Happy New Year!
New year, new semester, new schedule.
Big changes in the afternoon for the upstairs crew. We have teamed up with Heidi and Gudny's class to combine academics and electives. This allows us to focus more on specific skill levels in each class, as well as giving the kids a chance to work and play with a wider group of friends.

Here is the new schedule:

*Amanda & Heidi’s Classes New Schedule:

9:00 -9:45    Period 1 (academics)
9:45-10:00    SNACK
10:00-10:45    Period 2 (academics)
10:45-11:15    Period 3 (academics)

11:15-12:00    LUNCH
12:00-12:30    RECESS

12:30-1:15    Period 4 (Myths/ Fairytales)*
1:15-2:00    Period 5 (Electives)*
2:00- 2:15    REFLECTION
2:15- 2:45    Period 6 (Floortime/ Social Choice: Classes combined )
2:45- 3:00    JOBS/ CARPOOL

Electives:
Monday-- P.E.- All
Tuesday-- Heidi’s Class Yoga, Amanda’s Class Science
Wednesday-- Music/Art
Thursday-- Heidi’s Class Science, Amanda’s Class Yoga
Friday-- Art/Science

Fairy Tale Group:
Bo
Tani
Jakob
Paul
Jennifer
Davis
Dino

Norse Mythology Group:
Max
Gabriel
Jac
Aidan
Oliver
Annabella
Ross

The mornings don 't look much different for us, but afternoons are a bit of a change. The class was incredibly flexible and enthusiastic, and though we still need to work on transitioning between activities without getting high engines, the kids adapted very well to the new groups.

In Norse mythology, we read, listened to, and watched a video of the Norse creation myth. Ladies and gentlemen, I've read some strange stuff in my day, but Norse mythology is the Mac Daddy of bizarre mythology. Frost Giants, elves, cows who lick figures out of the ice, trolls growing in armpits...those vikings must have been consuming something other than mead to come up with those tales. But wow, are the kids wild about these stories! I highly suggest getting a copy of this classic to read at home--it's a beautiful book:

The fairy tale group is reading one of my favorite Brothers Grimm tales,  "Hansel and Gretel". It's a frightening one, for sure, with a kid-eating witch and that awful, wicked stepmother. Heidi balanced this scariness with a lighthearted "Super WHY" version of the story that the students absolutely adore:

 Electives:

Monday: The two classes combined for P.E. The game of the day was "Red Rover", which quickly morphed into "Monster, monster, send ______ right over". Remember Red Rover? Two teams holding hands, kids called by name to break through the other teams' chain.
Break through=stealing a person for your team.
Don't break through=you join the other team.
The team with the longest chain wins.
 It's a tricky game: team loyalties change quickly and feelings get hurt when names aren't called right away. We made it work, though, and it was quite fun. Heidi's kids are conducting a survey to decide the game for next Monday's P.E. Stay tuned for the results...

Tuesday: It's January in Atlanta, so naturally the thermometer hovers around 70 degrees...but it was much colder in our room. We kicked off a study of weather and the water cycle by making "snow". Not real snow, actually, but a polymer made of the same material used in diapers: polyacrylate. Want to make your own? Here's the link:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/ht/fakesnow.htm

  Wednesday: Music with Maggie! Finally, your children have a chance to hear someone who can actually sing. I like to think of myself as a young Barbra Streisand, but really the only thing we have in common is that we are nice Jewish girls who have both have had a thing with James Brolin .  Ok, one of those facts isn't true. But what is true is that though I love to sing (loudly and often), I can't carry a tune in a bucket. Luckily, Ms. Maggie has the voice of an angel, and has volunteered to sing with us every other week. We are eager to compile a list of song requests for our next class!

Thursday: Yoga with Heidi!

Friday: How fun is it that we now share our hikes with our upstairs pals?!?  Our first "in school" Friday with the other class was dedicated to science.

First, Bill Nye explained the water cycle with this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHtb2WNu-Hk

Next, we conducted an evaporation experiment (to be continued on Monday),

and finally, we got around to setting up our Triops habitat. For more info on Triops, see my

Sunday, October 28, 2012 post, and then check out this site:

http://mytriops.com/

More to come on these prehistoric creatures as they (hopefully!) hatch over the next few days!