madness & greatness...in one post....what???

 how many of you feel like this?! i NEED this mug.....

am i right or am i right???

i know i said i would post more in 2014....but man oh man....WHERE has the time gone?!?! i feel like i was just celebrating christmakkah ....blinked....and my kiddos were taking the STAAR test?!?! WHAT?! that is just complete madness & greatness all at the same time....wouldn't you say???
i wanted to give you an inside look to my STAAR review camp aka reading madness....and share how i pumped my 5th graders up for the test the day before!!

go team!!

fun door way decorations!

ok so first reading madness....i used march madness as my theme (see what i did there?!?) for my reading review camp that we do 9 days leading up to the fab STAAR test!! my campus reading specialist (lifesaver) and i sat down and looked at our data to see what objectives my kiddos were still struggling with...we chose 9 of the lowest objectives to serve as our main focus reteach lesson each day of camp. we started each day of camp with our 'reteach' whole group lesson....which lead us into (get ready for it) the 'tip-off' activity... their independent practice activity that they had to finish before getting to do the interactive station work that was located at each of our 9 'home courts'!! once we started our 'tip-off' that is when i was able to pull small groups to do mini reteach lessons and a little extra intense practice time with coach kranz!!

the first days focus lesson for reading madness!!

first of all....we discussed our game time expectations....then talked about how real basketball players have to sign a contract and if they break any of their teams rules their contract gets terminated....sooooo i made an official NHE reading madness contract for each student to sign and i signed them as well....they had to keep their contracts with them in their reading madness folders during game time....
to hold my students accountable for their good sportsmanship during game time and to ensure they were completing their activities at each 'home court'.... i made punch cards for them...they got a punch card booklet that had a page for each 'home court'...3 basketballs that could be hole-punched for good sportsmanship and 3 basketballs that represented the 3 activities that were available to do, when they completed one.... then they got their activity basketball hole-punched for that 'home court'! the day after the STAAR test they are going to be able to count up all the hole punches they got to see what kind of ice cream sundae they will get to build at our ice cream party...the more punches the better your sundae will be! :)

our game time expectations!!
...a little goofy...but it made 'rules' fun!!

official contract! 

the outside of their 'stats and plays' folder!! 

the inside of the folder....to keep their punch cards, contract, and finished activities!!

each of the punch cards in their punch card booklet

the home court activity baskets....the large jerseys were taped on the floor around the room
to identify where each home courts area was! 

ok so you know me....a full out themed camp isn't complete without the FASHION! :) so i created reading madness t-shirts for the 'coaches' that were going to be helping in my classroom during the camp! the first day i wore my home made t-shirt and tried for the basketball player look as best i could....then to try to keep up being festive i wore a dress i had with a sports number on it the next day....then one of my kiddos informed me that it was a 'football' looking "jersey" and that i needed to get it right since we were doing basketball not football...hahaha gotta love 5th graders! :)

transfer paper is THE best!

the front of the t-shirts

coaches!

my football not basketball look.....

whew! did we have a fun 9 days!!! well.....sadly on day 6 i started feeling a little under the weather....i went to the doctor after school to find out i had the flu and the beginnings of a bacterial infection....ALL at the SAME time!!!! i was out for the last 3 days of reading madness....i was SO bummed, but thank goodness our campus reading specialist took over and taught the lessons those three days!! i don't know what i would do without her, seriously!!

which now brings me to our PUMP UP to STAAR lesson we did!!! i'm no joking when i say...this is one of my favorite lessons...it is soooo powerful! i wish i could take credit...but i sadly cannot. this awesome lesson is from one of my best friends named, bo armstong (he  actually did this lesson in my classroom last year with my kiddos)!! :)

 I showed them a couple clips from the nike 'find your greatness' campaign (links shown below)...they had to write down all the words that came to mind while watching...then they choose their own special word that meant 'greatness' to them....and illustrated it on an index card!! Then we hung all our words on our find your greatness wall to remind us that we all have greatness and extraordinary things inside each of us! I learned some pretty inspiring things from my students today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JnYcuRW_qo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKsEtpKwOA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q02Jz4L-nc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZIMjND7FTI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCvt3Z-BzK4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FlEYFWRHL4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOENnk1qVG0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPkyPdubqDs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hEzW1WRFTg

our finished "find your greatness" wall!!!

the good luck notes i made for my kiddos....and the classroom looking all bare!

i hope you found some ideas & inspiration for your own classroom....or if anything just entertained! :)
this tired teacher is off to bed!! xoxo