The Wild Card - Room Transformations

This book ignited a spark in me to create an immersive experience in my classroom with my students. Through reading this book, I reflected on my own teaching practices, and I gained new strategies to implement. A deck of cards, hence The Wild Card, were used as metaphors to provide professional and self learning.

According to Hope and Wade King, the authors of the book, you will learn:

• Why the deck is not stacked against you, no matter what kind of hand you've been dealt
• Why you should never listen to the Joker
• How to identify the "Ace up your sleeve" and use it to create classroom magic
• How to apply the "Rules of Rigor" in order to fuse creativity with learning
• How to become the Wild Card that changes the game for your students

What stuck with me the most was "How to become the Wile Card that changes the game for your students". I wanted to be that for my students, and I wanted to provide opportunities for my students unlike they have ever had before.

Immediately after finishing the book, I wanted to apply my reading and learning to my own classroom full of eager first graders. I wanted to transform my classroom into a campsite for the day. I took the idea to my team of 8 and was met with mixed responses. Some were willing to participate, some were anxious about the change in routine, and few were apprehensive about the amount of extra work and preparation (and money) needed. I took it upon myself to design and create all the materials, purchase materials I could not make myself, and then reintroduce the idea - this time with ALL necessary materials provided to them. Reactions were better than before - still a little unsure about what the day would entail and how we would pull it off. BUT we decided to go ahead and do it.

Camping in First Grade

We began with invitations sent to our Administrators and Core team. The invitation included: an authentic tree pencil, a scratch and sniff bookmark (smells like marshmallows), and an itinerary of the day. There was a little note inside that reminded them to not mention this day, as it was supposed to be a surprise for the students.

Next was the room set up and decorations! The classroom door was decorated to look like you were walking into a giant tent, the tables turned into tents (with plastic table cloths), there was a campfire on the board with mini campfires throughout the room, a real tent, and a picnic table that doubled as a S'mores Store in the afternoon.

The students got "Camper Hats" and materials to use throughout the experience. They read around the campfire for reading groups, used money to buy ingredients and supplies to make s'mores, made real s'mores and did a how-to writing activity to explain how they were made, we told stories for a night time campfire activity, and they completed an evaluation at the end of the day.

My students cannot stop talking about it. They gained real skills with using money to buy supplies, making s'mores and eating them for the first time ever, applying learning into writing, and reading with a purpose. Being immersed in the experience allowed the students to add a purpose to what they are doing and provides them with memories to last a lifetime!

It was seriously the BEST. DAY. EVER!

.........and the entire team agreed. We cannot wait to do another room transformation!

We created classroom magic and became the Wild Card for our students.

Check out more from Hope and Wade and the Wild Card here.