Day 267: Cupcakealicious

*Thanks to thesising, and then intense relaxation, I am currently a whole WEEK behind in my blog... and so I will write seven VERY pithy posts to catch up.*

The cutest part of the day was definitely my 5th graders first period. The week before I had given kids books out to groups of 3-5 and had them read it, then create a short play based on the book. To my surprise, the classes LOVED this assignment (I guess it shouldn´t have been too much of a surprise -- they´re not allowed a whole lot of creativity, as class usually just involved workbook and textbook crap). As usual, some students took it very seriously, and others took it as a time to be silly. But the group that took it the most seriously this go around was the group of girls who recently got in trouble for playing ¨gentleman´s club¨ at recess... so, needless to say, I was shocked when their play was the BEST out of all of the 5th and 6th graders!

They had the best book, ¨Cupcakealicious,¨ about a little girl who eats so many cupcakes that she turns bright pink! :) They enjoyed the book, but quickly had a problem: there were only really two characters in the story, and they had five girls in their group. After some thinking, they decided to make one girl the narrator, and the other two... CUPCAKES!!! Man, what brilliant little girls. After they created their script (without even writing it down --way impressive), they blocked out their whole play and created scenery out of desks and chairs in the corner of the classroom.

What resulted was the most adorable mini play ever. The two characters picked up the cupcake girls and ¨plcaed them in the oven,¨ and as the baked, they raised their arms like a ballerina... and later when they ate them, they lowered their arms like a ballerina. The play was totally polished and not one girl messed up or got nervous giggles or anything. At the end I wished I´d video recorded the whole thing!!!!!

I love when students totally surpass your expectations. It made me want to bring those girls real pink cupcakes the next day to congratulate them on a job well done. Haha. Sometimes it sucks that you can´t reward certain students for being way awesome... I mean, you can give them a good grade or a sticker... but some things just seem deserving of something more -- like a cupcake. ;)

XOXO