Ice Skating in the Classroom!

Greeting, Frugal Friends! You may be slightly confused that our first graders are skating in Florida in the middle of April, but yes it's true.... No ski jackets needed! In fact, skates are optional!

Here's how it all went down... Let me start by telling you my feelings on WHOLE BRAIN TEACHING. Well, *WBT* is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The only think I have found difficult was the daily incentives for the smile tallies. 

We use these "Whole Brainish" rules.
It's a free printable
from Third Grade Thoughts!

Sample of :) and :( chart

Sidenote: Tallies are rewarded in the "Smiley" :) section for good behavior, strong answers, engagement, cooperative learning so much more. "Frownie":( tallies are given for times when the class wasn't making the best choices or not following the rules.





I love the system but keeping up with it daily wasn't working out at all very well. So, I changed it! We're teachers we modify everything, right?!? Anyway, now we work toward 15 tallies which typically takes about a week and we work towards a small incentive to motivate our peers (let me clarify: by peer I mean 6 and 7 year olds) to do their best during whole group lessons. This past week and a half we've been working towards a new incentive- ICE SKATING. Yes, you heard me right, ice skating in sunny Florida when it's a low of 87 degrees outside. Indoor (classroom) ice skating is as silly as it sounds... Take a peak at all of the little figure skaters!

Skates!! 

Trying out their new skates!

It was free because I had tons of donated paper plates and it was Oh-So-Much-FUN!!!! I mean seriously... they had a flippin' blast! It was 15 minutes of pure, uninterupted, completely UNACADEMIC FUNNNNNNNN! I played a few fun jams and gave each child a pair of "skates" two paper plates and the real silliness began. I even pulled out a yard stick and allowed some skate-mania limbo to take place. I'm already excited for our next skate sesh... it was a hoot! Not a single one of my students have EVER ice-skated and only three had ever roller-skated, so I'm sure this will be a day they'll remember for a long time!

I even whipped out a yard stick
for some limbo!!! 

The video footage is so much better!

I'm not going to call up Russia just yet and tell them we have any potential candidates for the  XXII Winter Olympic Games, but they certainly showed some skating potential!! Maybe a few more "practices" and they will nail a single toe loop? I'll keep you updated!

Eventually we put our shoes back on
and called it quits after a fun 15 minutes on
the "rink." :) 

The video footage is so much better, but I'm still new at this and can't seem to figure out how to post videos. They were slipping and sliding all over the classroom. Some were spinning and "partner skating." It was just too cute and the pictures don't even come close to showing their excitement like the video clips we made! Just take my word for it and pull out your extra paper plates and give your kids a few minutes to just be kids. We promise, you won't regret it!