We have had quite a busy week! Between starting Module 2, Carly Summer getting sick, school on lockdown, and finishing up our Turkeys on Strike! bulletin board, we've barely had time to think!
To get started, Module 2 was an eye opener for us. We really tried hard to make a ten and then break down numbers - it's been rough but I think we'll make it work!
Carly Summer just had to go and get sick, taking me out of the classroom Tuesday. But thank goodness we are so lucky to have two teachers in the classroom. Not a para or an aide, an actual second certified teacher. My associate Kelly is able to take over the class at any time and keep teaching as if I were still there. The kids don't miss a beat. I was able to leave school, pick up Carly, take her to the doctor and then home to bed, and Kelly just took care of the rest of the day. Love Mayfair Lab!!!
We started our writing this week: "Save a Turkey!! Eat more _________!" We started by reading
'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, by Dav Pilkey. Love this book!! It is so adorable.
In the story, on the day before Thanksgiving a class takes a field trip to a turkey farm. They get to play with eight turkeys but are shocked to learn that Farmer Mack Nugget plans to eat the turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner!! So the kids smuggle the turkeys out under their shirts, and everyone gets to go vegetarian for Thanksgiving. Turkeys are saved!!
So then we started brainstorming what we want to eat instead of turkey for Thanksgiving. The students had some great Louisiana ideas: gumbo, jambalaya, fried catfish, po-boys, shrimp fettucine, etc. Great meals!! So we used our circle maps and tree maps and created some wonderful opinion piece paragraphs. I am putting up the bulletin board today, so you can see the finished product. I found the turkey pattern at the
Freebielicious blog. Great little site that has so much information for grade school teachers. Make sure to check it out!
Yesterday we were on lockdown! There we were, sitting in grade level, talking about data, and the principal comes on the intercom telling us to lock down the school! Suddenly all sorts of things start running through my mind from "Somebody's running through the hall with something other than scissors" all the way to "the school's being overrun by animals from a breakout at the Bluebonnet swamp!" Turns out that there was a bank robber in the area that the police were chasing and they told us to lock up just in case he made it to the school zone. Better safe than sorry. Everybody was locked up tight and made sure the children were safe - first grade was at PE and Music, and us teachers were locked up in the conference room. Mr. Keener swiftly shut and locked the gates and stood by the road stoically not letting anyone in the gates. Of course there was some explaining to do once the kids got back in the room. They were sharing all sorts of theories as well! But all was good in the end. We calmed down and finished up our day on a high note.
Today the Barnes and Noble at Citiplace is offering a fundraiser for Mayfair from 9 am to 11 pm. The EBR Superintendent, Dr. Bernard Taylor, will be reading to children at two times today. The school will receive 20% of the proceeds from the event and many of our wonderful PTA parents will be helping out. We teachers, however, will be at school for an open workday. A few weeks ago we were told that BESE was coming to visit the school to check on our progress and make sure that we were following the ULS model and staying on track as a magnet school. So we decided to have a Saturday workday. Well their visit got cancelled but we kept the workday. It's always nice to just have an extra day in the classroom with no meetings, no students, no plans. All is good!!
AND FINALLY.......Tonight is the long awaited, highly anticipated LSU vs. BAMA game. The game is in Tuscaloosa, so Baton Rouge is quite calm today. But come 7 pm tonight, Tiger fans everywhere will be glued to the TV watching CBS. My Tigers better beat Bama. We were so close last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will post later this afternoon with pictures from the Turkey bulletin board. Have a happy Saturday and of course GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
