I've got a teammate {love her to pieces!} who's always thinking of fun, creative, exciting ideas.
Like, "Let's do Stone Soup right before Thanksgiving!" Why not?
So we got all the kids to bring a can of veggies or crackers or juice boxes -- yep, all of mine but 2 did. {I don't know if I'm considered mean, but I "make them work" if they don't bring. So those two boys helped me bring some stuff in from my car and put stuff out on desks. It was about 10 minutes of work during their recess.}
Everyone got to "toss" their veggies in the crockpot. And look!!!
Oh my goodness... It almost wouldn't all fit in the crockpot!
So my kids broke down into about 4 groups --
I barely tried a bite; don't like it.
I picked out all the stuff I like and ate it and a ton of crackers.
I told Mrs. S. I liked it, but I left half a bowl and ate a ton of crackers.
I liked it and still ate a ton of crackers.
I was happily surprised at how good it was.
And since I figured the day was shot -- we played some math games and tried to do a Froot Loops math activity {which I didn't leave enough time for, so soon it became, "just eat your froot loops!}
Pretty good day for just before break.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Hope it's just the type of break you need - whether that be peaceful and restful, or get bunches done, or reconnect with family and friends.
So the other day, we were doing some phonics in class. And I was making up dorky little songs to go with the words. And I said the word, "Brick." And proceeded to sing....
She's a brick....
But of course I couldn't sing that song, so I just did a super job of ad libbing and said,
She's a brick word.
And then one of my little sweeties raised her hand, and said her dad sings a song like that, but it goes,
She's a brick house.
Yep, my little friend, you've got the real song there! Thanks for sharing.
Agh - I spent a lot of time last weekend on school stuff, then had something every night this last week while I tried to squeeze in some more school work, and spent my whole afternoon yesterday on school stuff -- in great hopes that I wouldn't need to today {Sunday} and that I wouldn't need to this next week.
I was stuck on math. Blech, Blech, Blech.
The really super, big, important thing in 2nd grade math is double digit addition and subtraction. As I was procrastinating, and continually running upstairs to tell my hubby about my procrastination, I finally realized why I was procrastinating so much.
I hate our Math curriculum.
{You may have gathered this from this post, and this post and this one and the biggie post.}
And I don't know where to go with this. My district tells me I have to use EngageNY. We have now been granted some leeway in how we teach it, but we still need to teach their concepts. I told my hubby that I use many of these strategies in my own head. But, he said, you first understood the basics -- ie, math facts {which the curriculum doesn't spend much time on, but I've been working on with my kids since the first of the year}; and place value, and yes, I even think the algorithm. Which may seem backwards to some, but once they get the algorithm, they can feel successful, and then they can branch out. Instead of branches running all over and saying, "I don't get it."
I got my planning done. I tried to decide what the important thing was in each lesson.But I'm thinking I need to see how far I can stick my toe out before I get into trouble. And I'm really not a troublemaker :)
I am going to do a blog post this weekend, I am, I am I am!
So here we go!
I feel like I've been a little more -- grumpy, maybe?? harsher than I'd like?? I'm not sure what. But not the way I like with my students.
So Friday, I tried singing little made up songs to them --
you know like --- {Singing} put your books up, put your books up, come on everybody
And other ridiculously dorky songs.
And after one particularly wonderful one, a little friend said, "Mrs. Sanders, that's a catchy tune!"
Oh yes, my friends, I'm the catchy tune teacher!
I'm laughing as I type this -- I can't even remember what I was singing. But apparently, I have at least one fan!
