Monday, March 1, 2010

Some Days are Productive

And some days are not!

Maybe it's the cold, gray weather. Or maybe it's just Monday. For whatever reason, today we had attention and focus issues. And lots of bickering, which fortunately, is very unusual for Super and Dude.

We started the day with a quick language arts review. I made up a game using subjects and predicates on strips of construction paper. They were each allowed to turn over one of their subjects and one of their predicates. If they liked their sentence, they could keep it. If not, they could trade either the subject or the predicate.

Of course, the original sentences made sense, but it was a lot more fun to do it this way! Here is Dude's sentence collection:



And Super's sentences:



They loved the game, but every time one of them wanted to trade, it turned into an argument over who had the "best" subjects or predicates. Huh?

We also practiced using conjunctions.



We didn't get beyond our warm-up in math...

We always start with a quick review, and today it was positive and negative integers. We played a game using a number line "thermometer" and temperature cards. After a few minutes it was clear that the kids were having a hard time staying focused, and we were all getting rather cranky, so I scrapped the rest of our plans for the day.

We took a root beer break and then watched a Nature episode about wildlife in the Balkans. We read a few chapters of School Mouse by Dick King-Smith, and then gave the dogs a bath. Dad made a lovely vegetarian shepherd's pie for us, and we're having a cozy evening at home. Tomorrow is another day!

3 comments:

Maria said...

Sounds like a wonderful day to me!!! And it makes me feel a little less guilty that we didn't do any of the planned history or science today, but instead went to Grandma's house and played!

Sarah N. said...

Great sentence activity! I clicked through from Magic and Mayhem and I love all the great hands on activities you do with your kids! I'm homeschooling my 6yo and 2.yo.

Sparklee said...

Don't feel guilty about playing at Grandma's--that's more important than any school subject!

I was really flattered that Magical Mama linked to my post--she's the queen of fun hands-on ideas!