Polar Express 2019

Image from here.

Last year, I turned my classroom into the Polar Express. Last year, I was also teaching first grade.  Since I'm in third grade this year - and in a new classroom, I decided to change it up a little bit.  I wanted every scene from the book hanging up in my room.  I thankfully had parent help creating the scenes and hanging them up.  (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!)  The students helped with coloring and painting.

I read the book for them in the morning - and they pointed out every single scene while I was reading.
During the movie, they would shout out, "Mrs. Lynch! That scene is over there!" and they would point to that scene.

We had a great discussion afterwards where we compared book and movie. "Why wasn't that in the book?"  "Why is Pennywise in the movie?"  "Where are his friends in the book?"  The questions kept on coming!

Without further ado, here is a tour of my room:

The first two pictures are actually one - I just couldn't get it in one photo since it wrapped around the corner!

The wolf scene was one that I made last year.

This was made last year (by my co-teacher.)

I made this last year as well.  It was cut into two pieces to fit on the sides of my Promethean Board.

Again, I had to cut this picture to fit on the sides of my Promethean Board.

I ran out of space in my room so I had to put these two scenes on top of each other.

My favorite. 

I also have a video tour which you can see here.  When you watch the video, you can see how I set up the rest of the room - especially when it was time to watch the movie and enjoy our snacks! 

They enjoyed themselves today! :-) 

Have a wonderful holiday - no matter what you celebrate!

Happy New Year!

Rock Your School 2019

 

Image from here.

Last year was the first annual Rock Your School Day.

Last year, I taught first grade.

Last year, I did a pirate room transformation.

This year is totally different.

This year I am teaching third grade.

This year, I decided to turn my room into Gotham City and have my students complete Batman related activities. 

When I set up my classroom this year, I decided I wanted to have a superhero theme.  I was inspired to do superheroes after attending the Get Your Teach On conference.  Now, I'm not an expert on superheroes, but I figured this was perfect!  The students can teach ME about superheroes! They will be more engaged and invested in what's happening.  

Up until last week, I didn't even think I was going to participate in Rock Your School Day.  Then last Thursday (exactly one week before Rock Your School Day,) I talked to my husband.  I told him I wanted to do something superhero theme that involved stations, but I didn't know what I wanted to do.  Since he is quite knowledgeable about superheroes, I figured he would be a good source to go to.  I'm so glad I asked him!  He gave me an idea and then everything started falling into place after that.  (THANK YOU HONEY!!! LOVE YOU!!!)

***Before I continue, let me say that Amazon Prime is the BEST!!!!  I am so grateful for the service they provide and my students now know that most of what I have is from Amazon.***

One of my bulletin boards is of a cityscape.  I took a picture of it, put it in google slides and made it full screen.  

After turning on my Promethean board,  I put black bulletin board paper on the board and traced the cityscape.I did this for 13 panels!  Then we glued yellow squares / rectangles to the buildings to resemble windows.  I enlisted the help of some students to get this done.  (All of this creating started Friday the 13th.)

I stayed late at school Wednesday.  With the help of my former colleague and the help of a parent, we transformed my room into Gotham City.

I also turned my stage into the Batmobile.  If I had more time, I would have made the Batmobile bigger - but you know what?  My kids didn't care.  They just thought it was cool to have a Batmobile!

I made a Gotham City sign for the kids to see when they entered the room.  

They were all shocked to see me dressed as Batman (so were all of the students who walked by!)

  

After morning announcements were over,  I took my students outside.  Unbeknownst to them, we had our first cape ceremony.  

(Side note:  When I figured out I was doing a superhero theme earlier this summer, my friend found these capes at Target in the dollar bins!  Her company purchased and donated these capes for my classroom! Thank you Lansky Literacy!)

I told my students on the first day of school about the capes and that they had to earn their cape.  I asked them to come up with a list of ways to earn their cape.  I have the list hung up in my classroom.  I remind them everyday how to earn their cape.  My students had NO idea why I took them out.  I made it very dramatic and stretched out me telling them that I was giving out the first cape today!  They were BEYOND excited!  Before giving out the capes I told them, "As you know, I'm giving out one today.  It's okay to be disappointed if it's not you.  Please don't get angry or sad.  Just clap and cheer for your friend! 

I made it so much like the jacket ceremony at the Ron Clark Academy.  I said a little bit about the student, why they earned their jacket, and then said the name of the student! After I gave out one cape, I said, "You know, maybe I'll give out a second cape!"  I kept doing that until I called out my five students.

Here are my caped crusaders:

 

After the ceremony, we went back to my classroom where lo and behold, the bat signal was on my board!  

The students knew it was important - they just couldn't voice what it was that needed to be done.  I asked, "Don't we need to call someone???"  One of my girls shouted, "COMMISSIONER GORDON!!!!!"  I said, "I think I have his number on my computer, hold on a sec!"  I walked over to the computer and pretended to dial, but really I was playing an audio clip.  I had prerecorded my colleague as the commissioner. 

(CG - Commissioner Gordon  BM - Batman)

CG:             This is Commissioner Gordon.

BM:            Commissioner Gordon, this is Batman.

CG:            Batman!  I am so glad you saw the bat signal and called me!  I need your help!  Five of Gotham City’s villains have escaped!

BM:            What????? Who????

CG:             Poison Ivy, Catwoman, the Penguin, the Riddler, and Two-Face!

BM:            Oh my goodness!  That is terrible!

CG:             That’s not the worst part Batman…..What’s worse is they are headed to *school name* in *city, state.* They want to capture Mrs. Lynch!

BM:            Capture Mrs. Lynch?!?!?!  NO!!!!!  That cannot be happening!  Why????

CG:             The villains are very mad at Mrs. Lynch for teaching her students about superheroes!  They want her to teach about the villains and have the villains rule the world.  Batman, you have to put a stop to this.  Can you get Robin to help you?

BM:            Robin isn’t here…but I’ll think of something. 

CG:            Good luck Batman.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I made sure to tell my class (several times,) that this was fiction.  This was not real. 

The students had NO clue how I got him on the "phone."  They were shocked!  Immediately after the phone call, the Batman theme song started playing.  

I looked at my class and exclaimed, "I don't know what to do!  Especially without Robin!"  Then I pretended a light bulb went off in my head.  "Wait a second, I have an idea!  What colors does Robin wear??"  Of course they yelled out, "Red, yellow, and green!"  I then asked, "What colors are you wearing today?"  Again, they exclaimed, "Red, yellow, and green!"  (I sent a note home asking parents to send their kids wearing red, yellow, and / or green if possible.)  I asked if they wanted to be my Robins and they got all excited and shouted yes!  Then I gave them masks .  (Thank you Amazon!) 

I had my students repeat who the villains were.  I said, "Oh my gosh!  There are five villains and five of you got your capes!  A plan is forming:  Each of you who received your cape will be in charge of a group who will capture a villain!  

Then I showed them the case files I had on each villain.

 

Each case file went with a book:

I collaborated with my husband and my staff development teacher to come up with a TON of ideas.  I knew I couldn't do all of them (at least for Rock Your School Day.)  However, I will be saving the others for a rainy, Gotham City day. ;-) 

Anyway, each file had questions for reading, writing, math, and social studies.  At the very end was a STEM project.  

For the sake of time, I kept the reading questions the same for all the villains (characters, setting, problem, solution, what makes their villain unique, and what makes them unique.)  

The writing questions were taken from the back of the books.  

The social studies questions were related to Commissioner Gordon and his job.  The students had Pebble Go articles on police officers, courts, and juries to read through before answering the questions.  

All of the math questions were related to their villain.  For example, poison ivy has leaves of three.  If there are 12 poison ivy plants, how many leaves are there total?  For the riddler, they had to answer math riddles.

The students had to work together in their groups to answer the questions.  The leaders of each group had to come to me with all the reading questions before going on to writing.  I had to check them.  The answers had to be written in complete sentences with details - and obviously the answers had to be correct.  The only groups this was different for was the Riddler.  They got to play Jenga and then told them which order to answer the questions in.  (Thank you Hope and Wade King for this idea!)

Once all of the subject areas were complete, then and only then were they allowed to work on their STEM project.  Each group had to create a trap for their villain.  I took pictures of their traps - but they came out horribly which is why I am not posting them.  I'll try to take better pictures on Monday and update the blog.

My leaders got to pick their villain AND the people in their group.

Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

 "Mrs. Lynch!  Look at my muscles!  The Riddler is no match for me!"

I cracked up!

 

The students kept asking me how their work was preventing the villains from coming.  (I love the questions they ask me.  It helps me think quick on my feet!)

My response was this:  When you answer the questions correctly and when you use complete sentences with supporting details, it's like an invisible force (something we've been talking about in science,) that pushes back the villains so it takes them longer to get here.  

They bought it hook, line, and sinker!

Some of the tasks were easy and some were hard.  I front loaded a lot during the week so they would be prepared. They didn't finish on Thursday (and I didn't expect them too,) so we continued on Friday.  They had the BEST two days ever!

Educators, if you need a good call and response, I have a Batman one for ya!  Sing the "nananana" part of the theme song and have the students respond with "Batman!"  They loved it!

Thank you to my husband and BR for your ideas!

Thank you to JS and EF for your help after school!

Thank you to the brains behind Rock Your School Day for pushing educators outside their comfort zones!

This was the BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy your weekend!
~Stacey~