It was a...

Disclaimer. Blogger & I are not friends today. The pictures are all wonky, sorry, but you'll have to turn your head to look at some of the pictures, I have no explanation & I'm not going to waste anymore time trying to figure it out. Please don't send me your chiropractor bills.

Moving on... Friday fell at a weird point curriculum wise. We just finished a bundle (group of objectives set by the district) on Tuesday, then we benchmarked Math on Wednesday & Reading on Thursday (benchmarks are practice TAKS for those of you not fluent in teacher speak. We use the data to see who is ready & who isn't) so that left us with Friday. The poor kids had been sitting all day since Tuesday, it was rainy, I really didn't want to start a new concept on the Friday before spring break, becuase I would just have to go over it again when we come back, & I really wanted to do something creative & fun. so...
We did "It was a... Now it's a...." I gave the kids a choice of a die-cut clover or a flower. They take their flower or clover & make atleast 1 straight cut (they can cut it twice). Then they take the pieces & make something new, the more creative the better. Finally they have to write a story about the picture that they made. (stories to come after break) Here are just a few of the pictures.


It was a yellow flower. Now it's hair & muscles...
I laughed out loud when I saw this one. The best part was that the kid was SO proud of himself for coming up with it. LOVE IT!

It was a yellow flower. Now it's a little girl...

At one point her paper said "yellow afro!" (lol)

I think the story will have something to do with a birthday party.

It was a pink flower. Now it's a necklace & tiara...

Complete with sparkles that the student dug out of the craft cabinet by herself. Some think I'm crazy for letting them in my cabinets, but my thought is, if I bought it for them to use & they think they need it then more power to them. Keep in mind we've had the "your stuff & my stuff" talk & they know their boundries. It's all about independence in Mrs. Crews' room. :o)

It was a yellow flower. Now it's two cars... (do you see the 2 halves of the flower?)

What you can't see is that one car is a cop car & the other is a get away car from a bank robbery, complete with a money bag. I took the picture before he was finished, by the end of the day the get away car had big flashy wheels & the cop car's lights were bigger. I can't wait for the story. :o)

It was a green clover. Now it's a frog.

I think that this one is adorable... & the fact that it comes from a kid that is not known for his "adorableness" is just great.

It was a green clover. Now it's a dog with a bone. (d0 you see the 3 parts of the clover?)

Holy crap, This one blows me away, look at that imagination. The story has something to do with the bone being green becuase the house that the dog lives in is moldy & the house is leaning & is about to fall over... wow. I am so impressed.

Now that is only 6 of the 41 pictures from Friday. There were lots that are just awesome. I love watching them be creative & clever. They really didn't do any "Math" or "Science" on Friday, but they were THINKERS. We didn't do any TAKS practice or story problems, but I gaurantee you they stretched their brains more while trying to come up with a new purpose for their object than on any TAKS practice page & they had FUN. That is why I teach, so I can watch them think, all on their own.

The NCAA tourney brackets come out later today. CAN'T WAIT! GO POKES!