Ready for the DIVERGENT movie!

So, it's Divergent movie time!!! My staff and students are so excited. We had our t-shirt decorating day last week and it was way more successful (and stressful!) than I anticipated. I had over 25 students attend the after school event and more come in at lunch throughout the week. Check out some of the awesome shirts they made:

And there were so many more! I even decorated a tote bag!

Basically it was a ton of fun but if I did it again I'd have more parameters on when students could come in and how much decorating they could do! It went on during lunch and study hall for a week! Still, my students are going to look amazing at the movie! And of course Faction Friday will be a win...

I've already had a number of staff and students fill me in on their faction outfits :) Plus, we have faction stickers and temporary tattoos!

I was able to see the movie in Chicago earlier in March and I loved it (read about it here!) I was also super lucky and got TWO movie posters signed by Veronica Roth to use as giveaways with my students. How cool is that?!?!?

So, how am I giving these away? Students who have seen the movie or read the book can complete a "mini review" of either one. I'll draw a winner from the book reviews and one from the movie reviews. 

I haven't decided how long I'll accept entries. Probably a month or so to give the students time to see the movie. 

So, yeah. We are SUPER excited about the movie. Any other ideas for activities we could do? Let me know in the comments! 

More Divergent Fun!

We've been having so so much fun with Divergent, especially as the movie release gets closer and closer! Here are a few updates on what's been happening:

I got my button machine and it is LOVE!!! So easy to use and the students love the buttons!!! 

First, students have to take the faction quiz! 

Once we know their faction they get a button with their faction's symbol on it.

I also made some buttons with text on them. Students seem to prefer the ones without text.

Our school had parent-teacher conferences at the end of February. Nobody ever comes up to the LMC so I set up a table in a high traffic area. I had copies of the books for people to look at, the faction quiz for students and parents to take (parents got buttons too!), notecards for mini-reviews, stickers, a slip of paper with the QR code that links to the MMS page with Divergent activities/news, my iPad with the movie trailer, and two cards with info about upcoming activities.

I also had five sheets of paper that I traced/colored the faction symbols on. Staff, parents, and students wrote their names under their faction. Of course most the students wanted to be dauntless!!! Here's a pic of the sheets (stuck together) before we signed up!

I was promoting two activities. First, I bought a ton of fabric markers and paint to decorate Divergent t-shirts. I also made stencils of the faction symbols. Students will bring in a t-shirt to decorate after school or during a free period. I'm hoping to have a lot of participation! Here are the (very rough!) stencils. Abnegation was really hard!

The other activity I was promoting ties in with the t-shirt day. We're having a school-wide "Faction Friday" spirit day on Friday March 21st (the movie release day.) Students and staff are encouraged to wear their faction colors or a Divergent related shirt. I wanted to have the cafeteria serve Dauntless cake (chocolate cake) but I didn't think of it until it was too late!

We'll also be meeting the week of the movie release to talk about what we want to see and thoughts about the book.

It's been so much fun to do all these activities. My favorite part hearing the students and staff talking about the book amongst themselves! So many parents at conferences talked about how much they loved the book too! Divergent is even showing up in student art projects! Here are a few bookish drawings (not just Divergent) and a t-shirt a student made at home. I LOVE IT!!!