Can't tango with the Texas Food Police. I am afraid KY is getting ideas from them.
I just learned this. At the 5/6 Center they are only running our food drive for two weeks. The top two classes get.... a dodgeball tourney. That is the going thing at this school. I bet there is at least one per day. The second week they will get an extra star on their rocket. This is a reading incentive thing they are doing and the class that gets their rocket filled first gets...you guessed it, a dodgeball tourney.
I'm for mixing thing up. Kids LOVE to eat with the principal at lunch, they also like extra recess and gym time. At the elementary disco parties are one of the incentives used for things. Those are fun and good exercise. The 5/6 also uses free gym passes for those who bring in 20 boxtops. The kids love that.
Food parties are out for us - we are in Texas and the Food Police have done away with almost all "food rewards" We can no longer reward anything with food!
We do have a very unique school system in that all of our campuses K - 3rd are at separate schools. The first grade campus last year started the t-shirt incentive - that group is now at 2nd grade. We were originally going to compete with them, but now that we are not participating in the t-shirt deal, they do not want to participate with us at all. I think we are just going to go with the prinicpal kissing a goat - after thinking it through, the principal thinks the pig might get too excited with all of the squealing and laughing 1st graders. Not sure if the other teachers will participate or not.
How about a pizza lunch with the Principal as an incentive? Everyone that donates just one can of food can get their name in the raffle and you'd pick 10 names.
Do you have other schools in your area? We are competing with the other 2 schools in our area. The kids love it and we get lots of canned goods.We call each other in the mornings and announce the count on the intercom. Gets the kids motivated. At the end, we have a reward based on our ranking in the contest. 1st is funnel cakes, 2nd popcicles, 3rd is popcorn. That way the kids are rewarded for being kind and everyone is included weather they could bring in any thing or not. I know that alot of our kids would be left out if we did the t-shirt thing. I'm know one family in ours has 6 kids....That's 120 cans of food and they are barely able to feed them all now! I would try to find a way to include everyone.
I wanted to make it clear that I personally know the person in charge of the food drive and her heart is as good as gold. She didn't actually come up with the t-shirt incentive, the chairperson from last year did; but she thought it was a good idea because she honestly thinks it would result in a better turn-out. I am with the majority of you that have stated you think if there is an incentive, it should be something free (or almost free) I think having a small incentive for kids this age (this is a 1st Grade Campus)is not all in all a bad thing and I think they will love the principal kissing the pig idea. I think if we can get some of our staff involved, it would go over even better. I was just glad to see there were a wide range of opinions on this board, just like there were in our meeting. Thanks for all the opinions and ideas. If there are more, keep them coming - I love to get new ideas!
Kiss-A-Pig... our former principal had to do this for reading goals met. He got his photo on the front page of the paper. In my sons' middle school, they do battle of the classrooms. Whatever class brings in the most can goods gets a pizza party. Good luck & have with collecting the can goods.
