(With so many students I had to get creative and hang their Silfra Fissure Watercolor paintings from their ceiling using these)
This year was my very first Open House and I had SO MUCH FUN! It was really important to me to make the Open House something my students and their families wanted to come to as well as something that displayed their best work from the year. I made sure to leave up our best work from throughout the school year and I tried to balance Math and Science work. I also had to rearrange desks so all our families would have enough space to move around. I usually keep my desks in groups but this was easier for classroom flow.
The Hype
In the weeks and especially days preceding Open House I really began to hype up the event. I knew that the majority of my students were proud of their work and wanted to show it off but I had to hook those remaining stragglers and the ones who would need to convince their families to come. One way I did that was I offered the chance at winning a "super secret surprise prize" if students came and completed a checklist. As cheesy as it sounds my 6th graders ate this up and had fun guessing what the surprise prize could possibly be. As they made several guesses my answer was always "It could be!" The running joke was that the prize could be a pencil or a PS4, you never know. The checklist was one I created that listed everything students should be showing their families and had a spot for their parents to sign. When they completed the sheet they turned it in at Open House and I used these names to draw a winner for the "Super Secret Surprise Prize" the following morning. I did this for two reasons. The first reason I already mentioned which was just to get the students there and excited to come. The second reason was because I wanted to make sure my students took the time to show off each piece of their hard work. I had 63 sixth graders this last year so there was a lot of work up in our room and wanted to help them have some clarity and guidance on what they should be doing during the Open House time.
I mentioned that I tried my best to have a good representation of math and science projects but let's face it there is just so much more to display in science than math. About a week before Open House we did a series of math lessons that taught students how to write a statistical question, carry out their own study, analyze the data, and display it using appropriate graphical representations. This was hard work and my students really blew me away with their ability to conduct and analyze statistical data. We decided, at the last minute, to display their work but I had no space left so we put them on the whiteboards.
(These were photos of Genius Hour partnerships)
(Cupcake Shop-Trimester 2 Math Project)
(We kept those beautiful 3D Topographic Maps up all year!)
In the weeks and especially days preceding Open House I really began to hype up the event. I knew that the majority of my students were proud of their work and wanted to show it off but I had to hook those remaining stragglers and the ones who would need to convince their families to come. One way I did that was I offered the chance at winning a "super secret surprise prize" if students came and completed a checklist. As cheesy as it sounds my 6th graders ate this up and had fun guessing what the surprise prize could possibly be. As they made several guesses my answer was always "It could be!" The running joke was that the prize could be a pencil or a PS4, you never know. The checklist was one I created that listed everything students should be showing their families and had a spot for their parents to sign. When they completed the sheet they turned it in at Open House and I used these names to draw a winner for the "Super Secret Surprise Prize" the following morning. I did this for two reasons. The first reason I already mentioned which was just to get the students there and excited to come. The second reason was because I wanted to make sure my students took the time to show off each piece of their hard work. I had 63 sixth graders this last year so there was a lot of work up in our room and wanted to help them have some clarity and guidance on what they should be doing during the Open House time.
I mentioned that I tried my best to have a good representation of math and science projects but let's face it there is just so much more to display in science than math. About a week before Open House we did a series of math lessons that taught students how to write a statistical question, carry out their own study, analyze the data, and display it using appropriate graphical representations. This was hard work and my students really blew me away with their ability to conduct and analyze statistical data. We decided, at the last minute, to display their work but I had no space left so we put them on the whiteboards.
I put the Chromebooks out on each desk because a lot of their work was digital. This included their blogs, science notebooks, Genius Hour projects, Haiku Decks, and digital brochures from our Weather and Climate unit.
I found this photo booth idea on Pinterest. The original blog post about it is here. I also bought a cheap set of photo booth props and my students and their families LOVED it! I had to give it a try with my teacher partner in crime Mrs. C!
Well that's about it! How was your Open House? Did you try anything new?
Happy Teaching
Ashley
Oh! If you were waiting anxiously in suspense...the Super Secret Surprise Prize was an iridescent metal Fidget Spinner.
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