Go ahead....make my day

As a discipline/reward method at our school, children begin each day with a certain number of points. Whenever they misbehave or mistreat, they lose points. If they lose more than 7 points in a day, they do not 'make their day'. The next morning, they will NOT have a Make Your Day slip on their desk (and a note is sent to parents telling them their child did not make their day). Then they can trade in these slips for little toys when they collect a few.

Today on the playground I turned to see two of my second graders holding on to a Kindergarten window ledge, jumping up and down to see into the window. I called them over and rebuked them for disturbing a class. I told them to each take off 2 points for interfering with a class. Here is the rest of the discussion:

Me: So each of you take 2 points off when you go back to class. Why were you looking into that class?

Boy 1: We wanted to see if they heard the rocks we threw up onto the roof!

Me: You were throwing ROCKS on the roof??

Boy 2: Yes, but not AT anyone. No one got hurt.

Me: Boys, rocks are not to be picked up at school....at ALL. If you throw them on the roof, they might break a window (their eyes bugged out). And if you throw them on the ground or at a tree, you might hit a person. (they looked at each other)

Boy 1: Well I"m going to take 5 points.

Boy 2: I'm taking 4.

Me: Well I'm telling you to each take 3 points or whatever your teacher tells you to take when you explain this to her.

Boy 1: I'll take 5.

Boy 2: OK, I'll take 4.

Then they ran off, happily discussing the points they were going to take.