Pirate Week 2014 Begins

I am SO excited for tomorrow (Monday!) Several amazing things are going to happen this coming week:
1) It is International Speak Like a Pirate Day (which I turn into a week long event). Click HERE and HERE to read about my past pirate weeks. They are so much fun and the kids LOVE IT!

2) Our 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes are starting what we call Homework Wars! It was an idea that I thought up and our team tweaked to make it work for us. I will tell you more about it later this week after we get it started.

3) I will be returning to Green River to enjoy Melon Days with my parents and friend there. WAHOO!

I would love to hear what YOU are excited about this week. :)

The Ship Has Sailed Me Mateys!

Ahoy Mateys...

Piratey week has come and gone. It was a very successful one at that. Today was the culmination of the entire week. Many boats, flags, and costumed. My own son put in some serious effort and made a pirate ship out of a book, an amazing flag and pole that actually worked, and

well... here is part of his costume. He really had a good time dressing like a pirate. He was cracking me up. Every picture that we took he was either super serious, stern looking, or crazy. I will try to get pictures posted of his book boat and flag. I told him that I am keeping his boat book on my shelf. I LOVE the whole idea of reading is an adventure.


 As I explained in my last post, I had my class read a short book and then make posters with partners. Today was the great unveiling. The students were able to show off their amazing work. It never ceases to amaze me that you can hand students a blank sheet of paper and then get amazing results like these from the student's creative minds. I love sharing and posting student work on the walls- especially the walls outside my room so the whole school and enjoy them. The students ALL did amazing work and their presentations were well given and very informative. (These presentations were give yesterday- on Thursday- and the poster hung up). Below are two examples of the seven that were created. I think the kids really enjoyed reading, learning, and creating. My low readers were of great support in the art and presenting department. I also had a parent in the room during the presentations and she too thought the kids did a marvelous job.

We are currently trying to research and write pirate reports in the computer lab. That has been interesting. Every year it is a challenge to have the kids find websites to read, pull the information they need, and then write a simple 3-5 paragraph report. A few of my students really get how to do it... the rest are struggling. I can only hope that it is not just because their teacher is a bad communicator of information.

Anywho... I be digressin', I be...

After getting reading buddies successfully completed today, we started right in to a fun morning. We read a couple picture books, played P-I-R-A-Te (a variation of a math game I play called SKUNK). We had cupcakes (thanks to a gracious parent) and juice pouches. We did pirate math, announced the winners of the piratey contests,  and we had a pirate auction. I think the kids really enjoyed it.

I think my only reason for being glad that it is over is that speakin' all pirate like this week has taken its toll on my voice. lol. But it was grand glorious time. One that I shan't be forgetin' any time soon.

I stayed until after 6pm (and that was with the help of my wife for the last couple of hours) and got all my planning and such done for Monday. With Parent/Teacher/Student conferences coming up on Wednesday, I wanted to have all the regular stuff taken care of so that I can focus my attention on having a good weekend.

Well, there is plenty more to share, but this pirate is goin' to hunt some Z's....

Later...

Let Piratey Week Begin!

The coolest classroom around

 AHOY MATIES....

So, September 19th is International Speak Like a Pirate Day! And true to tradition, the room was decorated and busy schedules adjusted to squish in some pirate fun. Our ship sails for a full week rather than one day. With all the work to get it ready, it should be savored like a good (ginger) ale.

Arrrr... ye scruvy dogs...

"Come to the Pirate-Side he will"

There, I had to let out my inner pirate.

It has been really fun so far. The kids loved walking into our room and looking around at all at decorations and changes both big and small. A big hit was the pirate make over on Darth Vader. My wife sure did a great job with the decorations! Se even gave our spinning book rack a pirate flair.

One of my favorite parts of the week is the "booty board". Inexpensive prizes are purchased and displayed for the young sprogs to covet over. During the week I hand out "dabloons" for good behavior, being on-task, homework turned in, etc. Then, at the end of the week, the students can trade in their gold for treasure. Sometimes I do an auction, sometimes I let the student with the most gold choose a 2 prizes, and then go down the list. I am not sure how it will work out this year.

'Tis the Booty Board, ye Scurvy Dogs!

I also do three pirate contests. I challenge the kids to build a mini-pirate ship, make a jolly roger (pirate flag), and come dressed like a pirate (on Friday only). The scallywags are never required to participate in the festivities, but are encouraged to participate. Usually there isn't any worries about entries. I have three judges come in and judge winners. Those deemed the most fearsome, most creative, and most daring receive a small prize which includes extra dabloons to be spendin' on booty.

Notice the bounteous reading treasure

During the course of the week, we also read a short book from ReadingA-Z.com about priate boats and flags. The students read an assigned short chapter (2-3 pages) in small groups, highlight important information, and then make a poster. These groups then do presentations for the rest of the class while the class takes notes, make a positive comment, and writes one question they still would like to know. I love this part of the reading workshop. The kids are almost always engaged in this unit of study.

Our Piratey Book Rack

 Thursday we will be having a Pirate Insult contest to see who can come up with the longest, coherent pirate insult (they were given a list of pirate terms to use). I love this activity as well, as it encourages my students to become fluent. They write out their "insult" in advance and then they read it in front of the class. The class votes on who they felt had the best phrase and read it the most fluently and "piratey". Winner gets a boost to their dabloon stash.

Enter if ye dare...

Another fun contest I do is I copy some pirate coloring pictures and I do a contest to see who can color the best pirate picture. Winner gets a dabloon boost as well. And, depending on the formation of my room, I may also a group coloring contest. I have purchased several of the jumbo coloring pirate books from the Dollar Tree. I give each group ONE picture to color together. That activity has a lot of value in that the group must work together to create the finished product. I give the winning a group a prize that they must also share, like a big candy bar or bag or small prizes. That way they must still cooperate and agree on who gets what. What a valuable experience for my class.

This be the back of our ship

Well, now that I have given ye' scruvy dogs all me priate secrets, I best be shovin' off and looking for other ships to plunder...

Later....

Week One Came and Went...

I can not believe that the first week of school came and went. What a great week it was too! I truly feel like I have been teaching this class for months. They are behaved and generally obedient. I think this is going to be an outstanding year! The only down side right now is that my air conditioner in my classroom in on the fritz right now and it gets really warm in my classroom during the day. They have the parts ordered- I hope they come soon!

Today has been nice. I woke up this morning and mowed the lawn, watered the garden, harvested some tomatoes and squash, walked (with the family) to get the mail, and spend some time with my little herd.

This coming week brings us Back to School Night and my masters classes again. Those are going to be a bit tough what with all the reading, but I am really looking forward to learning about these two topics. I have had a hard time reading lately. Every time I sit down to read, my eyes close. I wake up 5 minutes later and have to get up and move around to wake up. I have only read one of 4 chapters that have to be done by Tuesday. In fact, I finally gave up today and took a nap with my 1 year-old. We got in a great 2 1/2 hour nap. I feel a little guilty as my wife has been working in the kitchen ALL day canning peaches, nectarine juice, preparing and freezing zucchini, making brownies, chex-mix, and other tasty goodies. We are going to be ready for winter for sure this year. I think we have about 60+ bags of frozen squash- lol.

Well, I still need to go to my classroom sometime this weekend and figure out what I am going to for sure do on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I like to plan out a majority of the week in advance because of all the other little things that come along. In fact I just remembered I need to come up with an agenda for faculty meeting for Wednesday. I am in charge this coming week (I think anyways). I also have student council elections coming up soon (I am the advisor) and that will be exciting. It is the same week as Pirate Week (one of my favorite events I do in my classroom). That is also Melon Days weekend AND the weekend before a major presentation in one of my classes. So, basically, if I survive September it will be wonderful!

Well, I guess I should go and see if I can keep my eyes open and read now (with my nap I hope so).

Later...