Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Overplanned vs Underplanned

People call me a "planner" and I think I'm perfectly okay with this name. I like to have a game plan and a back-up plan...and sometimes a third plan just in case things in plans 1 and 2 go awry. For instance, yesterday I panicked because I felt that I had nothing planned. Yet I was able to get through literacy - teaching both 2nd and 3rd grades the start of the reading lesson, sharing a story (with 2nd), writing in the writer's notebook (with 3rd) and giving the very first spelling pre-test of the school year...

Math was fun in the afternoon, I truly feel my second graders are beginning to have a concrete understanding of place value...except that it went WAY over the 45 minutes I have ear marked for math. I chalk it up as a "win" because they were having fun, learning and getting along - three things I have been working on for these first 10 days of school!

In science we actually got to read our text books and work on the vocabulary that perplexed us on day 1 of science. I sang the silly song that goes with the unit and the kids did too...much to half of their dismay!

So we didn't get to social studies - in the book anyway - I had no arguments, no meanness, and the kids were helping each other...shouldn't that count as social studies working the way it should?

So today I have planned both 2nd and 3rd grade literacy blocks. We'll finish our stories, read aloud new ones, work on graphic organizers about character and setting, write in our writer's notebooks and work on some spelling practice. In math we'll continue place value with greater than (>), less than (<) and equal to (=). In science we'll begin our observations about what happens to a celery stalk in water (thank goodness I already have celery in my fridge!!!). And in social studies the kids will use their cutting and gluing skills to make my friend Lynna's Me on the Map!

And if I don't get to it all? There's always tomorrow!

No comments:

Post a Comment