Reward Systems

Positive reinforcement is extremely important for preschoolers and it can improve their behaviour in a fun and easy way. Don’t expect to get the same results from all the kids, because the roots of the problems are not the same, their personalities are different and each child is unique.

1. Stay on Green

Supplies: cork board, name tags, happy faces – green circles, neutral faces – yellor circles, upset faces – red circles (one of each colour for every child)

How it works: The teacher observes the behaviour of the child during the day. As soon as a child does something wrong (this has to be made clear to the child), he will get a warning. As soon as he was warned, the green face (smiley face) next to his name becomes yellow. Afterwards, the child will try to behave better, so that he can change his face to a happy one again. If he continues with the bad behaviour, he will receive a red face (upset face). At the end of the day, the children’s good behaviour will be rewarded with a sticker on their sticker chart.

The advantages of this reward system are:

• The child knows what he has done wrong

• The child will be able to improve his bahaviour

• The child is rewarded for good behaviour

2. Sun/Cloud System

Supplies: a sun and a cloud (cut out and laminated, painted on a wall, or drawn on a board), name tags (for younger kids I recommend using an image next to the name, because they are unable to recognize their written names)

How it works: At the end of the day, the teachers explains what she/he liked/disliked about the child’s behaviour that day and rewards those who behaved nicely towards the others by putting their name on the sun. The ones who didn’t obey the class rules will have their name on the cloud. At the end of the week, those who have had their name on the sun every day will get a certificate for good behaviour.

3. Colourful Beads and Sticker Charts

Supplies: a cup for each child and beads OR sticker charts (you can make them out of coloured paper), stickers.

How it works: Those children who did something nice (shared toys, used English, played nicely, didn’t make any noise during quiet time, sang at circle time etc.) receive beads as rewards. At the end of the year, they can make a bracelet out of the beads they gathered. The same goes for stickers.

4. Happy face/Sad face System

Supplies: cork board, names, happy faces and sad faces for everyone (they can be printed out, laminated and pinned to the board. This way you can reuse them.)

How it works: The system works the same as the colourful bead system. You can use one system for using English (if you teach English as a second language) and one for good behaviour.

These are a few rules you could focus on with younger children:

Playground Rules:

Sharing is caring

We play nicely (no fighting, running with sticks, driving the moped down the hill, swinging while standing etc.)

Lunchroom Rules/Manners:

We all start eating at the same time: after saying a transition rhyme

We use cutlery properly

We never forget to say ‘thank you’ before leaving the table

We clean after ourselves

Classroom Rules:

We listen to the teacher

We keep our classroom clean

Sharing is caring (We are all friends and we share toys)

Kind mouths (We don’t bite, eat toys, or shout)