It is BACK TO SCHOOL time. I keep reading stats lately that the average dollar amount spent on the back-to-school list is upwards of $600 -yikes-! Once all those lunch boxes and reusable water bottles are purchased, parents everywhere have to make tough choices about what to fill those little tummies with for lunch and snacks 5 days a week.
I’ve personally been trying to convince my little one that sugar is really not so great for the body. She lives an active lifestyle, dancing 6 days a week, about 2 hours a day. Sustaining energy throughout a 7 hour school day and 2 more hours of dancing is a tough thing for a growing body to do. I have met with LOTS of resistance! While I continue to fight the good fight I can’t help but think how great it would be if the same attitude would be embraced at school. I came across this fantastic blog post at 100 Days of Real Food with brilliant ideas for alternatives to the typical party-time, sugar-filled rewards. Read the whole post here.
Group/Class Rewards
- Extra playground time
- Pick different seats to sit in for a day
- Teacher wearing a silly outfit or hat (let the class decide…one reader even said a teacher wore her wedding dress to school!)
- Afternoon movie (as an individual reward one student could be allowed to select and bring in the movie for the class)
- Lunch in the classroom
- Dress up days…let the class vote!
- Pajama day (can also incorporate sleeping bags/blankets)
- Crazy hair day
- Farmer day
- Stuffed animal day
- Backward day (wear clothes backward and even follow the class schedule backward!)
- Camp out day (kids bring sleeping bags and teacher brings a tent)
- Hat day
- Book swap party (each child brings a book they no longer want and “trades” with their classmates)
- An art or craft party
- A game the class plays together (like bingo or kickball)
- If it’s warm outside…water play in bathing suits
- Plant some flowers or plants together at the school
- Paint birdhouses together to put up at the school
- Dance party with music
- Film a short digital video/documentary as a class (for e.g. each student answers a question for the camera) then watches it together afterward
Individual Rewards
- Lunch or recess time with the principal
- Books donated to the school library in the student’s honor with a guest reader to read them to the class
- Extra computer time
- Go to “specials” (like gym or Spanish class) with a friend’s class instead of your own
- Sit with a friend from another class at lunch
- Gift certificate to the school store
- Lunch with the teacher
- Sit in the teacher’s chair or at their desk for the day
- Use a rolling chair/stool at your own desk for the day
- Sit next to a friend instead of in your own seat for the day
- Be the “special helper” for the day (running errands to the office, line leader, etc.)
- Name read over morning announcements
- Student asked to actually read the morning announcements
- Choose the story for story time
- Let a student be the “principal for the day” or the “assistant principal for the day” or even “teacher for the day” (or just for an assignment)
- “Stinky feet” which means you get to take your shoes off in class
- Pick something out of a treasure box with prizes like stickers, pencils, erasers toothbrushes, silly bands, etc.
- Give out “play money” to students that they can spend in a class-wide auction later in the year (auction items can include games, books, etc. and be donated by parents)
- If students wear uniforms a “no uniform for the day” pass
- “Family night” bags that kids get to borrow from the teacher for the evening including “lego night” and “movie night”
School Fundraisers
- Principal can be duct taped to the wall (our school actually did this last year – students had to buy pieces of tape)
- Principal can kiss a pig in front of the school if a certain amount of money is raised (another example that really happened at a reader’s school)
- “Teacher car wash” where kids can “buy” buckets of water and wet sponges that they can throw on teachers in car pool line
Birthday Celebrations
- Class makes fruit smoothies together
- Small goodie bags with stickers/activities given out to classmates
- Each kid is given supplies to a make small craft together
- Birthday card(s) made by the other students
- Popcorn birthday parties (popcorn is a whole-grain food) served in “popcorn cones” that the kids make themselves out of paper
- New book donated to class library by birthday student with their parent as the guest reader
Thanks for being here,
Glamour Owl 