Incentive Banners

Today I'm linking up again with Head Over Heels for Teaching to 

share another thing I do in my classroom.  

Incentive Banners!

I love them.  They are fun, exciting, and they work!  

I used to just draw the dashes on the board to spell out a treat - but then I would usually forget what I was spelling, or I would accidentally erase it and have to start all over again... so this year I decided to make some sayings/words/phrases up for my students to spell.  

So far this year my students have spelled "Be Merry" from Tara's banner in December.

Then we spelled out "Snowman" in January.

After that we spelled out "Dream" for Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday. 

Then we spelled out "Love Bug" for February.

For March we spelled out "Easter Egg".

Coming back from Easter I was so into Test Prep that I didn't even realize I didn't have another word to spell until one of my sweet kiddos asked me the other day what our next word would be... and I automatically said "Popsicle".  I guess I really wanted a popsicle at that moment since my air conditioning wasn't working very well and it just seemed rather refreshing... so because of my promise to my student that was the next banner I made up.

Now, just because I'm putting a sweet treat on the banner does not mean that I'm going to give them sugar when they spell it out.  In the past times the class has earned class tickets, a homework pass, new pencils, or a little extra PAT on Friday.  Something that doesn't cost me anything out of pocket - but they still want it!

I have seen how incentive banners motivate my unruly, hyped up children, and I wanted to share the love.  Call it a I'm-so-happy-I'm-done-with-testing present.  It's a freebie in my store!

With all my banners I make the circles 2 sizes - a smaller size that fits 2 letters per sheet, and also a larger one letter per sheet.  The smaller size works great to put at the top of my whiteboard when I'm spelling out the words/phrases, the larger one I sometimes use on my door for decoration or on a bulletin board for a craft & writing project.

I hope this helps someone!