Beyond high fives and words of praise, it can be difficult to find new, creative ways to celebrate your students’ success.

If your school district is like mine, one of the elements on our annual evaluation is “celebrating success,” so not only is it important, but we receive an official score on how well we do it.

No pressure, right?!

Aside from my evaluation, this is a concept that is important to me, and I really want to get it right.

It makes my classroom a better place to be and it leads to less frustration for me. Let me tell you why…

Why is it important?

Making your students feel special is a great part of teacher life, right? What if I told you that this action does more than just give that warm, fuzzy feeling? It can:

• Motivate students
• Build or strengthen your relationship with students
• Create a positive atmosphere in your classroom
• Encourage students to keep trying

For all those reasons and more, I feel that it is worth my time to continue to seek out new and exciting ways to celebrate my students’ success. 

Just think: Picture your classroom. What happens when your students reach a new reading level, or master a difficult skill?

What is your reaction when they have an “aha” moment, and the learning just clicks?

I’m sure you picture yourself being filled with joy and excitement, and ready to….you guessed it….celebrate that success!

With that moment in mind, I want to help you plan for simple, easy-to-use celebrations you can use immediately with your students, so that when the moment to celebrate comes, you’ll be ready!

Where to Start

Finding the right means of celebrating student success is important.

You can spend hours surfing on Pinterest for ideas, but if the celebrations don’t feel natural, you are not likely to actually use them.

When brainstorming or searching for celebrations, be realistic and focus on what’s doable for you.

Defining how you want to celebrate success in your classroom will help guide you in finding the celebrations that are right for you. 

Ask yourself questions like: 

1. How much time do I want to commit to celebrating each success?
2. Do I want to involve only the student, or the whole class?
3. Do I want all rewards/celebrations to be free of cost, or am I willing to spend money on rewards or certain celebration items?
4. Do I want to have a way to let parents know about their child’s success, and how we celebrated?

5 Ready-to-Use Ideas for Celebrating Success

Here are some ways I have celebrated success in my classroom over the years:

1. “Success” coupons for a drawing

Each time a student experiences a success, give him/her a coupon for a drawing! The drawing could culminate (weekly, or as often as you’d like) with a prize like having lunch with the teacher, a tangible treat/item, sitting with a friend for a day, or a free homework pass.

      2.   Class announcement, followed by 3 power claps

Whether it’s during a planned class meeting or as each success occurs, stop and recognize it. Other students may offer praise with 3 power claps in unison. 

      3.   “Success Journal”

 A small memo book could be transformed into a “Success Journal,” and students can record each success in it. When students experience and record a success, have them place their journal on your desk, open to that page, so you can add a sticker, stamp or write an encouraging note. 

      4.   Wall of Success

My daughter’s gymnastics center gave me a wonderful idea….create a wall of success! This is simply just a bulletin board where die-cut pieces of paper are hung, with hand-written notes detailing gymnasts’ exciting new achievements, like “Hannah completed her first back handspring!” or “Jason held his handstand for 15 seconds! That’s a new class record!” A beautiful thing about the wall of success is that students can write and post their own successes, and you can invite other teachers/staff to post about your students’ successes as well. 

      5.   Dojo Points

Many teachers in my building use Class Dojo. It’s a great tool for behavior management and parent communication. If you use Class Dojo, consider adding a few points to celebrate a student’s success. You can even send a quick note to the parent about it, for example: “I’m so proud that Johnny mastered his multiplication facts this week! He worked really hard! Great job!”

If none of the ideas above fit within your plans for celebrate success, there is a multitude of resources online. You can find more ideas by:

-Searching Pinterest

-Google search

-Asking colleagues

-Brainstorming original ideas

Celebrating success is a year-long effort.

You’ll even begin to notice successes you may not have stopped to recognize before.

Research points to the effectiveness of such celebrations as not just incentives for students to keep working hard and feeling motivated, but as an overall boost to the classroom climate.

I want my students to feel valued and celebrated, so I will continue to work hard at celebrating their success. 

P.S. I can’t deny… it’s rewarding for me, too! I LOVE seeing growth and achievement with every new group of students. It’s why we do this job, right?!

If you’re an upper elementary teacher having trouble with classroom management, be sure to check out my course. I created it with new and struggling teachers in mind!