How many tasks should a reward chart have?

Three or four for a first chart, and eight at the very most. Fewer tasks means each one gets attention, and it means the chart still looks winnable on a bad day. You can always add a task in week three once the first ones have stuck.

Should I take a star away for bad behaviour?

No. A chart records what was done, and taking stars back turns it into a scoreboard the child can lose, which is the point at which most children stop trying. Leave the square empty and start the next day fresh.

What age do reward charts stop working at?

Usually around eight or nine, when the novelty of the sticker wears off faster than the habit forms. Older children generally respond better to a plain agreement, or to seeing their own progress recorded rather than rewarded.

Is my child's name or the tasks I type stored anywhere?

No. Everything you type stays in your browser and is never sent to us or anyone else. There is no sign-up, no email box and no server behind this page, which is why the chart disappears when you close the tab.

Can I print it in black and white?

Yes. Pick the ink saver theme and the chart prints as ink on white with no colour fills. The stars are drawn as outlines in every theme, so they are always something to colour in rather than something already coloured.

PrintablePopular

Reward and Star Chart Maker

Type up to eight things that earn a star, pick the week and a colour, and print a chart with a square for every day. Stars to colour in or empty boxes for stickers, and a line for the reward you agreed.

The chart

Chart title

Child's name

Leave it blank and the chart prints a line to write on.

Colour

Week starts on

Each square

Somewhere to stick a sticker, or a star to colour in.

Tasks

4 of 8. Short lines read best from across a room.

Add a task

The reward

Print a reward lineAgreeing the reward before the week starts is the part that makes the chart work.

Stars to collect

Reward

Leave it blank to fill in together by hand.

Nothing here is sent anywhere unless you choose to send or save it - both are one-off and used for nothing else.

My Star Chart

NameWeek beginning

This week I will	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Made my bed
Brushed my teeth
Read for ten minutes
Tidied my room

Stars to collect 20Then we will

Weekly reward chartPebbleYard - pebbleyard.com

A reward chart is one week of one habit, made visible. It is not a discipline system and it does not work for everything, but for a specific, repeatable thing a child can control - teeth brushed, reading done, shoes put away - it is the simplest tool there is. This builder gives you a seven-day grid with your own tasks on it, a star to colour or a box for a sticker in every square, and a line for the reward you agreed before the week started.

What makes a reward chart work, and what makes one fail

Charts work when the task is something the child can actually do on their own. "Brush your teeth without being asked" is a fair chart line. "Be good" is not, because nobody can tell at the end of the day whether it happened, and a chart nobody can score is a chart that gets abandoned in about four days.

Charts fail when they carry too much. Eight tasks is the maximum here and it is a maximum, not a target: three or four is usually better, especially for the first week. A chart with eight lines on it means eight chances to fall short, and a child looking at a row of empty squares is not being motivated by it.

The most common failure of all is taking stars away. A chart is a record of what was done, and removing a star turns it into a punishment ledger - at which point the child stops caring whether they earn the next one. If a day goes badly the square just stays empty, and tomorrow starts at zero rather than below it.

Agree the reward before the week starts, and write it on the sheet. Deciding afterwards turns the whole thing into a negotiation, and the chart stops being a promise you keep.

Choosing the reward

The reward almost never needs to be a thing that costs money. Picking Saturday's film, staying up twenty minutes later, choosing what is for dinner on Friday, or an hour at the park with a parent to themselves all outperform a toy, and they do not set a price that has to be beaten next month.

Set the target so that it is reachable with a normal week, not a perfect one. If there are four tasks over seven days there are twenty-eight stars available, and a target of twenty means a couple of bad days do not sink the week. A target that requires every square filled will be missed once and then ignored.

For younger children, a smaller reward at the end of each week beats a large one at the end of a month. Under about six, a month is not a real unit of time, and a chart with a distant payoff is just a chart.

The rest of PebbleYard

A chart shows the plan. This shows what they did

Maths, English, spelling, shapes, continents, space and Australia, as lessons to read and timed activities that are marked for you. One account covers the whole family, and you get a record of every run rather than a sheet on the fridge.

Start free trial See pricing