Excellent Part II

Another day with the fifth graders.  I was expecting a delightful day with well-behaved children but as they sat in homeroom I started to wonder.  They have about 30 minutes in the morning to do a very short writing assignment.  They invariably finish in 10 minutes and start talking.  The volume was very high this morning and four kids in particular were being very catty and rude to each other.  These kids were a problem all day.  One of them was absent yesterday so I attribute her reappearance to the increase in annoying-ness.  When I say they were a problem all day I really mean that I was constantly reminding them of the rules, not that they were terrible hellians that had to be sent away.

All of the other classes that filed through were really great.  More reading about the solar system, another worksheet to keep them busy, and a homework assignment almost everyone was able to complete in class.  I was able to play a quick game of Would You Rather with each class of kids and it was a surprising hit.  I didn't want them playing Heads Up Seven-Up because it takes too long and Four Corners is too loud.  For Would You Rather I simply had them group in the middle of the back wall and asked them questions like "Would you rather ride a rhinoceros or a giraffe?"  I would give each answer a corner (rhino to the right, giraffe to the left) and the kids moved to the corner that matched what they'd rather do.  I thought they might be bored but if you make the questions silly enough they love it!  I was happy to find a simple. easy, relatively quiet game to play.  NOTE: don't let the kids come up with questions and stay away from inflammatory stuff.

It was such a gorgeous day out that I think my after lunch group had a little "spring fever".  This is where my foursome was the most irritating.  I really wanted to give the kids some game time at the end of the day but I had to erase a star and I only gave them 5 minutes of Would You Rather.  But they got out the door on time and the teacher next door was extremely grateful that I was around for the past two days.

Now it's off to visit the 'rents!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!