One Down, Three to Go!
I have to admit, I have been really bad about posting anything for the last few weeks. I think it is the overwhelming sadness of having my youngest son go off to college. I thought it might be wonderful being an empty-nester, but I really miss that kid! While it is sooo much easier to keep the house clean, his presence kept the house lively and interesting, not to mention the myriad of shoes at every doorway. I do look forward to quiet evenings spent grading papers (of course), but I have also lost some of that enthusiasm that he helped inspire. So here I am, picking myself up and creating new adventures for myself!
School has gone well, and my classes are terrific! We have finished the first quarter and have enjoyed ourselves greatly. We had a field trip to a local event, “Pioneer Days”, where the students attended a variety of sessions covering topics such as farming, canals, games, cooking, tinsmiths, schools, Native Americans, and wetlands. It is a fantastic opportunity for the area students, and very hands-on. Our fourth graders will also travel to Dayton, OH for a visit to Sunwatch Village. We will be able to explore a prehistoric Native American village. It should compliment our studies of the prehistoric people of Ohio – the Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient. Each student in my classes created a prehistoric scene depicting one of these groups. They are displayed in the hall – parent teacher conferences are coming up and I like to have a nice display of a variety of activities for the parents to peruse.
We used newspapers to cut out and sort common and proper nouns. It was interesting to see students so confident about what constituted a proper noun when faced with hundreds of words – they suddenly were unsure about which words they could use. It requires some thought to get from Oreo’s to cookies, even though we’ve discussed it many times.
Students also completed book reviews over a favorite book. They were ghostly themed, and each student had to fill in the title, author, reading level, points (for Accelerated Reader), and write two sentences describing why they liked the book. It is a good beginning for more in-depth book reviews later in the year.
