January 8, 2015

Creative Coupons for Rewards, Incentives & Positive Behaviors!

We are back from a very long Christmas Break and the first thing on my to do list and re-establishing routines in the art room. We were supposed to come back Monday, had a snow day and Tuesday and Wednesday were two hour delays! So this whole getting in a routine thing is taking a while!
Once I have my students, we will do a review of the art room expectations and my reward system- Creative Coupons!
Creative coupons are a way for me to reward students individually with extra time in the art room. I have tried a million other systems and with 400+ students this one has worked amazingly for several years.

How it works:

I use the A.R.T system-Awesome Artists, Reminder, Timeout to award coupons. Have a class with no reminders and get a creative coupon at the end of class. Students save coupons to spend in during their free time, recess, lunch or before/after school.
1 coupon=Free Draw
2 coupons=Painting
3 coupons=Make a crayon
4 coupons=Beads (perler) or weaving
5 coupons=Clay
All my teachers are on board with this system, I send weekly emails reminding them of the times available each week. I have the end of most days free so I use that time to do creative coupons. I can't have an art club so this is what I do instead. Students who don't want creative coupons can get a PBIS point to spend in our PBIS store. (Read more about PBIS here)
 As a note, I don't do this program with kindergarten.
I also use a Google Form to keep track of all my students who come in at the end of the day to keep track of participation.

10 Things that I have tried and didn't work (for me) 


  1. Class Dojo
  2. Sticker chart to earn extra art class (whole group) 
  3. Bead rewards (similar to stickers, fill a bucket with beads to earn extra art class) 
  4. Sparkly green stars given to students who are on task. Sparkly star= PBIS point.
  5. Note cards carried in my pocket to remind students to change behaviors or to keep it up.  
  6. Popsicle sticks for each child that moved through A.R.T. (awesome, reminder, timeout) 
  7. Drag and drop chart on smartboard using A.R.T. 
  8. PBIS points 
  9. Earning points/coupons by table
  10. Class note to the teacher about A.R.T. in class
I have found that publicly displaying names of students who make poor choices just doesn't work for me or change that student's behavior. I know that pointing out students making good choices does for example "I like how Johnny is waiting patiently. I love how hard Megan is working!" I will pass out coupons to students during class time as well and make a big deal about it. I love this system because it rewards the students who make good choices, allows you to use them as role models and doesn't punish them by not earning an entire class reward. Even my tough students get encouraged to make better choices for the chance of making an extra clay project!

What incentives and rewards work for you? How does your school deal with 2 hour delays- shortened classes or do you miss some classes?

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