Teacher
Reward Chart
A printable reward or sticker chart with goals you set yourself. Circles suit stickers and stars, squares suit ticks. Choose a week or a month and print it.
A chart is scaffolding, not a system
Reward charts work while a behaviour is new and unfamiliar, and they stop working once it is habitual, which is the point rather than a defect. When a child loses interest in the chart it is usually worth asking whether the behaviour has become automatic. If it has, retire the chart. Escalating the reward to revive a chart that has done its job is how charts turn into negotiations.
Goals a child can judge
The best goals are ones a child can complete deliberately and then know, without asking, that they did it. “Shoes on before the timer goes” is checkable by a four-year-old. “Be helpful” is not, and a goal that needs adult adjudication turns every day into a discussion about whether it counted.
Keep the horizon short
A week is a long time to a small child and a month is close to meaningless. Start with a reward two or three days out, and stretch it only once the pattern is holding. A chart abandoned halfway teaches that charts do not matter.
Related printables
The behaviour chart is the same grid used to record rather than motivate, the chore chart covers jobs at home, and the habit tracker is the grown-up version.
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