- Upper Elementary Adventures

Engage,Teacher Style,Teaching Ideas,Winter Style

February 16, 2019

This week in the life of a Minnesota teacher was full of sugar, a lot of energy and a whole lot of love! We had another 4 day week with one of those days being Valentine’s Day and we are still trying to get back into a normal routine. I’m starting a new blog series & will be posting a weekly update about a few happenings in my classroom + my outfits of the day for the week! It is too hard to give ALL the information in a short Instagram post & I figured I could up my blogging game! (which was actually non-existant for awhile) 🙂

At the beginning of the month we rearranged our classroom to make a bigger space for our class to gather and discuss important topics & books and to make our whole group instruction space more efficient. It has allowed us to gather & see each other rather than just sitting and facing me at the front of the classroom. It gives my students a chance to share their thoughts while addressing their classmates rather than just me.

With that, we also began to stand to speak instead of raising our hands.
I know, sounds absolutely crazy! But I’m not kidding when I say it is one of the best ideas I’ve implemented into my classroom. This gives my students ownership over when they want to speak without me having to decide whose turn it is. They have to think about who hasn’t had a chance to share and become self-aware if they are dominating the conversation. I will be doing a separate blog post about this later this month after we really have the hang of it! This idea comes from Teaching and So Fourth and the Ron Clark Academy!

Valentine’s Day this year was a full-on carnival! Our students had been collecting tickets throughout the month of February for positive leadership and behavior traits. They then got to spend their tickets at our Valentine’s Day carnival! We had 6 carnival games, a photo booth, a tattoo station, and a bracelet making station. It was a blast and they stayed engaged + excited throughout our entire party! All games & activities we purchased through Oriental Trading and will be able to be used for SO many other things throughout the year.

Our party was about an hour and thirty minutes long. They spent the first 20 minutes passing out Valentines. Then the remaining time was carnival games! Each game cost the students 1 ticket and gave them a chance to win a prize. Students had the option to spend all of their tickets, or save them for a carnival + auction later this year!

Now let’s get down to style! It was another cold week in Minnesota which means more sweaters, boots & scarves! Roolee Boutique has quickly become one of my favorite boutiques & is where you can shop my first sweater of the week! You can shop the rest of the looks below.

Thursday & Friday were casual days this week. My Valentine’s look was courtesy of Vici and you can shop the sweatshirt here! Friday was a PD day therefore it was a comfortable day. My favorite Minnesota tee is from Primp Boutique this past summer. If you are local, you need to find a Primp near you! I recently bought another tee for us midwest girls from American Eagle that I linked below! My long cardigan is another local find last summer from Mainstream Boutique in Apple Valley. It is one of my go to’s for all seasons but I’ll post a similar one below!