I wanted to give at least each student an award. The awards that I must give out are the creative writer, most books read, highest math, spelling and reading and so on.
For the awards that I am going to give, so far I have come up with...
the most helpful
best handwriting
best story teller
I have fun in my class. My students keep a reading log all year long. I add to that the estimate of books read outside of the assigned books, and books read independently in class. Every student gets a certificate stating "Congratulations _______________________ for reading _________ (#of books) this year! Great job!"
It usually of course turns out that the kids who began at the lowest reading level have read the most # of books - one time my little lowest reader had read over 400 books! She had progressed through several levels and gained in comprehension. Everybody cheered for this student and we were all so proud! This way everyone gets big applause for reading lots of books.
You're welcome! I have a student in my class with whom I was not comfortable giving him one of the "school's" awards due to his regression in everything during this last school term (he has been on summer holidays since spring break), so I am going to give him one of these.
