Jumping out of our Routine

This school week has provided a whirlwind of excitement for my students. We had Monday off for our local livestock fair, on Tuesday and Wednesday we had early release days, Thursday we had a story teller for the students, and Friday the Easter Bunny is hopping into town early...basically a week void of instruction or so I thought.

So with that said, I planned for a lazy reading week full of science and math exploration. We have been reading Because of Winn Dixie, which they love! It is the one time they can lay down during whole group instruction, and they take full advantage of it. I use this story time to foster retelling what has happened in our story, mind movies (visualizing), inferring what is to come, plot development discussion and making connections to the story (psst...between me and you they don't even think they are learning). I tell my students that the book is always better than the movie, so I plan to rent the movie once we complete the novel so they can make up their own mind. I think it would be a great opportunity to have them delve into some serious persuasive writing. What do you think? Also for any upper grade teachers this book would be a great tool to help student discover the inner voice of a character. I love Kate DiCamillo because every book of hers that I have read can be a great model/tool for a writers workshop!

The majority of our days this week were filled with SCIENCE! Our school has adopted the SUMS FOSS kits which allows for exploratory learning, which is great but can also have its cons. I have found it difficult to incorporate it into our schools integrated reading block when it is a hands on curriculum. The students have thought they were playing all week but you would be amazed by the learning that is happening in our classroom. Our kit this nine weeks covers standards on air and weather. The students have discovered that air is matter (gas), it can be used to move things from place to place, it takes up space, bubbles are air, a parachute helped them discover air resistance, you can compress air, etc. We have just had a great time breaking out of our normal daily routine and it has made for an enjoyable week.

My parachute designers

The shouts of joy and the students running toward the jungle gym was enough to make me smile all day.

Oh and I almost forgot that Tuesday was supposed to be our CIRCUS FIELD DAY...but we were rained out! Even though we were rained out of our outside activities we still were able to attend our scheduled magic show. Of course Mrs. Whitehurst's scalawags were so excited we arrived first to the cafeteria and got front row seats to see Donovan the magician do his thing! Donavan was such a charmer that he convinced me to be one of his star audience volunteer. Let me tell you I am a STAR, I am "the teacher whose hand was still attached after he cut it off!" Oh yeah that is me and no I will not give his tricks away! I wish I had pictures because I am sure they would have been a sight to see.

I am looking forward to Friday...because it is the start of a busy weekend! RELAY FOR LIFE (Ladies of the 80's) and our big Whitehurst Easter party!