Before the holidays, we received a lovely e-mail from Jennifer Fry, a grade 3 teacher at Huber Ridge Elementary in Westerville, Ohio. They’d just invented the first ever Sumdog Avatar Day, and we were very impressed indeed.
Wow, to try to explain what Sumdog has done for my students in an email will be difficult. You have to actually be in the room with them to feel the amazing energy and focus that they have while playing.
One of my students came into school one day, and said, “Pull up my avatar.” I did, and the child had dressed like his avatar.
This gave me the idea to turn our fall party into a Dress Like Your Avatar Day. Almost every single student, as well as the adults dressed like their avatar, and we played sumdog for our party. The kids were amazing with their attention to detail. I even had a parent email me to tell me that her daughter couldn’t find the right color hair ties for her pigtails, so she had to log on and change the hair tie color.
We also took in first grade buddies last week, to show them how to play sumdog. The first grade teacher called me first thing this morning to tell me about the buzz in her room regarding their play over the Thanksgiving weekend. We decided to have another “Sumdog Buddy” day today. My kids even want to have another dress up day where we have our buddies dress like their avatar too.
My students have fallen completely in love with sumdog. It is an absolute phenomena in my classroom. Parents are telling me that they have to make their kids get off the computer so they can go places. In the classroom, we get the mobile lab several times a week. I make earning Study Island blue ribbons and YPP exercises first and second on their To Do lists, because otherwise, they would just play sumdog. Additionally, our Principal and Assistant Principal, and guidance counselor have joined our class and will sneak in the room with their laptops to play against the kids. It has been such a positive experience for everyone.
We have gotten all grade levels signed up in our school, except K, who wants to start after the winter break. When I checked our school stats on Sunday night, I couldn’t believe how many kids had played over the long, holiday weekend. Amazing!
More pictures from Avatar day…
