What A Special Bubble Gum Day With 550 Packs Of Gum, Author Ruth Spiro, LitWorld, And Creating With One Another!

Bubble Gum Day was last Friday, February 7th.

We have celebrated this special day for the last four years and every year it is more fun than the last.

In the post, Celebrating Bubble Gum Day On February 7th With Our Friend Ruth Spiro and Amana Elementary, I shared how we have celebrated it in the past.

Tracy Ferguson, one of our second grade teachers, and I always do Bubble Gum Day together.  This year we included the other second grade teacher, Melanie Smith, and the two kindergarten teachers, Christa McClintock and Lynne Caltrider.

It was great having a group this year.....We had fun planning.

On Bubble Gum Day, author Ruth Spiro encourages us to find an organization to help by selling bubble gum.  With these donations, organizations can fund literacy projects and other initiatives that encourage and support reading.

At Van Meter, the money that we raise goes to LitWorld.  It is perfect with World Read Aloud Day coming up on March 5th.

On Friday morning, the second graders got all of the gum ready to sell when the students came to school.

And just like every year.....when the kids came to school it got a little crazy!  Everyone wanted to buy gum for Bubble Gum Day.  

We sold over 450 packs before school.....So much that I had to make a trip back to town to buy more gum for those who still wanted to buy it.  All together we raised over $200 to donate to LitWorld.

We also had a very special guest visit the library in the morning.  

Ruth Spiro, founder of Bubble Gum Day....

 and author of Lestor Fizz, Bubble Gum Artist. 

All of the kindergarten and second graders came to the library for her visit.

We also invited my sister Heather Fox and her 4th and 5th graders from Amana Elementary.  She is the teacher librarian at her school too.

It was awesome listening to Ruth read her beautiful book to all of us.  

When she was done reading, Amana asked a few questions about writing and publishing.  Ruth did such an amazing job speaking to our students about the importance and process of writing.

 Then our kindergarteners and second graders asked questions too.

It is always special having Ruth with us on Bubble Gum Day......

Thank you Ruth.  It means so much to all of us at Van Meter.  

Another thing spotted in the hallway on Bubble Gum Day were these SUPER COOL projects!  This is a collaborative project that we did with the kindergarten and second graders the week before in the library and classrooms.

On the blog The Teacher Wife I found an activity that would be perfect for Bubble Gum Day.  In the post bubble gum fun! Lindsey shares this fun activity that it shown above.

The kindergarten and second grade teachers decided this would be a great one for our collaborative project.

She includes the instructions and templates that are needed to create this project with your students too. 

We took the How To Blow A Bubble template and made copies on light pink, bubble gum colored paper.  

 On the days that the two classes got together in the library they first partnered up.

Everyone got a piece of bubble gum from the basket.

Then each student got one of the templates.

When each pair was set with their papers, they started chewing the gum and talking about the steps they were taking.

It was fun seeing them chew their bubble gum and work super hard at blowing bubbles.

During the time in the library, the second graders helped their kindergarten friend think through the steps and write them on the pink paper. 

After they chewed the gum for awhile, they set off to write down the three steps.  

As they were working on their steps, Tracy went around and took pictures of all of the students.

Christa, Melanie, Lynne and Tracy copied their pictures in black and white to put with their writing.

The second graders worked on their directions in their classroom during the week.  They wrote out more detailed descriptions within each step while working on sentence structure as well.

When they were all finished, the teachers put them together with their pictures on black paper and a big pink bubble gum balloon.  

We all love how they turned out and it has been fun to read the two directions side-by-side.

Thank you Ruth, Heather, and all of our students, teachers, and community for celebrating Bubble Gum Day.  

It was another special memory that we will remember.....

and it will make us look forward to Bubble Gum Day next year too!