Do You Have Stamina? We Do!

It’s never an easy feat when starting out Daily 5 training in a kindergarten classroom.  This year we were able to accomplish 15 minutes of ‘read to self’ and it only took us until the 5th week of school to get it done.  Whew!

If you’re a Daily 5-er, you know that once you make that ‘read to self’ goal, it means that your kiddos are ready to do it for real during D5 rotations.  They know the expectations, they understand the urgency . . . they just ‘get it.’  And so what do you do when you reach your goal?  You celebrate, of course.

And how do you celebrate? Why with a Stamina Party, of course.  If you read my blog, you know I love to have celebrations for all kinds of accomplishments in my class.  But a stamina party is one of my favorites to throw.

It’s the one day of the year when I break out my boys’ fort kits

and turn my classroom in to one gigantic fort.

I only had 15 minutes this year to make the transformation.  So I whipped out my sheets and equipment and went to work clamping and tying until there was more than enough space for everyone to grab their book boxes and relax in the dark with some flashlights, glo sticks and a bunch of good books.

(Of course we had some refreshments too, but the main fun was the fort.

I can’t tell you how many of my little ones had never made a fort out of blankets before.  What?!! Seriously?!?  My whole house has been turned into one enormous fort on more than one or two occasions.

It got so bad with all my sheets and blankets disappearing that a couple of years ago I went ahead and made each of the boys a fort kit.  (This was TOTALLY NOT MY brain child.)  I saw the idea on Pinterest and knew I had to do it.

So I headed out to Walmart and purchased a bunch of flat sheets, ropes, clamps, clothes pins, suction cups (you really do need them for windows where there isn’t anything to latch onto), flashlights and glow-sticks.  I sewed ties onto the sheets and made each of them a bag to store it all in and  . . . viola…a fort kit.

By the way, BEST gift ever for a kid.  I get to keep my blankets and they get to make forts anytime they want.  WIN-WIN!!!

And now, I get to borrow the kits anytime I need a Stamina Celebration.

If you want to make your own fort kits, this is the site that I referred to when I made mine a couple of years ago.  Just click on the picture below to check it out.  They have a great little tutorial.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear how your Daily 5 is going.  Drop me a line and tell me about your stamina.