Busy With Life :D

1—DINOSAUR Week

What can I say? Life is busy and I’m living it! After rushing to the holidays and then watching them slip away too quickly, I found myself back at school in one of my most favorite weeks: Dinosaurs!!! I love teaching about them and I love watching that joy be passed onto my students. As you can tell from my picture that we had some fun. From fossil making with Plaster of Paris to Dino Flip Book Reports, it was a blast!

I think my love of dinos came in third grade. It was the time of the Jurassic Park Movie and I dreamed of becoming a paleontologist….

Anyways, I just wanted to post my cute picture of my Friday “Dinosaur” outfit. I had so much fun putting together the different accessories. I even made the earrings the night before! It’s hard to tell, but they are Teal Blue Carnivores.

P.S. I know it was a hit with the kids when I could over hear them arguing while in line for recess about which dinosaur they got to pretend to be. “No I want to be the Ankylosaurus!” “Then fine! I’ll be the Velociraptor. You be the Carnosaur.”

 

2—Black History Week

This is such an enriching unit I “stole” from a good friend I teach with. She moved to Idaho from South Carolina where Black History is huge. All the kids know who Martin Luther King Jr. is and they list him as one of their heroes. However in Idaho, I quickly found out my first year that kids have no idea who he is. So, in spite the fact that Black History Month isn’t until February, I begin teaching my kids about American History, Slavery, The Civil Rights Movement, and other important ideas along those lines around Civil Rights Day (aka Martin Luther King Day).

This year I decided to step it up a notch, and introduce this unit by treating the kids unfairly on Monday morning. I only have a handful of kids in my class that have dark hair like me, so they became my “favorites”. My New Favorites were first to choose their spot at back carpet meeting, the only ones to receive a piece of candy, they didn’t have to do a math paper, and they were able to go play on the computers while everyone else worked. Well…I didn’t mean to cause such strong reactions, but after a half hour of this unequal treatment I had about 3 kids in tears and the rest pretty upset. I quickly stepped in and revealed my secret reasons for behaving the way I did. I apologized and turned on the movie “The Sneetchs” by Dr. Seuss. The movie follows the same behavior of segregation an unequal treatment among the characters. It is so amazing to me that my sheltered kids have no idea that such horrible things happened to the African Americans. I just love teaching them this. I love opening their eyes to history and how we have changed for the better.

 

3—??? Week

I’ve told you all the fun I’ve had so far! I’m still trying to plan this up coming weekend what I’ll do next to keep them thrilled with school. I know I still have earth day with ecosystems coming up, poetry, creating musical instruments, writing and performing stage plays, and preparing for the end of the year performance for the parents. I love life in second grade. I’m glad I’ve found a way to stay young in spirit when everyone else has to work “adult” jobs.