AIMS Week

It is AIMS week! You may be asking yourself, why is this significant? First grade doesn't take AIMS... Well, let me tell you why. First off, all specials are canceled. No music, PE, computer lab, library or NWEA (the test 1st ACTUALLY takes) practice time. Basically confined to our classrooms with 20 six year olds from dawn till dusk with the exception of our "30 minute duty free lunch" (don't even get me started on the "30" minutes...)

Ok, no specials. There goes my daily planning time bathroom break. So I come to school early and stay late to get my planning/copying done. And come in extra early and stay extra late to plan for those additional blocks of time where the kids would have been at specials.

There is so much energy bottled up in the kids you can feel it. Needless to say this makes them very "lively" ALL. DAY. LONG.

Thank you for listening to my rant, just think of me and say a little prayer when you enjoy your coffee at your desk or take a potty break at your will :)

On the plus side, we have time to do fun activities we wouldn't have time for in our normal schedule. This means...science! Particularly, weather. This week we have had a great time making wind vanes and measuring wind,

brainstorming and illustrating weather words

learning about the water cycle

and graphing our favorite types of clouds.

 We also read Eric Carle's "Little Cloud" and made our own paper tear clouds, so cute!

Tomorrow we will do seasons and thank goodness that testing will be over! (At least until it's our turn the first week of May!)