I seem to be losing children at about the rate that I am losing my mind in the last few months of the year. One little darling moved at the end of March, another in April. Last Friday was the last day for another, although she's only in Lebanon for a month and will be back at our school for second grade. I learned today that another precious one will finish at our school on Friday. In two months I'll have gone from twenty kids to sixteen. That's a lovely teacher-student ratio, but I didn't want any of these kiddos to go.
Our last math unit of the year is on graphing. Last week the kids got to choose a survey question with preset options for answers. Such as, What is your favorite subject, reading, writing, science, social studies, or math? Or, What is your favorite farm animal, cow, pig, chicken, or horse? The kiddos had the chance to ask their classmates their question and tally the responses. (Not everyone understands how to tally clearly, based on reviewing these tonight.) Then they graphed their results and answered some questions about them. Some of the questions are basic, such as "Which choice on your graph has the most votes?" However, because they could use different survey questions, we had to be creative to work on comparing quantities on the graph.
Kids had to pick two of their choices and then say which one had more and how many more. This was, not surprisingly, the hardest part. Even knowing that, some of their answers nearly drove me to drink.
Pick two of your choices: Hamster and fish
Which one has more? Hamster (for the record, so far, so good)
How many more? Dog (Huh?)Pick two of your choices: Hamster and dog
Which one has more? fish (What?!?)
There are 21 days left with kiddos. (I only know this because our fabulous art teacher is, sadly, retiring and she knows how many days are left.) This is the point in the year at which I am both completely ready to be finished because I'm exhausted and worn down and panicking because there are not nearly enough days left for us to do all the really fun projects we want to do. And then I'm even more tired. Sigh.
Cross-posted at jenorr.com.
