Back to School Must Haves and 'Working Wilsons'

Its August 2nd and that means I only have about 2 weeks left of my summer.  I love my summers but to be honest, I think I am ready to be in back to school mode!

I am so thrilled to be a part of this awesome Back to School Must Haves E-Magazine! I am even more thrilled to be able to share it with you!  This super cool emagazine has everything from fashion to professional books to grade specific must haves (PreK- Middle School).  All contributors are incredible teacher bloggers who have terrific recommendations for all sorts of must haves!

Open publication - Free publishing - More back to school

I am not sure what I was thinking but I've come up with another little classroom management gimmick  technique.  I'm calling them Working Wilsons.  The idea was inspired by all the "quiet critters" I've seen on Pinterest.

I am lucky to have my son, Jake, help me but  we are not even close to finishing these little creatures motivators but I wanted to take a break and share them with you. First of all, I've been saving this empty giant pretzel container for so long so I was happy to finally find a use for it. Second, WTH was I thinking?  I bought like300 pom poms, a billion colored wiggly eyes, and a lot of foam hearts.  Uh duh Lorraine, they sell these guys already made!  Oh well!

I took pictures of the plastic jar with plain poms poms with a few Working Wilsons on top just so you get the idea.  When I having enough wine or pay my son big bucks or maybe both find more time I will make all 300 pom poms into Working Wilsons.

Here's what I'm thinking....  When students are at their desks (which I have in groups of 4 or 5) and they are on task either working independently or even cooperatively, I will randomly give the group a Working Wilson to display on the desks.  The students will collect these throughout the day.  It's  a visual reminder to stay on task and do what your suppose to be doing.  At the end of the day the amount of Working Wilsons each group has earned will be noted on the board and the Working Wilsons will be returned to the jar.  Each day, Monday through Friday, students will earn Working Wilsons and the "score" will be tallied up at the end of the week.  The "team" with the most points at the end of the day on Friday has the choice of eating lunch with me in the classroom the following week or picking out a Working Wilson of their very own to keep. :)

Will this work?  I have no idea!  And as much as I prefer to eat lunch with my teammates in the teachers lounge I hope the kids pick "eat lunch with teacher" because I am not sure how many more of these darn darling Working Wilsons I can make :)

I hope this excites desk mates to encourage each other to stay on task and work cooperatively.

This may be a big hit with my kiddos or it may big a flop but it sounds good in my head.  What do you think?  Would this work in your classroom?