Today’s Spotlight guest post comes from the brilliant Laura from All Y’all Need.  If you haven’t checked out her blog, please do. She has some wonderful ideas and great products!  Check out the links at the bottom of this page.

More of Smelly Incentives

Hi! This is Laura from All Y’all Need. I am so excited to be helping out Maria while she takes care of her new baby! All Y’all Need is a group effort. It’s me, an SLP, my librarian sister, and my Kg teacher cousin. They have taught me many things, and I’m here to share one about REWARDS!

Back in 2013, I wrote about smelly incentives, or how I was using scented lip gloss as a reinforcer. I was just trying out that system, and while it was largely successful, one group had still stumped me.

I’m still using lip gloss. The students who need frequent reinforcement (such as every minute or so) get little dabs frequently. Most students get a smiley face at the end of the session – two dots for the eyes of the smiley face and a longer streak for a smile. Because they don’t get “smellies” anywhere else at school, students generally work pretty hard!

Some of the self-contained students like the smellies but need something to actually look at. Those students get Scentos marker dots.

And the large 1st-grade group that had me searching for something else? Well, most of them have mastered their goals and moved on! But I did learn to stock up on some old-school rewards that worked pretty well. These included:

* consistent use of the magic talking stick – only the person holding the stick can talk

* letting the students have a small bit of Play-Doh to fidget with as long as they were taking turns

* using hole punch cards – the students were very competitive about who had the most hole punches! I know – sounds crazy! But they were fascinated with the hole puncher!

I hope this gives you some simple, low-cost ideas to try with your students. We only have students

for a short time, and every minute is precious. Maria – congratulations on your new addition, and thanks for letting me visit! And be sure to visit me at All Y’all Need, our TpT store, and FB page.