Thanksgiving Ideas

Thank you Imagine Learning for sending such a beautiful statement!

Here are some creative ways to give thanks I've recently stumbled upon:

Thankful Tree from Simply Vintage

I Am Thankful Guessing Game by Sissy Prints

Tons of Thanksgiving themed games to play with kids or kids at heart.

A Middle School Halloween Party

We treated our middle schoolers to a halloween party yesterday.  The format worked very well.  Initially, we all met community meeting style, where we called on a few brave volunteers to participate in Meet the Pirate.  We then explained the rules for the remainder of the evening - stay within the perimeters of the room, and participate in any of the stations available.  After 40 minutes, we regrouped for the brain eating contest, after which we awarded prizes for winners in the the station activities.

Meet the Pirate 
Students come in blindfolded and are introduced to a pirate.  They shake hands with the pirate's hooked arm, feel the pirates wooden leg, and then when being introduced to the pirate's glass eye, the student's finger is pushed into a tomato, after which the pirate screams...turns out the eye wasn't glass after all.  The kids got a huge kick out of this one.


Then we had 3 kids participate in the brain eating challenge - They had 1 minute to see who could devour the most brain:


Brain Eating Contest
Jello molded to look like a brain, with a little bit of whipped cream led to a lot of cheers and cream smeared faces.  We timed to see who could eat the brain the fastest within 1 minute.


Ghostwriter Pen
Inspired by Family Fun, our students created ghostly pens out of mold magic clay. Detailed instructions can be found here.  We awarded prizes for the most realistic pen and the freakiest pen.


Pumpkin Decorating
With our limited time, we used sharpies as our chief pumpkin decorating tool.  I printed off this page to inspire them.  We awarded prizes for most creative and spookiest pumpkins.

Check out some of the amazing designs the kids came up with:

Skull Toss
Students threw skulls into the cups - each player had 5 skulls to throw in the cups.  Each cup was worth a designated amount of points. Student who scored the highest over the course of the party won a prize.

Skull Hunt Matching Game
Skulls with one of two colors stamped on them were under the cups.  The goal was to run and find the skulls stamped with your teams color.  There were two lines of students and it was played relay style, so each student could look under two cups, and brought to their team the skulls they found that matched their team color, after which the next student would run to find the matching skulls.  First team to find all their skulls won.

Tower of Power

We recently did the Tower of Power activity at our after school program, and it was a blast!

Students were divided into teams of 5. Each team received a box that was labeled Top Secret.  In each box, we put a variety of supplies - marshmallows & spaghetti, tape and popsicle sticks, clay and straws, etc.  Basically a variety of something that is tall and something that can connect.

Once each team received their box, their challenge was to build a tower.  We had multiple categories for which the students could aim for, including Tallest Tower, Most Exotic & Sturdiest.

The teams began and after working with their materials, some realized they could borrow from other teams.  Before long, teams started combining, and in the end we had three very distinct towers built.

Teams were awarded based on meeting the categories (since the teams morphed into three groups, each group took home a prize). And of course, there were a host of debrief questions.  Students noted that by pulling together their resources, they were able to make towers that were stronger and by noticing how others were making their towers, they got ideas on how to build their towers.

I really liked this activity because it gave the kids a tangible challenge in which they had limited supplies, but room for whatever creativity their brains wandered upon - and they had to work together.  There were clear parameters (the supplies and their original groups) but also a lot of room for exploration and creative thinking.

Ultimate Picnic Games

We had a pretty awesome family picnic this summer for our families - 200+ people showed up, the weather was great and everyone left happy.  The combination of games worked so well that I wanted to share them with you:

The games:

Tug of War

Potato Sack Race

3 Legged Race

Limbo Game

Spoon & Ball Race

Chicken Run Race

Water Balloon Toss

Face painting



What you will need for the ultimate family picnic party:

rope

burlap sacks (easily found on Craigslist)

bamboo sticks (or any kind of long sticks or jump rope)

ribbon

plastic spoons

plastic balls

water balloons

face paint supplies 

4 cones (for making start and finish lines)

prizes

Preparation:

Set up station for face painting, it will be an ongoing activity throughout the picnic.  If it is clearly marked, children will flock to it.

Lay out rope and set up cones marking the start and finish for the relay activities. Lay out burlap sacks ( I had 6 laid out next to each other between the cones).  Have all remaining supplies ready in a box next to the cones.

Order of events:

1. Face painting is an ongoing activity, set up on the side.

2. Invite some loitering kids to start the tug of war, as soon as they get pulled in, others will notice and start gathering around the gaming site. 

3. Play tug of war. Variations included, boys vs. girls, parents vs. kids, staff vs. parents, etc.

4. Invite group to do the sack race. Demonstrate what the task is and then encourage others. After you do first run, do variations such as younger kids, older kids, parents, all girls, all boys, etc. Award prizes to winners and give candy to all participants.

5. As the last round of the sack race (3rd or 4th round) finishes up, transition to the 3 legged race. Demonstrate how the game works.  All participants must find a partner. As they have a partner, give each group a ribbon, help younger kids tie the legs together with the ribbon. Blow the whistle and the fun begins.  Allow the first run to be a practice run.  Then do it for real, awarding prizes as necessary. 

6. At this point you may want to take a break.  We did some raffle prizes here. Or you can continue to the next game. 

7. To slow the heart rate down (especially with the heat) we walked to the shade and began the limbo. We used a long bamboo stick, but a jump rope or any long stick will likely suffice. All participants got in a line and the fun began.  Music makes it more fun, but we were already in the mood and did not have the right hook-up.  We survived.

8. Next we resumed to get in line and I gave everyone a spoon and ball.  The objective was to walk with the ball on the spoon to the finish line without dropping the ball.  Dropping the ball meant you had to start all over. We did a practice round and then began the fun.  Prizes were awarded accordingly.

9. After the spoon and ball fun, we put away the spoons and put paper plates along the finish line. This became a nest.  Participants kept the balls (and received 5 more) and put one between their knees (no higher or lower - between the knees).  The objective was to walk each ball between the knees to the finish line. Repeating until all 5 balls are in "the nest." The walk inevitably looks like a chicken walk.  Winners receive prizes and everyone gets candy.

Woohoo! We then took another break and attempted to do a water balloon toss, but realized we did not have adequate water supply.

These games were a blast, and plenty of fun that lasted for at least 3 hours. Looking forward to more family picnics! 

*I would post pictures from the actual event, but because of client confidentiality, I will refrain.

Summer School Week 3 & 4: Whirlwind of Activity

These past two weeks we continued variations of the kindness lesson.  I kept the books and students were able to read through books they haven't read yet, and they've started bringing their own books.

For writing we resumed to Content Clues, wrote acrostic poems about summer, and letters to the authors of our favorite books.

Math: Jump on the Math Facts. We broke up into groups by math level.  Before we played the game we reviewed math problems (ex/ 6x6=36) and then the fun began.  The kids loved this game so much that we played it again. Our modification was using chalk on the playground.  This is a game I will definitely keep for future times. 

Summer School Week 2: All About Kindness

The theme for this week was kindness.

For reading, I brought in a collection of books around the topic of friendship/kindness - students then chose a book they wanted to read. 

After reading, students drew writing prompts from a jar, and in response wrote as many sentences as twice their grade level (for example, third graders wrote 6 sentences).  All prompts revolved around kindness, for example:

I show others I care when ______________________

Friends can be counted on to _____________________

The best way to show my family that I care is when I _______________________

The most important kindness I’ve received is _________________________

Kindness means ______________________________

Interestingly enough, the students were pretty resistent to write about kindness - I suspect it is a concept that isn't culturally talked about often, although parents were glad that the kids were exploring the topic.

I was planning on sharing the Susie Story, but the timing did not feel right. Writing about kindness was a challenge enough for this group of kids.

For math, we played Close Call: An Addition Card Game.  It was great - we modified it depending on grade level (ranging from single, double or triple digit addition).  Worked great, as everyone was in different groups according to their level.

Summer School Week 1

This summer, I am leading a 5 week summer school program for a group of vivacious kids.  The first day was full of energy and I can tell its going to be an awesome time.  The goal is to have a math, reading, and writing component each session - with loads of fun.


I'm going to share what we do each week and how well I felt it worked.

Reading - we are going to participate in the local libraries summer reading program.  We will make a field trip to the library every other week so the kids can submit their game boards and receive a prize.  This is great because the kids don't usually go to the library.


Writing - Modified Content Clues - We had the kids choose a picture (I preselected images from various magazines) and then they had to write as many sentences as their grade level times two.  So third graders had to write 6 sentences about their image, fourth graders 8, etc.

Math - Race to $1.00 - A little friendly competition between the boys and girls, with the final challenge being they had to calculate how many quarters they needed to make $10.00. 


Teambuilding - Eyes, Body, Voice , description from Sleep Deprived Dragon:
 
"This game is best played in a gym or some open area. Split your girls into groups of three. Two of the girls are blindfolded, the third is permitted to see. One of the blindfolded girls is the "body"; she can move but is not permitted to see or speak. The other blindfolded girl is the "voice", she can speak but can neither see nor move. The third girl is the "eyes", she can see but can't speak or move.
 
For each team of girls, place a ball somewhere within the playing area. Also place one traffic cone (pylon) somewhere in the playing area. Each team's goal is to guide their "body" to their team's ball, pick it up, and then tag it to the pylon. The "voice" and the "eyes" for each team will have to give the "body" directions to find the ball. This is much more difficult than it sounds as the "eyes" and "voice" need to be able to effectively communicate with each other in order to give directions to the "body". A great communications game!"

Most of my ideas come from Education.com - a tremendous resource in creative activities, worksheets, articles, and more revolving around noneother than education (of course).

Mini Books

I love mini-books that you can make with only one sheet of paper and a pair of scissors.

Mini book made out of paper grocery bag.

They are easy to make, fun and can have an infinite amount of uses.  For example, I used a mini book as a way to introduce goal setting to a group of students.  They loved the idea and within minutes were thinking about their goals for the day and the following week.  This was a miracle because normally they dread the topic of goal setting.

 You can also use mini books to create your own stories, do a mini book report, take notes, write special messages to a loved one, etc. etc. The possibilities are endless!

Another bonus is that this type of mini book only requires one page, so you can recycle all sorts of paper.  We used recycled paper grocery bags for the one pictured above.

Now, I was going to do a step by step tutorial, but then I realized there are already so many great resources out there! Check them out:

Print out a template from the Toolbox Parent.  You can make a book using the template, or follow the directions on a one-side used paper (if anything is already written, have that side be facing in).  Great way to recycle that paper!

And if that's not enough, Printable Pages has some more variety on mini-books you can make with a single sheet of paper.  Check it out here.

View printable templates for a variety of mini books here. They have page numbers on them and instructions make it very easy to make.

Or if you want a bigger challenge and make them from scratch, here is a good tutorial with pictures.

Have fun with it, and let me know, what did you use your mini book for?

Take spaghetti to a new level

Image via Pinterest

Wouldn't this be a fun cooking project with the kids? I'm digging the idea, even for myself!

Origami builds patience, focus, and determination

Learn to make an Origami Zoo here.

For the past several months, I have been working with a group of restless kids.  Everyday was a battle to get them to focus on their homework, until I realized before we could do anything done, they simply needed to learn how to focus.  So we began doing origami.

 First, we made the Jumping Frog. It was pretty brutal - I had to constantly encourage them to not give up. The following week we made the Fish and they remained determined to complete the project.  After using the cute templates succesfully, we were ready to move into more advanced ground, and make origami from scratch.

I love origami.  Now I'm not naturally good at it, my spatial reasoning skills are below average, but that is exactly why I love origami.  There are many educational benefits of origami, from developing academic skills to social and creative skills.  And it only takes a single square piece of paper!


Visit the Origami Resource Center for more information on the benefits of origami across the curriculum, as well as some super creative ideas (Star Wars origami, anyone?).