How To Motivate Students to do their Best Work in 2015

Looking for ways to get the best work out of your students in 2015? Here are a few things you can do to motivate them to give their best effort.

Set Goals- Goal Setting is a great motivator for students of all ages. Each individual student should have goals to reach that meet their specific learning abilities. You can even make class goals! To make this even more effective, you can make a goal sheet so that the goals become visual to the students. They will enjoy seeing themselves climb to new heights and reach each goal along the way. Incentive pads are a great way to inspire and track progress as well!

Show Enthusiasm!- Your Students will be inspired by your excitement. By showing enthusiasm, students will feed off of your attitude and mimic your excitement. You can also get them excited about learning by making things fun! Turn the activity into a game or an art project. You can even allow students to work together as a team. They will then be inspired by one another to do their best!

Expect Their Best Work- Let students know that you are aware of their potential and that you want to see their very best effort. You can create a positive competition by having children compete with their best record or best score. Make sure that you allow a chance for improvement when they fall short. You can give them feedback that will encourage their best work and help them to obtain it. Be careful not to discourage and always keep it positive!

Give Praise- When students give their best work, let them know! Be specific when telling them what you like or when you see improvement. Make sure to give praise when effort is being made. This will inspire students to continue in their work and not give up on it.

Reward Good Work- Students love to be rewarded for their hard work. This can be achieved in several ways. You can give prizes like stickers, badges and awards or hang good work on the wall for all to see. Maybe they get to go to the treasure box or even attend a special pizza party during snack time. They will love earning prizes and bringing things home to show Mom and Dad.

Daycare Classroom Bowling Alley

Turn your classroom into a Bowling Alley! Here’s what you will need: 10 water bottles, a ball, enough space for a “lane”, and some team spirit!

Start by clearing enough space in your classroom to make the lane in. Next, you will need to set up the water bottles in a triangular pyramid shape to look like bowling pins. The pins will be on one end of your lane. On the other end, you will need some sort of marker to make the starting line. This could be something simple like a strip of masking tape, a yard stick or even just a piece of string. Students will roll the ball from behind this line. This is our “do not cross” line.

The rules are the same as regular bowling. They can easily be modified to best fit your students. This could mean they get three turns every time instead of two or they can continue to bowl until they knock down all the pins. You can keep score and have a class bowling tournament or just play for fun. You could even set up more than one lane so students can bowl at the same time!

If empty water bottles are too easy for your students, try putting a little water or sand in the bottom of each bottle. The added weight will make it a bit more challenging for the kids to knock the bottles over.

Feel free to take your bowling lane to the next level by adding bumpers and other fun features! You could do this by placing two 2x4s, or a pool noodle cut in half, on each side of the lane to help little ones direct the ball.

For an even bigger surprise make your bowling alley into a cosmic one! Grab a few glow in the dark sticks and drop them in your bottles. Now all you have to do is turn off the lights and watch the fun!

Keep a lookout for more Rainy Day and Indoor Activities in March! You can also follow us on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for all PureFUN! news and updates.

Share your rainy day activity ideas with us by commenting below! We love to hear from you!

Student Incentives: Arm Charms

Need a new way to reward you students for their hard work? Try out the Arm Charms! Stickers may start to get old after a while but Arm Charms are a motivator your kids will love! Arm charms take inspiration to a new level with their fun phrases, colors and artwork. Plus, they can be worn for much longer than a sticker because they wrap around the wrist like a bracelet for motivation all day long!

Arm Charms come in packs of 72 bracelets so you will have plenty to keep the motivation going in your classroom. The adhesive seal gives a secure fit to the Arm Charm so you can be sure that it will make it home so parents can be proud of their students hard work too!

4 Simple Ways to Motivate Young Learners

Children are born with an intrinsic motivation to learn and positive attitude towards learning. Positive rewards and reinforcement will increase this motivation. Here are several simple strategies that you can use as a teacher to keep young students interested and motivated to learn.

Provide praise and rewards. When your students do well or when they work hard, reward them. Positive words and stickers are great for simple tasks. Adjust your praise and rewards based on the child’s individual abilities and efforts. Avoid giving nonspecific praise for something that required little or no effort.

Show you care about your students. Kids respond well when they know that their teacher cares about them. Build a positive and caring relationship with your students. Ask them how their day is going. Show enthusiasm for their interests.

Have your students participate. When children feel needed, their self-esteem and motivation is increased. Job charts are great way to teach responsibility.

Provide good explanations. Nothing kills motivation as quickly as confusion. Take the time to thoroughly explain new concepts. Check for understanding with specific questions before moving on to a new topic.