Great News!!

I just received a letter that I'll have an idea featured in the popular teaching mag, The Mailbox!

I am Stupid Excited about it!! I'll get a free issue where it appears and it will say my name, idea and the name and city of our school!!!!!!

The idea they accepted:

Use a large cut out (I used a child shape) and buy a supply of stickers that correlate with your theme (ours was ocean so I had treaure gems, mermaids and sea life stickers). When a child exhibits great behavior, helps out, listens right away (THIS objective is what stirred the idea- I just had to keep asking and asking day after day!) they get one sticker. Somedays they'd get up to 4 or 5 stickers! When the cut out was full the kids got a gift from me. I wrapped them and it was VERY special for them. It took us about 3 weeks I think to finally earn the special gift. The best part was, we had a couple different themes represented on the kid shape so the theme of the sticker also served to remind them what we were learning about!!

It was really exciting for them! I LOVE LOVE LOVE using tangible rewards for good behavior from time to time. Doing it over the Summer worked because their aren't really any "gifty" holidays after Easter so they were extra excited I think.

We've also used a "prize box" system and I occasionally reward them with a peice of gum, juice box or something like that at pick up time. What I loved about THIS reward was that it provided them with a visual reminder of all the many good things they did. They could put the cut out in their room, on the fridge etc. and *FEEL GOOD ON THE INSIDE* each time they'd see it!