back from winter break...

...and it has definitely been a busy week. 

MONDAY

monday found us lesson planning for some events on friday (even though i would end up snowshoeing and clearing trails all day at some land trust properties) and lesson planning for the week. caleb and i seemed to zoom through everything and even made prototypes for our water molecule hats (to be explained later).

TUESDAY

on tuesday morning, we had fun scraping a thick layer of ice off the van before we even left the forest. getting down the driveway was also quite interesting...once we got to school, caleb and i ran around getting some last minute tasks done. we taught a lesson in 6th grade on ethical reasoning with environmental issues. we first asked them what they knew about global environmental issues and what they wanted to know (KWL assessment: know, want to know, and fill in what they learned after the lesson or unit). at first, they seemed unsure of what they wanted to learn much about environmental issues. after the KWL, we split the class into groups to discuss environmental dilemmas. the groups worked very well! since the class enjoys talking in general, organized discussion was perfect. after the students discussed their dilemmas for about 20 minutes, we brought the class back together to debrief and see what they gained from the discussion. from the responses, the students displayed a growing curiosity about the complexity of environmental issues. one student even asked, "does this problem really happen?". others appeared rather shocked that finding solutions to these dilemmas can be complicated and nuanced. caleb and i are very excited for our next lesson with them!!

we then helped with 1st grade with reading...they have so much energy...

our 4th grade lesson on properties of water went so well! the students are curious about water and seemed to be fully engaged in learning about properties of matter and the amazing qualities of water. they loved making water molecule hats and even wore them to lunch!

during 1st grade art class, i got hit by the tired bus...and the kids were rowdy. one didn't want to cut out his coyote at all...i tried to use some of the responsive classroom language with him, but it didn't work.

afterward, we headed to 5th grade. half of the kids left for choir soon after our name game, but the small class was great. we played lots of games (paperclip game, seismologist, mechanic's coming). they had played most of the games in some form or another before, but they seemed to love our versions!!

WEDNESDAY

wednesday was a long, long day. we arrived at school early, took care of some laminating, made a sun out of construction paper (caleb made a snowflake!), spent morning meeting with 1st grade. then, we spent sometime bumming around. eventually we wandered to kindergarten for our lesson on hot and cold (related to properties of matter). that lesson left a bit to be desired. soon into our book on why things are hot and cold, the twins (brother and sister) got into a fight, and the brother had to miss part of the book. then, in the middle of the book, i had a really funny conversation:

me: we all use heat to keep our homes warm (on a page with a few people adjusting a thermostat in a house)

travis: i have a furnace at home (with confidence). what's a furnace?

me: well, it's a big...

kaitlyn: HEATER!

me: exactly! a furnace is a big heater.

we then turned our kindergartner's into little ice cubes, melted them into liquid water and water vapor with the sun and then condensed and froze them again. we, however, forgot to review safety rules, so soon into the melting, the room turned into a bit of chaos. definitely a learning moment for us! we ran out of activities, so we fumbled around and ended up having them sit back down on the rug and review what they learned about hot and cold. oh my. next time we need to plan a lot more activities.

afterward, we looked up articles on global environmental issues for 6th grade and found some rather interesting information! after lunch, and the post-lunch coma, we went to 2nd grade to continue our lesson on homes. we, however, started late because the class was finishing math problems. we gave them time to finished their floor plans (though they could have used more time). it was interesting to see how different students grasped the bird's eye view of the floor plan. some caught on really well and others...not so much. the students enjoyed the gallery of homes and comparing each of their homes. we then transitioned over to the rug...and my, did they had trouble sitting still on the rug for caleb's guided imagery. in the end of the lesson, though, they started to see the connections between their homes and animal homes through structure, materials, arrangement, and proximity to food and water. mission: accomplished.

we spent the final 3 hours of the day lesson planning, plinking around on the internet, and catching up with teachers. i started to get a headache right after we were done with 2nd grade at 2pm...and our carpool didn't arrive until close to 5:30. that was a very long 3 hours.

THURSDAY

on thursday morning, we laminated some more materials and made posters for the day's lessons. went to 3rd grade morning meeting. they had a fun greeting, sentence sharing, and a great activity on having conversations and being good in our community. we enjoyed a break in the teachers' lounge and talked with music and art teachers about collaborating. that is very exciting.

our 1st grade lesson on conservation went pretty well. the students weren't off the wall with energy and actually remembered concepts we taught last week with spaceship earth. the KWL was AWESOME! they want to know about so many cool topics! we introduced the game "oh deer!" to go along with our discussion on needs and wants, so we're hoping to play it more next week in a larger space.

our lunch was sandwiched by two crazy art classes. 5th grade and kindergarten. the 5th graders were finishing their house models and the kindergartners did finger prints drawings with food coloring. some of the students got food coloring all over their faces, and one student even drew on his face with magic marker. robert (the dinosaur expert of the class) had a little temper tantrum about a bird looking like a flying sea turtle. that was hard not to laugh about.

our lesson with 3rd grade was awesome. caleb did really well getting the kids really engaged in the fun water facts using the smartboard. i picked up the discussion at the end to review some of the concepts and introduce the students to atoms and molecules. all of the kids wanted to be atoms in the water molecule we made. it was pretty amazing.

at the end of the day, we attended the all school meeting led by 5th graders. 6th graders shared their seismographs. 4th graders shared their endangered animal sculptures. all of the kids displayed their willingness to collaborate and work together to make the meeting run smoothly and efficiently.

: ) i love this job.