Well the Wacky Star Fun Button has finally made an appearance in grade 1. Every morning when we work on oral writing I challenge my students to speak in complete sentences. At this point in the year, they now know never to start a sentence with "and", only one "and" per sentence. They must always begin sentences in a variety of ways (first, then, also, moreover, etc.) Also, I encourage them to use adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions in their oral genius paragraphs. If a students manages to follow the majority of these requirements they get to press the Wacky Star Fun Button and boy do they want to press that button. Then, that lucky duck gets to choose what crazy animal the whole class gets to be for ten crazy, wonderful seconds. Our classroom carpet is made up of colourful squares making a seating plan super easy. Students must stay in their assigned square on the carpet and we model voice level. The button is pressed and, suddenly, my students morph into crazy kangaroos or exotic elephants. It's a jungle in grade one!!
