Laser Day

My philosophy on education has changed throughout the years.  The older I get the more I want to change things up and have a little fun.  I realized that if I am bored teaching then there is a high probability that my students are equally as bored.  This is how the idea of Fun Day Rewards were born. 

For the past couple of years I have had amazing classes of kids.  To reward these wonderful kids I came up with the idea of once a month special days.  Now here is the key, the days are fun but learning still happens.   If you give the kids a full day of fun without learning they end up getting crazy and go wild.  So, I had to out smart my students.  Hence, the fun while keeping the structure and learning.

 Laser Day came from a Pinterest idea to keep toddlers busy while at home.  I took it a step further and bought a super large roll or red crate paper and went to town.   Start by connecting desks and tables together with the "lasers".  I use regular tape so it would be pretty easy to break if a student hit it.  That is part of the game.  As the kids walk into class they are told not to touch the lasers.  For the rest of the day their job is learning as usual while crawling, jumping, or hurdling over the lasers. 

Points are kept during the day for the amount of "laser burns" they receive from breaking a laser.  My class sits in pods so the pod with the least amount of burns at the end of the day won a small pack of Twizzlers.  If the laser comes off at the taped area it is one point.  If a student rips the laser, it is two points against the pod.  ​

One of my favorite chapter books is The Wild Robot, best book ever!  We will do the Laser Day after we read the fist book in the series because Roz, the wild robot, has to continually adapt to her environment to survive.  I always make the connection at the beginning of the day that the class will have to adapt to the new rules and physical environment, just like Roz.  Laser day is a lot of fun but very challenging!  Your students will be exhausted at the end of the day, so will you!   Creating this real life simulation has done amazing things to our learning.  The kids end the simulation with an actual adaption experience that they will connect with throughout the year. 

​Karen Delaney