Where did the Week Go?

So it's Friday, Maria, and I haven't written all week. Monday was Labor Day, so the school week didn't get underway until Tuesday. It seems like every time we lose a day that the whole week is a little off kilter. In addition, President Obama addressed the school children on Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM, taking up a sizable chunk of the morning work time that day. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to have been able to give my students the opportunity to listen to the president speak directly to them, but it made the morning feel truncated. I had one student, BP, who came to me as we were headed out into the commons and tell me, "My mom says I can't watch this." He hung his head a little as he said it, and his face was somewhat red. I suspect he may have been embarrassed at being set apart from his classmates, but I respected his mother's wishes and allowed him to work quietly in the classroom until the speech was over.

I taught the second great lesson Tuesday afternoon, and it went smoothly enough. I'm not totally jazzed with it, and I hope to improve the lesson for the coming year. Wednesday morning I taught a lesson on capitization rules (and I am loving how my students this year record lessons without fuss and drama. Somehow they've all gotten the message that after group lessons we record, and they just do it - Fabulous!) but I spent most of Wednesday looking forward to the afternoon extension of the second great lesson, "Survival of the Fittest." I sent the students outside with Kati while I set up, and then we played. I had a collection of small objects - fake flowers, marbles, safety pins, pom poms and jacks - and an assortment of tools - tongs, tweezers, spoons, scoops, etc. I divided the students into two groups, just because of the size of the group, and I told the students a story about the animals who lived in a forest, long ago on a planet much like ours, and on cue, each child was to use their tool to gather up food (the objects) in turn with the story. In the end some of the children had lots of food an all varieties, and some children had very little, and this led to a discussion of natural selection. The students were laughing and engaged, and I could tell they were enjoying the lesson.

Thursday was another bumpy day - it was picture day, and our picture time concided precisely with our music lesson, so our music lesson was bumped back a half hour. In the end we had very little work time in the morning. The afternoon went smoothly - we didn't have an extension for the 2GL, but Kati did an awesome art lesson.

Today we had Friday Academies. I love Fridays.

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about the DRAMA! Big fun, Maria, we have boy-likes-girl drama in the class. I've got this one little 3rd grade girl, AD, who is new to Walden, and ALL of the boys are falling all over themselves for her. It's still kind of cute, but I can see it causing some problems in the future. I'll keep you posted.