Happy Hump Day! Welcome to Wait for it Wednesday!
With Halloween just around the corner I thought it would be fun to share one of my all time favorite days with you to help celebrate! For years my first grade team would throw a Wild Rumpus! It’s a core lit in our state so it was the perfect way to fit it in. We would spend about a week and a 1/2 on the story and culminate it with a Wild Rumpus Party. Our district only allows us to have 3 formal parties a year: Christmas/holiday, Valentines and end of the year. So no Halloween Party for us! But this always allowed us to ‘get around that ‘ by hosting a Wild Rumpus. Was it a party? Um, yeah!! Did it count? No ~ aren’t we clever!?!
So what did we do and how did this work? If you are a new follower this might sound new to you. I have posted about this before though. Our Wild Rumpus Parties have always been a blast!
I have always run classroom parties in first grade with rotations and parents helping me ‘man’ them. It just keeps everything so organized and on schedule. So: here’s how it looks if you want to throw one: First, be sure they wear their pajamas to school that day so they are all like Max.
So first I would break the kids up into groups of 5 -6 ( usually by tables ). Then I would set up the rotation and ring a bell to signal the switching. I would set up the popcorn hand at the reading table, the crown making in the hallway, the sequence activity at their seats and the puzzles on the rug on the floor.
The popcorn hand:
After a couple years of doing this I quickly realized how important it was to label their hands. So I just used dot stickers and pre wrote their initials on them. After they complete their hands they stick their initial sticker on it and it won’t get lost.
This rotation gives a little more freedom, no real instructions. After they make their crown we give them a scepter to use for the photo shoot.
We just add a backdrop with a Wild Thing guy I drew a few years ago and some stars…adorable!
The kids get a chance to review the story and then to their seats to sequence it.
The winner would receive a small toy from Party City for each round.
This day is always a big hit by both kids and parents and even admin. One year we even had a visit from a Wild Thing: That was memorable for sure!
If you love this idea and want to give it a try I have a Where the Wild Things Are pack in my store that will give you more than enough ideas and printables to make this happen in your classroom. You can grab it { here }
Here’s what other teachers have to say about this day/pack:
I’d love to hear all about it if you have used this pack or give it a try this year. Take care, happy teaching xoxo,
