What is a STAR STUDENT
When celebrating our kiddos in our classroom, we referred to this as student of the week. For us, this meant that each week we would celebrate one of our students with all kinds of different activities. Read on to find out how we made each child feel special during their star week.
One of my main goals when I started teaching was to make sure that I always had an open door policy when it came to parents. I was already a mother of three when I started teaching, and I knew how important it was to build a relationship with my parents.
When I was a student teacher, the teacher I taught under (Mrs. Coleman – best 1st-grade teacher EVER) did Star Student of the week. She also asked the parents to come in and read a story to the students, tell about what they did to help our community, and possibly even do a project with the kids.
When I got my own classroom, I decided to keep up that tradition.
student of the week – here’s how it worked:
I put the student names in alphabetical order.
I sent home this letter explaining STAR student., a poster board, and the sheet for parents to write on about their STAR child.
When the parents came to our classroom
- Their child met them at the door and escorted them to their seat(s)
- They would read a book that either they picked out or their child picked (usually they brought a book from home, but if they didn’t have one – they could pick one from our library)
- The other students sat on the carpet, and parents sat in the front of the classroom. The Star Student sat in the leader chair during this time (I always sat on the carpet as well)
- After the parents/student read the book, I would then tell the parents that the next thing we are going to do is have you tell us a bit about your job and how it helps our community.
- After they discussed what they did, the students then were allowed to asked them questions about their job. Now, mind you, this is first grade – so many times during this activity, I had to remind students what a question was – for this activity, I called on the students..
- After that, I told the parents that we were going to play a game. We were going to ask them questions about their child, and we were going to see just how well they know their kiddo. Students raise their hand, and the STAR student gets to pick students to ask questions. If they were a girl, they would pick a girl first, boy – boy first.
Here’ where it got fun – we KEPT SCORE!
- Example:
- What is their favorite color? So the parent would answer, then the student would say Yes or No – then we would keep track of the points.
- We would usually ask 7 or 8 questions.
Guess who always won? HAHA – YEP – but the parents were USUALLY good sports, though.
Student also brought home Monty! Click here to read about Monty!
Before the rules on food – parents usually brought in an edible treat for the class – but once they started getting strict about that – we had to change it to other items.
For me – this always helped form a bond with the parents. They were able to see how I interacted with the students and how they interacted with me. Even though that doesn’t seem important, or might seem a bit stressful, I truly believe that this helped me in every way. The parents could see that I had every students’ best interest at heart, so when issues arose, they usually were understanding and stood behind me in my decisions.
If you get the chance, try it – I think you’ll be surprised. If nothing else – when they come in, they will see how difficult it can be to keep 24 first graders on task and engaged.
digital component
As things have changed, I created a digital STAR STUDENT packet that allows us not only to make things easier on the parents, but it is also a lot easier on the teacher.
1. Create a folder in Google Drive for each student, and share with each parent. They can complete this even if they don’t have a Google Account as long as you change the settings to anyone with a link can edit.
2. Put a date due for the parents so that they know when you expect the slideshow returned.
3. Share the slideshow with students
4. You can also put it on your website if parents allow – and/or combine all of the slides together once you get them back so that you have a journal of Star Student kiddos that they can go back and look at throughout the year!
SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!
if you don’t have time to make your own…
Check out the video below to see the one I’ve created. This comes with directions on how to share with your parents, and also a letter to the parents explaining what you expect and how to use.
STAR STUDENT RESOURCE
star student resource
Click here if you would like to purchase this resource on TpT.
