Here is a motivational tool that you can use in your classroom this year: good behaviour button badges and medals.
You can apply this approach at school, and also to motivate the young participants during an extra-curricular activity: sports club, scouting…

Pupils may feel proud of their achievements: class presentation, good marks, winning a football tournament… But how do you motivate a classroom with a proven approach: rewards?

Materials for good behaviour badges and medals:

– Components for making button badges. You can chose the Super Safe Badge Set
– Components for the medals
– Button badge maker

The Rewards Pack will also prove very useful, since it includes all you need to motivate a classroom.

How to use this approach?

It is a behavioural tool that works on a weekly basis.

Every Monday, at the beginning of the week, all pupilpupils are given a silver badge (good behaviour).

Depending on their behaviour during the week the pupils’ badge can change:
– the pupil has a behaviour that becomes embarrassing in the classroom. If the behaviour does not change, the pupil receives a first (verbal) warning and is then awarded a bronze badge (attention!).
– the pupil behaves pleasantly in class, he/she is respectful, motivated, involved and his/her behaviour is exemplary. He/she can then be awarded a gold badge. This is a way of valuing pupils who respect the classroom rules.
– the pupil behaves in a way that is no longer appropriate in the classroom. After two warnings (verbal + bronze badge), the pupil will be given a chocolate badge (stop!). This means that he/she leaves the podium of acceptable behaviour in class. This is followed by a sanction for the pupil (a word explaining the behaviour to the parents) and reparation for the rest of the class (the pupil thinks about a remedy to rectify his behaviour).
– the pupil has a pleasant behaviour in class but could be more involved in class life, he/she remains in the silver medal range

Every Friday the pupils fill in an individual form: they colour in the right colour for their badge of the week, and write the date underneath it. Throughout the week pupils can switch from one badge to another.

Example: If a pupil is awarded a bronze medal on Monday, he/she may well be awarded a silver medal on Friday if he/she has made an effort to correct his/her behaviour.

If all the pupils are in the gold medal range on Friday evening, they get the behaviour medal. To mark the occasion you can give them a personal medal, which will further stimulate the pupils. You may observe in your classroom that the pupils want to have a golden badge at all costs and therefore help each other, encourage each other and congratulate each other more on their behaviour.

This approach therefore makes it possible to assess the individual behaviour of each pupil (personal medal) and also collective behaviour (all pupils must be in the gold range to obtain a medal).

Medals can be easily made in class with a badge maker. Here is a video showing the results obtained.