Accelerated Reader Rewards

Need help motivating your students to read and take Accelerated Reader tests?  These rewards and reward cards do that!  By using this reward system many students will have at least 100 points by the time the school year ends!  By using this reward system my first graders will read no less than 200 books during the school year!  And we all know that the more a child reads the better they get at it!

The Accelerated Reader Rewards include:

5 points = Bookmark

10 points = Candy

15 points = Pencil

1^st Nine Weeks Goal & 85% Comprehension Score = Invitation to Coke and Extra Recess Party

20 points = Pick from the Treasure Chest

25 points = Free Computer Lab Pass

35 points = Bracelet

50 points = Free Homework Pass

2^nd Nine Weeks Goal & 85% Comprehension Score = Invitation to Hot Chocolate and Extra Recess Party

65 points = Water Bottle

75 points = AR T-Shirt

3^rd Nine Weeks Goal & 85% Comprehension Score = Invitation to Popsicle and Extra Recess Party

85 points = Eat with Teacher on Last Day of School!

100 points = Crown

4^th Nine Weeks Goal & 85% Comprehension Score = Invitation to Pizza and Extra Recess Party

200 points = Super Reader Wal-Mart Gift Card

Here are some pictures of the reward cards:

Click Here to Download


Money, Money, Money!

I have had a lot of questions from teachers asking me if I have to spend my own money to furnish these AR prizes for my students.  Well the answer is I have actually done it both ways.   In the past I had to buy all the prizes I gave out 100% out of my pocket.  The last couple of years our school’s PTA is giving each teacher $100 dollars for their AR prizes. I will give you a breakdown on how I get away with spending the least amount of money on these prizes.  It’s just some frugal tips I have learned over the years.

First off there are prizes on the list that will cost you NOTHING out of your pocket such as the free computer lab pass, free homework pass, extra recess, and eat with teacher prizes.  Even though they cost nothing out of pocket these prizes are usually the ones the students get the most excited about!

Now for the bookmarks, pencils, bracelets, and crowns I purchase them from the Oriental Trading website.  I can usually find great deals in that catalog or online.  I always look for which items I get the most of for the least amount of money.  I purchase all these together because they usually offer a promotion where if you spend a certain amount of money you get free shipping.

The candy and treasure chest gift are really easy gifts to give out.  I always have candy in my candy jar and I have my treasure chest stocked and ready to go at all times.

I have different frugal tips on each of the goal parties.  For the coke party I just buy a couple different 2-liters and the students get one cup full of coke.  For the hot chocolate party I buy a can of hot chocolate mix and combine it with water in my crockpot.  Each student gets one cup full of hot chocolate.  The popsicles I buy for the popsicle party are the super cheap popsicles where you just cut the top off of them.  Finally, for the pizza party each student will get a slice of pizza.  The pizza treat is more like a snack instead of a meal.  I buy the 5 dollar pizza from Little Caesars and have them cut the pizza into 10 slices instead of 8.  Usually the students are so excited about the extra recess they get with each party, that they scarf their treat down and then go outside and play.  J

Finally, the most expensive items are the water bottles and gift cards.  I have found the water bottles for a dollar each the past couple years at Target in their dollar section.  I can usually only buy them at the beginning of a new school year. 
I usually don’t have many Wal-mart gift cards to give out – and those that I do give out only have 5 dollars on them.  

Our PTA has always given out AR t-shirts to students at our school – so this is something that they provide for me.  But if you don’t have a PTA that supports your classroom – you could always have each student bring an old white t-shirt to school and everyone could paint and decorate them together.  The students would totally love that!  

It does seem like a lot of prizes – and it’s totally supposed to for the kids - but it ends up not being too hard on the wallet and such a great motivator for the students to read!