Jurassic Park Dinosaur Day was a HUGE Hit

We recently finished our reading book about dinosaurs. I knew that along with this book, I wanted to do a classroom transformation. I brought back my Jurassic Park transformation. I have not done this one for a few years, and I remember how much I loved it. I cannot repeat anything too often because I teach multi-grades and keep my students for at least three years. 

I started out by making simple jeeps (inspired by Hope King) with tablecloths, tinfoil, and cake pans. These are simple and not too time consuming. Then I had to set up my rotations. I could not find my left over themed items for this transition, so I kept it super simple, but the kids STILL had lots of fun and learned/practiced a lot.

I created a Jurassic Park vibe with an escape room. Students are stranded in the park and needed to escape before any dinosaurs could find them. There were four different challenges they had to solve. 

I started out with this premise: 

Welcome to Jurassic Park! 

You have been invited to explore one of the most amazing dinosaur parks in the world! But something has gone terribly wrong... The Dinosaurs have ESCAPED! The security system has failed. The gates are locked, and dangerous dinosaurs are roaming freely throughout the park!

Your only chance of escape is to complete four dino-sized challenges that will help you unlock your emergency exit. But hurry! The T-Rex is getting closer!

Students worked together to be the first to complete each challenge and earn the most team points for each activity. Student teams who won the most points were given a prize at the end. 

Challenge 1: Where in the US - Dino Dig 

Students had to run, relay race style, to a dinosaur nest where they collected one piece of bedding. They looked at the strip which told them one state from the US and whether or not it was a state where dinos were found. Then students colored that state on their map if any dinos were found there. If not, they left it blank. After collecting all the data, students had to answer the question about whether or not they were found in their state. 

Once we were done, I took out some real dinosaur bone fragments that my parents collected a few years ago (with permission). Students were excited to see, hold, and feel actual bones from so long ago. 

Challenge 2: Dino Dung: Is it an Herbivore, Carnivore, or Omnivore

In this challenge, we went outside. I told students that one way paleontologists are able to learn about dinos is by examining their poop. Dino poop can tell scientists what the dinosaur ate. I let them look at, touch, and hold some real dino poop that I have. Afterwards, I told them that last night I was in Jurassic world and I was able to find some new, fresh poop. We talked about the meaning of the words herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore.   

Each group received a cake pan with "fresh dino dung." Students were given gloves and as a team they had to find clues in the dung about which type of dinosaur this poop belonged to. They had to investigate what the dino had eaten to figure this out. There were 6 picture clues hidden inside the dino dung. 

To make the dung, I used one box of pudding, mixed up, and I added some honey bunches of oats cereal, to give it some texture. To some of them, I also added some Timothy hay from my guinea pig's food box. 

Students were appalled, and, I believe, thrilled, all at once. They were grossed out, but excited too! It was just so fun to watch their engagement as they dug and learned what type of dinosaur they had. 

Once we had cleaned up, we were ready for the next challenge.

Challenge 3: My Favorite Dinosaur Wind-Blown Essay

In this challenge, students were told that Dr. Fossil, a world renowned paleontologist was working on an essay for a big presentation. But as she was leaving the dig location with her essay, a strong wind blew it out of her hand. The essay was now all out of order and she is hoping that we could help her put it back together. Students received an envelope with the essay that was cut apart sentence by sentence. They also had an outline of the essay to help them along the way. Working as a team, students put the pieces together to create a five paragraph essay and save the day for Dr. Fossil. As they worked, some granola bars were delivered for energy from Dr. Fossil. They ate as they continued working until the last group solved the essay challenge. 

Challenge 4: Dino Tracks

In the dino track challenge, students had dinosaur tracks that had different nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs on them. They had to work together to sort the tracks by the correct part of speech. Once they completed this challenge, they were done. 

Emergency Alerts:

Along the way, as students were working, there were jungle/dinosaur sounds being played in the background when suddenly an emergency alert would go off. When the alert blasted, students had to stop everything and immediately return to their jeeps. They were given a challenge to solve to simulate solving the emergency. 

We had several different alert challenges that we completed. In one challenge, students had to complete math problems as a team and show me the answers before they could get back to work. It was good to work quickly because as soon as their team was done, they could get back to work on the real challenges. 

Another emergency alert was because a jeep had broken down. Students had to work together to be the first team to answer correctly three different word puzzles. In this one, I read some phonetic phrases that were broken apart and students had to put them together to figure out the word or phrase.

In the last emergency, students had to solve a word problem for math again, but then they got to play a game of dino stomp extinction. This game is like a cake walk. Numbers were on the floor in a circle. Some music played and when it stopped, a number was called. Whoever was standing on that number got received a dinosaur prize. I had dinosaur coupons for classroom privileges. They loved that. 

Once were were completely done and all teams had escaped, I gave out sheets of six coupons to the winning team. Everyone else was able to choose one coupon for escaping. 

 What a fun day of learning we had in Jurassic Park!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Activities For the Classroom

I cannot believe that it is nearly Thanksgiving break. Our school takes a whole week off, so we literally just have a couple of weeks left. If you are looking for some easy to do activities for Thanksgiving, here are a few that I have used in my classroom with great success. 

1. I LOVE the book Balloons Over Broadway....it is secretly on my bucket list to go to see the Macy's parade in person some day. But, in the meantime, I enjoy bringing the festive feel of the famous New York City Thanksgiving day parade to my classroom with this book. There's just so much you can do to bring it to life. 

• Have students make puppets (like Tony Sarg who was a puppetmaker).
• Create individual balloons like those shown in the Macy's day parade.
• Imagine and sketch Macy's widow scenes like the ones that grace the windows each holiday season

Discuss the quotes and themes of the book. Themes like kindness, traditions, and immigrants.

If you would like to see more, you can find this resource right here.

2. I also love the traditional activity where students take a paper turkey and dress it up in costume to escape the Thanksgiving dinner table. But my students are a little older, so I felt that I needed to kick it up a few notches. Let me introduce you to my turkey courtroom simulation. 

Students start by dressing up their turkey in costume, but the turkey is discovered and the student must make a case for why the turkey should stay off the table this year. 

To connect this to a piece of literature, I use the books Thanksgiving in the White House and Pardon that Turkey. These books talk about where the tradition of pardoning a turkey started and how it has continued over time. 

As students think about their turkey, they put together a persuasive essay that give three strong reasons (with support) to show why their turkey should not be eaten. 

Later, we  host a courtroom simulation. I am the judge and wear my old graduation robe. I carry my gavel (a play wooden mallet). I invite our neighbor classroom to send over about 8-10 students who can be the jury of peers. I randomly choose a student to begin. They must read their essay to the judge and jury. Afterwards, the jurors use a sign to show whether they were convinced or not to pardon the turkey. To be able to vote for the turkey to escape, the evidence must be strong in the turkey's favor. 

My students have always taken it very seriously. After the verdict is given, the gavel comes down, making it official. Those students who were convincing receive a certificate showing that their turkeys were pardoned. 

I love that this simulation really does give students a real-world reason to work hard. And they rise to the occasion. I think in all the years I have been doing this, only one student's turkey has not been pardoned. 

If you want to try this fun simulation in your own classroom, you can find it right here.

 

How to Host a Glow Day Review

I do a glow day every single year in my classroom. This year I did things a bit different. Usually I make it all about multiplication and some reading activities. This time, I did it right at the beginning of the new quarter and made it all about reviewing skills we learned in the first quarter. 

We did multiplication, addition, and subtraction activities for math. I had a glow reading activity prepared, but I did not get to that at all. 

Here's a look at some things we actually did do. 

1. We started off with an activity for Bible. Students went around the room to read four different Bible stories about light. After reading each story, students had lightbulb response sheet. We outlined the bulb with our highlighters, making the it light up under the black lights. 

On the response sheet, students chose one story. They reflected on what it told about God's light. Then they wrote one way they could let God's light shine this week. 

2. Next, we did a five minute rotation of simple multiplication games/ and other math activities. We rotated 4 times. 

3. Afterwards, students got little lamp shapes that had math equations on them. Since I teach different grade levels, I had a different neon color for each grade level's lamp. Once all the students in the group solved the equation, they had to go on a scavenger hunt around the room to look for a matching lightbulb with the answer to their equation. Students wrote the letter under the number of the question on their paper. Once they filled all the letters in, the students wrote the letters in order to reveal the answer to the riddle, which was, "What did light need when it felt tired?" And the answer revealed was: a power nap. My students loved doing this activity. They were highly engaged and darting here and there looking for the answers. It was lots of fun for them. 

4. Then we did another math activity, with basic operations. This time, students were given a small baggie of fireflies. Each firefly had an equation on it. All of the students in the group did the equation, then they checked their answer by holding the thorax part of their firefly over a tap light. The bioluminescent part lit up revealing the answer hidden beneath. Students of course also loved this. After they confirmed that they had the correct answer, students went to the board and placed the firefly inside a jar (drawn on the board) for their team. 

5. Our final activity was a game called Find Five. It is a spy-themed multiplication game with basic facts where students race to be the first to get five in a row on the board. It's simple and also fun with three different leveled multiplication sets 2-5, 6-8, and 9-12. 

Glow day is such a fun way to review skills with your class. If you are looking for some activities that work great for glow day, check out the links below. 

Differentiated Fact Fluency Game
Multiplication Fact Fluency 

Math Game Monday: Multiplication Escape to the Circus

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, you have been named the greatest mathematicians on Earth. Your multiplication skills will be put to the test in four challenges, each revealing a mystery word or phrase that you must solve before moving on to the next challenge. Complete all four challenges to escape to the circus. 

This is how I love to celebrate multiplication with my differentiated 3-5 level escape to the circus game.

For each challenge you complete, you will collect a ticket that can be used to play games and earn prizes. 

If you are ready, let's begin. Be the first team to escape to the circus and you will earn an extra ticket to play another game." 

This is how I start my circus escape room. Students go wild over this and work with persistence to solve the puzzles so they can do the carnival-style games. Let me show you a little about the challenges. 

First, I set up the front of my room with a circus background, banner, and a circus tent. At the table, I have prizes and tickets. Sometimes I bring circus peanuts to give each student when they finish and "escape to the circus."

This transformation packs a huge punch with engagement. When students enter the classroom, see the circus (carnival) décor, the games, and hear the circus music, they are ready to get started and ready to learn. 

Once everyone is settled in, I read the opener, pass out the recording booklets and go over the directions. Students are then put into teams. I love that I can easily differentiate by level because this activity comes in three different grade levels for 3rd, 4th, and 5th, making it easy to bump a student up or give them a more simplistic version of the game.

I cut apart each activity and place them in an envelope or baggie for each group. In the first challenge, students complete a multiplication puzzle. Once the puzzle is complete, the students will be able to write down the letters in order inside their booklet. Once they put the letters on the spaces, they will see the secret word. When they find the secret word, they show me and I check them. If they are right, they receive a ticket and challenge two.

For challenge two, students receive a paper with multiplication equations. The one shown is the third grade level. Students look at the equation and figure out if it is true or false. Once they figure that out, they find the ducks with the same numbers as their true answers. They line those ducks up in order from least to greatest and the letters on the ducks reveal their next secret word. 

I have played this with little rubber ducks or duck cards. Either way is fun, but the rubber ducks are my favorite because you can have them floating in a small bowl or tub of water to act as a pond. The water just adds a bit more excitement. As before, when students complete the challenge, they show me, get their ticket, and go on to challenge 3. 

  

Challenge three gives students a set of circus train cards. They must find the answer to each card and then place the cards in order to reveal their next code. Again they will earn a ticket upon showing me and receive their fourth and final clue. 

In this last challenge, students play a game of memory match. Once they match all the cards, they will line up the cards with their matching answers in numeric order to reveal their winning code. Whichever team completes this challenge first, earns an extra ticket for each team member and of course their regular ticket too. Once a team has escaped to the circus, they can use their tickets to play carnival-style games. Each ticket allows them to play one game. If they beat the game, they can earn a small prize. 

This is a look at my prize table one of the years. I try to have some candy items, but also other prizes students can choose from as well. 

My carnival games are usually whatever I have on hand, but here's some that are especially easy and good to use for this multiplication escape room.

• Ring Toss
• Basketball Throw
• Bowling
• Darts
• Nerf Gun with Target
• Cornhole

The games don't matter so much. Kids will just be super excited to play. And they have a chance to win up to four prizes (or five if they were the first team). 

If you want to bring this circus/carnival escape room game to your class, you can find it right here.  

You can also find a matching set of basic fact multiplication center games that are all with the same carnival theme right here.  This is great as a follow-up to let students continue to practice their basic facts in a fun way as a review and to keep them sharp. 

Making History Come Alive: Why I Start Social Studies With a Mystery

A few years ago, a student gave me a gift inside this cute little box. I loved the box and hung onto it, but I didn't know exactly what to do with it. Fast forward a couple of years later and it came in handy for my Explorers unit. 

Each day, we have started our next lesson with a little connection mystery to get students thinking. 

On the first day, here's how I used it. I set up the box ahead of time, and had it ready for social studies class. I gathered my students around me and told them this: 

"Inside this box are three things that people hundreds of years ago were willing to spend enormous amounts of money to buy. Some people even risked their lives traveling thousands of miles to get them."

"What could possibly be inside this box that would make someone risk their life?"

Then I allowed the students to make predictions. Some were WAY off, but some got pretty close. Then after everyone had guessed, I opened the box and slowly pulled out one item at a time. 

First up was a silk scarf. I told them that one of the items people wanted was silk. I let the students feel the soft silk scarf. 

Next, I pulled out the cinnamon. I let each child smell the cinnamon and told them that this was another item people were desperate for. 

Then last, I took out a bottle of peppercorns. I showed the students and told them that pepper was also considered precious back long ago. 

We discussed some questions such as:

Why would people want these things?

Which object do you think was the most valuable? 

Would you risk your life to get any of these?

Why might something ordinary to us have been extremely valuable 500 years ago?

Then I explained that spices and silk were highly desirable in Europe. These things came from Asia and it was expensive to get them from Asia back to Europe. 

 

I showed students a map from the 1400's featuringing the then known world. After, we launched into our lesson about Christopher Columbus and why he crossed the ocean blue. It was so surprising that he never even realized he had discovered a new land. He thought he had landed in India and so he dubbed the people there "Indians". 

Students, as you can imagine, were highly engaged. After the lesson, they had a short activity that involved coloring and focused on Columbus and what his mission was.

If you can bring a bit of mystery into your next lesson, do it. I promise you won't regret it. 

Math Game Monday: Seek & Find

In the third-fifth grade classrooms, there is a big push to help students succeed in their times tables. That's why students need a lot of practice. They need various ways to practice, and one of the best ways I have found is through the use of games. Games engage them and get them excited about content that may otherwise be a bit...well shall we say it?...boring.

So, that is why I create these quick and easy to play center games for my students. I want them to practice and practice, but I don't want it to feel like work. 

Here's a fun Seek & Find game with a circus/carnival theme. To play, one student flips over a card. All the players race to be the first to find the product to the equation on the card. Whoever finds it will place one counter over it. 

At the end of the game, whoever has the most counters on the board is the winner. Simple, engaging, and highly competitive fun! What are you waiting for? Snag this one today. Click the link right here. 

My 40 Book Challenge

Do you struggle with getting your students to read? I have some who are in the habit of "pretend reading" or "look like they're reading but aren't." Do they complain, waste time choosing a book, stop along the way to talk with three friends? I've got just the thing for you. 

This year I jumped on the 40 book challenge and I have loved it so far. It's super easy and doesn't cost much with the way I am doing it.

I wanted a way to hold the readers responsible for completing the books they read. So, I found these cute little book reports from Teaching With a Mountain View. These were super short, but effective for showing that students read what they say they did.

Then I saw an idea that she used in her classroom that had students earning different beads for certain books. They kept them on a chain in her classroom. It was the perfect idea, but I knew I didn't want different beads for each type of different book...that was just too much for me to manage, so this is what I am doing instead. 

I recycled an older container with sections into my bead "store." Now when a student finishes a book they can grab a bead to add to their chain. Here's how I am doing mine though. The regular pony beads (colored or sparkle) will be for any regular chapter book. I noticed the students grabbing a lot of little books that are quick reads like Junie B. Jones or books from the Who Was series. So, I decided that I could require more of them for a shaped bead. For those beads, they must read a book above 150 pages. That will not only push them to read things that are more advanced, but they will be able to show that on their chain. I think it will be a fun way to challenge them. 

We are also doing the Book-It pizza program through Pizza Hut, so I am setting a page goal for each grade level (since I teach three grades) and if they meet that, they will receive a certificate for a free pizza as well. 

I find that when students have a visual they that can see or something they can earn, it brings and element of "gamification" into the classroom making the work you want them to do anyway even more fun! How do you bring fun into your classroom?