I am racking my brain to come up with free or cheap incentives for behavior/accomplishments. I prefer to "reward" students with privileges, and not material objects. The exception to that is a fancy school supply of some sort. So far, I have: Homework pass Sit with a friend pass Sit at my desk pass Teacher picnic Pencils Erasers Any other ideas?
LOL. Their mama's purse... Anyway, I've used glowsticks for the past three years and my high shoolers love them. Michael's sales them 1 can for a buck and each can has 10 glow sticks. I give them out for students who get an 85% or above on a test and after I've handed them out, I turn off the lights for a few seconds. They have a blast. Just be careful because some of my kids found out that glow sticks don't taste very good...
Test question check on a test (they choose the question and you tell them if the answer is right or wrong)
Sometimes I give out chance coupons. They can save them to buy a homework pass, etc. Or they can put them in a basket for a drawing. I occasionally ask parents for donations of items that cost under a dollar. I draw coupons until I run out of donations. I only do this about twice a year, so it is a very big deal. I also "buy" things from Scholastic with my bonus points. Also, I have given out minutes. For example, I might give out 5 minutes to a student. They can use this time to do a show and tell, tell a few jokes, read to the class, perform a magic trick, etc. Scholastic will sometimes send you free bookmarks with your order. I save those for rewards, too.
The students also love when I let them be the room manager as a reward. They line the class up, run errands, manage papers for absent people, put up extra chairs, etc.
I don't normally allow students to write with a pen. Hand the student a cool colored pen to use for the rest of the day, and watch them smile. My idea of cheap and easy!!
My kids thought it was a priveledge to stack chairs at the end of the day or to wipe down tables! So therefore, they had to earn that right. They got a reward & I got a chore done. Win, win.
My kids love "make a mural" (give them a large piece of bb paper), move desk to any location, take shoes off in class, bring in a favorite song for a 3 minute dance party, and the all-time favorite - use my "fancy" wheeled, cushioned chair at their desk!
Love it! I had one teacher who let the kids sit on the floor at a specific time each day with small blankets they brought from home, dimmed the light and called it quiet/nap time. But what they didn't realize is she also assigned each of them work during this time so really they weren't sleeping nor "off" but the kids thought they were and did the work very cooperatively. They begged for this time. Gotta love crafty teachers. I made it a privilege to use the adult bathroom in my room. But to keep the privilege they had to be very respectful in the bathrooms. I have never had shinier bathrooms! They would seriously wipe down the surfaces (in K!) in BOTH the kid and adult bathroom just to be able to continue to be allowed to use it. I made a big deal out of what I expected for them to have that privilege and made a big deal out of the fact that they DID respect it. It was great!
5 minutes extra recess with a friend sit in the camp chair for the day trade desks with a classmate for the day sit at the teacher's desk for the day read to a student in the lower grades teach the class something (last year a student taught lattice multiplication)
