Student of the Week (SOW) is one of my favorite ways to build relationships with students. I love how we get a peek into students’ lives when we are celebrating them. Setting up a routine for the student of the week keeps things simple for me and helps students know what to expect each week. I highly encourage you to use your class theme with your SOW as we do in my classroom.
How to choose the student of the week:
There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to just do a random selection. This makes it fair for all students and is not based on behavior. I like to use the website wheelofnames.com to pick randomly. Another way is to do it based on students going above and beyond. Either way, I make sure every student gets a chance to be the SOW.
SOW Privileges
The student is announced the Friday before during our class meetings. We make a big deal out of the announcement. They get to take home our class mascot along with a notebook to write about their adventures. This notebook also includes information for the parent to know what to expect the following week. They also become our line leader all week.
SOW Routine
I chose to only have a student in weeks we have 5 days of school. It makes it easier to keep our weekly routine plus it allows us to have a student featured pretty much all year long. We typically do our SOW routine during our class meeting time.
- Monday – The SOW shares an all about me type paper and their adventures with our class mascot
- Tuesday – The SOW brings 3 items for show and tell
- Wednesday – A family member has lunch with the SOW. I’m usually very flexible with this day in case the family member needs to come on a different day and if no one can come, I ask a staff member that’s close with the student to have lunch with them.
- Thursday – A letter from the parent. Parents write a letter to the class all about their child and then I read it to the class. This is always a hit with the students
- Friday – Celebrate the student by giving them a certificate and we write notes to the student of the week telling them all the things we like about them
I love how this gives students a chance to feel special and loved by not only their family but also by their classmates and teachers.
All of the student of the week resources they are available in my shop.
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