Scratch-Its for Rewards

"Miss Pam, is it a sticker day or a prize box day?"

This is the question I hear most often from my kiddos.  They just love to dig through the prize box to take home a treasure at the end of our session.  But here's the dilemma:  I do not offer prizes every session (but I DO offer stickers) and I have no real system for determining which days are prize box days, except that I try to offer it once per month.  It often depends on how many prizes are left in the prize box and if I've had time to shop.  But, the kids are relentless in their asking, so I came up with a solution to develop a system.

My solution:  Sticker or Prize Box Scratch-Its!  Let me tell you how they work.

First, I made several different reward cards and printed them on card stock.  I've got snowmen, monsters...

 ...winter...

...fire station and camping.

Next, choose a card and write "sticker" or "prize" in each of the circles with a black pen.  Choose random locations for each, and make each card different in terms of placement of the "prize" words.

Fill in the circles using a white crayon.

I color over the words a couple of times, making sure there's a nice layer of crayon wax on top of the words.

Then, paint over the top of the crayon wax using acrylic paint.  I chose light blue, but you could use any color you'd like.  The paint tends to dry streaky, so I usually apply 2-3 coats, especially over the middle of the circle to be sure to cover the words.

Let the paint dry for at least an hour.  Then you're ready to go!  I let the kids chose their own reward card, write their name on it and keep it in their chart.

This solution is working really well for me.  I don't need to keep my prize box stocked enough for all the kids on my caseload to hit it in one week, and it's not my decision as to whether it's a prize day or sticker day.  No more needing to explain my rationale!  Whew!

Would you like to give this a try?  You can download my reward cards here.  If you do download them, let me know what you think.  Graphics for these cute little charts are from Scrappin Doodles and KPM Doodles.

Have fun!

Pam