Pack Up Tip - Planner Challenge

At my school, when students start second grade, they start using a planner to keep track of homework and due dates.  At the beginning of the year, they are always super excited for this because they feel like "big kids" with their planners. However, as the year wears on, the excitement wears off.  My class this year especially. Their planners have gone downhill - meaning unreadable writing, lots of misspellings, and lots of gross food stains. So this is where my idea for the Planner Challenge began....

Each day students copy down their homework and other important events into their planner from my homework board.

See the planner example below. This is an example of a messy planner. This child writes quickly and quite messy to wear it's hard to even read what she wrote.

So since many of the kids' planners looked like this, I created the Planner Challenge.  Each day I pick one child to win the planner challenge.  Their planner must be written neatly and easy to read. They must have spelled all of the words correctly (which they should be able to do since they are copying it down from the board). If they have done those things, then they are in the running for the planner challenge. I pick a winner at the end of each day and they get to pick out a piece of candy! Quick, easy reward and look at the results below....

This planner is the same planner as the messy planner example above. The planner challenge has motivated this student to slow down, write neatly, and take her time. You can actually read the items!

Funny how that little word "challenge" made writing nicely in your planners fun! Everyone wants to be a part of it and everyone is hopeful that every day they are being considered to be the Planner Challenge winner!