Spring Theme Practice Incentive Program

The studio-wide practice challenge that will make your students “blossom”.

Are you having spring fever yet?  This year, we have been pretty fortunate and the weather has been on the warmer side but I am ready for spring!  My blue and silver stage theme will start to come down and our bright cheery flowers will make their way to the stage.

This year, I decided it was time I bring back a studio-wide practice challenge (just in time for recital prep)!  I will be using a flower theme to match the floral walls that will be on the stage and in the studio.

If you are interested in running a studio-wide practice challenge that will be easy AND adaptable for each student (and for every instrument), I’ve got it all for you!

How It Works

You will assign goals for each student to work on each week (I typically assign 3-5 goals per student).  If the student accomplishes the goal by the following week, we color a petal on their flower for each goal that they reached.  

Once they complete an entire flower, they are entered to win the big prize at the end of the program!  

It’s that simple.

This flower incentive program works great for multi-instrument and multi-teacher studios because each goal is geared towards each individual student.  

What you will need:

• Copies of Flowers: You can get yours in a download here.  There are a couple of size options for you to choose from.  You can either choose to print them on white paper and have the students color each petal OR you could print these out on colorful paper and cut out each petal and then reattach with double-sided tape.  

This year I have decided to print the flowers out and let students color or decorate each petal because it’s less cutting and hassle for me. That’s what I call a win!  If you do want to print the flowers out on colorful paper, ask one of your older students if they would like to take a stack home and cut them out for you.  

• Tacks or double-sided tape to hang the flowers on your wall (or a bulletin board or a foam poster board).

• Promotional Materials: Studio-wide incentive programs work really well when you “advertise” the big event.  In our Flower Incentive Download, you will find a printable flyer to hang around the studio and images for social media.
• Decorations: Decorating your studio also helps kids get excited for the practice challenge.  Last year, I bought flowers at Dollar Tree and then hung them on the wall with colorful tacks that I also found at Dollar Tree.  
• Last year I made a couple of photo frames that matched the flowers on the wall. This year I will definitely reuse those frames but I also made a photo prop just for you!  You’ll find it in our teacher's group Melodic Mentors Group.    
• The Big Prize: In the past, I have ordered small prizes from Oriental Trading and purchased prizes at Dollar Tree.  You can also give gift cards or this Nanoblock Piano.

What other teachers are saying:

Though I do have two in-house helpers), but having the goal sheets for me to keep track of everyone's goals each week has been super helpful. We went on for 6 weeks with it and although I have very few students right now, it REALLY kept them going these past few weeks! I am excited to deliver the goodie bags tomorrow. All students are receiving bags with flower seeds, Kinder egg, treble clef pencils, a summer theory packet, and a few pieces of sheet music, stickers, and any grand prize they won. I did the Nano block piano, a piano keychain, and some posters as the prizes that had to be pulled for. Our next challenge is just a short 10-day practice streak. Thanks, Tara for this idea. If it kept even one of my students motivated I was happy to do it! -Heather Netemeyer