A camping we will go!

Friday! Today was full of assessments and fun activities. I do a lot of different and fun activities with the students during the week with their vocabulary words so that they understand them and do well on their assessments on Friday. This week was no different. We did a quick partner review and then took the assessment. The students did great. Since I had the "offices"

out already, we went right into the next assessment which was Point of View. The students were pretty confident with this and did a nice job. The "offices" in our classroom are actually manila folders laminated together (two of them) so they are smaller than this picture but they work great. We use these folders so that students aren't tempted to look at their peer's papers when they are taking an assessment. After they are finished with their assessment, the students fold their office and lay it flat so that we know they are finished. 
At 10:00 for bathroom break I was absolutely on time. I was SO excited! I had never been exactly on time that late in the day- and was really hopeful that I would get everything done in the morning that was needed so I wouldn't run over. We went to our bathroom break and when we got back we started talking about an assessment the students took last week that had one question that a lot of them got incorrect. I wanted to make sure there was full understanding of the concept (how to show possession of a plural possessive noun). The sentence that the students struggled with was "The students backpacks were left in the gym." (or something very similar). To show proper ownership of this possessive noun, they should have put an apostrophe after the second S in students. However, most of the class put an apostrophe between the second T and S- indicating one student instead of many. We were going over this and why it would be incorrect when that lovely fire drill alarm went off. 

Oh my gosh- I about jumped out of my skin! The students did a fabulous job getting out of the classroom and safely into the parking lot. The principal told us that we knocked a full minute off of our last time- but I think this might not be completely correct because the first grade was on a field trip so they didn't have to exit the building- thus fewer students to wait on when going through the doors. We'll see next time though how well we do. This was our third fire drill and they are just nerve wracking to say the least! We have a couple students who get pretty upset about them and I try to make sure I am near them and reassuring them when we are outside and lined up. When we got back to class it was 10 minutes before lunch and there was no way we were going to return to apostrophe's after that. So... I did something I have NEVER done....(of course I have done quite a few things with these little darlings that I had never previously done- so I'm getting good at this "firsts" thing!)

I danced and sang with them. 

Yep. 

They love that song that I posted about in the first week of school- http://www.crayonspaperscissors.blogspot.com/2012/09/today-was-little-melancholy-for-me.html

They had been asking me to sing it with them. They have gotten to know me pretty well and they know that Mrs. Leece is definitely quite reserved and doesn't really do crazy things like that. Don't get me wrong- I love for them to do it and encourage them... but singing and dancing in front of them is just too far out of my comfort zone.

Until today.

We sang it. A Toody Ta Ta. I sang it. I danced it. I made a total fool of myself. And I LOVED it! Laughing along with them was great. And since the kids know that Mrs. Leece is NOT the dancer/singer in the group, I had 27 little friends coaching me along and helping me. Singing and laughing right along with me. By the time we were done all of the fire drill nerves were forgotten and we were ready for lunch. 

We had our first birthday celebration in the class today- that was fun! 

Our friend turned 8- and was so excited for the weekend and the party at home. It was very sweet to be a part of this- I have sent in plenty of treats for my kids even though their birthdays are during the summer. I have even been in the classroom when my kids have passed out their treats. But this time it was different- I was on the other side. Happy Birthday to my little friend! 

This weekend we are going to the campground for the annual Halloweekend trick-or-treating event. The kids have been looking forward to this for months. We have friends and additional family coming so we are hoping it will be a great time. The weather isn't promising to be very good, but we will still have fun. We only have two more weekends left in our campground season. This is crazy to think- it went so fast. I'm sad to see the season end, but at the same time relieved because it is very difficult to go between the campground and writing lesson plans.

Today marked the halfway point for student teaching. How is that even POSSIBLE?