May The 4th Be With You!
Star Wars Day in The Classroom Across ALL subjects:
All teachers are jumping for joy because it is FINALLY MAY!!!! 16 days left of school for me and my kids. May the 4th is just another day to some but to this nerdy girl it is STAR WARS DAY! While watching the new movie The Force Awakens this past weekend I got an idea that I could use Star Wars in my classroom once I realized May 4th was coming the next week. I quickly searched Pinterest to see if I could find a few things I could use. Who doesn't love Pinterest!!?? I am an addict. Pinterest had tons of fun things and so I was hopeful to find something to use for my 4th graders. Teacher Pay Teachers came to the rescue with a few things I bought and a few things that were free. It turned out to be a great day and I feel like my kids learned while having fun! They loved it and didn't want to stop our Star Wars Day.
Star Wars Day Plan:
Decorations:
I like to decorate and I tend to go overboard. I first made a poster at school and bought some Star Wars clip art of the characters from Etsy. I made this poster to put on the outside of my door. My original decoration plan only included this sign. However, I went to Walmart and bought two large Star Wars posters to hang in the classroom. I had them laminated at school and hung them around the room.
I LOVE AMAZON!! I just googled Star Wars decorations and found some things I could hang from the clothes pins in my room. They turned out great and were really cute. Hopefully next year I can get more than just 3. I also bought a moon and star projection light that was fun with all the lights out. Especially when playing the star wars theme song. Amazon Prime users can also use the star wars inspired playlist to play the instrumental songs found in the movies. I played this throughout the entire day and my kids loved it.
I started the day by showing my kids the classroom tools page where I had written a story about why we had to help the Resistance fight against the dark side. It starts out just like the movies do with the loud theme music and the STAR WARS title. You can create and edit your own opening scene.
Once we read the story line and set the stage for the day I told the kids about the Jedi code. I told them the Jedi follow directions quickly, control themselves and their anger, and work together with others. I made them take the Jedi Oath....they put their right hand over their heart and held their left hand up while saying the Oath.
I pledge to follow the Jedi Code
To follow directions quickly
control myself and my anger
and work together with my peers
I will do my best to become the best Jedi I can be.
Silly, I know, but I wanted to really set the scene and have the kids buy into the whole star wars theme. They did mention the Jedi Code throughout the day when someone wasn't behaving. Once they took the Jedi code I called them up to my podium one by one and gave them a "lightsaber" to help them defeat the darkside. I printed out blue, green, and red lightsabers on paper and laminated them. I then cut them out and punched a hole in the top and tied a string for a necklace. The kids wore these all day and I used them to group the kids easily. They thought this was pretty cool that they got their own "lightsaber".
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| Don't Mess with us! We are trained Jedi with our own lightsabers! |
JEDI TRAINING:
Once we took the oath I made them have some Jedi Training. Jedi are strong people not only with their mind but their body as well so we have to train both. So....they did 25 jumping jacks, 10 push ups, 15 arm rolls both ways, 15 squat jumps, and jogged in place for one minute. This got a little energy out and hopefully got some blood pumping to their brains.
READING:
Next, we completed a reading exercise where they students read about the movies and the original star wars cast. They learned about the characters and how the movies were made. The kids really enjoyed reading and discussing it with their classmates. I let them work in groups of 2-3 while reading and answering the questions. We discussed this passage once they were finished and I took this for a classwork grade in reading.
We didn't get to it but I found a neat activity where you identify who the speaker is and what is their point of view based on a quote from the movie. I feel like this would have also been a fun activity to include and a great way to cover an important skill.
Math:
I found a few math word problems that were Star Wars themed and worked perfectly for what we are studying in 4th grade at the end of the year. Great review questions to cover all the critical areas of math in 4th grade. Many of the questions deal with multiplication, division, measurement, measurement conversions, and fractions. I took the questions and retyped them and printed them each individually on colored paper and placed them in page protectors. I numbered them 1-14 and gave students a paper that I created called Star Wars Math Wars and had numbers 1-14 on it for students to record their answers. Students could work in their groups of 2-3 to solve the problems that I placed around the room.
I found a great Star Wars measurement activity and used some of the figures to have my students find area and perimeter of certain characters and then measure the length and height of others. The pictures of the characters with just the dotted edges we used for area and perimeter while the other pictures with the parallel lines over them were used for the measurement.
I also found some great division worksheets that allowed the students to practice their division strategies in a fun way. They are basically color by number pages where the students color a square based on the key and the answer to the division problem. The first one here is free and the 2nd link has more characters you can pay for. These pages cover all of the operations. The division is the most difficult and more on target for my 4th graders.
C-3PO and R2-D2 Mystery Picture (Free One)
Other Resources: I didn't use this but I thought it would be applicable for math in 3rd-4th grade.
Jeopardy Math Game Editable
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| Thinking Hard....She was just using the force! |
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| Working together to solve the problems (math problems) in the Universe....May the force be with them! |
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| Finding the Area and Perimeter of the Death Star. |
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| Solving the Star Wars Math Wars Word Problems |
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| Finding the Area and Perimeter of R2-D2. |
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| Measuring Chewie's height and length. |
Language:
I found a really cool editable power point that I used to create a review for language. It was really easy to use and my two classes LOVED it. Especially being that they had to be either the Resistance or the Dark Side. When you give points to the two teams it makes a fun sound and the kids were so excited and engaged.
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| Team Resistance (The Light Side) |
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| The Dark Side |
I also created a worksheet where the kids looked at some of the quotes Yoda says in the movie and some I made up. The kids read the quotes and discussed in groups how they should rearrange the sentence for it to make better sense. They also had to tell me what Yoda meant by what he said.
I also bought a Star Wars Tic-Tac-Toe game or Toss Across from Walmart and divided the class into two teams. They formed two lines and I called out a word to one team and if the person at the front of the line spelled it correctly then they got a chance to throw the bean bags on the Toss Across. Of course, three in a row wins. The kids LOVED this also and have wanted to play it ALL week long. It was a great way to review.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tic-Tac-Toe-Toss-Across-Game/26369445
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| You want me to spell what word?? |
SCIENCE:
I don't teach science but some of my coworkers used these activities during science. They are dealing with force, motion, and gravity. They are basically STEM activities with cute introduction videos and teacher videos explaining how to do the lessons and activities.
Our day was fabulous and we really enjoyed using the force to help us learn throughout the day. The kids were engaged and we ALL had fun! May The Force Be With You!
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| Team Revuer! |
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| Team Isbindi! |
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| Team Amistad! |
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| I'm the Jedi Master in this room! |
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| Love my kiddos and this day was soooo fun! |
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