Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Smelly Stars!

How do you make a first grader smile? It doesn't take much...
I read some where in blogging land that a teacher would smear flavored chapstick on her kids' hands for a reward because it smelled good (along the lines of a scratch and sniff sticker). I didn't feel comfortable doing that to their hands, so I started giving them "Smelly Stars" on their math papers after I checked them. I bought a tin of Lip Smackers Chapstick in various flavors and started drawing the stars on their papers one day. The first few kids looked at me like I fell down and hit my head when I checked their papers! I told them that they are Smelly Stars and to smell the star I put on the papers. You should have seen them! They walked all the way to their mailboxes at the back of the room with their papers to their noses. I could hear the whispers across the room...she is giving out Smelly Stars and they smell so good! Every kid in the room got their math done in a jiffy that day!!! The stars aren't very dark on the papers, but they don't even care! : ) Just think of the flavor possibilities that are out there! What do you put on your kids' papers after you have checked them?

3 comments:

Miss Kindergarten said...

ok, LOVE this!! my kinders would definitely get a kick out of it!

Melinda said...

Great idea. My children who are on green in the afternoon get blueberry body glitter on their hands because they sparkled and shined at school that day. THey Love It!

Nicole said...

What a fantastic idea! I used smelly chapstick to help my kids learn right and left hands at the beginning of kinder. For two weeks I would greet them at the door and rub the chapstick on their right hand and say, "This is your right hand." Throughout the day I would say raise your right hand, or shake right hands with your neighbor, give me an air high five with your right hand, etc. They learned very quickly and loved it!