Today, Ms. Jenn Ed and I held our very first lunch bunch rewards party.
Tired of too many kids not doing their homework, we made a big announcement at the beginning of this six weeks period. We wrote all 41 of our kids' names on whiteboards, and told them that every time someone didn't hand in their homework when it was due, their name would be erased from the board. We told them that after three weeks, whoever's name was still on the board would get to come to a very special lunch bunch with their teachers. There would be ice cream, juice boxes, Turkish delight (no wait, that's Narnia).
We kind of figured that at the end of three weeks, there wouldn't be that many kids left on the board. However, we also figured that if we really pulled out all the stops and made this first lunch bunch truly legendary, that the kids involved would go back and hype it up to the other kids, and that we might have a lot more homework being turned in after that.
That last supposition remains to be seen. But the lunch bunch today seemed to be a success. There were 11 kids (yes, out of 41). Those kids got to bring their lunch back to my room, where we gave them chips, candy, juice boxes, and ice cream. We ate with the kids and joked around with them.
I had made up a Christmas-themed CD for us to listen to. Interestingly enough, the song that really fired the kids up was Feliz Navidad (I want to wish you a Merry Christmas). I started singing "I want to wish ____a Merry Christmas," inserting the names of some of the kids in the room, and much hilarity ensued.
Now will just have to see how this success translates to the other kids turning their homework in.
Maybe we'll have 12 kids next time...
3 comments:
11/41 ... That's just pitiful!
Sounds like it was fun - let's hope it works to motivate some of the others. Wouldn't fly in my school district - would bring down the wrath of the administrators as contravening our health and wellness policy :-(
We did something similar for meeting reading goals using Accelerated Reader and each nine weeks our numbers got better and we also began to notice the enjoyment of of reading increased. By the end of the year only 3 students were not able to participate in the reward, reading levels when up and up, and once the kids moved up their desire for reading independently remained.
It will be interesting to see how this works out for you.
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