Saturday, February 19, 2011

Smarty Pants


I am always looking for fun, new ways to motivate my kiddos to do their best at school. I recently saw this idea on The Inspired Apple and just had to "borrow" it. :)

Students who are working hard and doing their best to learn something new at school will earn the title of "Smarty Pants" for the day! They get to hang these pants on the back of their chair and wear a red baseball hat that has the Smarty's logo on the front. And inside the pants is...you guessed it - Smarty's candy for them to enjoy.



The kids are going cah-razy over these pants! They want them. Bad. They are running up to the carpet when it is whole group time, gluing their eyes on me, and raising their hand to try to answer every single question I ask. I love it!!!

My mom found these cute jeans at the store, and she sewed on the decals for me. {Thanks Mom!} We just sewed the bottom of the legs closed so the Smarty's would stay inside.


How do you motivate your students to work hard everyday? I'd love to hear other great ideas!

5 comments:

Educator4good said...

Very cute idea!

Lory said...

I saw this too and wanted to give it a try... thanks for reminding me. I love the hat :)
Lory
Lory's Page

Lewis' Lil 2nd Grade Pups said...

I love your smarty pants ideas. I realize you got them from the Inspired Apple. I would love to know where did you get the Smarties logo to sew onto the cap.
Adorable!!!

Mrs. Goodwin said...

love this idea, I was looking at your end of the year movie and caught the movie of the phonics dance, did you buy the cd from the website? I was wondering if it was worth it, what would you suggest for me to get from the phonics dance website to do this with my students?

Amanda said...

Lewis', I actually purchased the Smarties hat with the logo already on there from a website! Here it is: http://www.smartiesstore.com/Merchandise.html

Mrs. Goodwin, I did purchase the CD and manual from the Phonics Dance website. It was helpful! To be honest, I used another teacher's Phonics Dance video that I found on YouTube the most though. The manual has the chants written down, but you are not able to hear them on the CD like I had anticipated. I actually think you could implement Phonics Dance without the manual! You could easily just use my video (or another teacher's) and mimic the chants. Hope that helps! :)