Lesson 29

No matter how old you are, sticker charts always work.

We have a variation of the Sticker System in my classroom. If you do an exceptional job, do extra work, or finish your entire lunch, you get a sticker. When your entire sticker chart is filled up, you are the "star" of the class for the day. This means that you are first for everything. It's a good incentive and the kids are obsessed with it. Plus, my mom sent a whole bunch of really nifty stickers and the kids went totally bananas for them.

During our midday break Kristen mentioned that she needs to start running again after taking a few days off from her regular schedule (she went hiking and the result was incredibly sore legs). Holly commended her for her dedication to daily running and said that it's sparking her competitive side again. Same thing goes for me. Shannon mentioned that she also wanted to get in shape for Thailand (she, Tonya, Kristen, Holly, and Kelsey are going there for Christmas vacation).

Then Holly got a great idea. "Who wants to get back their beach bod by Christmas?" she asked us. Seeing as how we're a staff of all women, everyone raised their hands. "Listen carefully girls," she says. "This is what we're going to do. Everyone is going to have a sticker chart." We burst out laughing. "No seriously!" she says. "Whenever you do a substantial amount of cardio exercise, you have to write it on the chart and then you get a sticker. It's going to be a competition! Come on. Who's with me?"

Kristen pipes up, "What do we get if we fill up the sticker chart?" We have yet to figure that out. But now on the wall in our office next to the school announcements is everyone's individual exercise sticker chart. It's on!