Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Are You Smarter than a THIRD Grader?

I can say in complete certainty that my third grade students can say and locate on a map where each of the continents are located, even though we have only been working on them for a month. I owe it to this little song (it has done wonders!):
CONTINENTS, POLES, EQUATOR
(Tune: Are You Sleeping?)
North America (Hold up left hand)
South America (Touch left knee)
Europe (Nose)
Asia (Right hand)
Africa (Middle- equator)
Australia (Right knee)
Don't forget Antarctica (Feet)
North Pole (Top of head)
South Pole
(Touch feet)

They have also written their first law (drafted and revised 2 times), come up with consequences, looked at possible problems with the law, looked at the problem and considered if the problems were bad enough to make it a bad law. Next they assigned a "police officer" to keep track of those who broke the law (walked outside the room without shoes on or slid around the room) and a bailiff who was in charge of making sure that the guilty person did the consequence they chose. All I had to do was write it on the board and chose the student to go up to the front of the classroom to present their side of the argument. In the end, the name of the law is "The Law of Shoes." And the name of the class is no longer "Intervention," rather "Miss Bass' Law & Order." haha.. got to love 8 yr olds!

I am proud of them! I only wish I had it on video! Just shows that some of the best lessons are those you do not plan on!
And I can't wait until this weekend! Family celebrations!