Awesome Reward Erasers and Pencils, and Star Stickers

I finally found perfect prizes for my pupils who got perfect scores in our Spelling Activity last week!

Reward stars, erasers, and pencils!

We started doing something new in Kindergarten Senior Class last week! A list of words was posted on each child's handbook for their parents to see. They were to help their children read the words and practice spelling them. At the end of the week, we had a spelling exercise. I dictated each word for the children to write. Spelling exercises help children practice the skill of recognizing the sounds of letters and associating them with the printed letters.

I felt so happy last Friday that there were some who got perfect scores! I was excited to shop for prizes for them, but couldn't make up my mind what to buy specifically. Thank God, I found cool items a while ago: erasers and pencils with prints of affirmation, and buy 1 take 1 star stickers! The pencils and erasers are perfect items to give away to my pupils, since they have been doing a lot of writing and erasing lately. :) And oh, the stars, I won't forget of course. I will stick a star on the child's handbook for his/her parents to see. :) I'm sure the parents' efforts would get paid off once they see the shining star.

On Rewards

Giving rewards is a means of positive reinforcement. In my case, I give rewards to motivate my pupils to excel, and to desire to learn. Am I achieving my goal?

When I told my pupils last Friday that those who would get perfect scores in the Spelling Exercise would get prizes from me, I observed that most of them felt both excited and challenged. They kept asking what the prize would be. I told them it's a surprise. After the exercise, one of my pupils approached me.

Pupil: Teacher, what's the surprise?
Me: You'll see on Monday.
Pupil: Teacher, let's do the spelling quiz again!

It seemed that he knew that he was not able to perfect the exercise and wanted to do it again in order to get a prize! It was as if he wanted to tell me, "Let's do the spelling quiz again and this time I would really give my best."

Is giving rewards really effective for children to be motivated to give their best? Will it help encourage children to desire to learn? Thinking... ;)