Monday, September 24, 2007

Burning the Midnight Oil

Or at least the 8:30 oil! I had a lot of homework to do over the weekend. A lot! Usually I don't procrastinate, but somehow I ended up starting a project at 7:00 last night. A project that is due today, by the way. At 8:30 Kenny decided to help me, and let me tell you ... thank goodness he did! I was creating a phonemic awareness mini-lesson with kindergartners as my target grade. My lesson is focused on rhyming words using the book Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw.

I will read the book to the "kids" (the other students at my table), then lead them in a shared reading using the poster. After the shared reading we'll cover some of the rhyming words with the picture cards. There's a lot more prep to the lesson that I am not showing here. Enough prep that it makes me wonder ... how much prep really goes into each and every seven-hour school day if it takes me almost two hours to prepare a ten-minute lesson for kindergartners?!?

Well, getting your sheep and jeep picture cards to be just the right size isn't easy if you are working on a project too late and wanting to watch the season premier of Desperate Housewives. Apparently it is easy if you are 7 and in 2nd grade. Kenny made this project seem like a breeze and I can't even tell you how much he helped me! I am thinking his favorite cookies might have to get baked this afternoon after we all get home :)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a smart little cookie Kenny is!

Julie said...

Glad to hear that you finished your sheep in the jeep. The bad news of lesson planning is that after all of that work sometimes the plan doesn't work. I hate when that happens. The good news of lesson planning is that once you are in a classroom you don't have to reinvent the wheel every lesson, you can copy more than when you are in school or do things the same way over and over for a while. Of course then you get new things to work on in your "free time". It is fun, but a lot of work, it gets easier every year!

Anonymous said...

GOOD JOB KENNY HELPING MOMMY OUT THATS IS A VERY GOOD BOY! HIGH FIVE
FROM MS CINDY IN NC

Amy said...

Julie,
It does seem like a lot of work right now. Today I started a thematic unit for the same class that I just finished my resource file in. I feel like this is going to be a busy, busy semester. (I guess they all will be, right?) Is it Christmas break yet?

Lisa Lou Hoo said...

How much did you have to pay Kenny for helping with your project? :)

Amy said...

Lisa,
He was just glad to get to stay up past bedtime!

Amy said...

Cindy,
I would give him your high-5, but you two are too tough for me! He'll have to save it up for when we visit next summer!
:)

Anonymous said...

Cindy Said....I here ya on that!!!See ya next Summer. Our home is open if you want to stay!