Learning About 'Merica!

This week, I had full control of the classroom and we spent time learning all about the land of the free and the home of the brave. Before any of that happened, however, I had to make sure that my students would be able to handle learning about such a wonderful place and made them have a mostly silent work day on Monday to get ahead with their work for the week. I knew that learning about America would excite all of my students and we would probably end up with less academic learning time because of it.

So on Tuesday, the excitement began as we learned all about the election that was taking place in America on the next day (because we are a day ahead of you). We learned all about how the electoral college works and we learned about the candidates that were running for president. Of course, my students asked me who I had voted for and I explained to them how that is a very personal thing in America and does not usually get shared with others. After all of our learning, we had our own vote in the class, deciding which American lolly we liked more: Bazooka Bubble Gum or Chewy Jolly Ranchers. We used the electoral college for our vote and as a class, Bazooka Bubble Gum was the favorite. It was really fun to watch the students get excited about being able to vote and they actually seemed to have a pretty good understanding of the electoral college, even though all the students did agree that it was a silly system to have.

Wednesday came and we read the story M is for Mitten and learned all about Michigan. All of the students were angry that I didn't bring them Vernor's to try because apparently it sounded delicious to all of them. They loved learning about where I am from and had millions of questions about not only Michigan, but about America in general. Since they had so many questions, I took a survey of the students and we picked a few American topics to focus on in the weeks to come.

Also on Wednesday, we started to create our own ABC book about New Zealand. We have decided to call it K is for Kiwi and my students are extremely excited to share it with as many people as they can. When it is finished, we are going to create a movie of them reading it so that you can see it too :)

Thursday came and I taught the students more about me and the places that I have been. However, I made the mistake of showing them a picture of me dancing and now they all want to see me do the splits... So I promised that before I leave, I would do them for the kids. It's the little things like that that get me through the day.

Tomorrow is Friday and we have our whole school athletics day. All students in the school will be participating in track and field events, such as high jump, long jump, shot put, discus, the 100 meter dash, and long distance running. It is going to be a very eventful day and I plan on taking many pictures so that you can finally meet the students who I am teaching and learn more about my school through pictures.

Overall, I have had a very busy 4 days but I wouldn't have it any other way!