You can motivate your pupils to meet their weekly and monthly reading targets by providing a small incentive or reward. Here are a few of our top suggestions.
- Distribute Bookmarks. Bookmarks encourage a love of reading, and Pinterest has many free patterns available.
- Schedule Game Time. Set aside 15 or 20 minutes for your pupils to play games weekly in class. Bring in new board games every week, and anybody who completes their weekly reading target is eligible to participate.
- Host a Popcorn Gathering. Delicious, affordable, and nutritious. Need we say more?
- Play Audiobooks. Have your learners vote on the audiobook they wish to listen to, and once they reach their reading target, give them time each day to do so.
- Permit Gum Chewing for One Day. Gum is a particularly enticing reward for children because it is typically forbidden in school.
- Go Hiking Outside. Reading time is perfectly balanced by some physical activity. Take a stroll around your school or community to mark a reading achievement.
- Establish a Lending Library for Classrooms. This is an excellent method to encourage readers to read more. Ask your students, parents, and friends for donations of grade-appropriate books. Students may visit the lending library (or the “readbox” in this brilliant example) to select a new book if they have met specific reading objectives.
- Prepare Smoothies. A tasty, healthy way to celebrate reaching a reading goal is at a smoothie bar where you can create your blends.
- Assemble a Treasure Chest for the Classroom. Pencils, stickers, and tattoos are common treasure chest fillers. You can also request donations from parents.
- View YouTube Book Trailers. Invite children to watch book trailers on YouTube to find their next read once they finish a book.
- Issue Homework Exemptions. Give children a day off from homework if they reach a reading target. Extra time to read!
- Begin a New Read-Aloud Selection. As a reward for their accomplishment, let your students decide which book they should read aloud next.
- Hand Out the Class Tickets. You can use a class store for reading, although many teachers use it as a technique for managing conduct. Give pupils tickets for books they read so they can exchange them for rewards later (such as inexpensive Book Fair titles).
- Share a Meal with the Instructor. This can be done as a small-group prize or as an individual award for a huge goal. Allow kids to join you for lunch in the classroom or sit at their table in the dining hall.
- Dine Out with a Buddy. Set aside a day so kids can invite a relative or friend to join them for lunch whenever they achieve a specific goal.
- Make a Data Wall. Although data walls are debatable, some students want public acknowledgment. We also prefer data walls, like the Fluency Graph below, highlighting group progress rather than student development in isolation.
- Pay Attention to a Read-Aloud Online. Many fantastic picture books can be read aloud on Storyline Online, and Just Books Read Aloud websites, which greatly reward achieving a reading goal.
- Have a Special Time for Shows and Tells. Use this to encourage all of your students to read. They can bring something from home and share it with their peers if they achieve a particular objective.
- Watch a Film That is Based on a Book. Select a book made into a movie, and you may watch the film together when your pupils have read it (or you have read it as a class.
- Make Today Pajama Day. Even if watching a movie while wearing pajamas is lovely, it is even better.
- Give Them More Time in the Gym. Again, exercise is a fantastic complement to reading.
- Make Personalized Bookbags. Your pupils will enjoy making their very own unique book bags. One of our favorites among the countless ideas on Pinterest is the chalkboard paint bag.
- Establish a Book Buddy Bin. Sharing a book with a friend is always more enjoyable, especially if they are soft and cuddly.
- Host a Dance Event. While not everyone needs to dance, youngsters will enjoy creating a playlist to listen to in the afternoon. Make voting for the songs a collaborative exercise where students submit their suggestions. They can listen to them while finishing their homework.
- Construct Root Beer Floats. Invite your readers to participate in some relevant how-to writing after throwing a root beer float party in their honor!
- Hold the Lesson Outside. If students achieve their reading objectives as the weather begins to warm up, suggest holding your subsequent reading class outside.
- Try Some Apples in the Classroom. Purchase different apple varieties, and let your pupils choose their favorites while enjoying a healthy snack.
- Make a Dress-Up Offer. This one should now receive the highest honor. If your students reach their lofty goal, offer to let them dress whichever they like. You might have to put on banana-themed clothing for the day. Or maybe they get to shoot Silly String at you. Make a good impression!
