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Text of the page (random words):
just about anything any thing so i decide the concept first and then i add whatever content we are working on 2 the million dollar question where do you get the money i will link some of the materials down below if you would like to purchase the mario products that i found and loved now let s get to the nitty gritty it s all about planning ahead people often use money as a road block to not being able to do these types of lessons now call me crazy but i refuse to let something like money determine how i am going to teach here are a few ways to take a little detour and not stop the journey of a room transformation altogether don t take the toll road find a cheaper route we all like a good toll road generally it s faster but this isn t always the cheapest way to reach our final destination i will find beautiful decorations for birthday parties here i searched mario birthday parties on pinterest they were gorgeous but would cost a fortune rather than purchasing everything on the spot i will think of places that i can find or recreate the decor super cheap enter the dollar tree thrift stores ikea etc i call this concept making it happen i will ask around find a way to raise the funds borrow materials etc until i get the job done only make essential stops to reach your final destination of course there are things that i purchase but if i am going to purchase something expensive i ensure that i will be able to use it for other transformations example the turf for the floor is expensive however i use it for 4 5 other transformations throughout the year so the investment is worth it let s bring my honesty out to play for a second half of the stuff that you see in pictures mine included is not even needed turf not needed mario hats have them make paper hats instead wall decals use a projector and trace color your own wall decals or better yet find an artist friend and ask them to do that for you you ll be surprised that many will be all in for helping you create magic for kids i assure you the kids do not notice the imperfections nor do they deem anything as lacking you will never hear a kid say this room would be so much better if my beginning room transformations sure didn t start out like this at all you ll hear about that in the next concept the decor only enhances the instruction it makes the lesson unpredictable it doesn t have to be perfect perfection is the thief of joy don t let the idea of the perfect decor steal your excitement do what you can do something different that s what kids will notice don t try to conquer the journey over night it s a marathon not a sprint another point to note is that i have been doing these transformations for 10 years i have built up resources over the years start small i run the hardest part of each run is getting started so just rip the bandaid off get started start somewhere do something it will get easier and even better with time here s a peek at a few of my beginning transformations not nearly as detailed but the excitement of my students was equally matched lucky s punctuation patty o folks it s green table cloths and a hand painted sign i am super proud of it the kids could not have been more excited for this lesson why it was different be different how about when i recreated the land of chewandswallow for our weather unit my mom and i used butcher paper to create gigantic foods nowadays people use those great giant blow up foods are they awesome 100 are they essential to get the same excitement out of your students not hardly i get this whole money question often and honestly this is the only way that i know to answer it no my school does not fund my materials for room transformations actually i don t even ask them to do so don t limit yourself accept the challenge keep an open mind find a way to make the impossible possible i promise you will be so happy you did decor tips and ideas the decor looks complicated but it was actually pretty simple i hung blue painter s drop cloths around my room it was 15 to cover my entire room and added some decals to give the being stuck inside the game feel then for coins i used gold plates from the dollar tree that i glued to fishing wire then i suspended them from the ceiling finally i wrapped large boxes with yellow poster board and painted white question marks on them below is a broader look into the room once i decide the concept and the decor finally i figure out how i am going to break down the content that i want the kids to learn or practice during the lesson during the super mario challenge the kids were reviewing all of our reading skills that were taught during a nonfiction unit of study i thought mario would be perfect for this because i had taught close reading and it s just like the levels of the game each level gets a little harder each read goes a little deeper i used this lesson for reading it could easily be adjusted to math skills science concepts social studies themes etc just choose a different skill that you want them to practice for each level here s a look at some of the different levels level one the students were given a passage they had to complete the first read and interpret each sentence to identify the key idea level two the students were practicing identifying the key idea in shorter passages here s a fun little twist the students selected their tunnel 1 2 or 3 each tunnel had a different number of passages if they were lucky they chose the tunnel that only had three passages however they could have selected the tunnel with 8 causing the level to take a little longer to complete level three mario kart here the students were practicing identifying text structures in a passage to help them organize the most important details the students would roll their partner down to the end of the path collect a short passage there were 6 roll them back decide the text structure and repeat until the level was complete level four all the prize boxes the first team to the level busted the large box there were mini question boxes inside they would collect one mini box that contained 10 different short passages that had them identifying the meaning of unknown words once they identified the meaning of each word they would move on to the next level level 5 the students had to summarize passages they would race down to a tunnel which they had to crawl through to collect a short passage then they would race back summarize and repeat the students worked through each level at their own pace once the challenge of a level was complete they moved on they had to complete all six levels to rescue the princess and capture the flag i created the flag with poster board and pvc pipe thankfully princess peach was successfully rescued by her teams of mario and luigi this was so much fun and the kids absolutely loved every second but you better believe when i say each level was a challenge it was just that i made sure that the content was super challenging because we all know rescuing the princess isn t a walk in the park don t act like you didn t play the game and throw the controller as a kid lol well i guess that s that i hope that you will challenge yourself to do something different in your classroom it may not be a room transformation that may not be your style but do the unexpected give your kids a reason to anticipate school the same way that they anticipate the newest release of their favorite toy or game standards won t make that happen worksheets won t make that happen we make that happen here is the promised long video of the details fyi the video is upside down for the first minute then it corrects sorry about that check out these resources online i will be back with a room transformations 101 post to answer your questions about room transformations post your questions below and i will be happy to break them down in my next post no comments research for kids around the world and back are you ready to get your research on this has always been one of my absolute favorite writing skills to teach why because it gives our students every essential that they need to become an independent life long learner the goal of every teacher teaching kids that they have access to anything they want to know about is probably one of the most important things that we can do for them plus kids absolutely dive right on into the challenge and engagement is made super easy they love researching period all resources pictured are available here here is a look at how i break down research skills for kiddos 1 essential questions i begin by having the kids think of essential questions things that they think their audience would want to know about their subject this really drives their research process and keeps their thoughts organized organization and focus is key otherwise research becomes quite overwhelming essential questions help narrow down the topic and really allow the students to zone in on specific areas to research next i have the students select their essential questions that they want to focus on then they begin locating facts that will answer one of those questions in the past when i just sent kids off to research a topic the facts were all over the place it was a disaster essential questions keep them focused and on track they aren t just researching africa that is way too broad of a topic to cover anyways instead they are looking for specific facts about this continent driven by their questions 2 research the key to research is teaching students to locate facts yes even at a young age we never want to teach them the habit of copying text the secret to this is developmentally appropriate websites and books i will link some of my favorite books to use for research below if the students can comprehend the level text that they are working with they will have greater success at locating information to use for their writing the second key is modeling the expectation and then being consistent with your reinforcement yes it s exhausting yes it will make you want to pull your hair out all the wrinkles people all the wrinkles but by breaking down and simply allowing writers especially struggling writers to simply copy because that is easier for us is a horrible habit that they will then fight to break for years to come let s just get it right the first time for them i spend a great deal of time modeling and allowing the students to practice fact finding i then make sure that they are not writing these facts in complete sentences this also helps with the copy cat syndrome above the students are using their fact finder to identify facts in travel postcards as they are finding facts they are also reading a solid paragraph structure exposure is key to creating solid readers once they have mastered this concept we hit the books and i allow them to find facts for their topic here the students are researching a specific continent for an around the world and back writing prompt once that instruction is done and your students know how to effectively find facts they simply organize those facts into a paragraph including details and examples to add depth easy as pie once they know how to create a strong paragraph so let s talk about that writing 3 write to save the kiddos sanity and your sanity for that matter the writing instruction should be done prior to teaching students how to research i always teach students how to write a strong informational paragraph before i transition them into little researchers this way the focus can be on the research and the writing and structure is something they have previously nailed you will be so thankful to structure your instruction this way when teaching students are learning how to write a strong informational paragraph i use a lot of strategies including paragraph puzzles the hamburger strategy and interactive editing you can find the resources pictured here relating the structure of a paragraph to a hamburger is an excellent way to really make it stick with your students pushing them to expand details with explanations is what will make them skilled writers again a skill that should be taught even to young authors paragraph puzzles are a great way to expose students to a great structure i will say it a thousand times exposure is key paragraph puzzles are super easy to create and extremely beneficial for young writers simply cut apart a strong examples of a paragraph and allow students to organize and piece it together make sure that each paragraph has a strong topic and conclusion sentence the more they see the better they will grasp the concept this is the best way to use a mentor text you want the students to understand the text enough to use it as a template for their writing taking note of the craft and structure paragraph puzzles are a great mentor text especially for young authors we then focus on strong sentence structure this is really the second component that will make research writing a breeze for your kiddos they will then be able to take all of those details that they extracted during research and turn them into strong sentences that flow and create that paragraph you can find the resources pictured here allowing the students to see how a simple sentence can easily be transitioned into a compound or even complex is a great way to build sentence variety 4 reflect reflection is such a critical part of the writing process students should always take time to see what went well with their writing and find areas for improvements too many times teachers are telling students what they should do to improve in the real world the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one when we teach students how to monitor their own writing the value of them finding their own mistakes is so much greater than if we point them out for them this part of the writing process is essential so make the time for it you won t be sorry this is where the lightbulb moments occur and we all know those are our favorites 5 share what good is all of the work of research if you can t share it with anyone allowing students to learn and grow from what one another has learned is powerful it also provides students with an audience and a purpose these are both keys to building strong writers i always think of a way to engage my students in this part of the writing process allowing students to come up and read their papers out loud is straight up boring i mean let s just be honest so during around the world and back the students take their passports and rotate around the room to learn about the seven continents we put those fact finding skills to use once more as the students identify 2 3 facts about each continent where do i find resources finding books and resources for research is the most difficult battle for teachers i try to always integrate our research with science and social studies concepts that are tied to our standards below are some of my favorite books for 2nd 4th grade researchers centered around those two content areas click...