How I Built My Classroom Stage...

Saturday, October 14, 2017 35 comments
Ever since I visited the Ron Clark Academy and saw the AMAZING teachers there use a stage to help transform their classrooms, I knew I just HAD TO HAVE ONE! As soon as I got back from RCA last October, I started transforming my classroom. A stage wasn't something I could build overnight, so I finished the school year with a makeshift stage. I lowered a rectangular table to the floor and BAM... a stage. It was amazing and my kiddos LOVED it, but... I knew I wanted a bigger and better one so I counted down until summer break when I my dad could hopefully make my dreams a reality. 

Since posting my stage on my Instagram account, I have gotten lots and lots of messages asking me just how I my dad made it, so I wanted to take some time to lay out all of the details in one place because YOU need a stage too, and you/your dad/husband can TOTALLY make one! 

How to build your own stage:

Step ONE: 
Convince your Dad/Husband/Boyfriend/Friend to build it for you! HAHA! Ok... if you haven't caught on yet, it was MY DAD that built the stage, not me. I am blessed with a rockstar Dad who does woodworking in his spare time and he was kind enough to help me out. I painted and assisted in the heavy lifting, but the brains behind the operation was definitely my dad. 


Ok - Have you grabbed someone to build it for you or at least assist you?! Haha! Although I have utmost faith that you can complete this project yourself, it would still be easier for you if you have a partner to help you do the heavy lifting! As you start gluing/nailing things together, your stage will get really heavy. If you've found your builder/assistant... you are ready for step two.

Step TWO:


Go to Lowes and grab your items!
What you'll need:
-three 3/4 inch pieces of plywood
-wood glue
-large nails
-three sets of door hinges (we put three hinges on each door)
-paint

Step THREE:
Alright gang... It's finally time to build! 
We built two different 4'x4' squares so that the stage would be easier to transport. The two squares together makes my large 8'x4' stage. The entire stage is 9 inches tall. 

First, grab two pieces of plywood and cut each of them in half. You now have your two tops and two bottoms. The remaining piece of plywood will become your sides and bracing inside the stage. 
Side/bracing lengths: 4' long/9"tall 


Once you have all of your pieces cut, glue your bottoms and sides together and reinforce them using nails! You will also need to glue/nail in your bracing inside. The bracing is SO important for safety and support, so don't leave those out!


Step THREE B:
If you want to get fancy, you can add trimming to the pieces that will go around the top and around them bottom. My dad also cut out hand holes in the sides of the stage to make for easier carrying. 

Step 4:
Paint everything! I chose to paint the outside of my stage yellow, the top black, and the inside white. 

Stage 5: 
Once you've gotten everything painted, you can then attach the top of your stage to the bottom using door hinges. We chose to put the hinges INSIDE the stage so that the metal pieces weren't showing on the outside. You can just put them on the outside if that is easiest for you. 

(Amazon Affilate links are provided in this post for your convenience.)
Step 6: 
Once everything is painted and attached, you are ready to haul your stage to school and
MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN! 

(Super fun lights under my board can be found on Amazon HERE.)

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to leave them in my comments and I'll ask my Dad if they are questions I don't know how to answer! I truly believe EVERY classroom should have a stage, so I hope you will get to building! You can do it! 

LEARN & PLAY: Inflatable Yard Games in the Classroom!

Friday, September 8, 2017 2 comments
At the end of last school year, I completed my first ever "RCA Inspired" classroom transformation for our state testing math review. Check out our Glow Day Transformation HERE. After "Glow Day" went so well last Spring, I knew I wanted to do more classroom transformations in the future. My students were engaged and excited all day long... why wouldn't I want to do transformations more often?!

This summer when I was shopping the Target Dollar Spot and found inflatable yard games, I knew I had found my first classroom transformation for the next school year. I bought a set of inflatable dice, an inflatable ring toss, and even an inflatable bowling set. Although these inflatables are no longer available at Target, you can grab them for a super affordable price on Amazon and I've linked my favorite options below. This summer I created games and task cards to go with each station so I'd be ready to go with a fourth grade math review during the first week of school! I know I'm not the only one who grabbed up ALL things inflatable from the Target Dollar Spot, so thought I'd break down each station for you below so that you can do this easy transformation in your own classroom!  You can grab my pack on TPT here

Inflatable Transformation: The Basics
Our classroom transformation lasted half a day, and the only thing I did to prep was to move our tables out of the way. Students stayed at each station for 30-40 minutes and could have stayed even longer! The MOST IMPORTANT part of a classroom transformation is the instructions beforehand and the setting of high expectations. If directions are clear and expectations are high, your transformation will be a HUGE SUCCESS!

Station 1: Inflatable Bowling


What you need for this station:
-Bowling Recording Sheet (one per group)
-Set of task cards
-Recording sheet (one per student)

How to play:
At this center, students worked with their team to answer a task card. My task cards were a review of 4th grade math standards. This allowed me to see what my students remembered from 4th grade and what we needed to review before beginning 5th grade standards (win-win)! After each group member had completed a math task card, discussed their answer, and everyone agreed on the correct answer, each group member got a chance to bowl once. Students recorded how many pins they knocked over on the bowling recording sheet and once all students had bowled, the group grabbed another task card.

Station 2: Read it. Write it. Round it.

What you need for this station:
-Recording page for each student

How to play:
This was a simple station, but the kids loved it! I had my students in groups of four, so each student was in charge of a dice. Students took turns rolling their dice and each number was recorded on the student recording sheet. Once four dice had been rolled, students wrote the number in word and expanded form and rounded the number. The front recording sheet used four dice, and the back of the recording sheet allowed students to roll six dice for a more challenging task.

Station 3: Inflatable Ring Toss


What you need for this station:
-Ring Toss Recording Sheet (one per group)
-Set of task cards
-Recording sheet (one per student)

How to play:
This center was similar to bowling...  students worked with their team to answer a task card. After each group member had completed a math task card independently, discussed their answer with their group, and everyone agreed on the correct answer, each group member got a chance to play the ring toss game once. Students recorded how many many points they had scored (each ring toss was labeled) over on the ring toss recording sheet and once all students had played ring toss once, the group grabbed another task card and the process continued.

Station 4: Five-in-a-Row Dice Game
What you need for this station:
-Four in a row game board
-Game markers (I used extra math manipulative I had lying around.)

How to play:
The object of this game is to get five in a row. You can multiply, add, or subtract in order to get your lucky number. The goal of this game is to get your kiddos problem-solving! First, you will need two teams. I had groups of four, so my students created two teams of two. Team one rolls both of their dice and decides whether or add, subtract, or multiply the two numbers they rolled. Whatever they decide on, they mark out that number on the game board. Team two does the same thing as team one. They roll, add/subtract/multiply, pick their number and place a marker on the game board. Teams continue rotating back and forth until one team gets five in a row. As more markers are on the game board, teams will have to problem-solve to determine the best number to cover up. I thought this would be my students' least favorite station, but the friendly competition made it a crowd favorite!

Alright, friends! There you have it! 
Four fun centers that will keep your kiddos engaged and excited for an entire afternoon! If you are looking for a simple transformation that your kiddos will love, this is a great one for you! You can grab EVERYTHING you'll need for your transformation by clicking the Amazon links below. You can also grab my inflatable yard game TPT resource that includes station directions, 5th grade level task cards, and a fully editable powerpoint for those of you not in 5th grade so you can easily make your own questions! If you have any questions, please let me know!

Have you done a classroom transformation yet this year?
If so, let me know what kind! I'd love to hear it! = )
Happy Transforming!


Let's Glow! A classroom transformation that your students will LOVE!

Thursday, April 27, 2017 19 comments
(Amazon Affilate links are provided in this post for your convenience.)

Let's GLOW! After visiting RCA last October, myself and my teacher bestie committed to planning and completing an RCA inspired classroom transformation before the end of the year. Our first transformation took place last Wednesday, and OH MY GOSH, I am obsessed and 100% committed to doing several next school year! Keep reading and I PROMISE to tell you all about it! = )

Over the course of the last month we have been prepping for state testing like CRAZY. We have been  reviewing and re-covering and practicing, practicing, practicing. Both myself and my teacher bestie both tested on Thursday, so we thought Wednesday would be a fun day for some last minute testing review through a classroom transformation so... GLOW DAY 2017 was born!

I'd like to start by saying that all of our ideas were adapted from the AMAZING Hope King over at Elementary Shenanigans. We decided to use her "glow games" theme because when doing something new, why recreate the wheel when someone else has already
done something amazing?

We started by gathering the supplies that we needed. The hardest thing to find was most definitely black lights. We didn't want to spend money on black lights, so I reached out to anyone and everyone in search of some we could borrow. A local fire station who has a haunted house in October had some we were able to borrow! Whew! I suggest trying to find some before buying your own! If you can't find any, you can grab these off of Amazon.  Since we were able to get our backlights for free, we spend a total of about $40-50 a piece on our classroom transformation. SO cheap... music to my ears. Hah!

Okay, now for the details! Eek!
In order to get the kids intrigued and excited, I sent them each home with a ticket the night before our glow day. Other than what the ticket told them, the knew nothing. They were asking all sorts of questions but I kept it all a mystery!


You can grab these tickets as an editable freebie HERE on my TPT store. They are also included in the Glow Day Pack on my TPT store as well.

The next day when they entered our classroom, they had to provide their ticket. When they walked through the classroom door,
this is what they found...

The picture honestly doesn't do it justice. I LOVED hearing my kiddos reactions as they entered our transformed classroom. On the way in the door they grabbed some super cool glow stick glasses I purchased on Amazon and our day of amazingness began.

Alright, now for the stations...
We had 5 different stations and students stayed at
each station for 30-40 minutes.
It took our students the entire day to work through all 5 stations. 

Station 1: Ring Toss

(Supplies needed: the jugs, glow sticks, task cards)
At this station there were three different colored task cards. Each color card was a different skill. Students picked a card and answered the question independently. Once everyone answered independently and then agreed on an answer, each student got to throw a ring at the appropriately colored jug. Once everyone tossed, they moved on to the next task card.

Station 2: Geometry that GLOWS!

(Supplies needed: iPad with PicCollage, glowsticks, task cards)
This station was super simple, but the kiddos loved it. Students worked to create different shapes/angles/etc. using glow sticks and they took pictures of them and posted them into PicCollage on a graphic organizer. There were a few task cards sprinkled in on the graphic organizer so that students would have plenty to do.

Station 3: Let's Bowl!



(Supplies needed: water bottles, glow sticks, hamster ball, dice)
The station was one of the more elaborate ones. Students practiced creating numbers/fractions/decimals, ordering them, writing them in multiple forms, and rounding them. Students rolled the dice to create the numbers. Once they completed one "round" in their student booklet (more on that later) each student got one bowl. They recorded the number of pens that knocked down on a bowling sheet.

Station 4: Jenga

We wrapped each Jenga block with backlight reactive tape. We had five colors of tape and each color went with the same color task card. A student pulled a task card, everyone answered the question/discussed, and then the student who pulled the card got to pull a Jenga block. 

Like I said earlier, all students rotated through all 4 stations. Student each had a recording book where they organized and recorded their work all day long. I had a light up wand that I passed to different groups as I caught them working well together and staying on task. This motivated the students to work as a team because they wanted to hold the magical wand!

It was an AMAZING day. I have never seen my students so engaged and motivated as they were on this day. I am not gonna lie, I was a bit scared about doing a classroom transformation. Would my kids be CRAZY? Would they stay on task? I was CRAZY to even question them. I cannot wait to do more of these transformations next year!


So, now that I’ve told you all about our AMAZING day, have I convinced you to give it a try? If you are a 5th grade teacher, you can grab 90+ pages worth of resources and task cards that go with all four of these stations over on my TPTpage. Everything you need to complete the educational side of these centers is in this pack!

Grab the Pack HERE.

Have you done a transformation?
What was your theme? I'd love to hear all about it!

Grab all of the supplies you need off of Amazon Prime below!
(I split the glasses and glowsticks with a teammate in order to cut down on the cost.)


(Amazon Affilate links are provided in this post for your convenience.)