On Friday, we held our annual 5th grade Rooster Games. Students who read and reported on seven of the twenty Rhode Island Children's Book Award (RICBA) nominees were eligible to participate. We began with an overview of the intent and spirit of the games, the schedule, and passed out RI Children's Book Award t-shirts. Students then broke into their teams and had a few minutes to create a team song, cheer, or handshake to generate team spirit. At 9:30, we began the official rounds with everyone following a set timed schedule.
Rounds included:
Title Scramble Round
Object Round
Dialog Round
Character Motivation Round
First Line/Last Line Round
Invention Station (inspired by the book Whoosh!, students had 10 minutes to create a toy from random materials)
Snack Room
Each team also had non-scoring add-on games in their folders in case they finished early which included Rooster Games charades, word search, and illustration matching.
At the end of the round rotations, we met back in the library and played a multiple choice round together. We ended with a Rooster Game survey, pizza and cookies.
Students had a great time working together to answer game questions about the books, creating toys at the invention station, and eating snacks and pizza. The survey was very helpful in determining students' favorite activities and generating feedback. See graph, comments, and photos below.
Rounds included:
Title Scramble Round
Object Round
Dialog Round
Character Motivation Round
First Line/Last Line Round
Invention Station (inspired by the book Whoosh!, students had 10 minutes to create a toy from random materials)
Snack Room
Each team also had non-scoring add-on games in their folders in case they finished early which included Rooster Games charades, word search, and illustration matching.
At the end of the round rotations, we met back in the library and played a multiple choice round together. We ended with a Rooster Game survey, pizza and cookies.
Students had a great time working together to answer game questions about the books, creating toys at the invention station, and eating snacks and pizza. The survey was very helpful in determining students' favorite activities and generating feedback. See graph, comments, and photos below.
Students comments
What was the best thing about the Rooster Games:
- the different books I got to read and the different people that I got grouped with.
- It was having a team that stood by you
- Getting food, playing games, and getting out of school work
- talking to different people in your group to find out the answer
- The Invention Station.
- inventing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- working together and figuring stuff out. Also learning more about other students.
- it was very fun and the pizza was amazing
- Everything
- thank you ms jordan I will remember this for life
Thanks to our awesome PTO who generously funded our Rooster Games. Also, thanks to my colleague volunteers, colleagues who gave up their space for the morning, parent volunteers, our principals, and the collective Rhode Island librarian hive that helped create these games. A special shout out to Michele Steever, fellow school librarian, who organized production and distribution of the RICBA t-shirts. Below is a list of resources that were very helpful in creating the games:
RI Children's Book Award official page (OLIS)
Facebook Rooster Games - Resources for Teachers and Librarians
Facebook RI Children's Book Award page (OLIS)