day to day decisions

During a day with my class of Grade 4 students, I usually have a set of ideas/subjects that I want them to engage in during the day.

Today, we started out with the theme of settlers in the Fraser Valley....but they didn't have much background knowledge about settlers, so some had a hard time understanding and connecting to the theme. I meant for this to be an hour long discussion/activity, looking at how settlers used the natural environment for their needs. Some didn't know what a plough was.

Brain wave! I found a story of a homesteading family in a set of class books. They all had a copy and we read the story and they wrote a chart comparing then and now. I had a well done educational video describing family life in Early Canada in the 1840s....which they watched. There was a picture of a farmer ploughing a field. (yippee) I think most got a good grasp of some aspects of day to day life back then.
At the end of the day, I looked at my Dayplan and saw that we hadn't looked at the Math ....... or to the story I have been reading them over the last week. We didn't start on Science.
But, on reconsidering the day, I think they came away with a good idea of what homesteader/settler lives were like in early Canada and the Lower Mainland.
My latest thinking is....do you do as much as you can...or do you cut back and do a few things well. My thought is to do things well.



Any thoughts?

Reports are done....

Reports cards are done. Usually I complain but this time I didn't. Why? Well I just wasn't feeling grumpy about it. Now, on the other hand, I feel exhausted!

Well, time for a break...like Spring Break. The students are ready. They can barely contain themselves at times. They are full of energy and chatter and have a hard time concentrating. But they are happy with each other....appreciating the community of the class. I'm appreciating them, too ... unless, of course, I am trying to talk to all of them and some of them are engrossed in their own conversations.

I tell them I only want to tell people once. Often in these instances, I'll give instructions about the work to be done. Then someone who had been chatting will turn to me, notice others getting to work, and ask, "what are we doing?" Hmmm.

I try to catch them now. I'll give instruction and afterwards ask the chatting ones what they are supposed to be doing. They usually don't know. :)

Today I had a brainwave. The students as usual were becoming chatty and I could see that they could use an energy release, but I also wanted to have them write down what we had been reading and discussing in Social Studies. I decided to make them a deal.

"Let's do this work together quickly. If we have time we will go outside for whatever time we have left." Well, everyone buckled down and we all worked getting our ideas on paper. There was a quiet hum in the classroom as people dictated sentences and I wrote them on the board. In turn, everyone copied them in their notebooks. Done!

Outside we went. They had a great 15 minutes of energetic outburst! Yippee kayooooo kayabungaaaaaaa!

Did I mention to you that I'm feeling exhausted?