Some of us will be starting the school year doing virtual learning. For others, like myself, I’ll be starting the year in the classroom, but Lord knows how long that will last. I feel like we’ll quickly be finding ourselves back in the virtual learning world.
Last year, I was looking for a way to motivate my students and give rewards to them during virtual learning. Here are a few fun and simple virtual rewards for students to make virtual learning more successful and motivating for our students.
“Lunch Date”
A lunch date is a great motivator for students. Using Zoom, Google Meet, or another video conferencing platform, you and your students could have lunch together. They’ll love it!
You could make this something that multiple students can earn or one on one with a parent present! Either way, it will be a great way to let your kids get some quality time with you in a casual setting.
Special Share
Some of your kids might not like this option, I know I would have rather died than share a story with my class. Other kids? They LOVE the opportunity to share a story with their teacher and classmates. Use this to your advantage and let them share something special at the beginning or end of your virtual small group.
Be the Teacher
What routines do you have in your small group that you could turn over to a student? I’ve let my students greet others as they join the group, choose students to read aloud, or keep track of our time.
Either way, they’ll feel special and motivated to keep working hard in your small group.
Choose the Game or Greeting
If you play games, sing songs, or do various morning meeting style activities, let your student earn the right to choose the activity.
Bingo Night
One of my favorite fun and simple virtual rewards for students is Bingo Night!!! My kids love bingo both in person and online. When I played with my kids, I used sight words. I drew a blank board for them to copy. Then, I gave them a word bank and told them to fill in their homemade bingo board with the words.
I also added a printable board, but many of my students weren’t able to print it. But that was ok, it gave them an example of what their board should look like.
This could also be done digitally, but I wasn’t brave enough to tackle it with my first graders! 😂