Basically Brag Tags are little badges that students earn throughout the school year. Brag tags can be academic, or character related. The following blog posts helped me understand them a little better.
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| Sample Brag Tags I'm Creating |
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| Super Improver Brag Tags I'm Creating |
- Where will I get the brag tags? I'm in the process of making my own. There are some great ones on TpT, but I have hundreds of dollars worth of clip art and I really need to use it! School Life.com also has some you can purchase. I intend to purchase some special brag tags from them such as Happy Birthday, 100 Days Smarter, Honor Roll, Read Across America.
- How will I make my brag tags? I started making them in PowerPoint, basically copying and pasting each design into a template I made. Then I discovered this YouTube Video by Diane from 5th in the Middle and learned there was a much easier way to do it!
- Where will I get the necklaces? I'm going to get mine from School Life.com. The 24 inch Ball Chain will work perfectly for my students.
- How will I store my brag tags? I'm going with the storage I saw on the Primarily Speaking blog post. I found the compartment organizers at Michael's for 50% off last week. That made them $1.49 a piece and I purchased 7 of them... enough to store the hundred+ brag tags I'm making.
- How will I display them? I'm thinking of using the bulletin board to hang them on. Every student will be able to wear them on Fridays. I'm debating if I will allow them to wear them any day they earn a badge. I'm also thinking I'll let students wear their brag tags to lunch if they have a family member coming to eat with them.
- Will students take them home? They will only go home on the last day of school. They will be stored in the classroom all year and free for parents to see during back to school night, conference time, classroom parties or anytime they're in the building.
- How will students earn tags? That question will be answered in a future post! Check back soon...
I love brag tags! I used them last year but need to figure out a better way....I was using them with dojo points and they got away from me...lol. Thanks for linking up:)
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of using them too this year. Thank you for posting the link to the Youtube video. I, too, have lots of clip art to make my own. I do love the options out there though so I am sure I will purchase some too. (Love your blog BTW!)
ReplyDeleteLove the brag tags. Thanks for sharing resources for getting the necklaces!
ReplyDelete♬Swamp Frog First Graders ♬
How cool. Both Jessica's are working on brag tags. Yours are super cute. Thanks for sharing the youtube video.
ReplyDeleteI have used brag tags for 2 years. The kids love them and so do I! Thanks for sharing some great ideas and resources!!
ReplyDeleteYou have done all the research for me! Thanks for all your resources!! I enjoyed reading your post! And - happy 4th!! Please visit my Monday Made It HERE. Have a great week! Pam from PJ Jots
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I love brag tags and used them all year. I have several up on TPT, and about 3 dozen more to post. I store all of mine in a storage container (Akro Mills) that I got from Lowes. I used Mardi Gras beads from Dollar Tree. Super inexpensive!
ReplyDeleteI used Brag Tags this past school year for the first time and my students loved them. Every Thursday after school, I would add the Brag Tags they had earned to to each student's chain. They would put them on when they came in on Friday morning. I think wearing them on Friday kept them new and excited about earning the Brag Tags.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great post! I too have decided to try brag tags with my third graders this year. I'm going to check out the Youtube video you shared. Will you be selling the brag tags you make? Have any of the brag tags you mentioned (or have seen) have the hole positioned a little lower so not to mess up the cute clip art? I just purchased my necklaces from ballchainsupply.com
ReplyDeleteThe brag tags I'm making don't have a prepositioned hole, I'll punch them myself once their printed and laminated. I don't sell my resources but if you email me at jessicaysaunders@gmail.com, once I'm finished I can share them with you.
DeleteThanks for sharing! Love your blog!
ReplyDeleteI've used brag tags for 2 years now and found it works better if the ball chain is not long enough to fit over the kid's heads (no choking and no accidentally leaving school with the tags on.) I give the kids about 12 inches which is long enough to hang from a hook and hold plenty of brag tags. I placed a small command hook on the edge of each student's cubby to hold their tags. On the first day of school, I give them a brag tag that has their name on it so if a set is ever missing from it's hook, we know where to return it. I send home the chain and tags on the last day of school and just leave the hooks for next year's kiddos.
ReplyDeleteMy teaching partner and I are using these again this year. Our kids love them. However we are changing it up a bit and not laminating them so we can write personalized notes on the bacK and then send home. We also made a tally chart with the images of the brag tags to put in the hallway for each student. As they earn one, the student will get a tally or sticker to put by that brag tag. This way everyone can see how great they are doing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
DeleteI am thinking of starting brag tags this year. I was wondering if I could print them on regular computer paper and laminate. How do they hold up for the year?
ReplyDeleteI printed mine on regular computer paper and laminated them. I think they'll hold up fine.
DeleteJessica, Thank you so much for sharing! You are truly too kind and amazing! This will be my first year attempting this, is it necessary to keep a record of tags given out? Can students earn the same tag more than once with the exception of 100's on tests?
ReplyDeleteI didn't keep a record of tags earned. And yes some students earned the same tag more than once. Hope that helps :)
DeleteThanks for sharing! I'm trying to get a tough group of kids on track and behavior is a real problem. I just started using the tags and I can see that the kids are into it!
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