Ahoy There, Matey!

😊

In honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day, I transformed my classroom into a pirate's ship. The entire day was filled with rich content. Doing room transformations is a wonderful way to add a little magic to your classroom. I try to do one transformation a month. It does not have to cost a lot of money, but it adds value to your classroom environment.

The night before the transformation, I sent home an invitation. It gave the students an idea of what might be in store for them and it built excitement for coming to school the next day.

Items needed for my pirate transformation:

gold coins

eye patches

coin pouches

a pirate flag

cream drop cloths

blue drop cloths 

blue plastic table cloths

a plank

paint sticks

cups

clipboards

atlases

caution tape

Most of the items came from Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree and Lowes. 

Content!

The purpose of a room transformation is not just to decorate your room. There must be strong academic content to go along with the theme. Who has time for fluff!?!

For my Language Arts classes, my students had four tasks using different passages about pirates: setting, dialogue, text annotation, and formative questions. For my history classes, students had 4 games to find hidden treasure using lines of latitude and longitude.

😊

Behavior

Beware! If you aren't working, you must walk the plank. I also had gold coins on the tables. When students correctly finished the assignments, they received a gold coin. At the end, the students with the highest amount received a treat.

What a fun day! The students had a blast while engaging in rigorous content.

I encourage you to try a room transformation. Your students will love it!

Tricia

Checkers

Are you always trying to find new and innovative activities to bring to your classroom to help with student engagement like I am? This summer as I was walking through the Dollar Tree, I spotted plastic checkers games. I hit the jackpot and didn't even realize it at the time. I bought 13 games and began brainstorming how I would use them.

It didn't take very long until Prepositions Review Checkers was born. I made task cards with sentences for the students to find the preposition and infinitive phrases. This game could be used with any subject area. I think it is an excellent way to review content.

How to play:
* 2 players per game board
* The game is played exactly as you would play checkers. You just add the content you are covering.
* One player draws a card and finds the preposition or infinitive phrase(s).
* They bring their answer (documented on their answer document) to me to be checked.
* If the answer is correct, they get to move a checker piece on their game board.
* Player 2 goes next and follows the same steps.
* If an answer is wrong, that player must correct their answer, but they lose their turn.

I encourage you to try this out. My students absolutely loved it!

Tricia

Hamburger Writing

Hamburger Writing

Thanks to the amazing Hope King at the Ron Clark Academy, I discovered this fantastic activity. I call it GYR writing. http://www.elementaryshenanigans.com/2013/09/the-hamburger-paragraph-little-5-for.html

Green= main idea/topic sentence
Yellow= supporting details
Red= back it up

G-Y-R-Y-R-Y-R-G (at least 8 sentences)

I use this format with expository paragraph writing. It's an excellent way for students to visualize and organize their writing.

To let the students really enjoy the fruits of their labors, we made "hamburgers" based on their writing homework. I assignment: Why did the settlers travel west in the 1800s? The students wrote their paragraph and highlighted their responses. Then I gave them a score. The score determined their hamburger toppings.

Toppings:
buns- vanilla wafers
meat- peppermint patty
lettuce- shredded coconut with green food coloring
ketchup- red icing
mustard- yellow icing

I hope you enjoy this activity as much as we did!

Tricia