Fornits
General Interest => Open Free for All => Topic started by: nimdA on May 16, 2007, 01:24:47 AM
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I give my kindergarten students candy sometimes. I try to avoid that out of fear of being the one that gives them a mouth full of cavities. Other prizes I give out is stickers, but after awhile that gets old.
Any ideas that won't cost me an arm and a leg?
Bear in mind this is for the handwriting improvement effort I've been working with the kids on. So far they've improved dramatically.
I'd like to encourage them further with something new, but not expensive either.
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Believe it or not, "time with teacher." When you're in a class of 15-20, five minutes of individual undivided attention from your teacher is a prize bar none.
When my son was in Kindergarten, the teacher would use this as a reward for good behavior from him. He would have to earn a certain number of points to get it. Points could be accrued at certain key events of the day, ones that were generally guaranteed to elicit class disruptive actions on his part. It worked for a while. Long enough for him to grow up a bit and grow out of it, to a degree.
Now that he is in First Grade, they use other reward type of incentives, not just for him, of course. Being the kid selected for Show And Tell, e.g., something from their home life, personal interests, something they've learned that others may not know, a favorite toy or an interesting piece of money or something that really belongs to a parent but is far out, to them.
In Afterschool, my son has initiated something called Putting On a Play. Just one kid, or maybe a few, put on a "play" that they write... They dress up or use puppets, or all of the above, whatever works. They "write" the skits, a lot of it is ad lib, but usually the basic premise is agreed on beforehand by the kids themselves... Kind of ad hoc, kind of sloppy, probably not a whole lot makes sense to adults accustomed to bona fide theatrical productions but great great fun for the kids. Plus it is an excellent vehicle for learning about being in the spotlight, being a good listener, and taking turns. Sometimes signs are used: "The End," "It is nighttime" (everyone is asleep), "The next day," etc. Note that these are ~15 minute "productions" and there isn't really any rehearsal.
Not sure this helps, actually I kind of doubt that it does, but maybe it'll tweak your imagination to get out of the candy rut... :lol:
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With kids that little let one or 2 of them be your special helper in some way for 5 minutes at the end. They can be responsible for something minor like gathering materials or emptying the bin.
Also while somewhat archaic bring back the concept of the merit book. it rewards outstanding effort
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I agree with 'time'.
Special responsibilities like erasing the chalk board?
In addition, how about a special hat or pin they could wear for achievement?
Pencils?
Sitting in 'the seat of honor' for a day?
And of course, don't underestimate verbal praise. Kids just suck it up.
You sound like a great teacher!
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Problem here that I face is a language barrier. None of these kids speak English well enough for them to understand that some of these ideas in fact are rewards.
In the Korean kindergarten culture time with teacher may well come across as favoritism to one student and land me in a deluge of complaints. In fact I'm almost sure that would be the case. Many times I've been pulled aside and told that Little Min Gi must get more attention because his mother complained that I'm not spending enough time with him, or that I must change entire class to suit the desires of one student's mother. Blah blah blah.. it won't be a problem next year as I'm looking to get employed as a public school teacher rather than a private academy teacher. Korean Public schools deal with complaints of this nature very diplomatically.
They simply just ignore them.
I think I'll go with the pencils. Might have one of my mates who lives on base get me a few bucks worth of pennies. The kids would probably go ape shit over something like a penny as a reward.
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How did the note passing work out?
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pencils, erasers, little dollar store trinkets that dont cost a billion million dollars. glitter pens, flourescent pens, coloring pages (printouts on the internet), cheapo coloring books (get these to rip the pages out etc. little hotwheels toys (the cheapo dollar store kind)
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get a goldfish and put it in front of the room. for their prize, let them feed it. tell them a good class=fat goldfish.
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How do you teach kids if you don't speak the same language?
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get a goldfish and put it in front of the room. for their prize, let them feed it. tell them a good class=fat goldfish.
:rofl: I can see it now! "Alright, you little buggers! Everybody gets at least 90% or the fish goes hungry. You little bastards better get it right this time. I goldfish can only go so many days w/o fly flakes and he's looking pretty damned sorry already! Now, pencils up! Let's begin...."
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Dont go with the fish idea. My year 2 class had that with a turtle. The best behaved child got to take it home on the occasional weekend. I got to take it home once and it died. I was inconsolable .
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How did the note passing work out?
I used my own cell phone and we ended up playing a sentence writing game that involved sending each other the best written text message.
I never did it again after getting a text message from a student at 3 in the morning.
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Dont go with the fish idea. My year 2 class had that with a turtle. The best behaved child got to take it home on the occasional weekend. I got to take it home once and it died. I was inconsolable .
Also this is Korea. For all I know I might be sending home sunday dinner.
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get a goldfish and put it in front of the room. for their prize, let them feed it. tell them a good class=fat goldfish.
:rofl: I can see it now! "Alright, you little buggers! Everybody gets at least 90% or the fish goes hungry. You little bastards better get it right this time. I goldfish can only go so many days w/o fly flakes and he's looking pretty damned sorry already! Now, pencils up! Let's begin...."
Ginger you know me so well. :rofl:
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How do you teach kids if you don't speak the same language?
Very patiently.
Younger kindergarten kids pick up a new language quicker than my older students.
Seriously if you want your children to start learning a 2nd or 3rd language start them at it around 5 or 6 years old.
So mainly its alot of whole word learning with some phonics thrown in for good measure.
When they get older I try to broaden their vocabulary and get them to attempt to break away from the set structure of their textbooks to use the English they already know in a creative fashion.
I do this in a variety of manners using free writing activities or various games.
so far
pennies
pencils
glitter pens
colouring books and printouts
some other good suggestions.
I'm going to forgo the turtle or fish. Partly because my contract is finishing in a couple of months and I'd hate to foist something like that onto someone else.
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Dont go with the fish idea. My year 2 class had that with a turtle. The best behaved child got to take it home on the occasional weekend. I got to take it home once and it died. I was inconsolable .
Also this is Korea. For all I know I might be sending home sunday dinner.
Dinner? Naw.... Fishy will be fried and included in that kid's lunch bag the next day, along with a note from the Mom thanking you for the little tidbit.
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Give them drugs. I hear kids like drugs.
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Nah I rarely accept food gifts and my students know it. Instead I get all sorts of wierd presents ranging from socks to gift sets of ornate soap. Most of the stuff I have absolutely no use for so I tend to just save it up and give it away to my friends that can use it. Likewise they save up their presents and have a useless gift swap. I got a gift pack of Spam in exchange for 5 pairs of socks and a gift box of Soju (rice wine that tastes like furniture polish hence my refusal to drink the vile crap).
The 10 cans of spam are still sitting in the corner of my closet in the event of a north korean attack. I figure I might be able to fend them off by throwing it at them.
Have to say though the day one of my 2nd grade students brought me the rice wine was a memorable one. My boss just about flipped out and ran around the building screaming. I'm not sure if he was pissed about the student bringing booze to school or pissed that he didn't get some also.
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@TSW~
Spam? Gross.
My grandfather was a WW2 Vet ... they fed him spam 3 times a day for YEARS. Until the day he died he forbid my grandmother from purchasing, preparing or even speaking about SPAM.
I cracked up about your comments concerning SPAM as a weapon. My grandfather would have concurred ... believing it was killing him.
:)
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Spam is the escargo of Korea. :cry2: