The Many Roads to the Treasure Box

Prizes and Candy. Prizes and Candy. Seems like all the kids ever want are prizes and candy.

My first year as an SLP I gave out a lot of candy...and I mean A LOT of candy. My husband, who happens to be a dentist, had to have an intervention in the aisle of Sam's Club to avoid buying another mega-pack of chocolate bars.

I've gone through a few different prize systems that looked a little like this:

First system: the kids all had Speech Passports. The Passports had pages inside where the kids got a stamp each day they attended speech. That worked well for little awhile. However, at times it became a hassle to find the ink, stamp their book, and send them on their way without being late for my next group.

Next, I switched over to dealing out Shine Tickets. The kids had to earn Shine Tickets throughout the month and during the last week of the month we had a raffle. More shine tickets = Better chance to win.  I'll admit the raffle was a little rigged to ensure every kid got a chance to "win"... :)

Then, we switched to a sticker chart. One big chart where they earned stickers all year long. 10 stickers = prize.

My new system is based on a punchcard. The kids have to earn 10 punches on their card to get a prize. It looks a little like this:

And they hang on the back of the door like this:

I introduced them with the multiple meaning word: punch. Many different kinds of punches! And the punches, or holes, are nice and hidden in those pockets, so they aren't distracting during our group time. So far so good!

And when prize day finally comes, here is my giant treasure box the kids get to pick out of. I keep it locked and we have to use the key to get inside. Here it is:

I spy only a little bit of candy...

 
Instead of prizes & candy, maybe some day they'll be asking for /r/ sounds and pronouns, /r/ sounds and pronouns. Ha, right...

Thanks for visiting!

~Mrs. Ludwig