Ban It!

So this week we were talking about poetry for reading.  Since I used to work with library services for my school district, I would adopt many of the books libraries would weed out whenever they got more money.  Because of this I have my own mini library in the classroom, with books of every kind.  So I pulled out a good number of poetry books and found some good ones to share with my kiddos.  Every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during reading we have the Title I reading coordinator for our school's 3 and 4th grade classes come in to help out.  So she's sitting behind all the kiddos who are on the carpet and listening as I read and discuss poetry.  One of the poems I pulled out was "They Don't Do Math in Texas" from the book If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand by Kalli Dakos.  If you haven't read it, it is a poem told from another student's pont of view talking about Kate, a new classmate who just moved from Texas.  Kate keeps going on and on about how Texas is better because "school didn't start until four o' clock" and "every classroom had a popcorn machine".  I picked it for not only humorous reasons, but also because we live in Texas and I knew that I would get some good comments out of the kids.

(Before I get to the good part of my story, I should let you know that during Banned Book Week in September, I talked with my class and did some activities with Banned Books.  They were all amazed books could be banned from places and thought it was outrageous that people would do such a thing.)

So, I get to the line of the poem that goes like this:
"In Texas, we only did math
In Kindergarten.
Once we learned that
One plus one equaled two
We never had
To study math again."

The first thing I hear?  "Ban It!" from one of my little angel students.  Then comes "Burn It!"  I look over at the Title I reading coordinator with this incredulous look on my face, and we both just bust out laughing.  The kids are lost as to why we are cracking up, so they revert to what they do best....point out the obvious facts.  The next comments I hear over our laughing go along the lines of "Miss P, you're face is red," "Miss P, you're crying because you're laughing so hard," "Miss P, I think you need to take a breath."


My kiddos keep me on my toes and smiling.  Everyone always says that you always remember your first class....I have absolutely NO doubt of that. 

New Things!

So I went to a staff development today on Blogging in the Classroom, and I learned all sorts of cool new things!  I am super excited to start playing around on here and actually understand bits and pieces of it more. 

What I'm even more excited about, though, is that my class' movie is almost done!  We finished reading Gregor the Overlander on Monday of last week, and decided to keep using it the rest of the week instead of moving to a new book.  We happened to be discussing drama/plays in reading, so my brilliant mind goes straight to "let's make a movie!"  I suggested it to my kiddos and they were all on board.  We brainstormed, wrote a script, had casting calls and auditions, made scenery and costumes, then filmed our teaser trailer on Friday.  The original plan was for me to take my computer with me on my three hour trip to College Station to go see my sister's play.  My parents and I were going to see my older sister's play (she's completing her Master's at Texas A&M) so I would have 3 hours in the backseat on the way there and 3 hours on the way back to edit all the video and audio clips we took to make our movie.  However, said sister also stepped on my laptop this summer, and so it chose not to work on Saturday.  So my kiddos keep asking, "Miss P, is the movie ready?" to which I reply, "Almost."  Then they broke into the prophesy from the book, having memorized the entire thing from how many times we've mentioned it...." An overland warrior, a son of the sun, may bring us back light, he may bring us back none...."  And needless to say, my kiddos will pass their Content-Based Assessment in reading with flying colors when it comes to drama.  They know it all inside and out now! 

If you know someone who wants to donate a bit to my awesome classroom so we can keep doing projects like this, we have a DonorsChoose for the second and third Gregor books that is almost out of time and needs funding!  Pass on the word to help support my Reading Warriors!