Reward Box

Getting creative for our students is one of the fabulous facts of teachers of students with visual impairments. We think “out-of-the-box” as a matter of course. Here is one of my favorite creations.

Wooden box with ceramic hearts glued to it.

Open wooden box with rectangular, laminated strips of paper with print and braille.

When I worked a summer program classroom of elementary students with visual impairments one year, I wanted to create incentives for the students to complete their work. I had themed each of the four weeks so, of course, the reward tokens needed to match. The group of students ranged in age from kindergarten to fifth grade and a variety of sight loss. To keep it simple, each had colorful print and was laminated as well as had a tactile difference each week.

Rows of paper tokens with stickers on them.

Week 1

Rewards Make Sense! The theme was using your senses so the tokens each had a different scratch and sniff sticker!

Rows of reward tokens with leather strips at the top.

close view of the paper tokens to show the thin leather strip

Week 2

Rodeo Week! We had a field trip planned to the rodeo that week. The tokens said, “Round’n Up Points” and had a thin leather strip glued to the top.

Paper rewards with a small jingle bell glued to it at the bottom.

Close view of the reward papers with the jingle bell.

Week Three!

Independence Week as this had the 4th of July Holiday. The paper rewards said, “Ringing Rewards” and there was a small jingle bell glued to the bottom. The picture was of the Liberty Bell.

Reward tickets with the top edge cut with pinking shears

Week 4

Prehistoric Week! We talked all about dinosaurs and fossils. The reward tokens had “Prehistoric Points” written on them and the top edge was cut with scrapbook scissors which created teeth-like points.

I hope you enjoyed a little look at some ways to have creative reward tokens!