Fun Friday

Last year, we had a student out for an extended period of time.  We wanted them to know we were thinking about them and decided to make a video of the whole team dancing to a song we'd learned in my after school Cardio Hip Hop club.  I snagged a few minutes where I could to dim the lights, put on some fun, flashing LEDs and pump up the speaker to practice with my 5th graders.  One day, my principal popped by to let a student in (since our doors are always locked) and I surely was not going to be having a midday dance party for all to see.  I finished practicing with the students and began mentally packing all of my things for when I would surely be escorted from the building later that day.

Just as I'd expected, my principal came to chat with me about what he'd stumbled upon.  He asked if I do it every week.  I explained what we were up to and he talked about mindfulness and potentially building a similar activity into our weekly routine (and of course keeping data).  To say I was relieved would be an understatement.  From then on, I implemented "Fun Friday."

Knowing not all students would be into dancing, I allowed students to choose some activities to put on what they dubbed the "wheel of misfortune".  They often chose games like Simon Says, Museum, 4 corners, 7 Up.  Rarely did they want to dance.  I decided that this would need to be something student earned and put a system in place.  Each class had to earn initially an 85% average in each of these categories.  When that proved to be too easy to attain, I raised it to 90%.  The whole class earned it.  The categories were:

• Class behavior: I had a jar of 100 marbles.  Each class started with 100% (a marble for each % point).  If I needed to redirect THE CLASS (not an individual) or wait a long time for regrouping, etc., I removed a marble from the jar.  Once it was out, it would not be replaced.  The marbles were in a glass jar, and removing them made a lovely little noise that helped cue students in.  (More on this part in a bit...)  Each day, Monday through Thursday, I'd keep track of the class's percentage and post it on a board.
• Do Nows:  This percentage represents the class average of the prior week's Do Now scores.  you can read more about how this assignment looks in this post.
• Wrap Ups:  This percentage represents the class average of the prior week's Wrap Up scores, which you can read more about in the link above.  This was always the lowest percentage.
• Homework:  This is the percentage of students in the class who completed the homework (not the percentage of accuracy).  As an added bonus, if a class every had a week of 100% homework completion, I would give that class a week off from homework.  It never happened.

The seven percentages above were averaged for a weekly score.  They reset every Monday.  85% or above earned 10 minutes of "Fun Friday."  I always reserved the right to bump the ten minutes to the following week, if necessary.

I chose this structure for a number of reasons:

1. Students could calculate the class percentage as we went through the week to gauge how they were doing.  It created an organic lesson on percentages, what they are, and how to calculate them.  I never told them the percentage throughout the week.  If they wanted to know, they'd have to figure it out.
2. It included performance on a variety assignments, some for completion and some graded.  Students would also look at the Wrap Up average and comment on how low it was.  They started to work to increase it and were proud when their efforts paid off.
3. It tied in academic performance with behavioral expectations.

As we approach a new school year, I'm on the fence about whether to continue this practice at all and, if I do, can I make the behavioral aspect of things more positive while still being simple to manage?  Should I be taking ten minutes to play non-math games?  Are the more fun activities I have worked in sufficient?  Is this practice sending the right message to ALL students?  So, I turn to you, my readers. What do you think?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the answers to these questions and other practices that may or may not have worked for you.