Great Potato Disguise Contest

Last week I promised to write about one of our favorite St. Patrick's activities. Each year I have my students participate in the Great Potato Disguise Contest. I found the idea on the internet four or five years ago and have been adapting it ever since. I held off on writing this post until I could track down the original source of this idea, but am sad to admit defeat. As with so many ideas on the internet, the original creator of this fabulous idea has been lost in translation.

I host the potato disguise contest and a potato writing contest. I also disguise a potato and bring it to class to get my students excited about the project. They always seem a little confused until they see an example. Then students have one week to disguise their own potato and write about it. I have several different writing prompts for students to choose from and usually send one as homework and work on many more during writing workshop in class.

Each year I'm so impressed with the students' creativity! When students get to school, they write a creative name for their creation next to the potato. I could never pick a winner alone, so I invite other teachers in the building to cast a secret vote for their favorite potato. It's so much fun to hear other teachers in the building commenting on my students' work and trying to guess who made each potato. After the votes are tallied, winners are selected in best disguise and best writing categories. I have the winners' names read on our announcements and hand out certificates too. This year's winner was Cherry Good. Pretty smart, huh? =)

If you want to grab my packet of printables that go with this project, they are in my TpT store.