Busy Christmas Week
Last school week before Christmas and it's really busy right now.
My Gr. 4 class performed at the Kindergarden Christmas concert today and they really were terrific. Wow, can these kids sing. And I played four songs on the guitar and all was well with my hand, so I was really pleased about that, too. We sang "When A Child Is Born", "Mary's Boy Child", "Rudolph" in French and then "Silent Night" on the boomwhackers. After the Kindergarden kids performed, the Gr. 4's also led a sing-along of "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad". We do it all again tomorrow afternoon at the second Kindergarden concert.
Can't wait to do some singing, dancing, recorder playing and drama with this group for a Medieval Festival next May. Should be a great showcase for them and a lot of fun.
This morning my students were in a "Scientist-in-the-School" workshop on Pulleys and Gears. It's a terrific program where a scientist comes into your classroom and does a half-day workshop on the science topic of your choice, using more elaborate materials and experiments you never tend to have in school. The class had great fun building gear trains and gear cities, scooching up and down the hallway on carpets moved by pulley systems, experimenting with fixed and movable pulleys and playing with spirograph (interior gears!).
My class raised the most money at the school fundraiser a few weeks back and they've been rewarded with a pizza lunch which they'll be getting on Wednesday. In the afternoon they'll be going to the gym to see the dress rehearsal of the Primary (Gr. 1-3) Christmas Concert.
Can't think of anything happening Thursday with my students. Hey, maybe I'll get one normal classroom day with the Gr. 4's this week.
Friday we'll be making hard covers for their Christmas poetry books and maybe some other crafts, too. We also have the annual school Christmas sing-along in the gym, which will be led by the Intermediate students (Gr. 7-8). I've been helping a bit with the echoes and harmony work in those practices recently and the most intriguing thing about that group this year is the number of boys who are participating. To be fair, the piano teacher did collar a handful of boys and told them she wanted them involved, but she soon found that group of six boys went to ten and then to over a dozen, with the same number of girls, too. Quite extraordinary for Intermediate choir participation and I totally chalk it down to the "Glee" factor. A parent I worked with in the science workshop this morning said she knew glee clubs were cropping up in other area schools, many put together by the students themselves. "Glee" is making choir singing cool again to the older kids- nifty.
Speaking of which, as part of her annual story-writing Advent Calendar, cadhla chose my idea of "Glee" to write this fun little Christmas story last week: Mistleno-no. Christmas song mash-ups, yay.
Friday afternoon we're going to bring the two Gr. 4 classes together to watch a movie, which will be fun for them and will give the other Gr. 4 teacher and myself a chance to spell each other off so we can tie up loose academic ends before the Christmas holidays.
And John and I will actually both have an entire week off before Christmas this year to get festive stuff ready and go see movies and drink Irish coffees and hopefully even do a bit of relaxing.
My Gr. 4 class performed at the Kindergarden Christmas concert today and they really were terrific. Wow, can these kids sing. And I played four songs on the guitar and all was well with my hand, so I was really pleased about that, too. We sang "When A Child Is Born", "Mary's Boy Child", "Rudolph" in French and then "Silent Night" on the boomwhackers. After the Kindergarden kids performed, the Gr. 4's also led a sing-along of "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad". We do it all again tomorrow afternoon at the second Kindergarden concert.
Can't wait to do some singing, dancing, recorder playing and drama with this group for a Medieval Festival next May. Should be a great showcase for them and a lot of fun.
This morning my students were in a "Scientist-in-the-School" workshop on Pulleys and Gears. It's a terrific program where a scientist comes into your classroom and does a half-day workshop on the science topic of your choice, using more elaborate materials and experiments you never tend to have in school. The class had great fun building gear trains and gear cities, scooching up and down the hallway on carpets moved by pulley systems, experimenting with fixed and movable pulleys and playing with spirograph (interior gears!).
My class raised the most money at the school fundraiser a few weeks back and they've been rewarded with a pizza lunch which they'll be getting on Wednesday. In the afternoon they'll be going to the gym to see the dress rehearsal of the Primary (Gr. 1-3) Christmas Concert.
Can't think of anything happening Thursday with my students. Hey, maybe I'll get one normal classroom day with the Gr. 4's this week.
Friday we'll be making hard covers for their Christmas poetry books and maybe some other crafts, too. We also have the annual school Christmas sing-along in the gym, which will be led by the Intermediate students (Gr. 7-8). I've been helping a bit with the echoes and harmony work in those practices recently and the most intriguing thing about that group this year is the number of boys who are participating. To be fair, the piano teacher did collar a handful of boys and told them she wanted them involved, but she soon found that group of six boys went to ten and then to over a dozen, with the same number of girls, too. Quite extraordinary for Intermediate choir participation and I totally chalk it down to the "Glee" factor. A parent I worked with in the science workshop this morning said she knew glee clubs were cropping up in other area schools, many put together by the students themselves. "Glee" is making choir singing cool again to the older kids- nifty.
Speaking of which, as part of her annual story-writing Advent Calendar, cadhla chose my idea of "Glee" to write this fun little Christmas story last week: Mistleno-no. Christmas song mash-ups, yay.
Friday afternoon we're going to bring the two Gr. 4 classes together to watch a movie, which will be fun for them and will give the other Gr. 4 teacher and myself a chance to spell each other off so we can tie up loose academic ends before the Christmas holidays.
And John and I will actually both have an entire week off before Christmas this year to get festive stuff ready and go see movies and drink Irish coffees and hopefully even do a bit of relaxing.