Bingo and Book Raffle

Hour 12: 11am – 12pm

When I arrived today, no one was in the room. All the students were in lunch. Having a good time, I’m assuming. I was alone for about twenty minutes. When they came back from lunch, they were so excited and surprised to see me. While they used the restroom, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was playing in the background. They payed attention to the video when they weren’t in the bathroom. When the video had ended, they get ready for Christmas Bingo! They get a blank bingo card and one with all of the spaces filled in. They have to cut out and glue on their pieces to make their own custom bingo board. I called out different questions such as:

  • “What do you wear to keep your hands warm when it’s cold?” (Answer: Mittens)
  • “What do we hang up by the fireplace fro Santa to fill?” (Answer: Stocking)
  • “What do we use to decorate our Christmas Trees?” (Answer: Ornaments)

If they get a bingo, they win a raffle ticket or two based on the type of bingo we were doing. If they won a regular bingo, they got one raffle ticket. If they got the four corners, they got two raffle tickets. If they got an X, they won three raffle tickets. It was very intense.

The raffle tickets are put into some different types of buckets on one side of the room. There is a row of books for them to choose from. If they would like that book, they drop the raffle ticket into the bucket of choice. They will be drawing the raffle tickets on the last day before break. They have six choices of books.

  1. How Not to Start Third Grade By Cathy Hapka and Ellen Titlebaum
  2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Adapted by Rick Bunsen
  3. Junie B. Jones: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff) By Barbara Park
  4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway By Jeff Kinney
  5. Flat Stanley: Stanley’s Christmas Adventure By Jeff Brown
  6. Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Secret Crush Catastrophe By Rachel Renee Russell
  7. Pete the Cat: Snow Daze By James Dean

IMG_8413[1]

Wrapping Up Their Calendars

Hour 11: 1 pm – 2 pm

I got there around 12:45 pm. I left right after finals and went straight to Ball Ground STEM Academy. I do not think that they knew I was coming at all this week, but here I am. When I showed up, they could not contain their excitement. So much that they almost got into trouble! This week is a fun week for the students since Christmas is coming up. We wrapped their calendars for their family and it was super fun and easy. All of the students did a great job paying attention. The calendars looked good and some of the kids had some really good wrapping skills. We gave each students one shiny, red bow and one name tag like looked like a Christmas tree light. We showed them where and how to put it on the present. We did this until it was time for recess. Recess was a little crazier for some reason. Maybe because there were three different classes out there. They did pretty well though with there being that many kids.

IMG_8386[1]

Hour 10: 1 pm – 2 pm

Jaden was all alone in his group and I got to spend some quality time with him. He is extremely funny. Clay, Thatcher, and Harvey Jane were the very last group, and they spent a lot of time decorating the September month. They were definitely the quietest group I had all day. The entire time I was helping with the painting they were doing their reading stations. I walked into the classroom when I was done and they were watching “The Bernstein Bears”. After all the students were where they needed to be, I left at two in the afternoon with Jordan.  

Hand Turkeys :)

Hour 8: 11 am – 12 pm

For this hour, I am painting their hands for a calendar gift they are doing for their parents. Ian doing the months September and November. September looks like a tree with leaves falling down because September is the month when fall starts. November looks like a turkey because Thanksgiving in is November. Two or three students come in at a time to get this done. The rest of the time was spent painting their hands and pressing it onto the paper for their parents.  

Hour 8 Painting 1B

How do you become a president?

Hour 7: 10 am – 11 am

Before the BrainPop, they took two minutes to fill out the “What You Know” section of the KWL chart with things that they know about the presidents. They continued on to the next section, taking a minute to fill out the next column which was titled, “What They Want to Know”. Some of the students share what they wrote. Some of the questions they asked includes: 

  • “How do you become a president?” 
  • “How many presidents are there?” 
  • “How old is the President?” 
  • “How do presidents help America?” 

They begin the video and everyone pays pretty good attention to it. The video on BrainPop talked about what a president does for the United States, the responsibility of the president, and who can become the president. It also talks about how presidents are elected and the amount of years in a term. When the video was over, they filled out the last column titled, “What We Learned”. It took a couple of minutes and Jordan took them up when everyone finished. 

Next, they take a restroom break right before lunch. They out their heads down while waiting for everyone to get back. When just about everyone gets back, they get into their line which was the same order as last time. We go into the lunch room and help every student get settled. When Jordan gets her lunch and I get mine, we head back to the room with two of her students. One of the students spent her classroom dollars to eat lunch with the teacher and a friend. She was so excited. We continued lunch and ate together. The lunch routine ended the same way it started. We walked Abby and her friend back to the lunch room and gathered up the class to return back to the room. 

Hour 7 Brainpop

Entering the Classroom… Again!!

Hour 6: 9 am- 10am

I slowly walked into her room shortly after signing into the system in the front office. Everyone was so excited to see me when I walked in. They were so wonderful. When I walked in, they were doing math stations. Jordan was taking her time explaining the activities and problems at her station. In my math station, they were doing something called “independent practice”. They were working in their workbooks and I was helping them as needed. After stations, they did an activity involving Veterans’ Day and how they have to work together to accomplish something. At first, they only had one minute to completely color a picture of the American Flag. When they figured out that there was no way to accomplish it that way, Jordan gave them a minute to make a plan within their table. After conversing among each other, they had one minute to color the flag, just like the first time. Every tables’ flag was completely colored in.

They have been talking about laws, rules, community, and presidents. They start doing a BRAINPOP activity and that brought back so many memories. I used to be the second thing that I loved; the first was Bill Nye the Science Guy. They did a KWL chart about Presidents which is something I might use in my lesson plans.

 

 

Franklin & Recess

Hour 5: 1 pm-2 pm

They finish their math pretest and get their snacks. During their snack time, they watch “Franklin”, a show I used to watch as a kid. It talked about the different types of weather and how to detect it. The show brought back so many memories. They started getting all of their stuff ready to go home even though it wasn’t quite time to go yet. They passed out agendas for them to take home. Next, they are getting prepared for recess. They head out in straight line, quiet and tense. As soon as Jordan let them loose, they were swinging, sliding down the slide, and running around, screaming “Bloody Mary”. I was just standing there, watching them have fun. This brings me to a whole new feeling I have never felt. I felt like I should be the one playing because I was the one that used to. Some of the sweet students asked me if I wanted to come play some games with them, but I politely rejected. We stayed out there for around fifteen to twenty minutes which is a pretty long recess. When it was time to line up, it was hard to keep them quiet. They walked quietly into the building quietly after being told to stay as quiet as a mouse. When they got into the classroom, they grabbed their backpacks and sat in their assigned seat, waiting for their transportation type to be called. All of them were called and we took the car riders up to the front of the school, leaving the After School Program kids alone in the room. All together, this day was really good and went really well with all of the children.

IMG_8097[1]