A busy 3rd day...

Today was a VERY busy day in Mrs. Dasher's second grade classroom. After being at a conference for the past two days, the kids were very happy to see that their teacher was back in the classroom. It was quite a relief for me as well, considering they behaved much better once they saw their teacher was back. We started out our morning with extensive work on the Endangered Species projects. Each child has a presentation either tomorrow or Friday, so they were all frantic to finish the many components on time. I sat with the kids as we went through their fictional stories, editing the grammar and spelling, making their stories a little bit more coherent. We eventually took them to their Chinese lesson, which is pretty unbelievable to see seven and eight year olds learning Chinese. They all attempted to greet me in Chinese once their class was over....I just sat and nodded my head, clueless as to what they were saying. After more work with the endangered species presentations, it was time for the kids to have what they call a "brain break" and they hit the playground. It was nice to let the kids run around a little, especially so they could get their jitters out before lunch and afternoon classes. I didn't have to do very much during the afternoon. The kids went to art while I went back to the classroom to help assemble booklets to start their Caldecott books unit. The kids asked me to come to P.E. with them, so I was happy to sit, relax, and watch seventeen seven year olds run around like headless chickens, as they climbed ropes and rock walls. Finally, we went back to the classroom, had some read aloud time, and finally the kids sat quietly playing their new 21st century math games on the iPads. Times have really changed since my second grade year 10 years ago.