom management tool that works WONDERS on hallway behavior, assembly behavior, teacher talking to the Principal by the door behavior… you get the idea!
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Here’s how it works: By the door, I keep the above display, which includes a framed “Are you the Secret Star?” sign, a Secret Star Students jar, and a Secret Starbursts jar. Whenever I need a quiet and well-behaved class, I tell my kiddos I’m looking for the Secret Star and I’ll take a token from the Secret Star Students jar. My tokens have student numbers on them, but you could use names, too.
Once I have a student picked, I will nonchalantly observe him or her as we walk through the hall {or sit in an assembly, or…} But SHHH! It’s a secret! No one knows who I’m looking at… and so they ALL behave! Why? Because they want a Secret Starburst, of course!
I’m telling you, this trick really works! My firsties never let me forget to choose a Secret Star. Ever. They even ask if I’ll pick one for nontypical Secret Star events… and sometimes I will, because I’m cool like that 😉
If you want to make your own Secret Star display, you’ll need:
*a decorative 5×7″ picture frame
*two plastic paint cans {or any type of jars/containers}
*enough 1.5″ round wooden tokens for your class list
*a big bag of Starbursts
*and THIS FREEBIE, which includes the sign, labels, and tiny numbers
Putting it all together is simple! I used a 1″ circle punch to cut the little numbers, then Mod Podged them onto the tokens {or rather, I am going to because I can’t find my Mod Podge anywhere!}. You could also just use paint markers or Sharpies to writes names/numbers. Or, here is an alternative to the tokens:
Love this!! Can your students see what token you pick? How do you keep them from seeing who it is?? My kiddos are going to flip out when I try this!!!
Thanks a bunch!!
Christa Swaney
Sweet Life of Second Grade
Thank you for sharing. It's perfect for my room. I use "Mystery Walker" but this is better for me this year, since our school theme is "Let your star shine." It also ties into our PBIS acronym STAR.
Thank you for sharing. It's perfect for my room. I use "Mystery Walker" but this is better for me this year, since our school theme is "Let your star shine." It also ties into our PBIS acronym STAR.