Behavior and Chore Charts Craft Project
Acknowledge Appropriate Behavior in Young Children
Jul 21, 2009
Instead of using pre-made chore charts or behavior charts for children, work on a specific behavior or action with a personalized chart. Use a cutout shape of a child’s hand as the chart. Adults list completed actions on each finger of the paper hands and then children decorate the paper.
Creating Helping Hands Charts
Helping hands are simple charts where parents acknowledge behaviors and actions that they’ve requested of young children. Trace children’s hands onto construction paper and cut the shapes from the paper. Each time a child meets a behavior expectation, the parent notes the day and/or date on one of the fingers.
After a child has succeeded in acting appropriately for five days, the child gets to decorate the construction paper hand. Give children different supplies to decorate each hand – crayons, markers, stickers, glitter stickers, glow-in-the-dark stickers, glitter glue pens, paint, feathers, pompoms, etc. Display completed hands in a place and at a level that children can see, reinforcing a pattern of appropriate behaviors.
Reinforcing Behaviors in Young Children
Parents determine the behavior or action they want their children to engage in over the next five or ten days. Select specific, observable actions such as going to bed without arguing, cleaning one’s room, or hanging up a backpack after school. Explain the behavior to the child.
On the palm of the hand(s), write the behavior. For young children who can’t read, draw a simple picture that will act as a visual reminder of the conduct. Each day the child succeeds in meeting the expectation, write the date on one of the fingers. Children can add a sticker to the fingertip. While a child is learning a behavior, he may not be able to meet the expectation on consecutive days.
Avoid berating a child for missing anticipated actions. State how the behavior wasn’t met and reinforce the requested action. “I see toys on your bedroom floor. Tomorrow you’ll put away your toys when I ask and then you can put a star sticker on one of the fingers on your helping hand.”
When a child masters one behavior, parents can switch to another action, on another paper helping hand.
Rewards for Young Children
The immediate reward for meeting an expectation is for a child to see her parent mark the helping hand chart. A short-term reward involves the child decorating the paper hand, confirming five days of appropriate actions. A long-term reward could involve a treat connected to decorating ‘x’ number of hands – five-day increments of successful goals. Use rewards appropriate for each child.
Connect this craft – decorating paper hands – to the behavior of young children. Select specific, helpful behaviors suitable for thechild. As the display of paper hands expands, the child sees the results of their actions.
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