Celebrations

My administration is insistent that our Kinders learn 100 sight words by the end of Kindergarten. Let me be clear, THIS IS NOT what I would normally expect in my class. However, my admin is very, "If you expect it, inspect it!" So since they expect 100 sight words, they are constantly inspecting to see that you are teaching those 100 words. I would also like to say, next year they are going to be even more involved with inspecting our data! That led me to building celebrations into reaching academic milestones. I had three major celebrations this year attached to learning. First was Top Bananas. Every student who knew ALL of their letter names and sounds by our 100th day would earn the Top Bananas party, a banana split party. EVERY one of my students attended this party. Second was our Sight Word, Race to the Castle, incentive. For every 50 sight words learned, students would earn lunch with the teacher. I provided the lunch. 

These boys were the first two to earn lunch with teacher. "J", told me this was the best day ever!  These two boys earned lunch with me 5 times! If you do the math, that's over 250 words a piece. 

My finally celebration of the year was our Math Wizard party. Again my administration had something to do with the goal, count to 100 by 1's and 10's by November. Well, my Cubs did not meet that goal. But, they did by the end of the year. This party was the best one because of the magic potion. It was also the cheapest. Basically, a cupcake with special topper and magic potion to drink. 

What is magic potion? You may notice that of the three drinks shown, all are different colored. WHAT? All students were given a cup of ice and a small can of lemon-lime soda. Students opened cans and poured their soda into their cup. The soda went into the cup clear, all of a sudden it turned green, red, blue, yellow, or purple. HOW? So simple the day before, I put several drops of food coloring on the bottom of the cups and let it dry overnight. When I placed the ice in the cup, it covered up the food coloring. So, when the soda hit the bottom of the cup, colored soda. That my friends is Wizard's Magic Potion! 

Final note, I spent way too much this year. Most of my kids earned at least one Happy Meal. So, next year I will not be doing the Happy Meal thing. Think I'm going to sick with simple like the Wizard Party.