Child of the Day

Happy 2013!

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve!

I'm so thankful that I don't go back until Monday although, let me tell you, this Winter Break has flown by so far!

I wanted to share with you a cute activity we do each week in our classroom.  It's called Child of the Day.  This is different from the Helper of the Day (which changes daily).  I randomly choose one child every Friday to be the Child of the Day (or COD).  

*This idea has been modified from Mrs. Parisi's Class with new ideas added by me.*

He/she gets to sit in the Teacher Chair (which all the kids love!) and we learn more about that child.

(I do this activity on Friday - we call it Fun Friday where students can choose any activity in the classroom and sit anywhere for snack/lunch time) but you can do it each day for a month to go through all the students.

I choose the COD by writing his/her name on a sentence strip.  I cut the letters apart and turn them over on my pocket chart. Everyone begins by standing up. I reveal one letter at a time and everyone who has that letter in his/her name stays standing.  The one person left standing at the end is the COD!

Here's the chart we go through together first.  The COD takes his/her name card and places it on top.  We then do all the other things together as class while the COD points for us.

The COD's name is mixed up on the bottom and he/she must put it back in the correct order. 

I start by writing the date on top in black marker on a piece of chart paper.

Afterwards, the COD gets to choose 3 friends and those friends must think of questions to ask.

This is a great time for me to review the difference between a question and a comment (which, in the beginning of the year, most of them are).

After the COD replies, we think of a way to turn that into a sentence, count how many words that would be and then write it down on chart paper (I write, the students help me stretch out the words and listen for sounds).

Here's an example:

Student (Mary):  "What's your favourite colour?"

COD (Nosa):  "Blue"

Teacher:  "Hmmm... Nosa Blue...(everyone laughs).....How can we turn that into a sentence?"

Everyone:  "Nosa likes blue."

After we write out 3 sentences, each students choose one sentence to copy into their COD booklets.

I write the sentences in 3 different colours that way when the students copy one sentence in their COD books it's much easier to follow.

They must also draw a picture of the COD.

(The COD also writes and draws him/herself.)

Here's what the COD gets to wear all day long.

At the end of the day, the COD takes home the chart paper in a nice little black construction paper pouch with his/her cut-up name on the front.

By the end of the year, each child has a wonderful book all about the friends in the classroom.

Here's a picture of how I do it this year.  I have the students' names all ready to go using these ready-made letters.  You can find the letters here. 

I have this activity in my Back to School unit.  If you're looking for something new for 2013, this is so easy to modify for your own classroom and so much fun!  My students really look forward to Friday! 

Happy teaching!