Best Spirit Award Idea

Good suggestions already..

More thoughts.

I would also suggest each class that wins, gets to put their class name in a year long drawing. At the end of the year one class name is pulled out of all of the winners and they win a Pizza Party the last week of school.

Each week the winning classroom gets to display the Spirit "Trophy"
The "Spirit Stick" Or "spirit Sign" In their room for the week. You all decide.. Maybe a banner that hangs in the room? Or on the door to that classroom?

You could hand out school stickers, School spirit ribbons, School buttons, Put their "Class name" on the school sign out front of the school.

"1 Free homework pass." Not able to use on special projects.

Check with the administration first, but what about extra recess? Our first graders got that as a reward for good behavior, they LOVED it (and it was very motivating.)

Round Table Pizza has certificates for a personal pizza that they freely give out.

Baskin Robbins Ice Cream has "One free ice cream one" that they print out for me each year.

Check in to your local business and see what you can get them to donate.

Extra recess time is something our school has "rewarded" winners with.

Also, lunch with the principal is a much sought after "reward" at our school. Kids bring their own lunch and sit up on the stage with the principal.

Bags of popcorn are a fun reward. Our school has a carnival style popcorn maker. Popsicles are fun. An occasional treat is fun!

Good luck...it so wonderful you are volunteering at your children's school!!

A bunch of glo-sticks from the dollar store for the winning class to wear for the day? Kids always like glo-sticks.

Could you find local businesses to donate goodies? My son's elementary school partners with Chic-Fil-A for free sandwich coupons, the bowling alley for free game coupons, free personal pan pizza coupons from Pizza Hut, sno-balls from the local mini-golf, etc. Best part is that these are free and it promotes the business (because kids will bring their paying families to redeem their coupons). All it takes is a little outreach.

Our school often has popcorn parties. Our PTSA invested in a large sized popcorn popper a few years ago.

My daughter's school has several stuffed jaguars (their school mascot). Classes can "win" a jaguar to spend a week in their classroom.

Extra recess is always a big hit. One school I taught at had "dance parties". They blasted kid friendly music in the gym and just let kids get crazy (within reason) for the last 15 minutes of the day. Usually on a Friday. They also used to do a movie party, but kids seem to watch more movies than they used to and in my current school the kids don't seem too excited about movies. And teachers don't want to (can't) give up two hours of time on a regular basis.

Kids in my building seem to just get a thrill hearing it announced over the intercom that their class had the most spirit. You can hear their screams of excitement clear at the opposite end of the building.

Personally, as a teacher, the less disruption the better. Every week seems like an awful lot to me. Maybe at the end of the month the four classes that won can have an event together.

Also, keep in mind, not every kid is going to be able to purchase a shirt. In my daughter's class last year about half of her class were from low income homes and didn't/couldn't buy shirts. There may be some classes that never win based on who is in the class.

I know you don't want sweets but our school does popsicles and I don't think those are terribly sweet.

What about extra recess time? Is that something that's do able?

A craft is taught by a PTA member like popsicle stick frame, scrapbook page, paper crafts etc.

ALOT of places will donate gift certificates. Even if they're not normally a place that donates.....if you go in and talk to the manager they'll often times help you out. Ice cream shops, restaurants, trampoline places, etc....

Also something as simple as 15 extra minutes of recess would be an awesome prize!

search pintrest maybe for cool party favors

I love Mamazita's suggestion of an extra recess.

Some things our school librarian does with the kids if they earn enough points (starts in first grade and this is regarding good, respectful behavior during library time):
Getting to chew gum (offers both regular and sugar-free, inexpensive)
Getting an extra recess
Getting to play board games for a time
Getting to watch a video

Also liked the idea of a popcorn party. But recess-- costs nothing and the kids love it. Bad weather and it might have to be postponed or moved to the gym if no PE scheduled then.

My sons class usually got extra recess which I know he always loved. They also did a dance party which when he was little thought was fun. However, I second the other posters concern about the number of kids who can purchase a t-shirt. We live in a really wealthy suburb of Baltimore and DC yet his school had a high percentage of students who received free and reduced lunches (49% actually and I'm sure more qualified for it just didn't apply). For this reason my son's school made their own tye-dye t-shirts. Each grade chose their color. If a kid couldn't afford to bring it a white t-shirt the school provided him one. If that particular shirt couldn't be worn that day they just wore the same color. Not that this was part of your question but I saw the look in some of my son's classmates eyes when they couldn't partake in some afterschool activities cause they couldn't afford it and no kid should have to go thru that. And I'm not meaning to preach to you about something out of your control. But back to your question and I know the extra recess was the biggest hit and popsicles in warm weather outside were nice too. We also had a local bowling alley donate free games. It wasn't weekly though. I think it was monthly. They also had their picture taken as a class and put in the trophy case.

I echo the extra recess time, movie time, popcorn, etc - it doesn't have to be sweets, but popsicles are fine. I bet the same class won't win every week, and honestly, a popsicle a week won't hurt anyone.