On September 19, 2019–we rocked our classroom! I wanted to participate in the Rock Your School Campaign. If you haven’t heard about it, check it out on Instagram through the Get Your Teach On Instagram account. Anyway, after thinking and planning, I decided Glow Day was the way to go!
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We decided to rotate the entire 4th grade through my room during the day. We did 45 minute rotations. Even though this seems a bit crazy, it really worked well for us. There were a few bumpy spots but we worked through them!
I set up 4 stations in my room. I had the students rotate every 10 minutes. It doesn’t seem like a long time, but the students had no issue getting the stations done and had a blast!
One station was a comprehension station. You can find all of the activities combined and ready to go in my GLOW DAY for ELA set.
I set up the station by running off the passage on neon card stock. Each child also got a glow stick at this station. I bought these in bulk on Amazon! Definitely the way to go! The students wrote everything for the white paper (and notebook paper in other stations) in highlighter! It glowed and looked amazing!
As a fast-finisher activity, I used neon tape and neon dry erase markers on the floor. If the students finished before the 10 minute timer went off, they were able to play tic-tac-toe on the floor! These neon dry erase markers also work great on student desks, and of course, the board for glow day!
The Connect Four Writing Station was a hit! The students each had a pink card on their desk. It told them to write their strategy for winning Connect Four. They wrote in highlighter. I told them to write 3-5 sentences. 🙂 This gives them a guide for how long the paragraph should be.
This station was smooth. It was low prep and the kids had a great time!
The Text Structure Station was great! Now, in the beginning groups, I had them do this on graphic organizers that are provided in my GLOW DAY for ELA product. However, we ran out of copies and had to improvise. 🙂 I had the students read the card and draw the diagram that would match the Text Structure on the desk. They had an anchor chart journal page (included in the activity as well) on the desk that helped them know what the diagrams looked like. We use the neon dry erase markers again, it was excellent!
Lastly, we had the NEON Connect Four Station. The students had cards to answer about author’s purpose. They divided into teams, took turns answering questions and playing the game.
Now, how did all of this magic happen? I bought black lights (borrow if you know someone that has some.) I added some neon balloons, more glow sticks, and DONE! I did have some neon baskets already for each group to put their cards in during clean up time. However, that isn’t mandatory.
Also, new to GLOW DAY (2021) Is NEON BLOCK READING REVIEW. There are reading questions that the students answer. The teacher can decide if he or she wants the students to pull a block when they are correct or when they are wrong. Either way, it makes it fun!
Overall, it was a huge success and so much fun! The kids loved it and the parents kept talking about how much fun the kids had. However, I also know that they learned a lot during the process.
Reach out to me if you have any questions! And thanks for stopping by! I hope you can have a Glow Day that will Rock Your School too!
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