Motivation Bracelets- Rewards!!

Are you there yet in the year?

The place where you are practically on your knees, begging the students to just make it a few more days!!

"Just hang in there!"

"Once we get everything done, I promise we'll do some really fun stuff!!"

Yeah.  I'm there. Totally there.  On the knees and everything.

We have 6 more days.

Today we had Career Day.  Parents from the community came and spoke about their jobs.

The kids were expected (from administration, not me!!!) to take notes on each speaker (there were 4).  Then, they had to write 2 paragraphs about their favorite speaker.

I promise you, this did not go over well with my cuties.

At all.

So, when I start collecting their 2 paragraphs, I see that most had written about 3 sentences.  Incomplete sentences, that is.  They have given up.  They're done.  Toast.  Probably burnt toast.

So, I do my half hearted, "This really is unacceptable for an almost 5th grader to turn this in as 2 paragraphs, when it's not really even one!" but my heart's not in it because I don't really blame them.

So, instead, this pin popped into my head:

I knew when I pinned it this weekend that I wanted to make bracelets for them, but I wasn't sure if they'd really work for my 4th graders.  But, I tried it anyway, because, really, why not??  The worst they could do is say they didn't want it.

(You need to click on the picture above and go to KindergartenWorks and then click and go to THEIR freebie because it's great AND it tells you how to make the gluey stuff you need for the bracelets to stick!  How cool is that??)

So, I read all of their papers about Career Day and ended up picking about 10 kids that mostly followed directions to give the bracelet to.  I picked a lot because I wanted a lot to feel the thrill of it being successful. Now, seriously, when I did this this afternoon, I really wasn't sure how it was going to go.  I just knew I was aggravated that they had totally given up on school, yet I have three more assessments they are working on that they need to do well on.  So, at this point, I'll try anything!

So, I explain my reasoning behind these bracelets:

I told them that there were some students that did follow the directions for the Career Day writing, and since they did, they are my hero.  So, I was going to give them a superhero bracelet that they could show to their parents as proof that they were my hero today for doing the RIGHT THING!

So, what was their reaction?  They were on the edges of their seats.

I call the first name.  There's applause.

(I'm thinking...wow...really??  So I compliment them on being so supportive of one another and clapping for their fellow peers.)

I call more names.  More excited applause.

I tell them I have called all the names.  Disappointed faces.

Hook.

Line.

Sinker.

They totally took the bait.  So, I explained that I will be making more bracelets for other random heroes I find throughout the day, a math hero, a reading hero, an organized hero, a friendly hero, etc., etc.  And will give them out at any point in time.  They'll never know.  Because heroes are everywhere, right?

Now, for these bracelets, they were only paper.  I didn't have time to do all that I wanted to in such a quick turn around.  BUT, here's how I'm planning on doing it.

I will print them in color and laminate them.  Then cut them.  I will find a fun way to organize them.  I will hand them out at random (because it's fun that way).

What I did was staple it once I had wrapped it around their arm.  I told them that they could take it home, show their parents, then use it as a bookmark.  If I had laminated them, it would have been way better, but again...time was an issue today...

Here are my Writing Superheroes!!

I am going to make more bracelets when I have a spare moment and load them to TpT and share them with YOU so you can try them if you would like to!  I'll probably share it for a Friday freebie!  Be on the look out this week!  (**Updated- check this post HERE for the bracelets.)

I've thought about putting a parent signature on the back (printed) so they have to get it signed for those students that would NOT be motivated by this at first.  The reason being, some of the students in Stacia's class didn't feel the bracelet was enough to motivate them.  But, I think that if they had to show their parents that they earned something GOOD then maybe it would eventually lead them to WANT the bracelet because their parents would be excited they are NOT IN TROUBLE ALL THE TIME!  But I don't know.  It just depends on how the parents would react (or wouldn't).  What do you think??

I'm linking this up with two of my sweet blogging peeps:

Holly for Tried it Tuesday because I tried it today.

And Joanne for:

for Sparking Student Motivation, even if it's not Saturday!

So, what do you think?  How do you like our bracelets?  Will YOU try it??  (I mean....after I get my act together and finish making them for you?)

Amanda