Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Saint Trading Card Reward System


Sticker charts, prize boxes, classroom stores, teacher bucks, coupons... most elementary classrooms have a reward system of some kind in place to encourage and reinforce good behavior among students.

If you are looking for a fresh reward system that is uniquely Catholic for your school or CCD classroom, why not try Saint cards?  Those beautiful and special Saint cards can familiarize your students with their heavenly helpers, give them models of virtue, increase appreciation for the richness of our faith, and promote devotion to these prayer warriors.  The backs of the cards also often contain biographies of the Saints, Scripture verses, or prayers, which adds more educational value to the collection.

Interested?  Here's how I do it in my classroom:


The Set Up:
  1. At the beginning of the year, I discuss virtue with my students, and we talk about how the Saints are models of heroic Christian virtue.  I challenge them to grow in virtue through our year together, and they all receive a binder ring with a card that says "name is growing in Saintly Virtue."  They get to attach their Saint cards to the ring, and we keep them on a chain of giant paper clips hanging in our classroom Faith Corner
  2. The idea is that the students is being rewarded for showing virtue of some kind (we are working on what that means and how we live it out) and that the Saints are our models of virtue.  They get to choose a Saint to remind them to keep making good choices. This metal recipe box was our Saintly virtue box (I upgraded to a larger box this year, but don't have a pic...).  The Saints are organized with little tabs alphabetically.  I restock the box about once a month to keep the options fresh.  All of the Saint cards are pre punched in the upper left hand corner using a standard hole punch.  This makes putting them on the binder ring quick and easy.
The Earning:
You could use this reward system however it works best for your age of students and set up of a classroom.  My students can earn cards in a few ways:
  1. Individually- Student earn and get to choose a card on their own through our classroom management system.  Things like outstanding behavior, demonstration of virtue, and extraordinary academic effort are denoted on our classroom behavior chart and students are able to choose a Saint card.
  2. Class Behavior- My students can also earn cards as a group.  Part of my classroom management system includes a class jar that we collect clips in.  The class earn clips for outstanding behavior, receiving compliments from other adults, achieving a goal, etc.  When the class earns ten clips, they all earn the same Saint card.  I then pull out the next stack of Saint cards and they know what they are working towards earning with their next ten clips.
  3. Gifts- Just like God's grace, sometimes we receive something that we don't necessarily deserve :). Throughout the year, I surprise all of the kids with special Saint cards just as gifts.  We mark days like the beginning and end of school, Christmas and Easter, and our school feast day with Saint cards freely given.
 

The Restocking:
Where do I get all the Saint cards?
  1. Sometimes I buy them.  If there is a card I want for a special occasion or am just feeling like shopping for some unique additions, I will visit our local Catholic bookstore. I also will buy packs of popular Saints in bulk from places like this and this.  Yes, it is pricey initially, but the packs last me several years and the cards work out to cost pennies each.  
  2. I get a lot of Catholic "junk" mail, and those mailings often contain prayer cards.  I also have a lovely group of church ladies who save me all the cards they receive in the mail as well.  All of those cards help add variety to what I buy in bulk. My principal has started saving them for us from the mail the school receives, too!  I'm always on the lookout for more people to share with us!
  3. Occasionally, I will get a stack for free.  When visiting a church or shrine or other Catholic places, they often have holy cards available for visitors to take.  I often will tell them that I am a Catholic school teacher and ask if I can have 25 or 30 for my students, and they always say yes. :)
  4. I also print or make my own Saint cards.  I have a stash of pdfs that I just print on colored cardstock on our school copier.  Cut, punch, file, and I have super cheap cards.  A lot of the pdfs that I have are from this site before they started charging for membership.  If you really want to start using this reward system, it might be worth it to become a member so you can use their files.  I also will occasionally design my own Saint cards, especially if we are studying the life of a particular Saint.  I also have made cards to give on the occasion of special events, like the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis.  These cards that I print myself are always the cards that I use for whole class behavior as mentioned above- it would be too expensive to use purchased cards for that purpose. 
Thanks to reader Denise for sharing some links to free prayer cards from Loyola Press here and here and here.
 
The Collecting:
Kids love to collect things, and if baseball cards or game character cards have worked, why not Saint cards?  My students have loved working towards adding to a collection as the school year went on.
  1. The students will scope out the Saintly virtue box and often have a plan as to who they would like to collect next.  (This makes those random individual cards that I get in the mail all the more valuable!)
  2. When we are working towards a classroom reward, the students always know what Saint card they will be earning.  We learn about that Saint and ask for their help as they strive to earn them for their collection.
  3. A most favorite day is when we have our trading day at the end of the year.  Sometimes I have one just before Christmas and at the end of the year.  The students get all of their cards off of the chain and spread them out.  At this time, if they have ended up with duplicates of any cards, they can trade them in with me.  They also can walk around the room and barter with classmates to trade cards.  I love watching and listening to this process!  They get so excited, but are still so polite.  This year I heard things like: "I'll trade you my Sacred Heart of Jesus for that Image of Divine Mercy" "Nope, that St. John Paul II is staying here." "Whoa! St. Rose of Lima! Wanna trade for St. Agnes?"  They get to make up their own dream team.
  4. And finally, the students get to take home their Saint card ring at the end of the year.  They have quite the collection of these holy cards, and I have heard from many former students that they have kept them (yay!) and have even added more to it.  I think it is an awesome keepsake, but more importantly a great resource for prayer and learning.

So there you have my classroom reward system!  I like it more and more each year, and hope that it continues to bear fruit in the lives of my students.  If you have any ideas or additional resources, I'd love to hear them!

15 comments:

  1. This is such a great idea. I would have totally loved this as a kid in my CCD class (went to public school). Maybe I'll try it in my CCD classes. I think even older Confirmation-age kids would like this. Thank you for all your great ideas. - Laura G.

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    1. Thanks, Laura! I agree that it could work for older kids, too. And I would have loved doing this in CCD as well! That is part of the beauty of being a teacher- you get to recreate and enhance all of your educational experiences! :)

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  3. This is fantastic! I think I will use this at home when my boys are older (they are only 1.5 and 3.5 now but do love their saints). This is a fantastic classroom management tool and way to teach multiple topics and skills all at once. Home run!

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    1. Thanks, Terri! I think it would be an awesome thing to do with your boys!

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  4. I really like this. I know my kids loved getting saint cards. The problem comes on what to do with them all! I saw some photo / card type books which are neat for kids but to do a classroom of kids, this is ideal. Do you think it would get hopelessly knotted up if I had to put it up and take it down each week for CCD? I could maybe use a photo album and each pocket is for a kid. But the visual string of kids/cards is nice.

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    1. Hi Nicole! I don't think the chain would get too tangled- I've had to take mine down as is (and it even has fallen once fully loaded) and nothing was tangled. The trick is making sure the kids close the binder rings completely, especially if you will be moving it. In the room where you teach, is there a chalkboard or whiteboard with a chalk tray? It would work well to clip both ends of the chain to the tray and letting the card collections hang horizontally. It would be easy for the kids to find their own then! I'd love to hear back from you about how it works for you!

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    2. Thanks! Yes, it's a regular classroom. The teacher has things hung up everywhere. Even finding space to write on the chalkboard is a struggle sometimes. I plan on dumping all the cards in a box and not caring about organization. :) I'll have a roomful of boys (like 25 boys and five or six girls) - pray for me!

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  5. Hi Nicole! I don't think the chain would get too tangled- I've had to take mine down as is (and it even has fallen once fully loaded) and nothing was tangled. The trick is making sure the kids close the binder rings completely, especially if you will be moving it. In the room where you teach, is there a chalkboard or whiteboard with a chalk tray? It would work well to clip both ends of the chain to the tray and letting the card collections hang horizontally. It would be easy for the kids to find their own then! I'd love to hear back from you about how it works for you!

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    1. I came up with a different way to collect the cards. While I like hanging it up for all to see, I thought it would be more hassle and work. Instead, I glued a clasp envelope inside the cover of each student's notebook and will put the "Name is growing in saintly virtue" on that. I think it will be more efficient timewise as well for me and the kids, and that's certainly necessary for ccd!

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  6. What container do you use now to hold all the cards?

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    1. I just moved to a larger recipe box that had more room but also kept everything upright. If you had A LOT of cards, you could use a photo storage box (they usually come with dividers) and supplement with extra dividers- usually can find them in office supply stores.

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  7. Do you have a system of which saint is given for which virtue? Or is it just month to month there's a saint for each month and those with good behavior get that saint? I'm teaching middle school, and love this idea! It's my first year, so I'm not sure I have the time or resources to make it happen this year, but next year I'd love to utilize this!

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  8. This is fantastic! I think I will use this at home when my boys are older (they are only 1.5 and 3.5 now but do love their saints). This is a fantastic classroom management tool and way to teach multiple topics and skills all at once. Home run!
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  9. Learning about the saints is so inspirational and can offer life long lessons. Kudos for finding such a fun and interesting way to share this with the students!

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