Let the Celebrations Begin

It's that time of year. The school year is coming to a close and end-of-the-year celebrations are taking place. While parties vary greatly, one thing here I have seen that happens in nearly every classroom is awards. Each student gets an award... and not the same award. There are many reasons why I am opposed to the "everybody wins" attitude. But I do really like the end-of-the-year awards where each child is recognized for some accomplishment they have made during the year. Everybody does win, but everyone wins for what they actually succeeded in. Awards can be anything from subject awards to character awards to special talents awards. Students of all ages relish in the fact that their teacher took the time to find something they do particularly well and recognized them for it.. This builds student confidence... not recognition for the sake of recognition.

Just in case you need a template for the award certificate itself, I put a free one together for you.

And here are some ideas for awards:

Character

Most Trustworthy

Most Caring

Best Manners

Most Responsible

Good Citizen

Best Friend

Subject

Super Speller

Rocking Reader

Fabulous Fluency

Writing Wizard

Marvelous Mathematician

Spectacular Scientist

Special Talents

Amazing Artist

Computer Expert

Class Cheerleader

And the list could go on and on.