Every Friday in my Math class is a Snow Day.
Every Friday it snows when white pieces of paper are throw randomly on the floor around the room.
Students pick up one piece of paper from the floor and I write a math problem on the board (usually a problem from a concept we worked on during the week or a problem from past lessons)
Students solve the problem, make a snowball and toss it to a peer to get it checked
I circulate the room to ensure students are grading each others work correctly.
If a student needs to make a correction on their work, the student who graded the problem walks over to the student who solved it and explains/reteaches that student what need to correct. If the student who solved the problem is correct their snowball gets tossed back to them (when deciding what problems to give to students I do use this activity as an opportunity to review mastered concepts. This keeps corrections at a minimum and allows for a lot of review, practice and positive feedback)
(Added by my students….) Then the snowball gets tossed into (or at least they try to toss it into it) the recycling bin they have set up in the front of the room to act as a basketball hoop…hand drawn back board and all.
Every week we all look forward to this class period. It is full of movement, fun, increased interaction with their peers, great skill review and who doesn’t love to throw paper in class!
SOOOOOO today when I said to the class we are having a Snow Day I suddenly heard…
“UUUgggggggg!!!”
“NO!!!!”
“No more snow!”
“No snow days!”
“It is SPRING!!! We have to have a RAINY DAY!!!”
As soon as the words left their mouths I couldn’t help but smile as I changed gears and sent two students to the supply cabinet to get blue notecards.
Today were were going to make it rain in in our classroom!
And as they crumpled up the a blue notecard after solving their math problem on it and getingt it checked, they threw it at the recycling bin and realized… even though they didn’t want a Snow Day…snow balls are easier to throw then rain!!!!
I just sat and smiled! It was a really fun moment in my classroom!
I loved this.
Because I know you, have met you and hugged you, I know how incredibly lucky your class is to have you as teacher, educator and “weatherwoman”
what an incredible way to make learning fun.