Four day weekend - not quite long enough

Tomorrow we're back at it. Does that put us at 18wks to go? I think so. If the school year were a pregnancy we'd know if it were a boy or girl and would be *almost* at the viable stage.

I don't think I can take that metaphor anywhere. It's kind of weird.

Tomorrow I'm planning on doing the Adverb KE with madlibs playing cards instead of handwritten strips as outlined in the manual. It'll be superfast b/c I'm ALSO doing the Homonym KE. Lots to get through yet, and I'm going to cover it all dangit. I have typed up some homonym riddles (to be mounted and laminated, natch) to be used in a matching work/game. I think it'll be fun, and the kids will like it. I've also got this cool grammar game I found online called "Grammar Ninja" that I'm sure some of the kids will LOVE. I've been playing it, and it gets *me* sometimes!

So I'm down to one blue reader - everyone else is green or beyond. I'm thinking I'm going to drop phonics from the list of morning tasks. Most of my students are beyond the green reading level and are not taking very much away from the green reading task. However, seeing as the green reading boxes are so quick and simple, I'm going to hang onto them as a go-to work. As in, when a student is having a hard time settling, they might be directed to this work.

Kati and I have talked it over, and we're going to drop math and language groups to once a week. It's too disruptive to have formal group lessons going on virtually all day, and if we miss a day (or if a student is absent) it's very difficult to make up the lessons. So we'll do math groups on Mondays and Tuesdays and give students a week to complete their journal tasks. Language groups will also be Mondays and Tuesdays but in the afternoon. If school is out on Monday, like this week, we'll switch the Monday lessons to Wednesdays. Problems solved.

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Case Study - I'm keeping an open mind about what the week may bring. Long weekends sometimes result in cranky kids. Will keep my eye on JS to encourage productive working. Considering backing off on singing - she likes to sing while she works, and if it keeps her focused, it could be beneficial. Will discuss it.