• Home
  • Meet The Teacher
  • Blog
  • Disclosure
  • Contact
  • Shop
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

A Smiling Teacher

A Teaching Blog by Amber Masters

  • Freebies
  • Math
  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Classroom

Superhero Birthday

April 29, 2018 by Amber Masters

If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know that I love throwing a birthday party in my classroom. Birthdays are a pretty big deal to elementary aged students…and maybe to 30 year olds too! My teacher birthday party is a special day that always goes down as one of our favorite days of the year! This year our theme was Superheroes!

Two days before the big day, I sent home invitations that revealed the theme. My class was so excited!

It was important to me that we still had plenty of learning opportunities throughout the day, so I put together Superhero Missions for the students to complete.

Mission #1 

Before students arrived, I placed a cape and mask at each of their table seats. Their first job was to put on their cape and mask in order to be ready for the rest of the day. Easy-peasy, Mission #1 complete!

Mission #2

My students had a blast solving the Mystery Message. Students had to write the corresponding letters that matched the numbers to reveal a mystery message. The message instructed students to meet on the carpet for a story. You could read any story during this time but I chose to read Happy Birthday, Mrs. Millie! This story was a birthday gift a few years ago from a very special student.

Mission #3

The third mission was all about getting my students to write! They wrote about themselves as superheroes and shared about what special powers they would have. They drew pictures of themselves as the superhero as well. I also took pictures of my students in their capes and masks (while striking a superhero pose, of course) and hung those up with their writing in the hall. It made for a super-cute hallway display!

Mission #4

The fourth mission was dedicated to math. I created my own birthday 3-Act Task for students to solve. If you’re not sure what a 3-Act Task is, check out  Graham Fletcher. He is basically the king of 3-Act Tasks and has many available for you on his website! These types of tasks are a great way to really get your students thinking and to reinforce problem solving skills.

Act 1

I started by showing my students this short video clip.

http://asmilingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_1922.mp4

 

After we watched the video a few times, I asked my students what they noticed and what they wondered.

 

 

I kept encouraging my students’ wonders until they got to the question that I wanted them to solve, how many candles are still lit? My students already knew that there were 30 candles on the cake, since I turned 30 years old.

Act 2

Once students determined that they were trying to figure out how many candles were still lit, I revealed how many candles I blew out by showing them this image.

I left this image up on the board so that students could reference back to it as they began trying to solve the problem. Students used math tools, and drawings to try and solve the question, how many candles are still lit? After our work time, I brought students back to the carpet to share their thinking. They shared strategies for solving the problem and were able to listen to how others went about solving the problem as well.

Act 3

The last step was to reveal how many candles were actually still lit. This was a great time for students to reflect on what went well and what they could continue working on.

Mission #5

The last mission of the day was Crack the Code. Students were each given the recording sheet, a pencil and a clipboard. We searched the school for the pictures and wrote the corresponding letters to crack the secret code. Students loved getting to walk around the school together and look for the clues, and I loved that they were up getting their wiggles out! The code revealed a message of our last activity of the day…Let’s have some cupcakes now!

We wrapped up the day by enjoying some delicious cupcakes I made! We had so much fun and my students have already asking what my birthday will be like next year! Definitely another succesful birthday in the books!

4 Shares

Filed Under: 3 Act Task, birthday

« Setting Up Your Classroom Writing Station
Fostering Curiosity with Mystery Doug »

Stay Connected

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Subscribe the the Newsletter

Popular Posts

  • 100th Day of School Celebrations
    100th Day of School Celebrations
  • Birthday Shenanigans Teacher Style!
    Birthday Shenanigans Teacher Style!
  • Home
    Home
  • How to Writing in Kindergarten!
    How to Writing in Kindergarten!
  • Get Your Students Ready for the NWEA MAP Test
    Get Your Students Ready for the NWEA MAP Test
  • Number Path Freebie
    Number Path Freebie

Best Selling Resources

Find Me on Pinterest

Follow @asmilingteacher

⬇️ Easy Math Game Idea -students spread out ⬇️ Easy Math Game Idea

 -students spread out their pattern blocks and the teacher does the same
-teacher describes a shape or shapes (ex. Find a shape with four sides, or find the blue rhombus, or hold up shapes that make 7 sides all together) 
- students / teacher hold up the shape or shapes that were described. 
- if a student holds it up first, the class gets a point / if I hold it up first, the teacher gets a point. 

My students have loved playing this game. I like that it keeps them engaged, and that I get some valuable info about what my students know. Also, you should know that you’re playing against the entire class. The first time we played, I took it pretty easy on them and slowly grabbed the shapes. The next time, they actually beat me! They were so fast! 🤣
⛸ Ice Breaker is definitely a book you’ll want ⛸ Ice Breaker is definitely a book you’ll want to share with your students. Ice Breaker tells the story of Mabel Fairbanks who broke down color barriers in figure skating. Despite Mabel’s talent and hard work, she was still denied the opportunity to compete for an Olympic gold medal because of the color of her skin. Mabel became a coach, mentor, and advocate for equality in skating. She was the first Black women to be inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
Grateful for this guy today, and every day! 💗 W Grateful for this guy today, and every day! 💗 We “celebrated” with Chuy’s last night 🌮 and 🍕 for lunch today. We might go crazy and get 🍦 tonight. I mean Valentine’s Day is about the food right?!
💗❤️ so many possibilities! We explored this 💗❤️ so many possibilities! We explored this math problem in one of our live Meets today. Students worked independently and shared out at the end. We’ve been working hard to challenge our brains 🧠 and solve these types of problems in multiple ways. Some students were working on counting one to one, others were working on persevering and working the entire time, and others were working on writing number sentences.
💗We are keeping Valentine’s Day super simple 💗We are keeping Valentine’s Day super simple for online learning. Students are creating one Valentine for the entire class with whatever materials they have at home. I took some screenshots of pictures from Google for inspiration, but students can get as creative as they’d like!  When they’re finished, they’ll post them to Padlet, and we’ll read them as a class the next day. I think it will still be a pretty special day!
Last Friday we celebrated the 100th Day of School Last Friday we celebrated the 100th Day of School online! Here are a few activities from our day! 
-Students brainstormed 100 exercises... (yes 10 cartwheels 🤸‍♀️😳 and still feeling it) 
-100 day hats and colored 10 groups of ten colors
-Students made a creation out of the numbers 100 and wrote about it
-Students used foods from their home of count out their own 100 day snack mix 
-We colored and read! 
It was a good day! 💗
We’ve been learning about the life of Mae Jemiso We’ve been learning about the life of Mae Jemison who was the first Black woman to travel to space. Students were fascinated to learn that Mae was in space for 8 days, that she’s had many other jobs besides being an astronaut, and that she fluently speaks several languages. We read Mae Among The Stars , as well as Scholastic’s Digital Let’s Find Out February issue. There are also several lesson extensions/activities on the Let’s Find Out website, like the Name Rockets we created today.
Good news...a mystery bag on Google Meet is just a Good news...a mystery bag on Google Meet is just as exciting as a mystery bag in the classroom. Students didn’t even notice the similarities to our mystery box that’s been floating around all year 😂. 

Students quickly noticed that some of the objects were flat and others were solid. We also had the opportunity for some vocabulary rich conversations during our sort.

Copyright © 2021 Disclosure // Design by Laugh Eat Learn // Theme by Restored 316