Brag Tag Character Traits

This year, I introduced Brag Tags to my fourth graders. I love that they are motivating and encouraging my students to strive to reach behavior and academic goals. Not only have they exceeded my expectations with this upper elementary group, but I've learned so much as a teacher from using them! Of course, I didn't expect ALL of my students to enjoy them, but so many of my students have surprised me. They have been a hit in my classroom! It wasn't until last week, when we started talking about character traits, that I've noticed how much more prepared my students were for this reading skill. They have connected our Character Brag Tags to our character trait lessons. When I was creating the character trait tags, I wanted them specifically to align to more difficult character traits. At the beginning of the year, I introduced each one. Boy did this room full of students look so confused as we talked about each one! They hadn't heard of or didn't know the meaning of the traits I had included in this set. 

Now that we have discussed and described each character trait, the students are so interested in how they can earn them. Each week, I pass out the character tags to those students that have truly earned each one. I also, give an example on how this tag fits that student. By simply adding this to our routine and classroom management, this has created a positive environment inside our classroom for the entire year. I love seeing my students light up as they receive their tags and wear it on their necklace. The connections they have between character traits has been an added bonus. They're successful in describing characters by not only their actions, but how they behave on a regular basis. They're able to be more descriptive and notice deeper tried and true traits that a character possesses.