Motivating and Recognizing Students Part 2!

I already shared my first idea for motivating and recognizing your students in 2013 earlier this month. In case you missed it, you can click here to read all about Brag Tags. Today I’m back with another idea… incentive bracelets!

Like I said before, of course I prefer intrinsic (and free, haha!) motivation, but it’s still fun to get “stuff” too. It just feels good to get a present, especially when it’s unexpected because you did the right thing anyway. The students are so proud of themselves when I reward them and they have something concrete to take home when they tell mom or dad about their day. It’s a win-win.

That’s why my first pick today are these “Caught Being Good“ bands. We recognize life skills at our school and students can be recognized on the announcements each Friday for being responsible, showing cooperation, etc. I’m just always looking for someone who does a little something extra when they don’t think I’m watching. The students get their pictures taken and added to our “super hero” board by the office, but now they can also get these fun bands from me. They also have specific bands (I was caught being respectful, I was caught being caring, etc.).

I also ordered neon “Happy Birthday” bands. I’ve done a bunch of different things for birthdays over the years from pencils to homework coupons to wearing a fun birthday ribbon for the day and sitting in a special chair. When I saw these neon bands, I knew they’d be great for part of next year’s goodie bags. They’re embossed with happy birthday and not printed with ink, but it still shows up really well. I kind of want to keep a pink one for myself. 😉

same style bands, in spite of the picture

Finally, the last thing I picked up were “Star Student” bands. Each of my students have a Star Student Card where I punch out stars for catching them being good. Sometimes I reward the whole class with a punch for beating the timer during transitions or doing an outstanding job in reading groups. Other times I reward individual students for being especially helpful (like picking up junk on the floor that wasn’t even theirs). Students are rewarded for every five stars, with each prize getting gradually bigger until they fill the card up at 20 stars. Then they start over. Students who complete 3 out of 4 cards for the year get to have a pizza party with me during the last week of school. To help them keep track of full cards, I’m going to pass out these star student bands.

Hopefully that gives you a few more easy (and pretty cheap) ways to motivate your students just a little more this year. I found all of these at MPM School Supplies. It was a new site to me and some of the pictures weren’t the greatest, but shipping was super fast and the products were really nice. Right now you can get 10% off your first 10 orders with them by using this link just for readers of Ms. Fultz’s Corner.