Show & Tell Tuesday - Spring Has Sprung!

We are one day into spring, and I am definitely ready for some warmer weather!  Mother Nature in Michigan doesn't really pay attention to the date on the calendar though.  We had snow just a couple days ago!

Barnaby loves the snow!  Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from our first few weeks with the newest member of our family!

It took some time for Barnaby to win Emmitt over, but now they are best buddies!

This year I once again did the Certified Kind Classroom Challenge with my class while reading the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  The students were encouraged to do kind things for others both at home and at school.  Then they would write about what they did in our Kindness Notebook.  

A couple times a week during lunch, the "Kindness Ambassadors" would read all the entries in the notebook and let me know how many marbles should be placed in our kindness jar (one marble for each act of kindness).  At the beginning of our challenge, they also placed hearts around the room for each act of kindness, but that became overwhelming after a while!

When we filled our jar, we sent a picture of it in to become certified kind officially!

A couple weeks later we received this awesome banner to hang up in our room!

If you would like more information about this challenge, you can find it here.  

We have been dealing with a bit of spring fever, and Class Dojo seemed to have lost its power.  So, I needed to change things up a bit until 4th marking period rolled around.  I thought I would try doing a group challenge.  Each group would earn points for following directions, being ready quickly, staying on task, etc.  At the end of the week, the group with the most points wins.  I decided to offer my students two prizes, free time on the ipads and a spin on the prize wheel!  

The prizes on my wheel are homework passes for their reading log and word work, free popcorn next popcorn day, and sitting in the reading area to read all week.  I have spinners that go with my math materials, but I have also seen easy directions for making a spinner with a paper clip and a brad.  You can have your own group challenge and make your own prize wheel by picking up this free set at my TPT Store!