So, Friday morning I decided I wanted to do something really fun for Read Across America day. I found this idea from another teacher online and adapted it to fit us. I know Mrs. Crabtree probably thinks I'm crazy, especially when I tell her on a Friday that we are going to do this on MONDAY! Hopefully, she's still my friend after this! She probably often questions if she made the correct choice to move to 1st grade this year! While the kids were at P.E., Mrs. Crabtree and I dressed up like chefs. I was able to make these hats out of card stock and tissue paper Sunday night. Mrs. Crabtree's adorable apron was given to her by her kids when she did her student teaching. So cute! Next, we hung a sign on our door that said "Reading Restaurant". We put Dollar Tree plastic table clothes on all the tables along with a placemat that had a picture of a plate, fork, spoon, and knife. The kids had a little recording book to write information about each genre, draw a picture, and check "yes" or "no" as to whether they enjoyed that genre or not.
So.... Mrs. Crabtree bent her knees to get down to my shorter size, and for some crazy reason, I guess I thought I needed to bend my knees, too ~ which defeated the whole point! Duh! That about sums me up at the end of a day! Bless!
We took the kids upstairs with our clipboards, menu, and reservation list. We asked them to sit in the hall as we explained what our specials were for the day. The choices were: Biography, Fiction, Nonfiction, Fair Tales, and Series. We asked each student what type of book they would like to try. We wrote their names down on the reservation list. Then we called them in two at a time according to the genre they chose and seated them at that particular table. I wish I could have recorded the exciting voices when they walked into the classroom. We had jazz music playing softly in the background and the lamps on.
Kyler & Jett are sampling nonfiction books.
The kids were supposed to have a little "taste" of the genre of book by looking through different books to see whether or not they would enjoy reading that type of book. Then they would write the characteristics of that genre of book, draw a picture from one of the books, and place their checkmark for "yes" or "no". While they were sampling the books, I went around and gave them "appetizers". (m & ms, marshmallows, gummy bears, and fruit loops ~ leftovers from our 100th day! ha! ha!)
Lilli and Murphy sampled the biographies.
Mason is sampling some fairy tales.
Ava and Silas are sampling the series books.
Reid & Mason are now sampling nonfiction books.
Jett is at the fiction table.
Sara and Kyler were eating gummy bears at the fairy tale table.
Silas and Ava are at the biography table.
Murphy and Lillianna are at the series table.
Silas and Murphy sampled some yummy nonfiction books!
Ava and Lilli had marshmallows at the fiction table.
Reid was so excited that I had Thumbelina at the fairy tale table!
Mason and Kyler sampled some series books.
Here's a zoomed out picture.
Selfies with the chef!
Sorry I was unable to get selfies with everyone! I didn't get to start doing this until dismissal time and some of the kids had already left.
We had SO much fun! Some of the kids are already asking me when we are going to do it again! I can see us trying to work in something similar to this in the future!
Here's a little video I took:
