(A) Good Friday

     Today was a fantastic Friday. There was no strife among the kids, and all of their energy was pretty focused. Everyone seemed to have a little extra pep today, but we all didn’t let it get out of hand. I suppose it had something to do with it being Friday and not 100 degrees outside. All of the kids were pretty attentive during math and ELT, excited and inquisitive when working on their narratives in writing, worked hard on their center work during reading, and were on the ball and engaged in science and social studies. I was really impressed with what all this class can accomplish in a day.

     During our science lesson, it was a constant exchange between the students and me. We first made a chart of how to classify plants, and they did a really good job of working out how that’s done after watching the video yesterday. We then moved onto viewing different plants, classifying them, and supporting how we classified the plants. We had 18 pictures of plants and got about 16 different willing volunteers to classify a plant each time. It was exciting having everyone involved, and more importantly, wanting to be involved. After some practice classifying, we moved onto seeing some examples of angiosperms (naked seed bearing plants) and gymnosperms (enclosed seed bearing plants). Each student got a pine cone and an apple and got to make their own inquiries into which was which, and why they are the way they are. They really enjoyed this and got a good understanding of the difference. Just in case they have trouble remembering, they can refer back to their mnemonic: You shower naked after working out at the gym (gymnosperm). But, unfortunately, Angie doesn’t have hot water at her house so she showers in clothes (enclosed angiosperm).

     Three of the five groups got to present their abolitionist or abolitionist event today in social studies. They had complete freedom of choice of how to present, and so far, everyone has chosen to do a skit. Hey, it’s what they love to do. Their skits were creative. It was hard to get the message by watching some of the skits, but the kids did a great job of briefly explaining the real event after the skit so everyone could understand.