10 replies to this topic

[mps09]

This is such a silly question but hey - it's been a long day..... and I know there will be some great suggestions out there...

What do you say to those children who persistently pester you to have a sticker because:-

I ate my lunch
I picked up one toy
I had a wee
I'm lovely (yes I have had this)


I feel like to big bad witch everyone time I say no but I think if detracts from the purpose if you just hand them out willy nilly.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

[Spiral]

Don't know if it would help you, but we sometimes draw a smiley face in their learning journey (as it's free, won't get lost and is simple to do). We also stick the sticker in there too - the children love that.

Spiral

[HappyMaz]

We've resolved this one by not giving out stickers.

We do have nice little certificates that we give out when children have done something special - and since we write them with the children and decide together what to write, they seem to have much more meaning. Also by the time pick up time comes, the child may not remember what a sticker was given for - but the certificate acts as a reminder too. We don't often get other children asking if they can have a certificate too, but if we do we can read out loud what the certificate says and explain that it is something special for that particular child. It usually does the trick.

Maz

[jennywreny]

I a mean too and the children have learnt that if you ask for stickers you prob wont get one but they are so sweet and start saying ooo blah blah thats a good picture and they end up getting a sticker for being kind ha x

[shirel]

Thanks Maz...think I may go down the certificate route.....I have a shadow that coughs and wants a sticker for it!

[dublinbay]

We have 2 children who are special helpers for the day and do things like ring the bells for tidy-up time and hand out the individual mats for circle time. These children get a number of claps at home time and a sticker to thank them.

New children stop asking for them after a while when they get used to the routines and it's their turn to be the special helper. I think we have to be consistent in not giving them out for simply everything but they will mean more to the children when they finally get one.

I like Maz's idea of the certificate too.

[mps09]

we do certificates too, and I have to add that no-one has ASKED for a certificate (yet)

This is a good site for custom certificates for that real something special.

www.123certificates.com

You can change all the wording and make it really your own...

[dcn]

I don't use stickers as I believe that children learn to behave for that extrinsic reward rather than learning to behave in appropriate ways either to make themselves feel good or to please others - the reward is the feeling of achievement or a smile or warm praise from an adult. That way children learn that behaving in a certain way - being a good friend, working hard, figuring something out, being independent etc makes them feel good - not the sticker. Some may disagree but this is my philosophy - I hate reward charts/star charts for the same reason.

I did however feel that I needed some way of celebrating extra special achievements so I've just started using achievement ribbons - each child has a ribbon hanging from the doorway and when they do something really special I write it on a card cut out and staple it to the ribbon

[Beau]

I am not a great fan of stickers either, much preferring to just praise a child liberally. Having said that, at various times we have had special stickers/certificates for a particular thing that as a staff team we felt needed working on. My lovely assistant made up some stickers for the snack table one year when we had some children who were reluctant to eat fruit. If they nibbled a little bit they got a sticker saying something like 'I tried some fruit at snack today' - every child who ate fruit, even if they always ate fruit, also got a sticker.

[yalisrib]

We've started Star of the Day - each afternoon a child is elected star of the day (or S.O.D and we call them) for good behaviour, helping tidy up etc. They get to put up a photo of themselves in a star onto a special board on our main door and an adult writes underneath why they are the Star. Due to the location all the parents, children and staff see it and cann see clearly why they got it so the child gets tonnes of verbal praise which sure as heck beats a sticker

[jennywreny]

we do s.o.d do you sing the song too, i always end up humming it x