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How to Do a Reward Chart in an In-Home Day Care

Creating a reward chart to motivate a group of children of diverse ages and skill levels presents a special set of challenges. Realize that infants won't actually respond to such long-term rewards, but you may be able to engage the older children in their own rewards by showing that the youngest also have skills to learn and contributions to make.

Things You'll Need

  • Poster board
  • Markers
  • Yardstick
  • Sticky notes
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Instructions

    • 1

      Turn the poster board to landscape orientation and mark a column along the left side, using a marker and the yardstick. The column should be wide enough for older children to recognize the names you'll print there. Mark off the first row, for column headers, about as deep as a sticky note.

    • 2

      Divide the rest of the poster board into cells that will accommodate the sticky notes. Write the children's names down the left side in alphabetical order. This will downplay the age differences and help introduce the skill of alphabetizing lists.

    • 3

      Brainstorm with the children to decide what skills and accomplishments to place in the columns. Look for general themes and discuss with the children how to label the columns with categories that all members of the group can share. What you might call social skills, the children might name "getting along," and would include sharing, helping each other or saying something nice. Write each idea on a sticky note and discuss as a group in which cell to put each note.

    • 4

      Examine the skills that have accumulated in each column. Talk to the children about how their skills go together and how they are different. Write a category word or two at the top of each column and record the goals you have for each child.

    • 5

      Explain that each time you see a child doing one of her goal actions, or one of the other children reports seeing her do it, you'll write it on a sticky note and stick it to the chart. Announce the rewards to be earned, on what schedule and how they will be earned.

    • 6

      Meet privately with each child old enough to understand and decide on which goal category he will concentrate first. Mark a star in that cell for each child. Count double sticky notes in the starred category.

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