Teaching is Fun

It felt very good to be working with students again. I really enjoyed my first day. It was a group a third graders from Topeka. They were great. We were able to talk about really interesting things that made a lot of connections for the group. I explained the cycle of things from growing food for us and animals, using the animals for work and food, using all their parts, composting all waste or making soap. Then they brought up metamorphosis, because they are studying that in their class. They were able to make the connection of cycles to the life cycle of the butterfly. That was deep.

As it turns out they have also been studying simple machines. That is cool, because their teacher would ask them, "what type of machine is being used now?," and they were able to draw on that info. I incorporated multiplication and fractions, in the summer kitchen, with the baking pan and asking how many muffins we were "baking," and the measuring cups. It was just so much fun that they were able to grasp all these concepts within the framework of our farm craft day.

On the next day it was first graders. Method Shift! Obviously this day was a lot different, but still fun. I had one student who wanted to share every thought he had. I had to explain to him that in order to complete all the fun activities he cannot share every thought he has. It is important to remember that it is not rude to explain something like this to a child. If allow them to keep going they will and no one will have fun. It was not a problem after I explained the situation to him.