Sunday, May 20, 2012

Ideas for Classroom Incentives

Hey there! Hi there! Ho there! 
Ok so it's been a little while since I have posted much that is teacher related! This is purely out of lack of time to do bloggy type stuff when I am in the classroom! As it is I get there early and feel that I am one of the last ones to leave! (Pretty sure I am the last one some days!) Anyway, here's a teacher related post! 

 I thought I would share some of the incentives that I use in my classroom! I may or may not have explained what population/type of school that I work at, but please know that I work with kids who have a wide variety of needs! I work with K-2 special education students and their needs are many! One of their needs is most definitely incentives! We have random incentives, individualized programs for incentives, weekly incentives, monthly incentives, and sooooooooooooo much more! 

 Here's a list of a few that don't cost a dime: 
1. A free photocopy from a picture book/book cover 
2. A hand stamp (if you've already got some) 
3. Sitting next to a chosen friend at lunch 
4. Playing on the playground for 2 minutes (this works for me because the playground is adjacent to my classroom. Plus I have awesome aides who can help to watch the kiddo outside) 
5. Helping to pass out work





For these rewards, i use a coupon system. The kids can randomly earn these coupons (pictured above & below) or, for some, we have specific programs where the kids can earn these and pick them as their incentive. 
 Here's a list of incentive that are truly not free but not terribly expensive: 
1. Skittles, m&ms, or other small pieces of candy that you can give one at a time! 
2. Bookmarks 
3. Erasers (themed ones are GREAT!) 
4. Stickers (I have a whole drawer full!) 

Here's my bookmark bucket. Mine are actually made for free by printing free printable bookmarks, laminating them, and then adding magnets (that i acquired for free sometime ago) or yarn!

 
Here's some weekly/monthly incentives that you might try out:
1. Student of the week - this little one can become the line leader, earn a special treat, or even be the one to help the teacher pick something out) for example on rainy day schedule my student of the week helps to pick out the recess time movie. 
 2. Student of the month - this can be geared towards a certain academic standard, character trait, turning in homework, or even how many pages were read in a months time. 
 3. A weekly activity based on a specific criteria. At our school we utilize points that are then are averaged out each day and then again a the end of the week! The scores are then broken down into different levels: GOLD, SILVER, & BRONZE. Then each Friday our campus does an activity for Gold leveled students to participate in. This can be done on a much smaller scale or even between 2 teachers! 

 I hope this info gave you some hints and clues as to how to do incentives in your classroom. Many of these can even be put to use now, but you could
also begin using them in the fall! Either way i hope they gave you some hints! Photobucket