Certain Things You Forget from Second Grade

     I write my name on the Message Board and as each student checks in, they read the board to prepare for the day.  As I read the teacher's message to me, I share that information with the class:  "Time for your Draw and Write"....She didn't tell me I was to have chosen a TOPIC - thus began the questions from the class "What do we draw??? What do we write about??? "  I quickly decided - since I had brought my copy of The Giving Tree to read to the class - that they could draw a special gift that they would wish to give to a very good friend and then write why they chose that gift and why that chose to give it to that special person.  I didn't know that money was such a hot topic!
     And when you're called in on a Monday and the teacher has not yet had an opportunity to set up the Jobs Board, you are very grateful for the teacher who leaves a cup of popsicle sticks on which each child has their name - instead of picking a student directly, choosing a popsicle stick can help you choose a student randomly.  It helps prevent a lot of tears.
     This was the first time I've used the Shoe Greeting during morning meeting.  A fun game if everyone is wearing fresh socks and clean shoes - each person takes off one shoe and places it in the middle of the rug.  The first morning greeter picks up a shoe and walks around the circle to find the match on someone's foot - they then say "Good morning" and hand off the shoe.  And, so it goes, around the circle, until everyone has two shoes back on their feet and everyone has had an opportunity to be greeted in the morning. 
    And soon enough it is lunch time -  where time flies!  The afternoon session arrives much too quickly, but that too, happily moves along.  A wonderful session in the library/computer lab, where students have an opportunity to log in to the math skills site where they are competing with students across the Commonwealth.  One young boy is much more interested in looking at all of his blue ribbons and in bragging to his fellow students how he is ranked second in the state among all 2nd graders registered for this competition than he is in completing any more work.  His cheering and yelling is disruptive and frustrating to the other students.   Most of the kids are thrilled if they can manage to move the mouse into the right position and make the correct selection in order to get a big green checkmark - they don't really care what their overall ranking is.   It's a little disturbing that this little boy even knows how to check that information by himself.