Increase Reading with a Tree: Easy Reading Incentive for Kids

The following reading incentive I used in my classroom in the fall and it was a huge success, when I say huge I mean huge, even my non-readers wanted to read, it increased reading in my overall classroom. What was so great about my reading incentive idea was it also worked at home fabulously with my daughters who were elementary age at the time.

Reading Incentive in the Classroom

In the corner of my classroom, I placed a silk tree (fake ficus tree). The tree was used for my apple unit, when a student would read a book, he/she could write up a book summary, it could be as short as a paragraph or as long as a page, whatever the student chose. I would then give the student an apple I had pre-cut out of construction paper, hole punched the apple at the top and tied yarn through the hole. The student wrote the title of their book on the apple with their name and they then had the honor of hanging their apple on the ficus tree.

Reading Incentive at Home

At home, I also had a fake ficus tree and I did the same thing with my daughers as I did with the students at school except that I did not always have my daughters write the book summary, if they read a book they could hang the apple on the tree.

Increase Reading in School and Home

My daughters and my students loved it so much I ended up making it a seasonal tree, in October I used pumpkin shapes, towards December and January I used snowflakes and so on for each month. My students and daughters were so excited about not knowing what seasonal shape was coming each month. When each month passed, my students and my daughters took their shapes off the tree and kept them at home.

As each month went by, the kids excitement continued and it was amazing to me how much my students and my daughters loved this very easy reading incentive and how much it increased reading in my classroom and at home.