Rooster Games 2019

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Last week we held the 11th annual Rooster Games!  Fourth graders who read at least 5 of the 20 books nominated for the Rhode Island Children's Book Award qualified to participate.  I'm thrilled to report that this year every single fourth grader earned a spot on a team!

I always kick off the games by presenting Champion Reader medals to the students who read every single book on the list.  This year we had an all-time record: seven students earned the title!  (That's over 20% of our fourth graders!!!)  I'm so proud of them for this remarkable accomplishment!

This year's Champion Readers!

Clockwise from upper left: Team Purple, Team Yellow, Team Blue, Team Red, Team Green and Team Orange!

The morning was so much fun!  We had lots and lot and lots of games (one student admitted he was getting tired!).  Three of the games are set up on Google Slides.  They are projected onto the large screen above the stage, and the students collaborate with their teammates to come up with the answers.  Then they use marker boards to display them and earn points.  Students match pictures from each book to their titles in the Illustration Round, and they answer multiple choice and short answer questions in the Question Round.  In the Object Round they identify which book a displayed object represents.

Students write their answers on marker boards during the Google Slide rounds.

Two of the rounds are "table games".  Students are given a stack of title cards and have to match them to the very first sentence in each book and then to the names of characters from each book.

Students work together to match up cards during the "table top" rounds.

The charades round requires the teams to find an out-of-the-way spot in the gym.  The students take turns acting out words for their teammates to guess.  Doing so earns the team a point, and then they can earn a bonus point by identifying which book the word represents.  This game is always the one that most kids deem as their favorite.  (Mine, too!)

These kids did awesome at charades!

Team Purple earning points during charades!

In between each point-earning round, we kept things lively by playing a series of "lucky rounds".  I reminded the students of the character Toby in The Trail who spends a lot of time thinking about his "rotten luck".  So, just for fun, the students tried out their luck on five different games of chance in order to earn stamps on their papers.  The student with the most stamps at the end of the Rooster Games is the winner and declared the Luckiest Student of the Day!  

"Drawing Straws"
Students pulled a straw out of a cup.  If the tip was colored red they earned a stamp.  If it was green they earned two stamps!

"Egg Hunt"
Students pulled a plastic egg out of a bag and opened it.  If there was a cotton ball inside they earned a stamp. If there were two cotton balls they earned two stamps.

"Pick a Card"
Students picked a card out of a deck  If it was a red card they earned a stamp.  If it was a Queen they earned two stamps.  If it was a Queen of Hearts they earned THREE stamps!

"Marble Grab"
Students pulled a marble out of a bag.  If it was a red marble they earned a stamp.  If it was a green marble they earned two  stamps.

"Toss the Dice"
Students rolled two dice.  If they rolled a "1" they earned a stamp.  If they rolled doubles they earned two stamps.  If they rolled double 1s they earned THREE stamps!

This year we had a three-way tie for students with the most stamps, so we had to do a "marble grab" tie-breaker:

Behold our 

Luckiest Student 
of the Day!!!

 Of course, at the end of our Rooster Games

we needed to declare a winner!   

This year the accolades go to Team Green!!

Team Green: Winners of the 2019 Ashaway School Rooster Games!

There is no prize for being on the winning team.  I emphasize to the students that they are all winners by earning a spot on a team and getting to participate in all the fun.  Plus, our wonderful PTO provides the funds for all participants to enjoy a pizza party at the end of the day!!  As a result, all of the qualifiers win!

PIZZA!!!

It was a really fun event, and it couldn't have happened without the support of our fourth grade teachers, our parent volunteers, and our Ashaway School P.T.O.  My sincerest thanks go out to them all!