Everyone's high point of today was the family artifact assignment I assigned the class earlier this week. Their task was to talk to their parents and figure out the oldest "artifact" that is owned by their family, something that's been passed down through the family. At first they had trouble understanding the assignment; once I showed them my object, they seemed to understand better. I brought in an old hand-painted Japanese silk fan my grandma Golisch gave me when I was little (3rd grade?). My students were very impressed. And since I shared that artifact early, I brought in my coin collection today, specifically to show the wheat penny my dad gave me when I was little. They had fun looking at my other coins. One coin really got them going: a "silver" Olympic coin. They all laughed when I told them I'd found it in a cereal box when I was maybe a 1st grader and thought it was real. Still, they agreed it did look pretty cool.
Some other artifacts that were brought were an old German bible passed down from a great-great-great-Grandpa (who had been hit on the head by a rifle and lost his memory for a few months... the guy who hit him stole his dog tags too!), a linen baby book given to a great-great grandma when she was a baby, a watch and dog tag from a WWII medic who made artificial limbs for amputee soldiers (grandpa of a stepdad of one of my students), a braided hair penny from 1853 (100% copper), 90% silver half-dollars and 40% half-dollars from a grandma who earned them as tips working at the Cat and Fiddle, a pocket watch, really old wire glasses (the kind that hook around your ears... the 5th and 6th graders had a blast trying them on), a gold locket, and an old film projector that still works! A good number of them had notes jotted down to remind them what to say. Only a few struggled with talking about their object. All in all, a grand success!
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
It's About that Time
I suppose with the start of school it's about time to start up the ole blog again. I forgot about it yesterday...
Today is actually day two of the school year. Overall, the first two days have been pretty smooth. I have three students in my classroom that are supposed to have a para, but I have no para. Last year's said she'd be back, but she found out last Friday that she was accepted into the Master's program at MSU and decided to go for it. So we're currently in the market for a para. Know anybody for the job? Let me know!
The first day, only one student didn't want to come in the classroom. I told him he had a big "To Do" list written on the board, and when he was ready to work on it, he should come in and get started. And I walked away. It was about ten minutes later when I realized he still wasn't in the classroom that I started to get panicky. I heard dribbling in the gym and thought, "Oh, if he's playing basketball instead of coming into our classroom...!" But it was some former students visiting us. So I buzzed over to the cook and asked if she'd seen him. I guess he was with his mom on the other end of school. Once my fears were eased, I went back to the rest of the class.
Originally, I was supposed to play piano for chapel, but the janitor had stopped in my classroom the day before and volunteered to play. It ended up being one of our former teachers playing for us; I'm just glad it wasn't me! Though I may end up doing it some other week, it sounds like the janitor and our former teacher are going to switch off. Sweet!
12 kids are definitely louder and more rambunctious than 4 or 6. I arranged my "multitude" of desks in three pods of four desks each. So far it's worked great! We had our first day of religion today, moving our desks into one big circle. I think I had the most trouble; I wheeled my desk chair to the circle and had my book on my lap. But I kept thinking of things to draw on the board, so I kept getting up! Oh we went off on so many good tangents!!! This year's religion curriculum is all about Bible stories/history. And we started right off the bat with Creation. So cool!!! (can you tell I'm excited?)
Daily 5 is plugging along. We made our Reading Notebooks today and practiced reading to someone. My brother/sister pair ended up as partners... that didn't go so well. But I made them stick with it! I wanted them to see that they could be partners, even if they don't get along the greatest.
Today was the first day of eating lunch in our classroom; yesterday we ate outside. The 6th graders set the tables up while the 5th graders and I played the Spanish color game. Taking the one table down was a bit of an ordeal... all the slow eaters (myself included) ended up at the table that needs to be taken down. So the 5th grade boys had to wait around for us to finish eating. I'm thinking that if the slower eaters sit at the table we leave up, the faster 5th graders can take down that table and head out to recess. Then the slower ones can finish eating and wipe the table off when they're done. Sounds like a plan to me!
For science, both the 8th graders and the 5-6th graders did an experiment: how many water drops can a penny hold? We also tested dimes, nickels, and quarters. It was pretty cool. One of the 5th graders had a 50 cent piece that we're going to test tomorrow.
Our first volleyball practice was today after school. We've been adding games left and right to our schedule, so I had an updated one to give the girls. I have three 3rd grade girls who joined this year. Two are really good already! One needs a little more work; it's only the first day. The older girls didn't get much of a workout; the net hadn't been put up... so the other coach was working on that with some of the older girls. The extra older ones didn't like the easy stuff I was doing with the beginners, so they kind of hit the ball around on the other side of the gym. Next week's practice will be better.
It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day of school this week! We have Friday and Monday off for Labor Day weekend. One of the 5th graders is going to Montana next week; he'll miss all four days of school! Lots of stuff to catch up on when he gets back. Of course, that means I'm supposed to get him all his assignments ahead of time... I think I'll just send spelling/handwriting/memory work along and he can do the rest when he gets back.
Today is actually day two of the school year. Overall, the first two days have been pretty smooth. I have three students in my classroom that are supposed to have a para, but I have no para. Last year's said she'd be back, but she found out last Friday that she was accepted into the Master's program at MSU and decided to go for it. So we're currently in the market for a para. Know anybody for the job? Let me know!
The first day, only one student didn't want to come in the classroom. I told him he had a big "To Do" list written on the board, and when he was ready to work on it, he should come in and get started. And I walked away. It was about ten minutes later when I realized he still wasn't in the classroom that I started to get panicky. I heard dribbling in the gym and thought, "Oh, if he's playing basketball instead of coming into our classroom...!" But it was some former students visiting us. So I buzzed over to the cook and asked if she'd seen him. I guess he was with his mom on the other end of school. Once my fears were eased, I went back to the rest of the class.
Originally, I was supposed to play piano for chapel, but the janitor had stopped in my classroom the day before and volunteered to play. It ended up being one of our former teachers playing for us; I'm just glad it wasn't me! Though I may end up doing it some other week, it sounds like the janitor and our former teacher are going to switch off. Sweet!
12 kids are definitely louder and more rambunctious than 4 or 6. I arranged my "multitude" of desks in three pods of four desks each. So far it's worked great! We had our first day of religion today, moving our desks into one big circle. I think I had the most trouble; I wheeled my desk chair to the circle and had my book on my lap. But I kept thinking of things to draw on the board, so I kept getting up! Oh we went off on so many good tangents!!! This year's religion curriculum is all about Bible stories/history. And we started right off the bat with Creation. So cool!!! (can you tell I'm excited?)
Daily 5 is plugging along. We made our Reading Notebooks today and practiced reading to someone. My brother/sister pair ended up as partners... that didn't go so well. But I made them stick with it! I wanted them to see that they could be partners, even if they don't get along the greatest.
Today was the first day of eating lunch in our classroom; yesterday we ate outside. The 6th graders set the tables up while the 5th graders and I played the Spanish color game. Taking the one table down was a bit of an ordeal... all the slow eaters (myself included) ended up at the table that needs to be taken down. So the 5th grade boys had to wait around for us to finish eating. I'm thinking that if the slower eaters sit at the table we leave up, the faster 5th graders can take down that table and head out to recess. Then the slower ones can finish eating and wipe the table off when they're done. Sounds like a plan to me!
For science, both the 8th graders and the 5-6th graders did an experiment: how many water drops can a penny hold? We also tested dimes, nickels, and quarters. It was pretty cool. One of the 5th graders had a 50 cent piece that we're going to test tomorrow.
Our first volleyball practice was today after school. We've been adding games left and right to our schedule, so I had an updated one to give the girls. I have three 3rd grade girls who joined this year. Two are really good already! One needs a little more work; it's only the first day. The older girls didn't get much of a workout; the net hadn't been put up... so the other coach was working on that with some of the older girls. The extra older ones didn't like the easy stuff I was doing with the beginners, so they kind of hit the ball around on the other side of the gym. Next week's practice will be better.
It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day of school this week! We have Friday and Monday off for Labor Day weekend. One of the 5th graders is going to Montana next week; he'll miss all four days of school! Lots of stuff to catch up on when he gets back. Of course, that means I'm supposed to get him all his assignments ahead of time... I think I'll just send spelling/handwriting/memory work along and he can do the rest when he gets back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)