# Rewards without prizes: motivating a class with team games > Motivate a class without sweets or prizes: team points, hidden scores, a cooperative game, praise routines and a steal rule that keeps everyone in. Source: https://olyclass.com/blog/rewards-without-prizes/ · Published 2026-10-30 Sweets and small prizes work, for a while. Then they get expensive, some parents and schools would rather you didn't, students start asking "what do we get?" before every activity, and the same few students win them every week. Most teachers who have tried a prize box know the feeling of being trapped by it. The good news: in a team game, the game itself is the reward. Points on a big screen, a moment of applause, a comeback in the last question and a teacher who notices good teamwork are enough for most classes. Here is how to make that work. ## Points are enough (when they mean something) Students care about points that are visible, fair and connected to something they did. A team game on one screen gives you all three: the scores are on the screen, the rules are the same for every team, and every point comes from a right answer. What makes points lose their power: - **The same team always wins.** If the result is clear by question five, the other teams stop trying. Balance the teams (see [how to make teams fast and fair](https://olyclass.com/blog/make-teams-fast-and-fair/)) and pick games that keep the score close. - **Points that don't come back.** If a team loses a point for every mistake, a weak team can sink to zero and give up. In Oly, "Wrong answers lose a point" is off by default; leave it off for most classes, and scores never go below zero anyway. - **Points for behaviour mixed with points for answers.** It is tempting to add or remove points for noise. It works once and then the score stops meaning anything. Keep game points for the game, and deal with behaviour another way (pausing works well, see below). ### Games that keep everyone hopeful Some games are built so that teams at the bottom still have a real chance: - [Paper Race](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/paper-race/): the car in last place moves two steps instead of one, so nobody falls far behind. - [Lucky Wheel](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/lucky-wheel/): a right answer spins the wheel, and one segment swaps your score with the leader. The lead changes hands often. (If losing the lead would upset your class, you can turn the swap off.) - [Tile Grab](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/tile-grab/): a star, a magnet or a lucky box can change the order in one turn. - [Bowling](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/bowling/), [Mini Golf](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/mini-golf/) and [Penalty Kick](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/penalty-kick/): after a right answer the team chooses a safe or a risky shot. A star lane doubles the pins, the cup is worth 5, the top corner 3 instead of 2 (if the ball clears the bar). A team that is behind can go for the big points. Hope is a better motivator than any prize. A team that can still win keeps trying until the last question. ## Hide the score For younger classes, or for a group where winning matters too much, try **hiding the score**. In Oly it is one setting on the Ready page, and you can switch it during the game from ⚙︎. The game still plays (tiles open, cars move, towers rise), but nobody keeps track of who is ahead. You might be surprised how little changes. Students still cheer for a good answer and still want their turn. What disappears is the sulking from the team at the bottom, and the "we lost" at the end. Hiding the score is also a good way to play the first game with a new class, before you know how they handle competition. ## Play together, not against each other Some classes are simply too competitive. Every game ends with an argument, and the losing team takes it personally. For them, try a cooperative game where the whole class has the same goal. In [High Water](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/high-water/), the whole class builds one tower on an island while the sea rises. Teams still answer in turn, but every right answer adds two floors in that team's colour to the same tower. After every question the sea comes up, and a wrong answer brings it up faster. Finish with the top dry and the class wins together; let the water reach the top and the sea wins this time. Watch what happens to the room: teams cheer for each other's answers, because every floor helps. Before a hard question you can read out the number beside the tower ("We're three above the sea, can we afford a miss?") and the whole class leans in. If they lose, play again with the same set; the second try is often a win, and the class sees its own progress. That feeling is worth more than a sticker. ## Praise routines that cost nothing A few seconds of the right kind of praise does more than a prize at the end. Some routines that work in team games: - **Praise the team, not the star.** "Team 2 whispered and agreed before answering. That's how you do it." It rewards the behaviour you want from everyone. - **Name the process.** "Leo didn't know, asked his team, and got it right." It tells the class that asking for help is part of the game. - **A class applause for any comeback.** When the team in last place scores, everyone claps once. It sounds small, but students remember it. - **The "best team player" at the end.** Each team names one teammate who helped others. No prize needed; being named in front of the class is the reward. - **The class's own record.** Write the class's number of right answers on the board ("Today: 14 of 18"). Next time, the class tries to beat its own record rather than another team. Oly's summary screen helps here: it shows the podium and how many answers were right, so you can point to it and celebrate the class as well as the winner. ## Steal: the rule that keeps everyone in The biggest motivation killer in a team game is waiting with nothing to do. The **steal** rule fixes that. In Oly, switch on "Other teams can steal a missed question": after a wrong answer, the question stays open, another team can answer it, and you tap which team got it right on your phone. That team gets the full reward (the tile, the spin, the shot) but no extra turn. Now every team has a reason to think about every question, including the other teams' questions. Quiet teams get extra chances to score, and nobody switches off while it's not their turn. A few tips: - **Make a rule for who steals.** "Hands up as a team, and I pick the first team that agrees in a whisper." Otherwise you get shouting. - **Use it in turn-based games.** In games where every team already answers every question, such as Ring the Bell, there is nothing to steal. - **Don't use it with a very young class at first.** Learn the basic game, then add steal the next time. ## Pause instead of punishing When the noise gets too much, resist taking points away. Tap **Pause** on your phone instead. The big screen shows a pause screen, nothing moves, and the class quickly learns that the game only continues when it is calm. Pausing is a consequence everyone understands, and it doesn't wreck the score of a team that was trying. ## A no-prize routine - Balanced teams and a game that keeps the score close - Wrong answers don't lose points - Steal on, with a hand-up rule - Hidden score for younger or very competitive classes - High Water when the class needs to pull together - Praise the team and the process; one "best team player" per team - Pause, don't punish For the full set of routines, see the guide to [classroom management games](https://olyclass.com/classroom-management-games/). Or pick a game from the [library](https://olyclass.com/library/) and try it with the score hidden.