What's the Big Deal?

 If you don’t think having students pick a name for their table, think again.

  Several students asked at the beginning of the year if they would be able to come up

with a name for their table–I kept saying, “Yes,” “Absolutely” “Maybe tomorrow”,,, Well, I never got around to it! And boy, did I hear about it!

In my class, every 4 weeks,we change seats and this time I had to pinky promise that they

would be able to create team names–and we did.

Once students got into their new teams, they quickly got down to business to come up

with the perfect name.  I have the students  write down on a paper divided into fourths,

things they have in common or similar interests. For example, if 3 out of 4 of the children

like dogs, then the word dog would be written in square number 3. Once children have

had several rounds of things they like or have in common, they look at section 4 on the

paper and try to build a team name from commonalities.

Students then were given an apple cutout to decorate and write the new team names on them.

Some examples include: The Angels, The Pizza Loving Pets, and

The Long John Dogs, 

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Lesson learned: Having students build a name for their team is a big deal