If you’re looking for a classroom rewards system to help mitigate challenging behaviors in students and encourage target behaviors, here’ youll find a system that can be turned into a structured system that works well for primary age students.
Having a classroom rewards system works well when you put a little extra time in up front. (I know, as teachers, we’re always trying to save time! However, this initial investment will save you so much hassle and bad behavior from students later!) Planning out your classroom reward ideas before the term starts will give you a clear and straightforward path for students to follow and engage in appropriate behaviors in the classroom all year long!
Whether you’re overwhelmed at the prospect of back-to-school in general, if you’re not sure what rewards to use, or you just feel like freshening things up in your room, these ideas can help you come up with a whole-class reward system to use all year.
Pros and Cons of Using a Classroom Rewards System
There is some debate that questions the use of a classroom rewards system for children and the validity of using an extrinsic motivator like this.
But if you’re still deciding if you’ll use a classroom rewards system this year or continue with one, understand that research says that many teachers do use a classroom rewards system to motivate their students.
Because we know they’re an effective tool for positive behavior and help create a positive learning environment.
I honestly believe having a classroom reward system is a necessary part of a whole classroom management plan. This helps effectively manage my students’ behaviour and ultimately teaches them to make good choices at school.
If you’re going ahead with rewards, remember, you don’t need to complicate things. However, a ‘make-it-up-as-you-go’ approach often won’t be as effective as if you plan it out.
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Keys for a Successful Classroom Rewards System
This post discusses a rewards system especially for middle school students – grades 4 -6 – because that’s what I know best. Plus, it worked really well for me for many years of teaching in my Year 5 classes.
If you need more information about how a rewards system ties into your overall classroom management plan, please read the blog posts 12 Strategies for a Successful Classroom Management Plan and Clever Classroom Rules for Middle School that can help.
For now, I’ll describe the steps I use to implement my rewards system. I know it’ll work for you too!
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Steps to Implement Your Classroom Rewards System
Your classroom rewards system can help with anything from social skills to building relationships, and even help different students with things like homework management and organization. Make sure to follow a clear path when setting up and implementing your rewards system as one of your classroom management strategies.
Things to remember:
- Firstly have a clear and detailed classroom management plan in place
- Know what sorts of rewards you want to use throughout the year (search Pinterest, websites, or ask colleagues what they use)
- Know your timeframes for implementation throughout the school year
- Find the classroom management resources you will use – twinkl has some free printable sticker charts that I’ve used in the past
- Prepare resources preferably before the school year starts or before the term of implementation
- Purchase small prizes to add to a ‘treasure box’ – use a variety of interesting little things – I find stationery does well (highlighters, fancy erasers, whiteboard markers, special pencils, etc), also provide little knick-knack items that suit both boys and girls. These can be purchased from Dollar shops
- Teach goal-setting to your students – this works well in tandem with your rewards program and gives students a clear focus on what they want to achieve
- Give regular feedback to your students on their learning and behaviour
- Slowly phase out these extrinsic rewards as the year goes on, and this will help develop more intrinsic motivations for students
Classroom Rewards to Use at the Beginning of the Year
It’s a great idea to start the year strong by clearly explaining the individual reward systems in your classroom. This sets the tone for a successful year ahead.
Individual student rewards
One of the easiest ways to reward students is on an individual basis. I find that a mix of rewards for individual students and whole-class rewards acknowledges both the hard work of specific students and the gratification of working toward a common goal.
Term One rewards
I always start with an individual sticker chart or star chart for term one. I find that at this age, students love stickers, and they seem to have a magic power over student behavior.
This strategy is used in conjunction with the clip-behaviour-chart or bulletin board. These are places where positive behaviours are rewarded with a sticker each day.
The stickers tend to flow fairly abundantly at the beginning of the year. This is to develop and encourage the behaviours and expectations that I am looking for.
Then, as they mature over the term, their behaviours must be pretty good and/or meet specific expectations to get a reward.
Sticker charts are easy to prepare. I just photocopy a simple grid of approximately 20 sticker spaces for each student on pretty coloured paper. You can pretty it up or copy pre-printed templates. (I used to laminate them, but this ended up being a waste of time and expense – the coloured paper does just as well on its own).
Have the sticker charts ready to go for day one of school, and after you’ve had a whole class discussion about classroom rules and the students are aware of your expected behaviour, they can start collecting their stickers.
When each student fills up all of these spaces on their sticker chart, they can then request a prize.
Then students continue at their own pace, and everyone has the chance to collect a prize when their sticker chart is full.
Related Article: Clever Classroom Rules: Tips for Teachers
Term 2 rewards and beyond
For term two, I change things up, because I’ve found students get tired of stickers easily – maybe not so much in the younger grades, but for older students, 10-year-olds and up, they get bored pretty quickly.
This is when I revert to a Class Economy system.
You could use classroom cash/bucks, tokens, coupons, or tickets – anything so that students can collect and manage their own rewards themselves.
I use colourful smiley face tickets that I laminate. Kids love these! (and if you’re clever and remember to collect the unused tokens from the students at the end of the year, you can reuse them for the next year).
The tokens replace the stickers from term one.
These tokens are given for the same positive behaviours that are observed. The only difference, the students use the tickets to purchase a prize.
Note: When issuing tickets, to save time, I sometimes give the whole class a ticket if everyone has displayed great behaviour for the day.
Students collect their ‘tickets’ and when they have gathered the agreed amount to gain a prize (the goal in my classroom is 15 tickets), then they make a purchase.
I continue this economy system for the rest of the year.
As the year progresses, I’m not as generous with handing out the rewards. I expect that as students mature, they develop more intrinsic motivation for doing a great job and making good behaviour choices.
Special Classroom Rewards to Include in Your Classroom Rewards System
It’s also good to have some other classroom rewards that you can use to develop the behaviours you wish to see.
I have a variety of other motivators that I use from time to time, depending on each class, but it’s always good to have these in my teacher toolkit.
Student of the Week
‘Student of the week’ involves choosing one student each week that had exceptional behaviour in the previous week. This student’s reward is a certificate and some special privileges. These privileges could include:
- being the teacher’s helper for the week
- answering the classroom telephone (this will depend on the maturity level of your students and phone etiquette will need to be taught beforehand)
- being line leader for the week
- being able to use a special cushion to sit on.
The ideas for these privileges are endless.
I’ve found this type of award to be very motivating for the class and they work really hard to be ‘student of the week’.
End of term awards
At the end of the term and in particular, at the end of the school year, I often choose students to receive special awards for certain behaviours. I love doing this because often students are not expecting it.
Awards to offer:
- most improved student
- most dedicated
- best at mathematics
- best reader
- most consistent with homework
Often, it’s so hard to just choose one student for each award, so you can always pick a few children that suits each category. The sky is the limit for these award certificates.
Don’t forget get the secret password here:
Rewards to encourage positive behaviours
To develop independence, I offer unexpected tickets called ‘Desk Fairy.’
I do this by secretly ‘spot checking’ students’ desks to see if they are keeping their belongings orderly and tidy.
A fun idea for this award is by making laminated ‘desk fairy’ notes. Once every so often, I quickly check each student’s desk at the end of a school day, and if it is neat and tidy, I leave the ‘desk fairy’ card.
This cute card invites the student to bring me their note to receive a small prize (often it’s a small piece of wrapped chocolate, like Favourites or Celebrations)
If they miss out on a card, they learn pretty quickly to start keeping their space tidy.
I love this approach, as I don’t have to keep telling them over and over to keep their desks tidy, as they’ll now want to do this on their own and get a treat like their friends.
Tip: Just search ‘desk fairy notes’ on google and you’ll get the idea.
Whole Class Rewards System
Having whole class rewards can be a fun way to develop class unity, cooperation and belonging amongst your students.
Whole-class rewards are determined as a medium-term goal for the class to achieve. The trick is to only give them a reward if they have achieved the goal.
It won’t work if you give in to them when it hasn’t happened yet. (This, I insist on). Be strong! it pays off with consistent whole class behaviour.
You’ll also need to decide with your class how they can achieve their goal.
Whole-class required behaviours
What behaviours are you looking from the whole class?
You might discuss with them to achieve steps forward, they’ need to:
- walk to and from other classrooms quietly as a whole class
- work well together for other teachers when you are not there
- work well as a whole class in assessment time or reading rotations
- when you use an attention-getter, the whole class needs to stop and be attentive altogether
- work well in group-work activities
- Anything they do together as a class
Just have these decided beforehand and make sure your students are aware of how they can achieve their whole class goals.
Whole-class strategies for your classroom rewards system
There is a great variety of strategies you can use to implement your whole class rewards, so I’ll list a few ideas for you:
- Marbles in the jar – this is my favourite and is achieved by adding marbles to a jar, as great whole class behaviours are observed. When the jar is full, a reward is then issued. I give them approximately 5 weeks to complete this.
- Mr Potato Head – similar to the marbles, Mr Potato Head starts off with no features. As the whole-class behaviours are achieved, the teacher adds a piece to his body. A fun and visual way for students to see their progressive results. When Mr Potato Head has all of his parts, they achieve their reward
- Monkeys in the Barrel – Use the old game pieces to show the progression of the class goal. As behaviours are observed, add a monkey piece by hanging each of them from the other. This can be set up from a fixed point in the room (maybe the top of a door or ceiling).
Once your class has achieved its goal, you can jointly discuss what their prize will be.
We discuss these outcomes in our regular class meetings and we’ll be quite democratic about the whole process. The chosen reward is then worked into the term.
Ideas for Whole-Class Incentives for Meeting a Group Goal
Having fun rewards for students to work towards can help students encourage one another to make positive choices and create an overall positive classroom culture. Some examples include:
- Class parties (dance party, pizza party, etc.)
- A movie and popcorn session
- Board games
- Pyjama days
- Crazy hair day
- Time on the school playground equipment
- Outside games afternoon of their choice e.g. softball, capture the flag, soccer, games on the tennis court, etc.
All these are at the discretion of you as their teacher.
A Classroom Rewards System Helps Create Clear Expectations and Positive Reinforcement
At the end of the day, classroom rewards are an effective behavior management system. They’re a great way of giving students an active hand in creating the classroom expectations, both with individual rewards and a whole class reward system.
By having varied and flexible ways to reward good behavior, your entire class will stay engaged throughout the school year. When using anything from point systems to token reinforcers, you help students meet their behavior goal and save yourself lots of frustration.
While having a class-wide reward system or individual rewards can take some planning and a bit of classroom budget (in some cases), the effort will be worth the outcome!
PIN IT FOR LATER!
Michelle x
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