Shh...the quiet game has been revived!

Today's blog is going to be a hodge lodge! 

In my kindergarten class, my students LOVE hodge podge day.  What is hodge podge day you ask?

It is when I have random left over snacks and our snack for the day is a hodge podge of whats left.  

Aren't kindergarteners the greatest!  You say hodge podge day and they are like...

YAY!  We LOVE hodge podge day!

It IS okay to be jealous.  I do have the best job ever!

So now back to this post.  This post isn't about anything in particular but just a hodge podge of stuff!  Hopefully stuff that you find helpful or useful.  

Let's start first with the quiet game.  I can't take credit for this AMAZING game, and no it isn't your typical quiet game.  This one is AMAZING!!  Unfortunately I don't recall who posted this originally.  (I follow lots of great teachers on Facebook and can't recall whose idea this was.)  If it is yours please let me know, I would love to give you credit.  

So I read about this quiet game and didn't realize the magic powers of this game.  That's right I said MAGIC!  After reading about it I thought I would give it a try the next day.  I must first start out by saying this game has no meaning, no winner, no end, and ultimately no purpose.  But it works and gives you a few minutes of quiet.  I decided to try this game after recess while we are getting ready for lunch.  We have ten minutes to take our coats off from recess, use the restroom, wash hands, pass out lunch cards, get sack lunches, and line up at the door for lunch.  If you have ever taught kindergarten you know getting that accomplished is magic in itself!  

Here is how the game works:

Pick one student who is sitting quietly to start the quiet game.  

That student gets to sit up front in the teacher stool.

They watch for a few minutes (really more like 30 seconds).

Then they pick the quietest person and that person gets to come up to the teacher stool.
They just keep rotating through until you say the game is over.

(If it is a boy I have them pick a girl and a girl picks a boy).

You can play this game indefinitely.  I don't know why but they love it.

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tried it myself! 

That was the quietest we have ever gotten ready for lunch.  When it was time for lunch my students were a bit disappointed if they hadn't been picked.  I reassured them we could play it again.   Now every time I tell them that we are going to play the quiet game they cheer and then they get quiet!

It's like magic!

I recently posted about my Arctic Animals unit.  We are starting week 2 but I wanted to show you how cute my bulletin board turned out! 

Here are a few pics...

Check out this Walrus.  

It 10 and a half feet (true size) of a Walrus and the tusks are true to size too!

Walrus anchor chart.

The pink post its are our schema (what we already know).

The yellow post its are what we learned (new findings).

We did not have any misconceptions this time.

It took 3 kindergarten classes to weigh as much as a Walrus!

Wow!  That is one big tusk!



One last bit of hodge podge for ya!

Over the summer I created this timeline banner for my classroom!
I love it!  It is hanging outside of my classroom above my bulletin board.  As the end of every month I add a picture of something fun that we have done in my classroom.  Here it is so far...
It is along the top of my bulletin board.

  It is a work in progress.  I add to it as the year progresses.

Through the year...

Here are a few close ups.  

Click here to check it out!

Until next time... I hope you enjoyed a little bit of Hodge Podge!