A good time...

So this morning was rough; I didn't want to be here (as usual). However, the kids are always surprisingly mellow on Mondays for some reason. Today's math and reading went pretty well, and we went to lunch with no huge incidents.

After lunch, I pulled a little poetry activity out of the air. I had planned to watch a movie with the class today. We watched a 26-minute video called "The Snowman," which was a cute story put to music. (There was no dialogue, only music. At one point, a kid asked aloud, "Is this a silent movie?" Another student, known for his sarcasm, replied, "No...." It was pretty funny.) Anyway, we ended up writing poems that were drawn inside snowmen. The poems had this format:

Noun
Adjective, Adjective, Adjective
(Gerund) verb, (gerund) verb
Noun

They turned out pretty well! Some of my favorites:

(actual poem) (intended meaning)
icy Icy
sloshy Slushy
Flacky Flaky
enjoying Enjoying
sleding Sledding
snowboarding Snowboarding
snowballing Snowballing
Snow House


Another:

Winter
Beautiful and graceful
Falling
Snow

Another:

Stars
Shiny, Yellow, Decoritive [sic]
Shining
Celebrating
Sparkling
Shooting Stars

Another:

Snow
is a white
fluffy cloud
of softness.
When I feel
snow I feel
like I'm floating
on a cloud.
I like catching snowflakes
and snowball fighting.
playing while it is snowing
is alot [sic] of fun

So those were cool. We'll have to hang them up also. We had a decent Social Studies lesson on the Midwest (I'm representin' the homeland!!), and then they were out to recess.

After recess, we did vocab. This was the most fun I've had with the class, aside from doing "The Macarena." The word "exploring" came up, and as a class, we write the WORD, the DEFINITION, and draw a PICTURE of each word. (Those 3 words in caps are the headings they put on their papers.) I asked the students what we could draw to show someone exploring. One student replied, "We could draw a person in a Jeep, driving around and exploring." "Great idea!" I had said, and I proceeded to attempt to draw a Jeep. My "Jeep" looked like a box with wheels. The kids all burst out laughing, and I couldn't help but crack up as well. I actually laughed so hard I cried! It was a great time. Vocab after that was a blast. My drawings got progressively worse, and the word "amuse" came up. One student told me, "Your drawings today amuse me." I thanked him. Later, we had the word "pitied." For the picture, it was suggested that I draw the class pitying my drawings. I did so, labeling a few students. This, for some reason, was a riot. I also attempted to draw a boy in the class's face. He has a cut on his cheek, and I was drawing "applied" to show that he had applied ointment to his wound. The drawing was hilarious, though I didn't mean it to be.

After vocab, it was already the end of the day, and almost every single student left with a smile on his/her face. It made me wonder if I could maybe harness this kind of awesomeness on a regular basis. Only time will tell. Also, our principal is recruiting tomorrow at a large university. I'll find out sometime this week where I'll be a month from now. At the moment, it's up in the air. Peace.