The new recess and lunch routine is working out nicely. I really enjoy having just a bit more time in the morning, and lunch in the classroom is so much nicer than lunch in the chaotic lunchroom. Geez, I can hardly stand being *in* that room. No one has really complained about being hungry before lunch, but we are trying to be sure to have snack each morning more consistently.
I did literacy evaluations with all of my 2nd and 3rd grade students. Surprisingly, there were only two who did not read on grade level - only two! Two students who started out the year *not* on level, and one kid who is on an IEP, all blew expectations out of the water. One is my own daughter, who I knew was doing much better, but I was shocked to have her read on a 3rd grade level. It made me feel like my students *are* learning stuff, even though it feels like sometimes all we do is play. I still have the fluency evaluations to finish out, but since they only have to be on level in two out of three measures, every one of them could bomb the fluency evaluation and still be 'reading on level.' This is just amazing. MONTESSORI WORKS!
We started our new cultural immersion units. This week we did several fun activities focused on the water cycle, and we also introduced African geography and Ancient Egyptian history. The water cycle stuff was exciting.
- Monday I did a demonstration where we boiled water (evaporation) and then held an icy-cold cup in the steam. Water condensed onto the cup and then ran down the sides before dripping off (precipitation) back into the kettle (collection). Then we made a chart.
- Tuesday Kati did a really fun activity with stations and dice. There were nine stations - each marked as a location where one might find water: ocean, lake, river, groundwater, soil, glacier, plant, animal and cloud. The children all started at an assigned station and rolled their dice. Depending on the roll, the station card told the children where to go next: from the cloud to the soil, for example. At each station there was a cup of beads, and upon arriving at the station, each child took a bead and strung it on a cord. We did this for ten minutes or so and then stopped. Each child had a string of 20-30 beads illustrating the cycle followed by his or her "droplet." It was so fun!
- Thursday we made terrariums. The children took theirs home, but we have one in the classroom to watch so we can see a miniature water cycle in action.
For Ancient Egyptian history we introduced hieroglyphics and learned to write our names in hieroglyphics. The kids really liked that as well.
For Movement class on Friday we did inside activities. Kids always thing we're going to play Corners when we have inside movement. Silly kids - there are so many more games we can play inside!
- 33 (In teams of five, children take turns rolling a die and adding their rolls up, but if someone rolls a six - watch out! Everyone in the group has to jump up and perform some sort of predetermined exercise. First team to 33 rolls onto their backs, assumes the dead-bug position, and chants: '33! 33! 33!" We played twice. Kids loved it.
- Tie-U-Die, which is like rock-paper-scissors with your whole body. You can be 'gorilla,' 'slingshot,' or 'man.' Gorilla beats man. Man beats slingshot. Slingshot beats gorilla. If you play the same part, you both die! Best part is that you play standing up, back to back. You count to three and jump around to face each other, playing your character. Each character is loud and silly, and the kids LOVED it! We eliminated down to a single pair, but then they tied both times we played! There was no winner! It was so much fun.
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