I am the worst at dress up days. Even as a kid I hated them and for Halloween often dressed as a farmer, just because I could wear my comfortable Osh Kosh B’Gosh overalls and call it good enough. Elementary teachers have a lot of dress up days and I have maintained my less is more approach. This week was ISPP Reads week, so I took the opportunity to pull out five of my favorite reading themed t-shirts and did not really give a thought to the final day…Book Character Dress Up Day. At least I could be comfortable all week!
When I passed on The Bad Seed to a colleague to read aloud it came to me- we could be characters from that series. It would not matter that there were not enough of them, duplicates would be fine, and we could all choose one that suited us. Then, of course, I was torn- I really am a couch potato, but I could not find my copy of the book. I could never be called cool, so that ruled out the Cool Bean. The Good Egg? The Bad Seed? The Smart Cookie?
In the end, I went with The Smart Cookie- even though I do not like the word smart, because I did like the colorful costume it would mean. It wasn’t until the day before the parade that I actually read “my” story, first as a mystery reader to another grade five class, then as a mystery reader to a grade three class. I actually really liked the message of everybody having their own strengths and that fast doesn’t mean smart. I also liked how the cookie described their challenges and that they ended up finding writing poetry as something they could really connect to.
Our fabulous, super crafty TAs made the costumes and we looked pretty great together. Our own comfortable styles showed up! When I read the story to my class after the book character parade I asked them why I might connect with the character I chose and they nailed it! I guess I chose well. To top it off, it was fun to be in colorful clothes and coordinated with our team. Now, what will our costumes be next year???
Ms. Victor Reads 
What fun! Great choice. Your team looks great. My kids dressed as characters yesterday. My oldest was Mary Ann from the babysitters club and my middle daughter was Pinkalicious. They were so excited to see their teachers taking part in the spirit week. This means so much to kids!
These are great! Kudos to your costume makers. Our school hasn’t done a character day in awhile- it might be time for one.
We had a twin day last week like you we had to explore many options and ended up deciding the colour black. Here, black is the colour for mourning so there were many questions asked till we all took that one ‘twin’ photograph.
Those costumes are fabulous! What a fun idea—I bet the kids loved them just as much as you did!
I love how your slice goes from never liking dressup with childhood examples to pulling it off this week! So glad you included the photo. I will admit, I don’t know this book series. So thanks for introducing me to it, too!
I love team costumes! This was a clever one. 🙂 I haven’t read the Smart Cookie book yet…adding to my list. I’m one of those teachers who lives to dress up…haha!
That must have been great fun. I miss being in an elementary school.
Fun! I often look for ways to incorporate jeans since I don’t usually get to wear them to school. International Day? Jeans and a t-shirt to represent the USA. Match your Friends Day? I volunteer to wear a school shirt with jeans and have anyone join that wants to.
Me too!
What a cute, cute idea using a terrific series of stories. Nobody would know you are an anti-dresser-upper.
This is so much fun, how cute! Y’all look great!
Theme days stress me out every single time, I don’t know why! I have a teacher friend who gets on my case about it. Sometimes she commits to helping me brainstorm in advance; it’s a little ridiculous how worked up I can get about it haha!
So fun, what a great slice and a great outcome, win win all round. I love that series but I haven’t read Smart Cookie either. The costumes are just great.