Teaching on the Fly!

Sometimes it seems like the best lessons aren't what you have written down in your plans, but what springs out of what your kids are saying or doing. 

We have been working on telling time to five minutes. We needed some written practice, but the kids were antsy and I could tell they were sleepy and grouchy after lunch. THEY NEEDED TO MOVE!

I pulled out a pack of flash cards that showed clocks with different times on the front. (I got them from Dollar Tree  last year.) I scattered them around the carpet and divided the class up into two teams. They sat on the perimeter of the carpet so that they could see the cards. One member from each team stood up and hunted for the card that showed the time I called out. The others hunted as they were seated so that they could grab it when it was their turn. I started out giving them all the time they needed to hunt, but after a few tries, I set a timer for thirty seconds. When it went off the next two members hopped up and hunted if the first two had not found the correct card.

They had a ball playing and begged to play again after our writing lesson.

It might not have been in my plans, but it worked!

Have a great weekend. I'll be working with our State Department all weekend on Common Core Coach training for ELA. I'm hoping I'll learn some things to help my kiddos with the new assessments.