I Thought You Were Smarter Than That!

Hello!  I have been super busy.  Yes, I'm taking classes to add a K-12 Reading Endorsement on my teaching certificate.  I'm probably crazy as a loon to do so, but I consider myself a life long learner.  I took an online Phonics course (in a very abbreviated time slot) that really kicked my rear.  So much to remember in so short of a time!  I managed to finish it AND take another reading assessment class at the same time.  I'm enjoying a short break from my studies plus our spring break is this coming week.  I'm not doing anything fun, unfortunately.  I'm cleaning my house.  Ugh!  It needs to be done.  Scrubby scrub scrub!

Now, back to the title of this post.  On Friday, my fourth grade goofy boys  (Taxi Boy and California Kid) burst into my room at the end of the school day for their ESL class time.

Taxi Boy blurted out, "It's Friday!  Can we play a game??"

"Yeah!!" interjected the California Kid.  "A game!  Please???"

Now, I had already decided we were going to play a game, but I let them "convince" me that we would play a game.  I turned on my projector and calibrated my mini Smartboard.  Then I announced, "OK, we will play a new game called the Vocabulary Quiz Game."

Immediately, the two boys looked at me like I had two heads growing out of my body.  They chimed in together.  "Vocabulary????  That's not a game. Come on, Mrs. Gumby!"  ( Talk about two pouting boys!!)

I told them to just give it a try.

Our ESL unit recently received the Vocabulary Quiz Game from Lakeshore Learning.   Here's a link if you would like to take a look at it.     It's similar to Jeopardy in format.  I let the boys choose their five categories from the following:  Definitions; Multiple Meanings; Antonyms; Prefixes and Suffixes; Using the Word; Homophones; Contractions; and Figures of Speech.   As they got to choose, the boys started to warm up to the game.

                         

I told them I would be Team Mrs. Gumby and they would be Team California/Taxi.  We would see who could win.   We played two games and they won both games.  (Yes, I let them win.)  There was a lot of fist bumping and cheering coming from my room as the boys "defeated" me.

The funniest thing came when they were leaving my room.  Taxi Boy looked at me, wrinkled his nose, and said to me, "I thought you were smarter than that!"

 I smiled at him and said, "Wait until next time.  I might just "skunk" you!"

He looked at me and said, "Hey!  Is that an idiom??"

Hooray!  He finally figured out what an idiom is!  It's taken me seventeen weeks, but he's starting to get it.

Yes, I am smarter than you think I am, Taxi Boy!  Wait until our rematch after Spring Break.