I have been teach with VIPKid for going on 4 months, and although I’m only pulling maybe 25-30 classes a week, I have definitely found some props that serve me well for all levels. The majority of them can be found on Amazon.
Also, my very good friend Melissa, another VIPKid employee, was kind enough to loan me some of her props to help me get started, and I have been going through the process of finding them on Amazon so I can return them to her for her next contract signing!
I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from my good friends that teach at VIPKid and also from general research on the internet and YouTube. I’ve found that these 4 reward systems can apply to different ages. I teach 4-10 year olds from levels 1-3 and sometimes I have to grab something on the fly that caters to a new student.
- These Squishies are so cute, and almost every kid loves these with the exception of some of my younger boys. In general, girls of all ages instantly love these and at the end of class I always do a dramatic squishy smash.
2. I got this idea from my friend Melissa, she uses these Marbles dropped into a mason jar as a reward. The jar gives these marbles a nice *plink* and it pretty much pleases kids of all ages.
3. Also inspired from my friends, I started keeping index cards, stickers and a marker handy. If I have an older student that seems unlikely to be interested in the more cutesy rewards, I will grab an index card and write their name on it and reward them with stickers as we go through class. I sometimes let the stickers accumulate over several classes for my regulars and we laugh at how many they have. I got mine from staples, but here is a link to some stickers that would be perfect for this!
4. Now for my newest and most favorite reward: these trophies from amazon. So I thought these were mini trophies like I saw some other teachers on YouTube give out…but I clearly didn’t read the description and these things are actually like 5 inches tall!! This makes for a very hilarious trophy roundup at the end of class. I like to dramatically try and hold all of the trophies and drop them comically. Kids of all ages seem to like this, and enjoy the bumbling teacher routine at the end. I highly recommend these if you feel so inclined.
I hope this helped give you some inspiration. Most importantly, I like to switch things up with my regulars. It’s fun to surprise them with new rewards. I rarely ever do the built-in slide rewards since they’re already staring at the slides and interacting with them.
I’d love to know if you have any other fun rewards that you like to give to your students! I’m always looking for new ideas!
-Eva
Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Please know that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you
Domestic Musings 