I’m not a procrastinator…honest, I’m not.
I always have good intentions to work on my lesson plans on Saturday and not put things off until Sunday.
Then…I find myself sleeping in…until 11am or so.
Those of you with young children, drool if you wish. I was once in your shoes…getting up early to fix Cheerios and turn on the cartoons.
I’ve paid my dues.
Plus, I’m a former SAHM who is back in the workforce.
But I digress.
My students could, hopefully, tell you what that word means. It was one of their vocabulary words.
Anyhoo…
Saturdays come, and I find myself e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d, unable to even get out of my jammies once I do get out of bed.
Before I know it, Sunday has arrived.
Lately, I’ve been sleeping in on Sundays too.
Shame on me, I know.
Sigh.
Alas, though, once I do get up, I do the Sunday Scramble.
There’s nothing like a deadline…i.e. classes full of children who need to be educated…to call me into action.
That is why, all of a sudden, I found this in front of me…
Oh, it was u-g-l-y, let me tell you.
I had a folder full of activities and, quite honestly, I just could not decide which ones I was going to have my students do.
It all went back to my objectives for the week.
I am going to finish up Author’s Purpose with my students, and we are also working on “sed,” “sess,” and “sid” affixes.
I thought and thought and thought.
I copied, scanned, and copied again.
I typed center instructions and placed them into clear sleeves.
I remembered my lesson from last week…when I did not number the stations and had no clue which group had worked on which station, so I created this hand-done sheet…
It’s all shorthand that I understand.
First off, I decided to copy another teacher and create two sets of three stations…hence the two columns of numbers. The goal is to allow students two opportunities to complete each station. Last week, I discovered that we simply cannot get three rotations done each day, so I’m just doing the best I can. I figure that Fridays can be catch-up days. Students tend to finish some activities quicker than others, and I can always use the computers and magazine activities for fill-ins if needed.
Going back to my picture above…
The AP stands for Author’s Purpose. My students will be writing paragraphs that inform, persuade, and entertain…using trail mix packages that I’m going to give them to eat and write about.
It should be a fun activity.
They’re also going to be making fortune tellers to help them review their vocabulary words.
Do you remember these from school?
Here’s a “how-to” I found on Google…
It’s a handy little foldable that can be used for multitudes of purposes and any content area. Shoot. You could even use them to help children learn Bible verses!
Anyhoo, I think my students will enjoy making these. They will write their vocabulary words on the outside flaps. On the insides, they will create questions and write the answers under those flaps. I’m going to have them draw pictures on the inside to illustrate their vocabulary words…for those who are visual learners.
My last center is an Author’s Purpose packet. It’s a packet of reading passages with comprehension questions. Two of the passages are “Must Do,” and they can select one of the “Choice” passages to complete as the third component of this assignment. I’m planning on sitting with each group as they work on these for differentiated instruction time.
With all of that said and done, my stuff is now in bags in the car, and my table looks a lot better…
I’m hoping that with my stations for the week complete, I might just be able to knit a round or two on the project you see on the table. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve knit, and my hands are beginning to itch with anticipation.
Or, I might just do the Sunday Scramble this week so next weekend I can relax and really enjoy my days off.
Oh, who am I kidding. I fear that I’ll be doing the Sunday Scramble for a few more years…until I fill my filing cabinet and binders with loads of lesson plans that I can pull from.
Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: guided reading, teaching | 1 Comment »
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