Spark Student Motivation: Community Service

Let's leave a little sparkle wherever we go!

 Community Service is so important to teach and incorporate in our classrooms. There are many reasons to encourage your students to do community service projects:

• Brings your class together

Our class worked as a team to complete the project and they had fun working together.

• Builds self-esteem

My students are growing and learning from these experiences, it makes them feel good about themselves.

• Teaches them about civic responsibilities

They learn about taking care of others and our community, everyone should have an invested interested.

• Shows each student they can make a difference

When they see the results or praise after completing a project, they realize they helped make it possible and it mattered.



 

For this community service project we cleaned up our campus on Earth Day.

 



 

They were very excited to participate in this project to make sure our school campus stays clean. When we returned to our classroom we discussed what they learned and how they felt about this community service. They learned that by picking up trash they are saving the earth, animals, and plants. Also, just as important, they said they'll never litter again because it's hard work picking up trash that other people didn't throw away. :)

It's super hot here in Florida and they worked hard for an hour helping each other and our community and I was very proud of them!

 



I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

An InLinkz Link-up

Spark Student Motivation: Participation Signs

Encouraging others and praising others' ideas is a big part of my classroom, so I'd like to share an easy way I promote this: PARTICIPATION SIGNS!

 

 

I designed these signs because these are "common sayings" I use in our classroom every day!

Now I have a prop!

I love audience participation and these signs take it one step further. (Plus, the kids think they're fun!)

 I like to use these signs when I introduce something new to my class or to highlight a student's deep thinking. I actually used them at open house too when I showed our parents some of the features of our classroom! :)

 

They love holding the signs to praise each other too! They presented their biographies this week and they wanted to give each other recognition.

Applause Sign=Happy Student!

Let's be honest...who wouldn't feel good after getting a "WHOOP WHOOP" after being nervous about presenting in front of your entire class??!!

These signs make everyone smile!
I leave them on the chalk tray of my board for easy access to use at any celebratory moment!



I created these signs as posters and cut them in half and glued them on foam board. They are reversible, so I can flip the OOOOOH and AHHHHHH signs over.
You could make them on legal sized paper or poster board for you classroom.
**You'll get a very exciting response! :)

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

Spark Student Motivation: Spirit Sticks!

Spirit Sticks on Saturday for Spark Student Motivation! I love alliteration!

 I made these spirit sticks this summer and now have introduced them to my class! This is probably one of most favorite additions to my classroom!!

So bright and colorful, these sticks just scream celebration!

We celebrated our accomplishments for Reading Counts this week! Reading Counts has been up and running for about 3 weeks now and my kids are LOVIN' it! We cheered for each student as they earned their certificate for each point club.

I added these certificates this summer to my Reading Counts posters bulletin board pack and I'm so glad I did! I had a few texts from parents to tell me their child's certificate(s) were already proudly displayed on their refrigerator!

I plan to recognize point club milestones once a week. Once a week to make the certificates and pass out the spirit sticks will be the least disruptive and give my students something to look forward to.

I give incentives/certificates for every 50 points, except the first point club in my class is only 25 points to get them started. I have a reading machine who hit the 200 point club this week!!! He's going to be off my vertical point club board my Christmas!! (I only made mine to go up to 500 points!)

Spirit Sticks will get ANYONE & EVERONE excited! I even used them for our faculty kickoff at preplanning!

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

Monday Made It: Back to School and Updated Product

The first month of school is so crazy busy right? It's a wonder we even have time to sleep! I wanted to link up with my buddy Tara for her fun linky, Monday Made It.

I hope you can use some of these ideas!

This was part of my display for my Welcome Back to School table, I made a pencil cake.

You will need: foam circles, large file rubber bands, pencils, paper confetti or tissue paper, cake plate.

 First get your round foam circles and glue together (I used three and placed on top of each other-Dollar Tree). Then just line up the pencils all the way around, inserting pencils inside the rubber bands. My cake took about 80 pencils. Super easy and cute!

 

 Glue foam circles together and insert pencils all the way around the cake. I used a piece of paper because I didn't want to see the green foam in between the pencils, but they fit so snug that you won't see the paper anyway.

I think I'll break this out again for Open House, it makes a cute centerpiece and it only takes a few minutes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made these cute soaps for my children's teachers for the first day of school that I found on Pinterest.

 

You could use these for Teacher Appreciation, Just Because, Christmas, etc.

Would you like a copy of these labels? Click here! :)

 

 

I also updated one of my popular products for back to school. I added a few quotes and black backgrounds as well. Download again if you've already purchased this product for the updated file. These Inspirational Posters have been created every year in my classroom for the last 17 years! It's one of my favorite activities to make my students feel this is "their" classroom. Plus, it's a great way to save money on premade posters! These are perfect for Open House! Once your students make them for your class, others will put in their requests for posters orders!

 

Want a chance to win a set? Pin to win! winner will be notified on Wednesday by email. (Please make sure you leave your email in the comments if you're not a blogger).

Pin this image, copy and paste the URL in the comments...that's it! Have a great week!



Spark Student Motivation: Marshmallow Challenge

Happy Three Day Weekend!!!

  

 

The Marshmallow Challenge is an exercise to promote collaboration and creativity created by Tom Wujec among business people. 

 (This video is for the facilitator, not the participants.)

 

Businesses aren't the only people we want to learn team building skills! What a great activity for your classroom to promote creativity, collaboration, and cooperation!

Students have to work as a group to build the tallest free standing tower in 18 minutes. Each group receives 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of masking tape, (they call for a yard of string, but I didn't use it), and one large marshmallow. They can tear the tape and break the spaghetti, but the marshmallow has to be on the top of their structure. More directions here.

 

Before we started our challenge, we discussed ways to work together in our groups. It's important to pose questions and possible solutions to situations that may occur with your students before they get started.

What if you don't like someone's idea?

What if one of your group members is bossing everyone around?

What do you do when someone isn't participating?

What is the plan if two members of your group aren't getting along?

 

After discussing positive group talk and actions, groups brainstormed ideas of how to build their tower. I overheard a lot of great plans for their design. 

Of the five groups, three had a free standing tower. They quickly realized how difficult this task was because of the weight of the marshmallow.

 

I made sure groups knew this was for fun and not for a prize, so they wouldn't be stressed. We've been studying the scientific process, so this activity was perfect for "testing" ideas.

 This group had the tallest tower. I happened to catch a shot of one of their members explaining they should have a triangle as the base. (She was right, it was a great support for the foundation.)

 

After time was up and students were able to look around at other groups' structures, we came back for a discussion. Just as important to discuss possible problems that could occur, is the importance of what worked or went well with their groups. This spreads ideas and positivity throughout my classroom. Some things that were shared:

Our group wanted to have fun and we weren't upset when our tower fell.

We each helped each other.

We listened to every person's ideas.

Everyone worked together, no one was the "boss".

 

They reflected on their learning and cooperation skills, this will set the tone for future group work in our classroom. I love when they give credit to each other. "It was ___'s idea to try this."  "____ made us feel better when our tower collapsed."

If you have an extra 25-30 minutes in your week, this is a great activity to motivate your students to collaborate, be creative, and work as a team! So, for a of couple dollars you and your students will learn so much about each other and the importance of working as a team!

BEST PART...THEY THOUGHT IT WAS RECESS! :)

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

Spark Student Motivation: Share the Light!

I finished my FIRST week of school! My students are awesome, but I forget every year how exhausting that first week is! I think it's because we're still so tired from setting up the week before!

My post today will cover two aspects of motivation (for my students to learn about giving and others to get excited about reading). 

 

You know I'm ALL ABOUT Flashlight Friday! I've posted it about it here and here!

 

 Well, I wanted to share the light with some other members of our reading community!

 We walked in and surprised these students! My students showed them how to use their new reading tools!

 This little guy couldn't wait to hang that sign outside his classroom door!

 One of my students leaves for the reading block and I wanted him to experience Flashlight Friday each week too, so we brought it to his class! They couldn't wait to grab a book off the shelf! One boy said, "So we turn off the lights and shine the light on the words?" Then he raced to grab a book and said, "YES!!!!" He whipped that book open so fast! (I kind of felt like Santa Claus!) :)

 I love how excited some students who probably hate reading were just because of a little flashlight!
We spread so much more than light today!

At the end of the day we received this email:

 I'm so glad this teacher and his students liked it so much! Warms my heart!

It's never too early to start community service and doing good deeds! There were so many happy faces today! I hope these faces and lights shine all year while reading!

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

Spark Student Motivation: Homework Pennant

It's Saturday! Let's get each other and our students motivated! What tip, trick, lesson, or idea have you used or plan to use in your classroom that motivates your students?

Do you ever have some students that aren't motivated to complete their homework or turn it in on time?

Me too! It seems likes you get at least one every year right?

Well, I added a whole class incentive several years ago to give some of those students a little "peer pressure" to complete their homework.

This idea is simple and easy to keep track of (my favorite):

Every day EVERYONE completes their homework, they earn a letter (spells HOMEWORK).  

If they spell the word HOMEWORK, the entire class has no homework the following week!

Sounds like an awesome incentive right? It's pretty hard-I've actually only had to award this a few times in all the years I've been offering this coveted prize!

Why? If even ONE student forgets their homework or doesn't complete it, all the letters come down and they have to start all over again. :(

*I don't accept late homework for the incentive. 

There's only 8 letters, so I tell my students if they all encourage each other they can have no homework after every two weeks!

*Don't panic if you HAVE to assign homework or if you have a class that always completes their homework. As I mentioned earlier, it's difficult to attain this goal for most classes, but you could offer an extra recess or computer time instead. This motivational tool is to persuade those reluctant homework finishers to get on the ball or for classrooms that need a little spark.

Make this a class job-have a student hang up or take down letters. I have mine at the front of the room so it's a great visual and reminder. 

I sometimes offer an extra letter if everyone brings back important forms or returns their report cards the next day.

We also talk about how we should act if someone causes the letters to come down. How can we help that student? They come up with great ideas and it motivates the student to try harder.

This might be great to introduce when you get back in January to start the year out right!

Would you like a copy of my Homework Pennant? I'd love to share it with you! Just leave a comment with your email (if you're not a blogger) and I'll send it to you this weekend!

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!

Spark Student Motivation Saturday: Good Deeds

It's Saturday, so it's time to motivate each other and our students!

I want to share something I've been using for over 10 years in my classroom that motivates students to recognize and praise good deeds from their classmates. This is a wonderful way to build community and it's a very simple display on my door-I call it:

GOOD DEEDS...PASS IT ON!

I have different colored post-its all on the sides of the door that students can fill out every time someone does something "good". It can be sharing materials, helping, going out of their way for that person, etc. Here are some samples:

 Several shared school supplies with students who didn't bring any or have enough, some recognized when others helped them, and I like the one below that says that another students complimented her (which obviously she appreciated because it made her feel good).

 It's just a nice, easy way to recognize the small, special moments between students.

They fill the good deeds post-its on their own, whenever they want others to know about something good that has happened to them. It's a wonderful way to spread kindness.
Here is my board from last year:

This book is one of my favorite books to share kindness. It's about one girl's smile who makes a difference. She smiles at someone who is down and out looking for a job, who in turn helps someone else, and the cycle goes on and on with people doing something nice for someone else, until the end he ends up getting a job. It's a beautiful story.

I have a real life example that happened to me this summer: While in Philadelphia, we purchased tickets to a museum from the visitor's center. It wasn't until after we left the museum we realized they never collected the tickets (worth about $85). So, while we were visiting another historic site I offered them to a family behind us and they were grateful. (My oldest son wanted me to sell them!)

A couple of days later on our way home to Florida, we stopped at Six Flags in New Jersey (my family loves theme parks). While in line, two young ladies came up to me and said, "Do you want to be my friend? I have a free ticket for a "friend"! Of course, I hugged her and told her I would be glad to be her friend! That saved me over $60 and even my son recognized that it probably happened because we had done something similar a few days earlier.
**Best part: these two young ladies hung out with us the whole time we were there (they had season passes) and showed us all the ins and outs of the park. They rode all the roller coasters over and over again with my boys. I overheard her tell her mom on the phone that she and her friend had met the nicest family and we were all hanging out!
Spread the kindness!

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do or plan to do to get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!

 

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