Curt's Crazy Cafe

I know that I left everyone hanging at the end of my last post wondering what "Curt's Crazy Cafe" was all about.  Some of my students' first reactions upon entering on the first day were:

1. "Amazing, completely and utterly amazing. It is set up so awesomely!"
2. "My first impression of Curt's Crazy Cafe was that this was going to be a strange experience that I would tell stories about."
3. "This is nicer than some real cafes I've been in!"

What could I have done to get this kind of reaction? A complete transformation of my classroom so that it looked at felt like a cafe.

After about $35 at the local dollar store, I walked out with six different colored plastic tablecloths, six different kinds of fake flowers, six glass vases, six sets of salt and pepper shakers, six tea light holders, and six electric tea light candles.

The Buffet Table

Each Trait Hangs Above 

Welcome to Curt's Crazy Cafe where cooking up great writing is fun and tasty!

                                       

Inside each folder is one to two assignments to learn and practice what the different writing traits are. Since there are nine assignments, I set nine days as a benchmark since they should not take more than a class period to complete.  A fellow teacher created/found many of the assignments.  I tweaked them to fit my class and added a few lessons from the writing traits kit that I have from my district. (See Freebies page)

My Name Tag

Since traveling to different countries is one of my passions, I worked that into the unit by having the cafe turn into a different country each day.  Using Grooveshark, I created playlists for each country based on my favorites or ones that were representative of the country.  I made sure to have enough songs to play for the entire period. (Click here to view or use my playlists.) I asked students to dress up and to bring snacks.  If they dressed and brought snacks that matched the theme, they would get LearningEarning bucks (will blog about this great site another time). I am not telling students what the next day's cafe will be until school ends.  They have to check Edmodo or get the message from Remind 101 in order to know.

For day one, I used Caribbean first since I knew many students had Hawaiian shirts or beach hats from our day two experience.  Also, I loved that it was alliteration! 

Curt's Crazy Caribbean Cafe

I chose an American cafe for day two since I figured many students had red, white, and blue to wear.  I played many classic rock songs.  When Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive came on, many began singing while working.  Excitement went through the roof when Michael Jackson's Beat It started! To have this happen on Friday seventh period is absolutely wonderful.

I really pumped up the cafe on Monday when I made it a Mexican cafe.  I had chili pepper lights that have sat in my attic for years, a sombrero hat, chili pepper necklace, and fiesta signs to make it Cinco de Mayo in the cafe.

                                  


Since today was the middle of the week, I decided to surprise them even more.  Last night, I messaged out that I had a surprise.  I decided to make do the Irish cafe since my husband has a very easy soda bread recipe.  It only took two batches to make 75 slices, and I had all ingredients except the sour cream.  Also, I was quite sure very few students have ever eaten it, and I wanted to introduce them to something new.  Many of them loved it.  A few didn't like raisins, but they liked them in the bread.

I'm saving the Spanish (Spain) cafe for Friday since I was able to pick up an awesome Spanish black hat with red pom poms hanging from it.  For our final day, I'm having my favorite, Curt's Crazy Italian Cafe.  I have lots of Carmen Consoli (the more C's the better!) songs to play and will have another food treat, pizzelles.  My daughter's caretaker is loaning me her machine, recipe, and containers.  Since she said it makes two every 30 seconds, I figured it will be super easy to get 75 of them! (I hope.)

As the students work, I remind them how many days the cafe has left and that by then the cafe will disappear and so will my crazy outfits.  Many don't want it to leave nor my outfits. "We love them!"

Since I have had such bad hat head from the chef hat or the other hats I've been wearing, I have had to wear my entire outfit, chef hat and all, to some parent conferences.  I'm amazed that none of them have given me a strange look or question me about it.  Everyone in my building, including all the other students, is used to me and are now asking me what country I am today! I never could have imagined this last year.

Japanese cafe

Spanish Cafe

Pizelles (Pizelli) for Italian Cafe

Infectious Party Atmosphere at Parent Conferences

Thanks to Todd Whitaker's ideas in his book 10 Minute In-service and to Dave Burgess for his presentation ideas and hooks, we were able to make our parent - teacher conferences an unforgettable experience for everyone!

Upon walking down the hallway towards our classrooms, families were greeted by our humongous, handmade welcome banner.  Also, we had pizza and coffee for refreshments.  Since we knew many would have to wait to meet each of us, we created three activity tables.  On one table we had two laptops for use in checking our team web page, students' online grades (we use gradebookwizard), and Edmodo.  The second table had Angry Birds coloring pages, and the third had all the supplies and directions needed to make a monster bookmark.

Since a team member's son, who works at Hasbro, donated the games, we were able to create a family game night basket as a door prize.  We sent home a flyer announcing our plans for the evening and to receive notice if they were going to be able to attend.  Students received an extra raffle ticket for the door prize if the flyer was returned.  Each family received a raffle ticket for each teacher they visited.

Besides a raffle ticket, families received a token of thanks from each teacher.  I made labels for all of the tokens.  See my freebies page for the different labels for apples, popcorn, mounds candy bar, and almond joy candy bar (I forgot to take a photo of this one).  Unfortunately, the QR Code that was to take them to our team web page was too small for the app to read.  Parents were surprised and seemed to love getting the little treats.

Since our corner was a beehive of activity for the entire three hours, a "buzz" started to go around the school.  Other families became interested in what was happening, and other teachers visited, too.  Throughout the following day, many teachers told me that it was amazing.  I created a survey using SurveyMonkey in order to get feedback from the families.

Thank you Todd and Dave for giving me the inspiration to reach for greatness and for getting my creative juices flowing!

Fun Times with Author's Purpose and Inferences

With state testing taking up most of the students' days these past two weeks, I haven't been able to blog about our happenings since not much was happening.

Testing is done so we are off and running now!

While on Pinterest, I saw all kinds of PIE ideas for author's purpose.  I decided to use Erin's from I'm Lovin' Lit and tweaked it with one idea from Pinterest.  I like using foldables and found hers easy to use.  It's one lesson in her Interactive Reading Informational Text Notebooks.  I used the one with the three pockets, but on the pocket I put the definitions and example of the kinds of texts.  Using the blank squares she provided, students looked through Scholastic book club flyers for books that were either persuading, informing, or entertaining.  Students put two books per a square and put them into the correct pockets.  While searching, students had to make inferences about the author's purpose based on the book title, cover, and small blurb.

Final Product

I used the author's purpose lesson as a springboard into our inferences lesson.  Since they will be doing plenty of inferencing on text they read in the future, I wanted the refresher to be entertaining.  What better way to entertain middle school students, especially during state testing, than to use short, animated videos? There are none! I found a few videos myself on Pinterest, but it was few and far between.  I am extremely grateful that I follow and read Jaime's blog over at Technology Up to Speed!  She posted about movie shorts and reading strategies with links to all the movie clips on YouTube and handouts to use.  I used Keepvid to download the videos in case they should disappear and want to use them again.  I used her handout idea, but I added guiding questions to help students know the parts where they should be making an inference.

Visit again to read all about the Pumas' Parent - Teacher Party during parent conferences and how it was received by the parents.  You won't want to miss finding out about Curt's Crazy Cafe - where creating great writing is fun (and tasty).

If you haven't read about my amazing professional development presentations about Teach Like a Pirate, do so now! It will be worth your time if you want ideas on how to TLAP your presentations. You can catch up on it since we're on hiatus this week due to the conferences.

The M&M Guys and Fun Test Prep?

The M&M guys were a hit and they look grate.  Um, I mean great.  I have been having as much fun as the students with these homophone lessons.  We used these M&M guys for homographs (Thanks to Mrs. Russ).  I created this flower/flour one for homonyms.

I used this as a time to review how to make detailed, descriptive sentences.  I told students that if you try to have your sentence answer at least 5 out of the 6 5W and H questions, you're sure to have an excellent sentence.  I chose the most difficult homophones I could find in order to step it up to a seventh grade level. I plan to hang these all over the classroom.

             

Everyone loves a good joke especially when it's because of a confusion with the words. Using Pam Dahm's idea at Chit Chat and Small Talk, I had students create jokes for other homonyms that they did not use in their M&M guys.  The task was quite difficult based on the difficulty of the words and trying to make them funny.

I expected my test prep day to be the worse, most dull day of the year! Amazingly, it was actually fun once squirrels were involved.  Even though we all hate tests and don't like to teach to a test, tests are part of our entire lives. I explained how to do a process of elimination on multiple choice tests and exactly how they work.  The question of the day was why are they made that way.  A great question that I didn't have an answer to except that it's the format.  (BTW I hate MC tests!) Once I explained that this technique can work every day in all classes that give these kinds of tests, they were more interested.

We had a great discussion about all the tests you have to take your entire life.  Getting your license, getting into college, getting into graduate school even though you have four years of college behind you, and if you want to be a licensed plumber or electrician.  They couldn't believe that you had to take tests to be a plumber!

I told them about my experience having to take the MATs.  They were very curious once I told them that I only had sixty minutes to answer 120 analogies.  I told them you need a game plan.  I stressed how important it is to have a game plan when going in for any test.  "What was your game plan?" they asked.  It was to answer all the ones I immediately knew, go back to figure out all the others, and review all of them.  In the end, I had 10 minutes to spare.  Their mouths were wide open in shock that I had time left! I stressed that a game plan always helps.

Once we started to review the questions and the poem, the "real" fun started once we got to the question about what "in a frenzy" meant in reference to squirrels.  We realized we were able to find the answer in just thinking about all we knew about squirrels without needed the poem.  One of the choices was that they were "cautious".  Everyone shouted out that they weren't cautious at all by darting into the streets and walking on wires.  They loved my impersonation of a squirrel looking both ways to cross the street.  Next, we talked about the "worried" choice not being good either since it's a human trait.  They were laughing at the thought of the squirrel worried getting enough food for the winter or worried about anything.

I was elated that my week ended with fun and not the boring that I was expecting.  Thank you squirrels!

Spreading some TLAP

My team and I hope the students are liking our hallway more since incorporating minions into our latest display case.  Since Despicable Me 2 came out this summer, I loved this idea when I saw it on Pinterest.  I took it one step further by adding many key characteristics of good character which I call "Distinctions" (from a book I read about making writing real for students).  The heading says "Puma students are one in a minion".

One homework assignment I give my students every year is to write about these "Distinctions".  They write about two character traits they feel they are good at and one that they feel they could work on.  I love this assignment because it gives me insight into who they are and their writing skills.  It was very interesting that about 95% of them chose patience as the one trait to improve on.  I was not surprised by this since they have grown up in a world that is filled with instant gratification from watching any TV show they want on demand to instantly seeing and sharing photos that they take.  You can get the homework assignment sheet on my Freebies page.  Check out the Blendspace I made for assignment.  The safety video will have you laughing in stitches!

I love having students apply for jobs in the classroom.  It gives them ownership of our room and keeps me from running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I shared the application that students fill out on my Freebies page.  This year I tried to have job titles that sounded real and had alliteration.  I have an iHelp board that looks like an iPhone similar to these in Google search.  I already put names on mine so I don't have a picture to share.  Next to this I have my help wanted display with the jobs listed.

I wanted to greet everyone who attended our School Improvement Meeting with a special snack table to start our year of meetings.   I got the cupcake toppers and sign free at Tales of Teaching in Heels blog.  Everyone loved it!

The first thing my students did this week was to finish their word trees that I told you about in my last post.  The students loved seeing many of them on display in the classroom.

Our next topic is homophones.  I remembered the Amelia Bedelia books and how she constantly confused them.  Everyone loves to read books from their childhood even seventh graders.  When I showed them the books, I heard "awww".

I had students read the books, find all the homophones Amelia confused, and write an explanation on why she was confused.  Students paired up and shared their learning with a peer who had a different title.  You can get the activity sheet on my Freebies page.

At night, I texted using Remind 101 with a hook for tomorrow's class.  "Be sure you're in tomorrow because you don't want to miss the M&M guys!"  As soon as they arrived, I was bombarded with questions about who are these M&M guys.

Be sure you visit again to find out who they are!

TLAPping in the Library?

Many years ago I read about about making writing assignments about personal things for students.  I can not remember the book or author.  I don't have a lot a leeway to do this, but I do assign a homework assignment about "The Distinctions".  These are characteristics of what makes a good, well-rounded person.  Normally I give the assignment with only synonyms of all the words, but this year I used Blendspace (formerly Edcanvas) to explain the meaning of each word better than the synonyms.  My favorites are the safety, kindness and courage videos.  Check out my canvas.  You can use Blendspace as an app in Edmodo.  I did this so my students could watch the canvas right from there.  You can get the assignment on my Freebies page.  I had them choose two that they felt they were good at and one that they could work on. Instead of talking about my expectations, I have this assignment lead to a class discussion about what we can all do to make a great experience for everyone.

I was ecstatic when my Word Root Tree lesson lead to an Aha moment!  Towards the end of making the trees, we took a break to have a game of saying the correct meaning of the word and winning a sticker.  One student and then the entire class started to put together the meaning of the roots and then the suffixes.  They realized that "ist" makes a person's job and the root explained which job.

derm = skin 

dermatologist = skin doctor 

dent = teeth 

dentist = teeth doctor

These trees are going to look great all round the room and a great way to reinforce our roots all year.  You can buy the lesson at my TPT store.

Our final part of our week was a first visit to the library.  The librarian did an amazing job in using TLAP style for our visit.  She showcased all the free things that their public library card can do beyond our middle school library.  Students were showed that they can learn to speak Pirate on Mango Languages.  Students had such fun trying to speak pirate into the mic and hearing it played back.

Anyone with a library card in our state can use it for free.  Besides learning a foreign language, we pointed out to our ELL students that their parents can learn English using the site.  Check out your library to see if you have free access.

The best part of our visit was the YouTube video The Dewey Decimal rap.  We were cracking up and singing along by the end.

Enjoy the start of your week with big smiles and laughs from this video!

Week Two TLAP style

It is possible to make students excited and have fun about prefixes, suffixes, and roots.  Are you thinking, "Yeah right"? I know I can't believe it either!  By the end of the day Friday, students wanted to make a video for YouTube about them.

To TLAP the prefix lesson, I turned it into a game.  Students were given base words and had to add prefixes.  Cheers went through the roof when I showed what they could win if they found the most valid words.

Each group member would get one of these stickers, but they shouted like I was giving them $100 bucks.  You can buy them at Smilemakers.  I've found this to be the best place for tons of great, quality stickers.

We added some rap music/lyrics to our repertoire with the Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots Rap from Rhythm, Rhyme, Results.  I bought their entire Language Arts CD on iTunes.  They have a CD for each subject area.  The students loved reading along and then singing along on the second time.  They loved it so much that they suggested that we make a music video of it.  One student thinks we'd get a million hits on YouTube.  Right now, I have a poll on Edmodo to see how many others would want to make a video.  I'm up to 10 students so it looks like I will have a new project to start.  I will share it on here when it's complete.  I'll have to research about YouTube since I've never done this before, but it will be exciting.  

Afterwards I realized I should have worn a costume which would've been a better TLAP version.  Next time I use one of their raps, I plan to dress like Flavor Flav.  

That will really get the students and staff talking.  It will take a lot of practice because my tongue gets all tied up whenever I try to rap.  Keeping my students excited and engaged is one focus of my passion so I will do this and succeed for my students!

I like to give some variety/choice to homework when at all possible.  For the first assignment, students had to introduce themselves by using either Wordle, Blendspace, a bio-cube, or a letter.  While many chose a letter, I did have a few create Wordles, who also figured out how to share them on Edmodo.  Wohoo, for them! I had very few do the bio-cube, but I really like how a few of them turned out.

The second assignment is a brand new idea that I created this summer.  I find root words extremely boring.  I imagine most do, especially tweens.  They love fortune tellers/cootie catchers so I created one for Root Words.  They came out better than the practice one I did.  They are excited for school Monday so they can play the game I created for it.  You can purchase the assignment at my TPT store.  

Have a great week! We will be rapping, playing games, and creating word trees that I blog about at the end of the week.