WEEK 4_Sideways Stories from Wayside School_February 2015

Book: Sideways Stories from Wayside School By: Louis Sachar

Ages: Kindergarten – 3rd grade

Duration: 4-week program (1hr 30mn/meeting)

Theme: School/Short Stories

Synopsis: This program is designed to take children on a 4-week journey through a series of short stories and participate in related activities. This program encorporates both crafts and activities. Each meeting is divided into walk-in activity time, reading, crafts/games, and snacks.

Week 4:

At a Glance:

Color and decorate a story that will be added to our very own Sideways School
Read Myron and Maurecia
Play vocab game during reading
Decorate balloon ice cream scoops
Play Ice Cream Catch
Snack

Provided materials:

Walk-in Activity: Create a Sideways School

As participants arrive, let each child choose a blank story cut from construction paper. Let them arrange some windows and other building accessories on their story and color as they see fit. Make sure their name is on the back of their story and choose a designated place on the wall to start stacking their stories.

Activity I: Ice Cream Create and Catch - part 1

Click here to view my inspiration!

Give each student a balloon (white, pink, or brown for vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate ice cream).
Inflate the balloons and tie them off
You'll probably need to help kids with this step. We use hand pumps to blow them up. Sometimes the kids can help work the pump and other times its easier for the leader to do it. Use your best judgement with your group.
Pass out small bottles of glue and instruct participants to put a small amount of glue on their balloon where they would like "sprinkles" Then, they may sprinkle confetti over the glue and shake off any excess. Our confetti was made out of glitter and bits of squares of tissue paper.
In order to keep the balloons from rolling around everywhere, I created a paper ring to set the balloon in. I also clipped a clothespin to the knot of the balloon to set inside the ring as a weight.

Set balloons aside to dry. (Write names on balloons so that participants can identify them during the game.)
Cut cone shapes out of white cardstock.
Teach participants how to draw the criss-cross lines on the paper to look like a waffle cone.
Color the cone.
Help each child bend his/her paper into a cone shape and secure with a staple and a bit of tape.
Set aside.

Reading: Myron and Maurecia

Vocab List:

Elected
President
Convinced
Unconscious
Delicious
Heartbroken

Vocab Game:

Choose at least as many words from the above list as there are participants before reading. Display the words near the reading area.

One-by-one, explain the definitions of each word.

Instruct participants to raise their hand if they hear one of these words during the reading. When a child correctly identifies a word has been used, he/she earns a sticker for his/her apple hat! (These are to be made during the next activity.)

Then, pull the word off of the display and drop it into a bucket.

At the end of the reading, let each child take turns pulling a word from the bucket. If he/she can remember the definition of that word, he/she earns another sticker for the apple hat!

Occasionally there would be a word leftover in the bucket. In this case, I would read the word and the first person to raise a hand would be called on to give the definition and earn another sticker.

Activity II: Ice Cream Create and Catch - part 2

Pair up students.
Line them up facing each other.
Give each participant on one side of the line a balloon that has been decorated and give. Give each participant on the OTHER side of the line a cone.
The leader will count 3...2...1... and the participants with balloons will toss, snap, tap... etc., their balloons towards their partner who must catch it in their cone.
If the catch is successful (no hands allowed!) each partner gets a hat sticker.
Switch positions and repeat.
Repeat as time allows.