Faster than a speeding bullet...

Woo, this day flew by!  There was lots of good learning going on at school today. 

Our computers stopped working, which threw a wrench into my plans for English.  We were going to work on typing our chapter stories.  But no matter what we tried to do, the student computers just wouldn't turn on!  We tried unplugging and replugging and refreshing... nothing helped.  So I scrounged the Internet on my computer for some ideas.  My 6th graders have trouble with adjectives, so I melded a few activities together to create... the Adjective Game!

The class split into two groups.  One person was the secretary, the other two were Thesaurus checkers.  I put an object between the two groups, set the timer, and let them go!  They had to find as many words as they could to describe the object (and they could look up words in the Thesaurus).  First we described a big plant that's growing in our room, then a multicolored ball of yarn, and a whiteboard eraser.  At the end of all this, the groups were tied.  To break the tie, we did a super-extra bonus round describing... a slightly worn book.

To decide how many points the groups got, we used a scoring system like Scattergories.  One group would read their adjectives, the other group would say whether they had the same thing written down.  I was the moderator and decided if an adjective didn't fit the object.  It was really fun!  They loved it!  We just might have to play it again sometime...

The 7th and 8th graders had a great time in science.  I think they were all paying attention (they were certainly asking enough questions).  Most of them remembered to raise their hands and no one got kicked out.  We had to cut our time short because of Christmas program practice.  We were kind of late... oops.  But everything turned out all right in the end. 

After school was basketball practice.  It was the first day one of the parents was going to watch them instead of a teacher.  I went to go pick up copies from the office and right away I knew the boys had just gotten ready.  There was literally a wall of male cologne in the hallway and I walked straight through it.  Whew!  I can't imagine what it actually smells like in the bathroom.  The girls' bathroom was pretty aromatic too, so I guess we can't just be picking on the boys.