Rewards or Treasure

http://mattbgomez.com/i-lied-we-do-have-treasure/

For the first half of the year we ran a sticker chart system.  Children were rewarded...when noticed...often the naughty ones who were towing the line.  Neither of us felt that we were doing the system justice.  Was it making a difference? How were we managing to cater for all our kids, including the ones who never caused problems?

Then we came across this post above regarding treasure.  What really is valuable to the children in terms of reward?  In light of our NZ Curriculum key competencies, are we not better to encourage intrinsic reward?

So we sat the kids down and had a frank and open discussion.  When we asked the children who felt they had missed out, lots of hands went up.

We introduced the treasure chest.  As in the post above, our kids had lots of ideas of what should be in the chest.  We asked what the children felt they needed for their learning...stickers, rubbers, pencils, lollies...it was what we had expected.  For a whole 36 hours the children had to wait to see what was in the chest.  Anticipation grew very quickly. They were very excited.

Once we opened the chest and they discovered there was nothing inside, their faces dropped. They truly felt cheated.

But then the real discussion began...and they got it!  The real treasure lies in the affirmations/comments we get from each other.