Troll Day!

Happy beginning of Summer Break (to most of my friends)! This school year just flew by! And while I will take a break any day of the week, I will admit that I wasn't tired of teaching...yet! We have a great schedule at my school that includes 2 week breaks at the end of quarters 1-3. Not to mention the snow days and random holidays. So just when you're needing a break...you get it! I actually think it makes me a better teacher because I'm refreshed and ready to go again for another 9 weeks!

But, anyways...

For our last week, we pretty much stuck to our curriculum. But for one day, we had permission to watch the movie, Trolls! So...we decided to make the entire day Trolls Day! 

Now-don't think for a second that we just plopped our kiddos in front of a TV for a movie! We had some fun activities that aligned with some concepts we had been teaching or reviewing to go along with the movie. Check them out below!

1. Push and Pull Factors

We just recently finished our CKLA Domain study on immigration, and we talked a lot about push and pull factors. So, after the Trolls leave the Troll Tree, we had the kids work with buddies to discuss why they left and why they picked their new home.

How awesome was this sweetie's answer for Pull Factors...the "sweet lackustis!" That would be...the sweet acoustics! She was obviously a great listener! You can download a copy of the activity HERE.

2. Build a Bergen Watchtower

The kids were super pumped about this particular project. It was created more as a team project, but it was very STEM in nature. The kids were given about 100 popsicle sticks, 3 cans of Playdoh, an index card, and 4 little people counters to use as their "trolls." Basically, they had to build a structure that would hold their Trolls on an index card for at least 30 seconds. Easy, right?

Nope.

I wish I could post the pictures of their faces as their elaborate structures collapsed time and time again. I will say that I was very proud of how they persevered, even when met with failure time and time again. A few of the groups did manage to get a structure going, and one group managed to get up to 8 inches. It wasn't anything like what I thought they would build, but it worked!

Here was another attempt. They did get their index card and Trolls on top, but the other structure was about an inch taller.

Overall, they had a lot of fun. They did fill out a response sheet on their structure that included their strategy and a drawing of the structure. You can download a copy of this activity HERE.

3. Hair Up!

This was the activity they were the most excited about. Basically, each kid was given a half a yard of colored tulle, a headband, scissors, ruler, and a ribbon. They had to measure and cut 18 pieces of tulle that were two-inches wide to tie onto the headband. 

They weren't perfectly measured, but they sure were cute. It was a fun activity that incorporated measuring, cutting, and tying, so I won't complain!

You can download a free copy of the activity HERE.

4. Mystery Message

I have never seen my kids solve math problems as quick and correct as they did on this activity. They were dying to figure out what the message was. I really liked how it was self-correcting. If their answer was not at the bottom, then they knew they needed to try again. You can download a free copy for your class HERE.

Overall, it was a really fun day. We do special activities and projects all the time, so the kids are pretty used to it, and there were only minor behavior issues. But...it never gets old to surprise them with some fun learning opportunities! We will definitely be doing it again next year!

Five for Friday

Phew! What a week! Coming back off a two-week break was rough enough, but then topping it off with my school's annual Halloween parade and party was especially exhausting. I'm glad to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday and bringing my week to a close. You can link up by clicking HERE.

We had some district assessments this week, and it really messed up our schedule. We only had 25 minutes for math, and I needed to come up with something quick but still purposeful. I had the kids draw spinners on their desks with Expo markers, draw 6 (somewhat) equal parts and label them with +/- 1, 10, and 100. The used a single die to make a 3 digit number. Then they used a large paperclip to spin. They would add whatever the spinner landed on to the number they had rolled. They loved it! It was quick, and it was easy to clean up. The kids use felt squares to erase, but as you can tell on this desk, it was in serious need of a wipe down. So we used Lysol wipes to wipe the desks off at the end of the day. They were good as new! It saved me copies, and I didn't have to drag out the whiteboards.

While visiting my friend Shari's kindergarten classroom, I noticed her centers rotation board. It was a wheel that she turned daily to change the kids stations. She got the idea from Greg at Kindergarten Smorgasboard. It is GENIUS. You can read all about it HERE. Don't those sticky notes make me look all professional? Ha! But...it's working for now. Each day I simply turn the wheel. DONE. So much easier than changing cards every day. When I pull small groups, it's usually 1-2 kids from each group. When we're done, I call a different group and the current group heads back out to their station. It has changed my life!

Ahhhh...testing. We just can't seem to get enough of it, right??? But, I did need some testing folders to prevent wandering second grade eyes. I taped 2 file folders together and then laminated it for durability. They are the perfect size for my little guys.

Speaking of testing, I mentioned my kiddos taking district assessments this week. Well...everything was going okay...until they had to type their answers. And by answers, I mean, "explain your thinking" answers. Like sentences. Can we say disaster???? There were many tears. So, for one of their stations now, they are allowed to play typing games on the laptops. They've got to become more familiar with a keyboard!!! If you haven't checked it out yet, go to ABCYA for some great typing games. You can check it out HERE. I leave a sticky note on the laptop with the names of the games the kids can play with they're at that station. The game is the picture is Jump Key. I especially like it because it forces them to use the shift key for a capital letter.

I've mentioned before that we use CKLA at my school. We have these amazing domain studies, and our current one is Ancient Greek Civilization. We were studying about the first Olympics, so I made these incomplete fact cards. After our read aloud, the students walked the room with buddies and had to find at least 5 facts they could complete to write in the 5 Olympic rings on their papers. If you look close, you can see some of the words are underlined. That's a scaffold in place to help write complete sentences. The kids love any activity that allows them to walk around, use a clipboard, and have a buddy. Win!

And...here's a little bonus for this week. This was our wall for Red Ribbon Week. I used a pack from Pamela Zweygardt. The minions turned out too cute! Go check out her pack on TpT. And in the meantime...have a great Halloween weekend!