Running a Simple Class Dojo Economy

I’ve used Class Dojo for the past six or seven years, and I love it. I love that it’s a flexible, easy way to manage the classroom, and I really love the home-school communication tools that have been added.

One of my students’ favorite aspects of Class Dojo is our Dojo Economy system. It’s super easy and not at all fancy. I adapted my idea from School and the City's Sticker Economy. My students earn and lose points on a daily basis. We keep track of that on the Class Dojo site, and parents are able to sign on to see how their students are earning and losing points. With my Dojo Economy, we take the points one step further to keep students motivated and reward them for positive choices.

I keep a binder, and in the binder, each child has a blank hundred grid with his/her name on it. We add a sticker for every 5 points students earn.

I check in with students every other Friday for our Dojo store. I call the student over, and tell them how many points they've earned over the past two weeks (They usually already know.) We add that to their existing total. So, if a child earned 21 points, we add 4 stickers and a +1 at the bottom of the last sticker. As students' math skills improve throughout the year, you can involve them in the process.
You're starting with x points, add x. What's your total now?
You earned x points, how many groups of 5 is that?
You had x points, you spent x, how many points do you have leftover?

I keep an anchor chart hanging in our classroom with the prizes and their value. Students able to easily choose something within their range. I also keep a small version of the chart in the back of my binder, so I can easily see how many to subtract from their total. The prizes and privileges are inexpensive or free- candy, lunch with a friend, no shoes for the day, bring a stuffed animal to school, iPad for morning work, etc. I have a few big prizes worth 10 stickers (50 points), like donuts and ice cream from the cafeteria, and some kids really do save up for them. At the start of the year, we work together to come up with a list of prizes and privileges that they would like to be able to earn. This helps to give students ownership of the classroom.

Once a student chooses their prize, we subtract it from their total by crossing off the stickers. It really is uncomplicated and easy to manage with things you already have in your classroom. You can download the blank grid here.

I reset point bubbles to zero after we cash in points. This doesn't affect how parents can see how students have earned or lost points. Their pie graph and Dojo data will remain the same.

I also use brag tags in my classroom, and students earn brag tags when they hit certain Dojo point milestones- 25, 50, 100, 200, etc. Because you're keeping a running total with the stickers, even when they're crossed off, students can see how many points they've earned throughout the year. The brag tags can be found here.

The whole process usually takes me about 20 minutes, which is perfect to do at the end of a Friday while kids are playing a math game or even during morning work.  It's also a great task for a parent volunteer or student intern.  Comment below if you have any questions!

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