Another Groaner

Today was another rough one.  The 5th graders were picking at each other left and right!  It's ridiculous!  The other teachers (K-2) said that their classes had a rough day too.  Is it the weather?  Are they all super tired?  I don't know.  All I know is I want it to change.  What's interesting is that the 7th and 8th graders have been pretty good for me.  We're working on a group project right now, so maybe that has something to do with it.


The 5th graders finally started weaving their tree projects (the one Ivy made an example for that one time she visited).  They were pretty excited to start reading.  We're getting to the exciting part of our read-aloud book, so they wanted me to read aloud while they did art, but I was too busy showing them how to string the yarn on the plates that I didn't get the chance.  We only have about five chapters of the book left.  Then it will be time to start another!  I have a couple in mind right now... Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs or No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman.  One of the 5th graders wants us to read Bethany Hamilton's autobiography (which I still haven't read yet).  Lots of choices!  We might be able to read two of them before the end of the year...


Another cool thing we did today was make up hand signals for the Bill of Rights.  We started by using one finger for the 1st amendment: freedom of religion (point up to God), freedom of speech (one finger over lips), freedom of the press (press a button), freedom to assemble (wave a finger around in a circle), and freedom to petition (write with a finger).  The 2nd amendment: right to bear arms (make a gun with two fingers).  The 3rd amendment: no quartering soldiers (make an okay sign- the three fingers sticking up show the 3rd amendment, the circle looks kind of like a q, put the other hand in a salute so show soldiers).  The 4th amendment: no unlawful search and seizure (knock on an invisible door).  Well, you get the idea.  We came up with signals for all 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights.  The girls were way more into it than the boys... We listened to the Bill of Rights song again and did the actions along with it.  I'm going to test them on Thursday to see how much they remember!