I would love any information you have on this. Our school is implementing dog tags this year. My email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Any info you can send me would be great!

I love some of the ideas on here! At our school, the goals are set by students and teachers together. When they reach their goal for the quarter, there are prizes that are a pretty big deal: a field trip to the local roller skating rink; ice cream at the local ice cream shop (walking distance); a "candy grab" in the gym; a "dance party" in the gym - all during the school day. They have a special treat for our students who reach 200+ points: they take a field trip to Barnes & Nobel, get to pick out one book (value approx. $10) and get a mini-Frappuccino and then they go to lunch together. Since 200 is a pretty high goal, we typically have less than 10 kids that qualify. To share the transportation cost, the same prize is offered at another elementary school in our district.

I have the scoop from our librarian about the dogtags. I was off a bit on the points.
They are as follows.
5pt-student earns chain, gold tag w/ name engraved
10pt.-orange yeild sign w/ # of pts & school name engraved (from here all tags are engraved w/ # of pts. and school name)
15pts.-red stop sign
25pts.-purple diamond
50pts.-blue star
75pts.-red fire hydrant
100pts.-gold Texas
150pts.-mouse
200pts.-green dog head
250pts.-cat
300pts.-orange dog bone
350pts. - bell
400pts.-blue dog house
We buy the chain from Home Depot by the roll. It's the silver links;it's more durable for all the tugging the necklaces endure.
It is cut with wire cutters to size, approx. 36 inches. We buy the tags from J.P. Cooke Co. (402)342-7175. They can send a brochure of the various tags they carry. The tags come with the rings that hold them to the necklace. We take each end of the chain and loop it through the ring of the name tag to hold the necklace together.
Our librarian bought her own engraver and she does all engraving. Pretty crafty librarian, huh?
Well, there you have it [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for the response all - I like the idea of the dog tags! Hey CBrooks- I totally understand the age thing, but yeah, I remember digging for pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters -what do they charge now?! Anyway, I got the gist. Just wondered how tags were earned. Thanks again to all for explaining. Think we'll look into this! Have a great one!

Our AR program sets goals for the whole school. After our kids reached 10,000 four kids in every class got to throw cream pies at the principals, the librarian and the gym teacher. Each teacher decided on the four, whether it be the four that had the most points or just a random drawing. The whole school got to watch and was it ever funny. After 14,500 each class got an afternoon of watching a movie and popcorn. There are charts up as the hour glass got fuller. I noticed the kids kept up with their own personal competitions without anything from the school. Even our kids in need of reading help were featured for hours they spent reading.

Hi All,
I apologize for the delay in getting back to you kinmankids, crazy week in PTO land. I'll assume the AR testing is the same at all schools. All books are on a point basis, lower levels earn .5, and as the books become harder the points earned goes up. At our school Kinder is not required to take AR, but are welcome to start. Once a child has reached 5.0 pts. they get their name tag (we engrave the name). It is easily obtained by the kids. From there, they get an add'l tag every 5 pts., the tags are in different colors and shapes. Your right CBrooks, the boys love them too [img]smile.gif[/img] At the end of the year they turn in their necklaces, all tags are removed except their name tag. When we start the new year they get their necklaces back and have to start over. The 5th graders get to keep their necklaces when they move on to Jr. High.
I will get with our librarian next week and make sure I've told you the point process correctly, and find out where we purchase the tags.
It truly has been a huge sucess at our school! They're bright, and jingly, and lots of fun.