End of the Year Awards Elementary School

Classroom Awards Make Kids Feel Special!

Most schools have some sort of award program at the end of the year to recognize students for achieving the Honor Roll, having perfect attendance, or excelling in other areas. Most of my students received an award, but there were always some who didn’t receive anything at all. Typically these children were the very ones who had struggled all year and who were facing difficulties and a lack of parent support. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.

So I decided that our classroom would have its own awards program and that every student would get some type of award. I was not trying to diminish the importance of the schoolwide awards, but simply to acknowledge that all of my students were special in some way and deserving of some type of award.

A Unique Award for Each Student

I worked with the class to brainstorm a list of unique awards such as, “Super Reader Award,” “Sharing & Caring Award,” and “Animal Care Expert.” We chose not to include silly things like “Class Clown” because we wanted everyone to feel valued and appreciated. The students nominated their classmates for these awards, but I always made the final decision for each award and kept it a secret until the last day of school. Here’s a list of some of the awards we came up with.

End of Year Awards Classroom Superlatives Positive for ALL students! Included are 112 unique award certificates to hand out to kids as awards or superlatives toward the end of the year. You can have students vote on these or choose them yourself. Every single award is unique to your students so no two students get the same award. (Teachers Pay Teachers)