Do you use token economy strips or work for cards in your classroom? If so, then you know how quickly they can rip, get crumpled or even chewed! Here is a quick way to make the work for cards without spending a lot of money!
All you need to make your own “work for” cards are a flexible binder, scissors, a sharpie and little pieces of Velcro. That’s it! As you can see in the picture below, my binder is a little beat up. My son used it in elementary school last year, so it shows a little wear and tear but I can still get 6 to 7 token strips out of it without spending any more money.
First, trace or draw out the shape you want your work for card to be on the binder. Next, cut the strip out with your scissors. I make my cards a rectangle.
The corners of the token card will be sharp. Make sure you round the corners so a student doesn’t get scratched or scratch someone else.
Repeat these steps until you have cut out as many token cards as possible. I got 6 or 7 from this beat up binder, but you can get 10 to 15 from a new binder (depending on the size of your strips.)
Most of my students work for 5 pennies during a task, so I draw the outline of 5 pennies on my cards. I also number the circles to help students develop one to one correspondence and see how many pennies they still need to ear in order to “cash in” for their reinforcers.
I also trace a square at the end of the strip where the picture of the reinforcer goes. This is how they look at this point:
The only thing left to do is to add the velcro and then they are ready to be used!
This is how I have been making our work for cards for years. They have worked very well in my class and have survived being chewed on, squished, folded, etc.
We use a token economy behavior system in my classroom. The focus is on positive reinforcement and is SOOOO EFFECTIVE! You can read about how I use these in my classroom by clicking HERE.
Don’t forget to pin this image so you and other teachers can use the directions.
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