This past summer I wanted to do something a bit different for our practice incentive. I decided to do a Summer Ice Cream Challenge. It was really quite simple. I printed ice cream cones and ice cream scoops, cut them apart, and laminated them so they would last for future use. For each 10 points a student earned, I awarded them with a scoop to add to their cone. Students earned points for meeting practice and performance goals.
At the end of the summer, we had a party for students who had a minimum of 4 scoops. Yeah, this was easy to attain, but since I had several students who were going to be gone for much of the summer, it worked well. At our party we had ice cream – of course – with lots of toppings to choose from. Afterwards, we watched Bugs Bunny’s Overtures to Disaster. The kids loved it, and it was low-stress for me.
Just a word of warning – I cut out a LOT of ice cream scoops. Most of it was done during my kids’ swimming lessons, when I was just sitting with little to do. If this had been a year-long incentive program, I would have gotten really tired of cutting! It would be much easier to cut the ice cream cones and scoops from a die cut. Check your local scrapbooking store or school to see if they have one you could use.
Filed under: Student Incentives, Uncategorized |
Layton Music Games and Resources 
This is a really cute idea; however, I am unable to get the scoop pattern to come up.
Thanks for letting me know about the problem, Angela. It’s all fixed now!
Another great idea from a creative teacher!
I love those die cutting machines. If a teacher has a lot of group lessons, maybe it would be worth the money to buy one. They save SO much time.
Great idea! I give ice cream sundaes in my incentive program. My students fill up a jar with pom-poms though. I think this is much cuter!
This is such a cute idea. I am going to implement this into our summer lessons this year. how did you do your point system?
I am incredibly generous for points in the summer. They get a point for each complete practice session, doing their theory, scales and technique, memorizing pieces, counting or saying the letter names out loud during the lesson, and so on. It keeps them motivated, especially with the promise of an ice cream party at the end.
Thank you for exciting ideas so willingly shared!
Thank you for your generosity and resourcefulness. Great ideas – new, interesting and innovative. Keep coming! Let’s spread the good news and the wonders of music teaching to as many music teachers as we can – passing on more and more reliable and useful music teaching resources that we can all use today. Happy teaching!
Wow, I’ll have to use that!