Awards and Certificates galore

Each month I give my Top Dogs (student's nominated for demonstrating the character education trait of the month) a certificate. At my previous school (yep previous- more info. to come) we used the Core Essentials program. One thing that makes this program great is that a lot of the work is done for you. Their program comes with outlined daily announcements, monthly scripts, newsletters for parents and teacher, lessons plans, posters and more.

Poster of the character traits for each month

Although I only used parts (for example we incorporated the character education words and not always the color and animal that they put with it) it was a great program. Probably one of my favorite things was the fact they provided us certificates ready made each month along with a local partnership with Lanes Trains and Automobiles and Chik Fil A to give these students a reward as well.

March Newsletter for Parents

So when I moved schools I was sad to see this resource go. So I started searching for my favorite FREE certificate maker online.  I haven't found the perfect maker yet, but I have found a few good ones:

Lake Shore Learning:

The award maker at this website allows you to choose from a variety of cute awards and type directly into the certificate. It's super easy, you can print right away without a download, and they have several to choose from. What I don't love it the designs, they are great for elementary school (not middle or high) and I wish there were a few more options (but beggars can't be choosers right.)


Certificate Magic: These certificates are just too funny. My first thought was oh I wish I was at my old school because I would give some of my friends the certificate for looking busy! They would have had a good laugh. I do love the Golden Lunchbox award as well. I think it would be super fun to give students who participate in Mix It Up Day, show random acts of kindness at lunch, or demonstrate amazing lunch room behavior. It's a cute award you can easily personalize.

Kid Certs: This is a great place for a more detailed certificate. You have the choice a few different borders, the ability to type in the award name and description, as well as add a famous quote or your own custom quote. I like the custom quote because you could add in a quote about the specific character education trait or the schools' motto.

Customize your certificate

Free Certificate!

I was really looking for a great dog themed award for my Top Dogs, which I still haven't found. However I did run across this website to download lots of dog themed things like book cards.


So what is your favorite place to print off awards?