Kidsday: Bowes Bucks encourage good deeds

One of the many exciting things we do in my class is getting Bowes Bucks. If you are well behaved in school, you can get play money called Bowes Bucks, and you can buy special prizes.

This activity, encouraged by our teacher Shari Bowes, teaches students how to write and balance checks. It is based on economics, so kids also get an educational value out of it. Students can earn money by doing something kind for someone else such as helping, encouraging and including others.

You can also earn money by doing an act of kindness such as getting someone's papers if they forgot them and you found them by accident, cleaning up a mess or even holding the door for someone. You can get money taken away by doing something wrong like running in the hallway, calling out in class or distracting others. If you bully someone and the teacher sees it, you will lose all your money, and you will get suspended if it is physical.

When you have enough money to go to the class shopping center (usually about 5 to 10 bucks), you can buy special prizes. You can get very good prizes and items. For example, you can buy a no homework pass for 5. bucks. Something like a pizza lunch with Mrs. Bowes in the classroom instead of eating regular lunch in the cafeteria would take 15 Bowes Bucks. You would have to be extremely good to earn that many.