Going for Gold

We had an all school assembly on the Olympics this past month and I tell ya....after seeing the video of what these amazing athletes endure, how hard they train, as well as all of their accomplishments and failures I was in tears.  What a wonderful message to send to youngsters that working hard at something is not always easy and yet the rewards are so sweet! I was so inspired that I tried to think of how I could incorporate the Olympics in my classroom. I found this adorableness from Kelley while scrolling through Instagram from her blog at Teacher Idea Factory .   I zipped on on over to Teachers Pay Teachers to snatch it up and let me tell ya'll.... it is amazing! 

    The kiddos wrote how they could be "gold medal students.  After talking about what a gold medal is and how atheletes can earn them, we brainstormed a list of some things we could do in our own classroom to be "gold medal students."  What acts of kindness could we perform?  How can we be the best person and student we can be?  What would that look like?  Sound like?  We wrote our ideas down on an anchor chart and then we used that anchor chart as a springboard to creating the writing craftivity which is currently displayed in our hall in which the kiddos wrote about ways in which each one of them could be a "gold medal student."   The kiddos had some great ideas!  This really tied in nicely with the "bucketfilling" program our school has adopted.  The firstie's became so interested and invested in being "gold medal students" that they started wanting to acknowledge these acts towards one another so all could see. Using Kelley's idea, we started writing down and recording any "gold medal student" acts using the mini forms included in the "Caught Going for Gold" packet.  The kiddos even included me in acts of kindness that they noticed.  How cute is that?!

 At the end of the day, we shared the acts we noticed and recorded and we added them to our classroom door display.  Now anyone in our school can see how we have been caught "Going for Gold."

 The kiddos have truly embraced this concept.  They are really eager to get their name on the door so  I ordered some plastic gold medal award necklaces from Oriental Trading to award to students when they earn their first "gold medal student" award.

I told you it was adorable!  You can find Kelley's "Caught Going for Gold"  here