finding a routine again

MONDAY

caleb and i spent the day planning, but i was super tired after going to see city and colour in somerville, ma the night before. it was worth the tiredness, but we didn't accomplish much through the day.

TUESDAY

we were at school early. i was still super tired and actually drank coffee. we attended a staff meeting in the morning and were able to discuss potential service learning projects, including the rainfall program option. the staff seemed interested in what we were doing and very supportive of whatever project worked out best. then we went to 6th grade and taught a lesson on understanding global issues. it was awesome! we reviewed concepts from the previous class then looked at this quote:

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." -John Muir

afterward, we discussed the definition of global issues, brainstormed global issues, and then had the students make an issue web with a ball of yarn to show how global issues (poverty, the environment, the economy, etc) are interconnected.

next, we headed to pre-k! yaaayy! they. are. adorable. we ate snack with them and talked about fun things like birds and butterflies and coffee. then we talked with marge (one of the language arts specialists) about helping with some reading groups : ) that should be a lot of fun.

our next stop was 4th grade. i just love them...the lesson was AAWWEESOME! we had fun with drawing water cycle diagrams. it was interesting to see how the students represented the water cycle in different ways. one made it into a math problem (ice+sun=liquid water; liquid water+cold=ice), some drew pictures of what would happen is the sun stayed constant on a glass of ice, and some wrote out a paragraph describing their version of the water cycle. caleb then led them in a good discussion and guided imagery taking them through various parts of the water cycle. the students actually started moving like the water and even formed a snow crystal with their hands! we didn't tell them that they could react in that way, but it was great to see the students so engaged. on the way back to their desks, one student farted really loud. some of the kids started laughing (i did, too), so we had to have an entire gigglefest in the middle of the lesson. i loved it. to wrap things up, caleb and i had the class make a 4th grade water cycle. we started with a glass of ice, a dog ate an ice cube...which by various means ended up in the ground water, came up as a spring through the parking lot, ran off into the storm drain (yay stormwater!), into the river, then the ocean, evaporated into the clouds (then we ran out of time) and ended up raining back into an ice cube tray. it was hilarious!

tuesday was a half day, so after lunch, we got out early.

WEDNESDAY

we spent the morning prepping some materials. we then went to 1st grade morning meeting. they were a little hyper...but it was fun : ) during our break, we read some articles and got some more materials together. then we went to our kindergarten lesson...which...actually went well! the kids were much more attentive and showed that they remembered a few things from the last lesson. i explained how scientists perform experiments to test out idea (hypotheses) based on observations. it was great. having a bunch of 5 year olds say "hypothesis" and "observation" was adorable. then we did some experiments with water to show how a liquid retains the form of the container it is put in. they are some smart kids! at the end, they played around with water. twas fun!

afterward, i went to gym class with william, a 3rd grader with downs syndrome. i've worked with him a little bit before, but i found out later that he wasn't feeling well. he kept crying and getting frustrated. he even had this huge booger...it was quite a challenge to work with him, but i'm looking forward to getting to know him better. then came lunch and the start of 3rd grade reading groups with ari and caitlin. they are so excited to read to us, and i am equally excited to share in their growth of reading fluency! our 2nd grade lesson was crazy! caleb read them spaceship earth (the same book we read to 1st grade a few weeks ago), but they were not able to concentrate. at one point, they all started pulling their shirts over their knees, so we had to stop in the middle of the story and have them all adjust their clothing. they did pick up on the needs/wants activity we led...but it was pretty much chaos in half an hour...

after school finished, we worked out with the teachers. hung around lesson planning and then enjoyed a fun drive home with our carpool.

THURSDAY

thursday was a busy, busy day! i was sore from working out with the teachers since i hadn't been keeping up with exercise lately. we enjoyed morning meeting with the 3rd graders. they are such a fun(ky) group of children : ) during our break, caleb made a chart for our "oh deer!" game with the 1st graders and i worked on learning some facts about moose...then we went to 1st grade! i told the class the day before in the morning meeting that i was going to be bringing a friend to class (caleb, dressed as a moose). it was good because they were all on good behavior since i was bringing a guest. after caleb came in and introduced himself, the kids asked a few questions and then i led some songs about moose. i really like leading songs in class! then we headed over to the cafeteria for some more rounds of "oh deer!". after getting the cafeteria back into order, we then went to art class with 5th grade. that is such a crazy class...i was happy to go to lunch. then we had kindergarten in art class : ) they were playing with clay, which was awesome. one of the students didn't like the clay at first, but i started helping him make different shapes and animals (although they didn't really look like animals...) and by the end of class, he didn't want to stop playing with the clay. it was awesome.

our last lesson of the week was 3rd grade. we were continuing our discussion of water molecules and had them make molecule hats. wwwoooww...they were a little wound up by the end of the day....but it was a good learning experience. they loved the hats and were wearing them as they went out of the room : ) good to see!

: ) hopefully this week will be good. we are starting out after school nature club! should be a great time.