The BFG– Our Class Party!

Oh man. Yesterday wore. me. out.

We had our BFG Party, which I kind of morphed into BFG Day. I tried to tailor almost everything we did to the BFG in some way, and we had a blast.

This is one of my favorite read-alouds. Dahl just *gets* the kind of silliness that kids love. (I mean, the whizzpopping scene? Seriously, is there anything that cracks kids up more than an entire scene about passing wind?)

I let my kids wear pajamas, because Sophie was in pajamas most of the way through the book. One girl dressed up as the BFG, with the cutest little turtleneck and vest. She even brought in props:

A dream trumpet, and a dream jar- complete with the BFG-style dream label. (She purposely put backwards letters and misspelled fly. I love it.)

We started our morning with a math journal prompt. (I wrote about my math journals here.)

This one, I just loved. What great math thinking!!!

Next, we got creative and made our own dream jars.

The kids got to share with me one golden phizzwizard (wonderful dream!) and one terrible trogglehumper (nightmare) of theirs.

Some chose to draw the dreams the way they were described in the book, but others chose to draw what was happening in the dreams, but they had to label the jars with a summary, just like in The BFG.

What I loved was that the students asked if they could write it “like the BFG.” The special words, backwards letters, and ways of talking they remembered made me realize how into this book they really got. So happy.

This one said, “I is the first human bean to go bundjie jumpin out of a bellypopper and keep alive!” If you’d like a freebie copy of the BFG dream sheet, just click the photo above to find it on DropBox (and please say thanks!)

Then, we went to the computer lab, where I had students listen to Jack and the Beanstalk and then compare and contrast it to The BFG in their Reading Notebooks. After they finished the story, my kids could explore Universcale, by Nikon.

Have you seen this site? It’s amazing for comparing sizes of things, and very cool to just click around. I also had my kids find the things closest to the size of the BFG and the other giants in the book- which happened to involve some English-to-metric conversions. (So much learning packed into this day!)

Then we did an engineering challenge, like the Queen’s staff had to do for the BFG towards the end of the book. I’ll write more about this one later- it was probably my favorite activity of the day!

Note: the movie does include a bathtub scene you may want to preview before you decide to show it to kids.

Finally, we ended the day with watching the movie The BFG. (I actually found it on YouTube.) We also enjoyed some special BFG snacks- see the “snozzcumbers” below(cucumbers with the center cut out and cream cheese sprinkled with salt and pepper). I also had Frobscottle, but it was very quickly gone and I forgot to get a picture.

There’s an official Roald Dahl cookbook, but I kind of winged it.

I mixed together a can of Mt. Dew, a few generous squirts of lime juice, and lime sherbet. I let them sit in the fridge for about an hour until the sherbet mostly melted. Then I stirred and added some Fresca over the top. I hoped to sprinkle it with Pop Rocks, but had a hard time finding them. (My fault for shopping the night before!) It was delicious.

And very green!

We also enjoyed tiny snacks to make us feel like giants- see the cocktail weenies, baby carrots, mini Ritz crackers with tiny squares of cheese, Mini Oreos, and Chips Ahoy Minis. Oh, and my favorite- a mini baked potato bar.

Yup. Tiny potatoes baked during my lunch, and then kids could add cheese and bacon bits for bite-sized baked potatoes. Yeah, I think I may have enjoyed this part even more than my kids.

I’m excited to think of even more ideas for my kids next year. I love packing in as much learning as I can into a “party” day! Who knows- maybe if I ever decide to start a store, other people would have interest in a BFG Day packet?

It was a great day- but I came home very tired! Maybe that was just because I spent all day wearing footie pajamas, though :) Thanks for your help with ideas!

The Distracting Powers of Mr. Smelly (but mostly comparing and contrasting)

I originally planned to be gone for a conference today (National Science Teachers of America are in Indy!), but I ended up feeling really drained this week. Last night I was not feeling up to sub plans and running around a conference trying to get the most I could out of it in a day.

So I changed gears, and came to school today. The kids were all surprised (but happy). I immediately regretting not finding a wig and wearing my contacts and trying to pull a Miss Nelson is Missing on them, but oh well. Another time.

As it turns out, between a kid throwing up and an office referral, it was the kind of day that was not-so-great for me, but might have been completely chaotic for a sub! So glad I didn't put someone through that!

We've been working with compare and contrast. I use those two words constantly, because so many kids know this skill- but then get to a test and don't know what "compare" means. Nothing frustrates me more than watching them miss a concept they actually know just because of nomenclature.

I reviewed what compare and contrast meant (again) and made a quick Venn diagram on the board comparing two things.

Then, I split them into groups, gave them chart paper and markers, and let them 'draw' two things to compare from the slips of paper in my hands. (The group below got shirt and pants, which in hindsight was pretty difficult- but they did great!)

This was the "Teacher and Kid" group. Fun fact: one of the big differences is that we teachers have bigger feet.

 The kids had to decide who was going to draw the circles, if they were going to take turns writing or let one person write, and who got to share each part afterwards.

 I really talk to them a lot about how to manage groups, and this class has mostly gotten very good at it. I try not to assign roles unless absolutely necessary, because it is such a great opportunity for them to practice peaceful conflict management. One of the easiest tips is just teaching them to use Rock, Paper, Scissors (Ro Sham Bo) as an easy, clear decision tool.

I love that using the big paper and markers gets them so engaged. We could have just as easily done this on paper, but they wouldn't been near so involved.

My kids compared shirts and pants, cats and dogs, home and school, oceans and rivers, teachers and kids, and the teacher to the principal. (Yes, some of them were pretty tricky!)

Groups of 3 or 4 were just about perfect for this activity, if you decide to try it.

Isn't it wonderful to walk around and hear kids actually on task? (Well, other than the one group that could not figure out the scent of the brown marker. Is it chocolate? Is it cinnamon? Is it gross? Oh, Mr. Smelly, if only my kids had as much interest in me as they do you...)

Tomorrow I want to try to mix in some math with something like "Compare 56 and 95." Should be interesting!

How do you teach compare and contrast?