Thursday, August 23, 2007

What's a good substitute for candy?

Everyone knows teachers give candy as rewards. We use them as prizes for games, as bribes for getting things done early, whatever we need to do to make things happen and keep kids quiet.

Well, this year our school is a "healthy school," so there's a whole list of things that we can't use as rewards. Pretty much, anything with sugar is out.

So I'm trying to figure out what in the heck to use. It needs to be cheap, since candy isn't expensive thanks to the bulk foods section at Winco, and it can't have sugar, which lets out just about any food that kids would like.

We do have a school wide rewards system called Shields. The kids can earn Shields when they show respect, self management, and safety. They can then turn in the shields to the school for various items, or to individual teachers for different things. So I could always give out Shields for prizes, but would that be respect, management or safety?

And while you're brainstorming for me, think of great things they could use their shields to buy from me. And remember - no sugar!

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