Plan Your Classroom “YES Day!”
Happy ”Yes Day” to you and your class. This is the perfect way to wrap up the end of the year together. While some may think that the idea of a “Yes Day” is scary, I’m here to tell you that I promise you it isn’t! It’s actually one of the sweetest days of the year, and it’s a day that students remember for years because they get to take control of ONE day and have a blast with their classroom family. Read below to find out how I make this day “not so scary” and grab the YES DAY Kit HERE.
What’s the best part of Yes Day for teachers? It’s the fact that we don’t have to plan a thing! I make sure that Yes Day takes ALL day!
It’s perfect for the last week of school when your students are antsy and wanting to have fun anyways!
Here’s how to prepare:
On the day before your “Yes Day,” get your class excited about it by reading the “Yes Day” book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. After reading the story, ask your students if they think they’d like to have a Yes Day just like the boy in the story. The answer from your class will obviously be YES!!
Setting Parameters and Gathering Student Requests
Begin brainstorming lists of realistic and unrealistic things that you could accomplish during a Yes Day that takes place at school. I give my students parameters and they truly stick to them. I give a few examples of realistic and unrealistic things. Some realistic things would be: Can we have extra recess? Can we have a dance party? Can we play a game? Can we play with PlayDoh? Some unrealistic things that I might say to them would be: Can we all get into Mrs. Rowe’s car and drive to McDonald’s? Can we go to the zoo? Can we go see a baseball game? Can we go shopping at Target?
I tell students that it has to happen AT SCHOOL, and it has to be FREE. I tell them if they don’t stick to the Yes Day rules, then their Yes Day request will have to be passed. They definitely don’t want to waste their request by asking something silly that can’t be done!
Give each student a slip of paper with the What Would You Like To Do At School? question at the top and have each student write down their “Can we?...” statement on the paper and drop it into the Yes Day jar for you to choose from the next day. The next day will be their Yes Day! You’'ll be doing what your students want to do ALLLL DAY LONG!
A Few Suggestions:
I would recommend going through your students’ suggestions the night before Yes Day and take out any super unrealistic ones and replace them with the pre-made suggestions in my pack, or you can type some of your own. Mix them all into the Yes Day jar together. On your Yes Day, get ready to drum roll, pull suggestions from the jar, and say YES all day!!
Just a reminder that you may need to prep a few of the Yes Day suggestions beforehand. For example, if one of your suggestions is “Canwe have candy?” Then have a small bag of sweets so that you can say YES and hand each child a little sweet treat. I know that I said that I tell students that their suggestion has to be something FREE, but I usually have a bag of Smarties on hand anyway. It’s just fun!
At the end of the day, you can use the Yes Day writing response paper to have students write and illustrate their favorite part of the day!
Let me know if you decide to do this fun and memorable day with your class. Tag me in your social media posts if you have any fun pictures!
Grab this fun kit HERE because it’s the sweetest day of the year!
