Brave Balderdasheries

Balderdash is a game wherein one person picks an unknown word out of the dictionary, and challenges everyone to create a plausible definition of that word. The person with the dictionary writes down the real definition, and shuffles it in with everyone else's submissions. That person then reads out all the definitions, and the class votes on which one they think is real. You get a point for voting for the real definition, and a point for each person who votes for your own. We played a round this morning, and included all those who come in for math (Jesse, Stanley, Lukas, and Selden). I was fascinated by the entries today, I think they show some interesting perceptions of the word, so I'm sharing them here:

The word was "virgule" (chosen by Parker). Here were the submissions:

- an irritated microfiber

- a type of material that's on a badge

- a person scared of depth

- a miniscule object

- a particle of living matter

- separates successive divisions in an extended date

- to have happiness

- a tiny person

- a green bud on a plant

- something vile

Can you guess which one is the true definition? Or who wrote the others?

Teaching Arabic

Here are some photos from our visit to Elaine's and Mrs. Adhikary's classes last Friday. I was incredibly proud of my students; they worked well with the younger kids, and I know they all put in real effort for this lesson.

Learning to Teach

Tomorrow our class will be visiting Miss Elaine's and Mrs. Adhikary's classrooms, with the aim of teaching the younger kids how to count in Arabic. We had a long brainstorming session this morning to create the lesson plan, and the kids took it quite seriously and came up with some lovely ideas. They'll spend some of tomorrow morning putting together the materials required for their plans... and after lunch, we'll head over to K-1 and they'll have a chance to try their hands as teachers! This will be the beginning of an ongoing relationship with Miss Elaine's class, and I'm looking forward to its flowering.

North Africa projects

As some of you know, our class has two main projects going on as part of our North Africa theme this month. We've been doing some independent research on aspects of the region or the history that interest us, and presenting that research in the form of letters to the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta. Last Friday we took a research trip to the Mallett's Creek branch of the Ann Arbor library, and I was immensely impressed by the children's independence and excellent time management. It's a small library, so it wasn't easy finding all the information we needed, but almost everyone did a great job of staying on track and being self-reliant about seeking out the information. At this age, I hadn't honestly expected that level of self-motivation, and it was a joy to see!

We're also just beginning a mapping project, wherein we'll be drawing blueprints/maps of a North African city as it develops through the ages (this is based on a wonderful picture book called "Umm El Madayan"). We've planned the stages our city will be undergoing, and today we began the process of creating the basic layout of the land on which the city will be built. Both discussions were fun and engaged, with the children presenting lots of well-reasoned ideas about the layout and progress of the city. We should be starting the real mapping process on Thursday.

Our first read-out-loud book of the year was The Magic Pudding, by Norman Lindsay; as we've now finished that, we're moving on to a book set in Tunisia called Benny and Omar, by Eoin Colfer. All in all, our North African theme is pulling us in some fascinating directions, and I couldn't be more pleased with the children's involvement.

Corpses and Calligraphy

Perhaps you're all familiar with the writing game "Exquisite Corpse", but in case you're not, the rules are simple: each person writes one sentence of a story. The trick is that you can't see anyone else's sentence, so when the story is read out, it's nonsense. (There is another version of the game wherein you can only see the sentence directly before the one you're writing, which makes for an equally disjointed but more more traceable outcome.) The kids wanted me to post our first attempt at Exquisite Corpse:

Once upon a time, a frog jumped out of a pond into a tree.

So Esibella said whatcha doing to Pheanis. And Knorm was like whatcha doing to do Fingeberge.

I was almost killed by the last shot.

Today was the day I went to the museum.

All of a sudden the Princess got hit by a wrecking ball and went flying over the cliff and drowned in the sea.

And so he hopped on his old donkey and rode off into the moon waving panty hose.

Everybody died.

The End

We also tried to make our names into different shapes, today, in the tradition of Arabic calligraphy—see if you can figure out whose names are embedded in these drawings!

Subscriptions

We've had an awfully fun week; I must say I'm really enjoying being part of Summers-Knoll. This week we've begun our North Africa theme by learning the Arabic numbers to ten, spelling our names in Arabic, and doing a little bit of reading about Ibn Battuta, the great 14th-century traveler from Morocco. We've solved riddles, and made our own (cleverly hidden inside Origami), and had a few interesting conversations about numbering systems, mathematical bases, and transliteration. We've started the math assessments, though those won't be finished until next week; hopefully, we'll also get those desks raised by then! The kids played a couple of really impressive rounds of Dictionary (also known as Balderdash) this morning, with some interesting definitions of 'villify' and 'zooanthropy' offered for our common perusal. We've also been reading The Magic Pudding, by Norman Lindsay, and I have to say that's been a lot of fun.

A couple of parents have let me know that they're having trouble subscribing to the blog. Thank you for telling me, since I'm new to this and not apt to notice missing features! I'm emailing Mrs. Carpenter to find out how she set up her subscriptions (since I can't seem to figure it out), and hopefully that'll be up tomorrow.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the picnic!

A great first day!

We had a fun first day of school: we solved riddles and then created them, measured ourselves for desk-fitting purposes, and searched our minds for any information they might contain about North Africa.

Morning snacks

Would it be agreeable to everyone if we took weekly turns at bringing in snack this year? Since there are only six children in the class, I’m certainly willing to take a turn with snack, as well, so we’d be on a seven-week rotation. (That would come out to about two turns each before the winter break.) We'll be eating morning snack every day, but I'm not as firmly attached to the idea of afternoon snack; it's harder to fit in, and it won't always be necessary. I had been intending to provide snack this week, since I hadn’t sent out any notice about it; however, Parker’s father was kind enough to bring in a big tub of pretzel sticks anyway, so perhaps that family would like to take a turn this week? It’s pretty much taken care of with the pretzels, anyway… No matter what we decide, thank you for the pretzels, Ron! That was very thoughtful.

I’m therefore proposing the following Schedule of Snack Rotation (currently randomly ordered; just let me know if you’d rather have a different week!):

9/8 - 9/11 Parker’s family

9/14 – 9/18 Peter’s family

9/21 – 9/25 Max’s family

9/28 – 10/2 Alec’s family

10/5 – 10/9 Maria’s family

10/12 – 10/16 Mike’s family

10/19 – 10/23 Renata

10/ 26 – 10/30 Parker’s family

11/2 – 11/6 Peter’s family

11/9 – 11/13 Max’s family

11/16 – 11/20 Alec’s family

11/23 – 11/27 Renata (Thanksgiving week)

11/30 – 12/4 Maria’s family

12/7 – 12/11 Mike’s family

12/14 – 12/18 Renata

Does that work all right? Tthere are only six kids in the class, so providing snack shouldn't be too onerous a burden.

I believe everyone's dealt with snack before, but here are some suggestions for healthy foods (shamelessly borrowed from Mrs. Carpenter's blog):

Fruit - strawberries,bananas, apples, grapes, raisins, applesauce
Vegetables - mini carrots, celery, cucumbers
Cheese and whole wheat crackers
Nutragrain Bars
Pretzels
Pre-popped plain popcorn
Yogurt
Bagels

Please remember to check for peanuts and tree nuts, including snacks made in a shared facility. Check labels for transfat and high fructose corn syrup and avoid those foods whenever possible.

Weekly schedule

Here's our daily/weekly schedule for this year, in case it's helpful to know:

Monday through Thursday, we’ll begin each day with one hour of math (along with the rest of the school), from 9:00 to 10:00. Snack/recess is 10:00-10:30. From 10:30 until lunch begins at 11:00, we’ll do more language arts-focused work, some of which will be tied in with our theme. On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I have one hour with the children in the afternoon, and we’ll use that time to explore the current theme from other angles.

Our class’s specials are all in the afternoon this year, as follows:

Monday: Music, Art

Tuesday: French, P.E.

Wednesday: Music, Art, Latin

Thursday: French, P.E.

Please make sure the kids have appropriate clothes on P.E. days—thanks!

Fridays are left open for projects, field trips, etc.

Back to school!

I'm excited to see everyone on Tuesday, Sept. 8! I've met half of our wonderful group, and I can't wait to meet those I haven't seen yet. There are lots of exciting ideas floating around the school this year, and I'm eager to see what the oldest kids in school are going to think about it all.

See you soon... (don't forget your passwords...)