Ideas For Non-food Items To Use As Rewards.

[jmj0803]

Hello all-

I need to pick the brains of all you celiacs out there. I just came from a school PTO meeting and the topic of taking the food out of the curriculum came up. Our principal asked for ideas for non-food items as rewards. The rewards would be for the following.(The age level here is K-2nd grade Early Elementary)

-Alternate for a pizza party for the class who has the highest attendance at a school sponsored function.

-We currently have a Domino's pizza night every month at the school. Domino's has agreed to give our school one dollor for every pizza ordered on that night. The classroom with the most orders for that month gets a pizza party. (The school has raised $760.00 to date for the year from this fundraiser).

-Alternate for a party to celebrate a holiday or occassion.

-Individual rewards from the teacher instead of candy/food.

-BIRTHDAYS

Throughout the year classrooms are rewarded with ice cream parties,pizza parties,barbecues you get the picture. If we could come up with several alternatives, that are appealing to 5,6,7 and 8 year olds it would be a great start or addition to what the other PTO moms might come up with.

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!!

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Roller/Ice Skating parties were always fun when I was in grade school.

[tarnalberry]

Small stuffed animals?

Maybe a craft party?

A bring-your-own-lunch day in the park?

Video game parties? ;-)

[angel-jd1]

*Rollerskating

*Movies

*extra recess (over the intercom announce that 2nd grade has done such an awesome job this week that they are needed outside for a free recess, the PTO then supervises the recess which gives teachers an extra break too for being so great)

*dance (play tons of music and let the kids dance, they LOVE it, especially seeing the teachers and principal get down with them)

*Halloween we did a march to be drug free, they dressed up in their halloween costumes and we marched around the block of the school, parents came out to watch the parade

*Visit a nursing home and do crafts with the older folks, they would both enjoy that.

*Petting Zoo

Individual rewards could include:

Vouchers/coupons for free/extra computer time

coupon for extra recess time

treasure chest filled with school spirit items (tshirts, pencils, notepads, stickers, stamps, visors, hats, etc)

we had a program called "caught ya being good" teachers, paraprofessionals, or any other adult in the school could catch the child doing a good deed, or extra hard work in the classroom and turn their name in on a slip to the office. At the end of the day the child's name was read along with the encouraging words of the adult, the child could go to the office and pick out a small prize. The parents were also called and told their child was "caught being good".

-Jessica

[jmj0803]

GREAT IDEAS!!!! Keep them coming!

[plantime]

Ditto what everyone else said! It is good to see that your school is at least looking at alternatives to food for parties and rewards!

[Canadian Karen]

Movie Day in the gym. My kid's school does the whole nine yards, usually for a fundraiser. They sell hotdogs, popcorn, drinks etc. to raise money.

Karen

[Ruth]

My daughter's class (3rd grade) does "ticket/treasure/candy"

The tickets are saved up for larger items (use the teachers chair for a day, no homework pass, bring a stuffed animal to school for a day, etc.) the treasures are small items like erasers, stickers, pencils, etc. and the candy has lots of gluten-free and nut free items... smarties, rolos, tootsie rolls.

Also, local ice cream parlors do the coupon fundraisers... most are gluten-free.

Extra recess is a favorite for my son's 1st grade class as an incentive.

[tpineo]

Coupons for free video rentals at the local video store. Tania Greenville, PA