Brag Tags Post #2

Welcome Back!

I'm here to wrap up my thoughts on all things brag tags!  This is the second part (a little late) of my brag tag series. If you missed my first post, you can read all about it here.  Like I mentioned in my previous post we have a brag tag end of year celebration party.  Basically students have collected brag tags all year and get to spend an hour or so reminiscing over tags earned with friends and create necklaces with a variety of beads.  They have so much fun and it's so cute to listen to the conversations about the tags.

These kids were rockstars and kept up with the binder ring all year!!  I had 20 second graders last year and these 7 were responsible and kept up with the binder ring!  

If you remember from my previous post, I mentioned starting the year with binder rings for each kiddo to put brag tags on.  At the end of the year students exchange the binder rings for a beaded chain to create a unique brag tag necklace.  Now, you might be wondering what happens to the kids who have lost the binder ring at some point in the year???  That's a fabulous question!!  I DO NOT replace binder rings at any point in the year.  I make the expectation crystal clear at the beginning when I'm introducing brag tags.  If a student loses the ring they DO NOT get replacement tags; instead he/she will get a snack bag to keep tags in for the remainder of the year.  When it comes time to trade in rings for necklaces, students without a ring are given a piece of yarn to make the necklace. At the end of the day all students DO get to make a brag tag necklace; however, the material the necklace is made with depends on the student being responsible throughout the year.  Below are some pictures of materials to make the necklaces as well as pictures of my cuties at the end of the year necklace party!  My biggest piece of advise when starting brag tags is to play by rules you are comfortable with.  If you search brag tags on TPT or Pinterest, you will find thousands of variations which could be challenging/overwhelming to manage.  Keep it simple and do what you are most comfortable with!  A teacher on my team last year only used one specific brag tag.  In her classroom the children worked hard to see how many they could get during the year.  The beauty of brag tags is they are flexible and can be made easy to use based on individual teacher comfort.  If you would like to check out some brag tags I have in my TPT store click here.  I would love any comments about your experiences with brag tags. :)))

Materials for the necklaces.  The cheapest place for the chains was amazon or Hobby Lobby at a $1/necklance.

These are the specialty beads.  My thoughts were to keep it simple.  I bought the beads at Hobby Lobby using 40% off coupons.

I called one table at a time to the necklace making station to gather materials to take back to seat for necklace making.

Hard at work.

Students with the yarn making the necklaces.

If students needed more materials they could go back to the station and gather more materials.

Some of the brag tags

All students enjoyed making the necklaces and each was so cute and different.