Autopilot

Goodness gracious! Work has been super busy lately, and on top of that, I have been researching out the whazoo for my capstone project.  I can think of at least eight million things I would rather do than research after a full day at work, but hakuna matata.  I will {hopefully} finish up classes next fall, if nothing else gets cancelled or rescheduled.  Fingers crossed!  I swear, I am totally on autopilot.  It’s amazing how much we can get accomplished in a crunch, but I really need SLEEP!  🙂  Stat.

Tonight, I spent FOREVER making buffalo chicken mac & cheese, {Thanks Cara!}, and while it was delish, I just hit the wall.  Hard.  Like 95 mph . I have decided that since I have worked non-stop for about  a week, I deserve to sit down and watch American Idol while catching up on my blogging & blog-stalking.  Oh, and my Hunger Games obsession.  I seriously started thinking about it while making the roux for dinner… get it?  Rue?!  Anyway, I am totally obsessed, and I can’t wait for the movie to come out.  Mostly because it looks so much like I visualized it, and also because I am obsessed with “Safe and Sound” by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars.  Um, obsessed!

In other, more scholarly news, we have continued to work on our Pirate Maps unit, slowly but surely.  We have been definitely emphasizing reading lately. I’m not going to lie!  It’s almost OAA time, so sometimes Social Studies time dwindles away a little bit to make sure I am supporting my kiddos as much as I can before they have to show what they know.  Our thirty minute blocks have been a little more like 20 minute blocks.  {I rotate between two groups every other day, so if you’re wondering why this is progressing slowly, that would be why!}

We completed our silly bands lesson… and we made edible maps.  They are not nearly as cute as Hope’s, but I could not find edible markers ANYWHERE, and I was not about to spend $3.00 per baby tube of icing to write with.  Especially since I have over fifty students total.  I love those kiddos, but that’s just craziness.  🙂  So, we improvised, and I let them get creative.  It may not be perfectly laid out, but they got the concept of each landform, they loved the activity, and they ate them like burritos afterwards.  I was also called “Little Miss School Time” after that by a student that exclaimed that it was the most delicious lesson he’s ever completed!  I’ll take it!

We have also been reading “Rocks in His Head” in Reading.  This is a totally cute story!  Hopefully I will have more to share this week, but I really haven’t taken too many photos.  Again, when you’re running an endless race, you have to let go of something!  🙂  This was our take on a graffiti wall of their rock facts.  Not the prettiest chart, but they loved the mohawk!  Check out what my little geologists came up with for our prior knowledge chart!  They amaze me sometimes!