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Sparking Student Motivation: Pencil Challenge

Raise your hand if you are certain a pencil burglar comes in your room when you aren’t there and steals all the pencils you just sharpened? Or maybe, you have pencil eaters in your room…? Yup. I agree. SOMETHING is happening to the HUNDREDS of pencils I have sharpened this year, and I do mean HUNDREDS, and I can’t figure out what. I actually had my kids do the math the other day- a box holds 20 pencils, and I, or another student, sharpens 3 or 4 boxes a week… and we just finished week TEN. 600-800 pencils have been sharpened this year, yet I still have students who “don’t have a pencil.”

Soooo, I want to link up with my BBB Joanne to share with you how I motivated my students this week to KEEP their pencil!

I sharpened ONE pencil for each student with my AMAZING Classroom Friendly Supplies pencil sharpener.

I also put a piece of duct tape at the top and wrote their number on it.

Then, I challenged them to KEEP that pencil all week. Most of them have hand-held pencil sharpeners in their desk, so I told them they weren’t even allowed to USE the class pencil sharpener. (I know, I’m SO MEAN. LOL) I told them they would get a prize on Friday if they still had it.

And guess what?? 24 out of 25 of my students were all able to get a piece of candy from my “candy stash” on Friday because they KEPT THE SAME PENCIL!! I think I will make this a weekly event. Yes, it is a little work to put duct tape on the pencil, but it’s so worth it! :o)

Make sure to check out the other motivator’s on Joanne’s linky!

Also… did you hear?? TPT just broke 100K Facebook followers, and they are offering a promo code for 10% off! I decided to offer 10% off EVERYTHING in my store, too (even bundles!) in celebration, so go shop, and don’t forget to use promo code “FB100K” for 10% off the entire TpT site!