I'm wondering if anyone has any good theme ideas for a reading incentive program they could share.

Reading is a big hot button for our principal, and she likes to go all out on an incentive program in late winter/early spring. Last year, we did "Reading is Magical." Kids kept a log of how many pages they read, and a school wide goal of 500,000 pages was set. If it was met (and it was), the kids were promised a special day where we had various booths set up in the gym for them to visit (where they could learn simple magic tricks, optical illusions, etc.), and there was an assembly with a magician. The magician's show was entitled "Books--the Magic is Real" (see here: http://www.romanomagic.com/schools.html), and the highlight of the show was when he cut off the principal's head.

Anyway, it was a huge success. Now we're kind of at a loss as to what to do this year. The principal won't do a dunk tank or get pie thrown in her face, but other than that she's up for most anything. She's already learned to hula, held a snake, and kissed a pig. Anyone have anything that's worked for them? THANKS!!

LOL, love your ideas but maybe changing the incentive and rewarding the students for their reading instead of the Principal doing a dare (although I think that it's a very FUN idea for the kids) may help.

We've done a couple of things. First, McDonalds has a program where if you read 10 books, you get a free meal. Pasta House has them as well. then there's the six flaggs reading incentive if you have a six flaggs in your area.

Next, we do the AR (Accelerated Reader) program at our school. The students have to read certain books that our school has AR tests for. Their grade on the test is on a "points" level. After so many points, they reach level one, then level two all the way up to level 5.

At the end of the year, we have an AR reward day. The rewards are as follows:

Level one, they get to attend a sock hop
Level two, the sock hop AND a talent show
Level three, sock hop, talent show and pizza for lunch
Level four, sock hop, talent show, pizza and a carnival (we have games where they win tickets to purchase prizes with)
Level five gets all the above THEN we take them for a free game of bowling at the local bowling alley that is within walking distance from our school.

Level five is very hard to reach for some of the students. Out of 260 students in the school, we had maybe 20 students who achieved that level 5.

You don't have to use the accelerated reader program to do this. You can assign a certain number of books to reach a level (or pages may work better as many students read the harry potter books which take longer and they may not reach a certain number of books.

Just an idea, hope it helps stir some creativity for you.

Love those ideas!

Another quickie:

Pizza Hut - Book It Program. www.bookitprogram.com - I think.

Our 3rd and 4th graders are doing it this year. The kids set goals of reading monthly - when they reach that goal they get a free personal sized pizza. Pizza Hut sends out a whole package of information and tools to help bring it into the classroom. Awesome program!

Lisa

In past years we have always purchased games/books/skooters etc. and set up buckets for the children to drop tickets into for a raffle. Always a hit - BUT - last year we held a drawing where 3 children were selected (K-1, 2-3rd, 4-5th) as "PRINCIPAL FOR THE DAY". This was so popular you have no idea! And we found that no child felt left out, but left hoping that next year would be another opportunity. Once chosen days were established for each child to assist the principal for the day. It was really great and the kids all loved it. Good luck!

I love the idea of "Principal for the Day" and I know our principal would go for it. Can you give me more details on how this program worked?

Thanks!

Susanne

I give each student a paper rocket. The students read 15 minutes each night to reach 1 hour per week. Each hour takes them to a planet. Each time they reach a planet they get a fact sheet about the planet and a small prize. The prize is designed to help them learn a fact about the planet. For example, when they reach Jupiter they get a ruler. This helps them to remember that Jupiter is the largest planet. At the end of the program the student recieve a poster of the solar system. They are thrilled. This approach has been very effective! They read for 8 hours, learn about the solar system and have a great time.

I think our next program will help them to learn the continents. (Read two hours-earn a continent!)