Mario Day!

 

Over the summer, our admin came up with a "Level Up" theme for this school year.  Taking things to the next level with our teaching and the expectations we have for our scholars.  I took that theme and ran with it for my scholars.  For this year's Rock Your School Day, I decided I wanted to do a Mario Day with my fourth graders.  I got my team on board.  I started to tell others about it and they encouraged me to go to admin about making it a school wide Mario Day!  Admin was all for it!

I gathered and created resources to share with staff.

• Restorative justice circle (Peace Circle)
• Math task cards
• Super Mario Informational Nonfiction Digital Breakout

I of course ALSO had to get a costume!  

My principal announced to the scholars the week before we were going to have Mario Day and it was all the scholars could talk about!  Let me tell you, this was the BEST DAY EVER!!!!

Classroom Decorations:

I decorated my classroom (with help from my co-worker and two parents)!  Here's a video tour.

I covered my door with Mario wrapping paper.  It took the whole roll!

The tablecloth I purchased here.  On the table are tissue boxes that I covered with yellow question marks.  Inside of each box was a math question from the task cards I linked above.

I purchased this photo booth and I did not purposely hang it so Slapshot's face was looking through Mario!  (Slapshot is the Washington Capital's mascot.)  I didn't even realize it until one of my scholars pointed it out!!

I had these hanging all around the room.  Here, they are in my little window by the door.

My scholars are OBSESSED with stickers this year!  So of course I HAD to get Mario stickers for the day!  Honestly, there are enough stickers I could probably give them to every scholar in the school and STILL have enough left over!

Two other things I bought:

Tablecloths in several different colors / patterns

Table top decorations

Staff Pictures:

I think the staff had as much fun dressing up as the scholars did!  All pictures posted with permission:

My twin! :-)

Peace Circle:

The icebreaker during our peace circle was to work in small groups and create their own gameboard.  This was so much fun!  It took a long time and they didn't want to stop.  We are going to finish this next week.  Here are some pictures of them working together.  They made dice and game pieces.

He matched the tablecloth!  He said it was his finish line!

Math Task Cards:

I split the class up into five groups.  They had to work together to complete the math problems.  There were 24 problems.  After each problem, they came to me to check it.  After I checked it, they received a Mario sticker.  Then they could get the next problem.  Every five questions they received a gold coin.   

The scholars got so into the math activity, that we were late to our special because we lost track of time!!  

I was so impressed with how everyone worked together.  They were all smiles!  It was the best day ever!

Thank you to those who helped me decorate!

Thank you to everyone who shared ideas!

Thank you to GYTO for Rock Your School Day!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Thank you to admin for liking my outside the box / crazy ideas!

Take care!
~Stacey~

National Superhero Day - 2022

 

Image from here

One of the things I try to instill in my scholars is to never give up - no matter how difficult something is.  They took that to heart today.

Yesterday, April 28th, was National Superhero Day.  I was not at school yesterday, but wanted to make sure we got the opportunity to celebrate it!  

A couple of years ago, I did a Batman room transformation with my third graders.  They completed Batman activities across all subject areas. I am currently departmentalized and focus on math, science, social studies, and health.  I decided to do something similar to what I had done previously, but this time all math.  

I kicked off the week with a Peace Circle on superheroes.  We read the book Superheroes Are Everywhere, by Kamala Harris.  They loved it.  It helped them see that superheroes aren't just in comic books and movies.

My costume (underneath my Gotham City sign):

Room decorations (pics and video):

Setting the stage:

While the scholars were out of the room, I quickly put the following image on the screen, along with playing the Batman Theme Song.

As walked back in altogether, they saw the bat signal, heard the music, and immediately said, "Oh my gosh! It's the bat signal!"  The scholars realized we somehow needed to get in touch with Commissioner Gordon.  As I got my phone to see if I could find him, I realized I had a missed call from Commissioner Gordon and a voicemail.  I showed my scholars my phone so they would really see his name in my phone!  They were SHOCKED!  Then we listened to the voicemail.  I thought they were going to fall in the floor!

What they don't know is I had a co-worker call and leave a message on my cell phone. I changed his name to Commissioner Gordon and they never questioned me about it!

"Batman, this is Commissioner Gordon!  I need your help!  The Joker, Bane, Penguin, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and Poison Ivy have escaped and are coming to Mrs. Lynch’s 4th grade class to capture YOU and her class!  Please capture them as soon as you can.  I’ve left directions on your desk to help you!"

I wish I had been able to record their reactions to this.  They were 100% sold!

The scholars had activities to complete:

My husband told me this joke. 

Math riddles from here.

I based the majority of the questions on what we have learned so far this year with our Eureka Math Curriculum.  

I was so impressed with how hard my scholars worked.  They NEVER GAVE UP!  They just kept on working.  I created mini videos of me reading the directions and put them online so the scholars could refer to them as much as they needed to.

I gave them superhero masks and superhero fruit snacks.

They had the best time!

Neither one of my classes finished so we will continue next week.  I will continue to add pictures to this post.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible.  You know who you are.  I truly appreciate your help.