Monday, June 7, 2010

Reading Incentive


This is our reading tree.


It lives on our basement door year round and represents our reading incentive program. Each of the readers in our family has a leaf color, and each time they read a book they write the title on one of their leaves and tape it to the tree. We go for 3 months at a time, filling our tree full of leaves! At the end of the 3 month period, the children receive a quarter per book, and if they read at least one more than the last 3 month cycle, they get FIVE DOLLARS in addition to their quarters!

This has been quite popular. Since this picture was taken, our new reader C has added many yellow leaves to the tree. He is currently reading a Bible storybook outloud to me, and when he finishes the entire book it will count for 10 leaves (it's about an inch and a half thick).

I'm thinking I need to put MY color (plum for mum) on the tree too!

For something different this summer we signed up for the reading programs at our local library. The children are already busily reading trying to earn the grand prize, which is 4 tickets to a super cool amusement park (also super expensive, so mom and dad are liking the prize idea!).

Do you keep track of how many books you read (or which ones) each year? What book are you currently reading?

6 comments:

Debbie said...

What a great idea! Very visual way to see progress.

Targetshopper: said...

That is a great idea and I may need to steal it for summer. I love to read all the time but my kids go in cycles with more non-reading cycles than I would like. They are all about incentives so this would work great at our house! And it looks pretty too!

Nancy said...

what a great looking tree! i was a real bookworm in my younger days. some find it amusing that i now work at a library. i still love to read but i rarely find the time anymore. these days, it's more about me glancing through cookbooks to find a new recipe.

Teacher/Mom said...

I love this idea! Do you have Half Price Books out there? Have you heard about their summer reading program? They read 15 minutes a day per week and they earn a $3 gift card for each week. We're so all over that one! Blessings.

Leslie said...

Fun idea! I haven't kept track here or done any incentives. It might be something though that my newest reader would really enjoy. He has struggled and might appreciate the encouragement. My oldest ones have their noses in books far too often - would break the bank. lol

Love your fun way of teaching!

Blessings
Leslie

lahbluebonnet said...

I used to have a growing bookworm climb all over the walls of the schoolroom. One circle for each book read comprised a new body part. All my books I'm reading are at my blog. Can't wait to see your unit celebration!
Blessings,
Laurie