Positive Behavior Reward

As you can well imagine, feeding 600 students under the age of 8 can be chaotic, loud and very messy. It's a challenge, that's for sure. One parent who joined us for lunch for the first time ever, was clueless how much management was involved... and a little, okay, a lot overwhelmed. (I'm not sure he'll be joining us for lunchtime, anytime soon...) All the same, as a staff, we invest a lot of time and energy in finding ways to feed and nourish the little bodies entrusted to us during the day. We try to create an atmosphere that's social and yet controlled that allows students to eat and have time to visit with their friends. We spend the first weeks of school in the cafeteria teaching students how to follow the rules that have been set in place for safety and comfort of both the students and those assigned to watch over them. Then we reinforce those behaviors with positive rewards.

I'm a big believer in allowing students to make choices and learning to live with the consequences. (Not all consequences are bad, people!) At any rate, the first reward the class wanted to work for was to wear costumes to school. (You can bet I didn't run that reward past the school administration BEFORE they earned it... ;)... I've gotten pretty good at predicting when I'm going to get shut down. lol) So, when the students earned their reward, amazingly enough ON Halloween!!! (What????) I waited to deliver the parent newsletter to the front office informing them about the Monday costume-wearing surprise until after the students had gone home for the weekend.

All the same, it proves my belief that when children choose their own rewards, they earn them faster. It took the students exactly 10 days to earn the reward. No yelling in the cafeteria, no messy tables, no wandering about... just excellent behaviour in a most challenging environment. Here are my adorable students in their costumes...

Aren't they just perfect??? xoxo