May The 4th – Star Wars Day
The force is strong with our classroom….the force of goodness and kindness, that is! Say goodbye to April and hellooooo to May! And to celebrate, students are spreading the force of kindness to those around the school and using the same force to practice kindness on ourselves too.
Students silently “storm” the halls with kindness by acting as “Kind Troopers”! In my classroom, my “Kind Troopers” secretly deliver positive and encouraging notes around the school to others. Always begin by setting the scene – if you can build it up with an engaging story, the buy in from students is *that* much stronger!
Students are each given a headband that says “Kind Trooper” on it to play the part. I continue to build this up by letting them know what an honor it is to be chosen to be Kind Troopers & I ask them if they are up for the job!?
We review what it feels like to be given a positive note or encouraging word and brainstorm what they could say to others. I typically do this using a circle or bubble map. You could also have them write their ideas on a sticky note and add it to an anchor chart using my sticky note templates!
Celebrating on this day is another change to discuss social emotional learning with your class. This can be done through the lens of discussion on “using the force for good” to spread kindness to others. Students write about how they can do this in and outside of school. There are many books that you could pair with this writing activity to promote choosing kind actions and they don’t even need to be Star Wars themed. Here are a few ideas of read alouds that I have used:
Ask students, “How do you notice the force of good being used? What did you see or hear to make you think that?” Student thinking can be displayed on an anchor chart and their writing displayed on a bulletin board in your classroom or the hallway, depending on your preferences!
Throughout the day we do simple activities around the theme of Star Wars. It’s a fun way to build engagement throughout the classroom! My morning & daily slides are themed around Star Wars for the day and I play the soundtrack as they walk in, as well throughout the day!
Students are also given bookmarks to color or use during our reading lesson for the day. During independent reading time, I encourage them to read in their “spaceships” (under their desks) with the lights turned down and flashlights and/or glow sticks (lightsabers).
Depending on how creative you want to be, there are a lot of ways to simplify this or build it up throughout your classroom. If you choose to go all out, here are some ideas for classroom decor:
This is easily one of my favorite days of the year…and I’m not even a Star Wars fan. But, year after year, my students are always excited to walk through my door and learn for the day! And if that’s not enough, I don’t know what is!