MLK Jr.

Finally!

Here's the way my time has gone since winter break. Came to school on Friday the 4th, had a workshop Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the following week. Came to school Thursday, Friday, and Monday, had a workshop on Tuesday. Fortunately, I'm finished with workshop, at least for a while.

We have been crazy ever since coming back. It's kind of hard to get procedures going again when the teacher is gone AND we are in a new building with major schedule changes. Now that I have been back, some teachers have been gone and the principal has had to split up the class because there was no sub. We have had a terrible time finding subs this year, my principal said a lot of them are in long term positions because the job openings weren't filled. Anyway, I'm just glad I'm back!

We started Monday with a KWL chart about Martin Luther King. I really had to keep my composure while making the chart. I thought the kids would already know a little about him..not so much.

Know
gave speeches ( I had to guide the student to that answer)
did a good job
was president???
got shot because he wanted blacks and whites to be friends (YES!)

Want to Know
Where did he get his last name?
Where did he get his first name?
How did he become president?
How did he become king?
How many children did he have?
How did he help blacks and whites become friends?

It's going to be interesting to see what the KNOW is tomorrow. I really feel like they have learned a lot! We have learned 2 songs, read several books, watched a couple of short videos and made a book. I was wanting to do an art project I had seen from Nancy @  First Grade Wow (by the way, if you aren't following her, you really should, she has terrific ideas and LOTS of freebies). Anyway, I didn't have it with me, but I remembered that part of it had to do with the kids tracing their hand and arm and it had a heart on it. Well I have this one little boy who wore a snowflake headband to school and wore it all day. The headband gave me an idea of having 2 hands one white and one black clasped on a headband with a heart on it. I just had them write We love MLK! on it. Considering that I had no sample or patterns to use, I thought they turned out pretty cute! It's hard to see the white hands in the photos, but they are there. ;)

Well, I'm looking forward to my three day weekend! Just one more day.

Kelly