End of the Year Character Awards

The end of the school year is time to celebrate students by giving them awards! I’m already thinking about how I can celebrate the end of the year with my students and I’m sure some of you are too!

We’ll definitely make a memory book of our favorite events and activities this year and they’ll receive an end-of-the-year gift from me, but I also want to give my students something special that relates back to their character.

What are character awards?

There are many awards and assemblies that celebrate academic achievement throughout the school year. We know that student achievement is so much more!

Each student comes to school with their own stories, their own experiences, and their own positive or challenging behaviors. Character awards are meant to celebrate the positive character of your students. It will be cherished by your students and parents for years to come. Materialistic gifts will eventually be used up, but telling a student that they are creative or responsible will stay with them forever.

These are great awards to give students monthly or at the end of the year to celebrate their good character! Students will appreciate you acknowledging their positive character traits!

Children LOVE to know that they are good people and appreciate when you acknowledge their efforts and accomplishment.

I have given out these awards monthly in past years. If you want to do it monthly, you could align them with the holidays (i.e., Thanksgiving (November) – Gratitude, Christmas (December) – Kindness, Valentine’s day (February) – Caring, etc.). At the end of the month, I pick 2 student recipients. I recommend you discuss and model what good character looks like and sounds like so students are aware of what these terms actually mean.

This year, I will give character awards to my students at the end of the year. We usually have end-of-the-year parties in our classroom and hand out the awards in front of their parents.

There are 14 awards to choose from. Each award comes with a color and black and white version. Just print the awards, laminate or print them on cardstock for durability, and assign students an award using the award assignment sheet.