Our Little Class Buddy

Mondays always seem so long and tiring, especially when it's cold and rainy.  What happened to our beautiful spring weather??

 On Monday mornings I always have a new Star of The Week.  They bring in their backpack full of items to share (I tell them to bring in at least 10 things), and then they read their journal about what they did with Norbert.

Who's Norbert you ask??  Well this year Norbert is our class buddy.  I actually ordered him from Really Good Stuff.  They were clearancing him out for $3.99 so I figured that's what it would cost me to set him up on my own.

Basically he is a stuffed animal that goes home with the Star of The Week on the Friday before their week.  He comes with a carrying bag and a journal that has a picture of him on it. 

Well today my last little guy shared the journal about what he and Norbert did and I just had to share how much my kids loved this little guy.

I always start out the year as the first Star of The Week.  I bring in lots of pictures of when I was little and some of my old toys, trophies, awards etc...  This year I took Norbert home first and wrote about what we did together.  I took some pictures and glued them in the journal so the students could really see I had taken him home.

I read my two page  journal entry to all of them and the smiles on their faces were just too cute.  I told them that when they were the Star for the Week they could take him home, but they had to sign a contract first.

Basically they had to agree to take good care of him, take him everywhere they went and help him write about his adventures in the journal.  They signed it and so did their parents.  If it didn't get signed then they couldn't take him home.  I only had one student who didn't return it. (I still let her take him home)

Well this little guy has had all kinds of adventures this year. 

I was amazed at how much each student wrote, and they wrote it as Norbert.  Most entries began  "Hello friends it me Norbert.  On Friday I went home with..." 

  The journal is completely used up!! We had to add extra pages and tuck them in the back.

During the week we place the journal in our Class Books basket so everyone can read it.

So as the year draws to a close I know what to add to my list for next year. 

 I will just buy a little buddy and use a regular composition journal to make sure we have enough pages and place it in a cute reusable grocery bag that I seem to have tons of:)

I'm sure this idea is not new to many of you.  I have actually done this early on when I first started teaching and I guess it just kind of faded from my memory until I saw this little guy on sale.

Let me know if you do something similar in your class. I would love to hear all about it!