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No RE last week -- a few years back our interim DRE instituted this thing called Children's Chapel, where every four to six weeks there is a special all-ages kids' service in the annex instead of regular classes -- so this is week 6 instead of week 7. Anyway, I was teaching with Arthur and Edna. I thought I was basically going to be playing support, trying to redirect any kids who were having and/or causing trouble and so on, but we ended up splitting the lesson fairly evenly.
I read the story. The funny part is that I didn't even ask to do that, and since I haven't taught with Arthur or Edna before, they don't know that story-reading is kind of my shtick as an RE teacher. Maybe the universe is just reshaping itself to my preferences! *silly*
Today's lesson was about feelings, so we started by talking about what we were feeling this morning and then I read Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell. Then we made sock puppets with faces that illustrated various emotions (or at least that was the theory; in practice, the kids just had fun with googly eyes and markers *grin*), played a "feelings game," and sang "If You're Happy and You Know It." After all that we still had time to kill -- the sock puppets did not take anywhere near as much time as we'd expected -- so we moved back to the activity tables and asked the kids to draw pictures of people showing an emotional expression and/or things that made them feel a particular emotion.
This inevitably ended with me drawing a picture of bizarro flowers next to a waterfall and a tree (which became an apple tree, as per instructions from a kid who declared apples the happiest trees) by way of demonstration. I have created so much slapdash artwork in RE classes over the years, it is absolutely ridiculous. And is probably also why my basic drawing style is kind of frozen around what I could do at twelve -- that's the only technique I regularly get a chance to use, since I am trying to demonstrate things that six-year-old kids have a reasonable chance of imitating.
...Next week I may bring home today's picture, scan it, and stick it up on Tumblr just for my own amusement. :-)
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In other news, yesterday was some kind of Oktoberfest on the Commons, since the Downtown Alliance is always trying to replicate the success of Chili Fest and create events that bring people downtown. There were a bunch of bands playing at the Bernie Milton pavilion, but attendance was a bit anemic due to cool temperatures, gray skies, and intermittent drizzle.
Today has also been chilly and gray but the intermittent precipitation has been proper rain rather than drizzle. Which I suppose may be a sign that this "frankenstorm" thing is bearing down from the west -- Ithaca being too far inland to get much hurricane spillover beyond rain and some wind, the crud heading east to crash into Hurricane Sandy is probably of more concern.
And my parents are certainly concerned! (Of course, they live in northern NJ; they have an excuse.) Mom sent me and Vicky a worried email last night asking about our storm preparedness, in response to which I duly refilled my ice trays (the previous cubes had completely sublimed, which tells you how often I use ice) and filled an empty juice bottle and an empty wine bottle with filtered water, just in case. I already live largely on pre-made food so that's not a huge worry. Neither are candles. I have lots of proper emergency candles, and if those run out I also have nearly two hundred votive candles that I use with my wax melter to keep my apartment from smelling musty in the winter. So I am not worried, even if I live down in the flat lake valley part of Ithaca. I fully expect that the high school and some box stores down on Route 13 may flood, but the city in general should be safe.
I read the story. The funny part is that I didn't even ask to do that, and since I haven't taught with Arthur or Edna before, they don't know that story-reading is kind of my shtick as an RE teacher. Maybe the universe is just reshaping itself to my preferences! *silly*
Today's lesson was about feelings, so we started by talking about what we were feeling this morning and then I read Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell. Then we made sock puppets with faces that illustrated various emotions (or at least that was the theory; in practice, the kids just had fun with googly eyes and markers *grin*), played a "feelings game," and sang "If You're Happy and You Know It." After all that we still had time to kill -- the sock puppets did not take anywhere near as much time as we'd expected -- so we moved back to the activity tables and asked the kids to draw pictures of people showing an emotional expression and/or things that made them feel a particular emotion.
This inevitably ended with me drawing a picture of bizarro flowers next to a waterfall and a tree (which became an apple tree, as per instructions from a kid who declared apples the happiest trees) by way of demonstration. I have created so much slapdash artwork in RE classes over the years, it is absolutely ridiculous. And is probably also why my basic drawing style is kind of frozen around what I could do at twelve -- that's the only technique I regularly get a chance to use, since I am trying to demonstrate things that six-year-old kids have a reasonable chance of imitating.
...Next week I may bring home today's picture, scan it, and stick it up on Tumblr just for my own amusement. :-)
---------------
In other news, yesterday was some kind of Oktoberfest on the Commons, since the Downtown Alliance is always trying to replicate the success of Chili Fest and create events that bring people downtown. There were a bunch of bands playing at the Bernie Milton pavilion, but attendance was a bit anemic due to cool temperatures, gray skies, and intermittent drizzle.
Today has also been chilly and gray but the intermittent precipitation has been proper rain rather than drizzle. Which I suppose may be a sign that this "frankenstorm" thing is bearing down from the west -- Ithaca being too far inland to get much hurricane spillover beyond rain and some wind, the crud heading east to crash into Hurricane Sandy is probably of more concern.
And my parents are certainly concerned! (Of course, they live in northern NJ; they have an excuse.) Mom sent me and Vicky a worried email last night asking about our storm preparedness, in response to which I duly refilled my ice trays (the previous cubes had completely sublimed, which tells you how often I use ice) and filled an empty juice bottle and an empty wine bottle with filtered water, just in case. I already live largely on pre-made food so that's not a huge worry. Neither are candles. I have lots of proper emergency candles, and if those run out I also have nearly two hundred votive candles that I use with my wax melter to keep my apartment from smelling musty in the winter. So I am not worried, even if I live down in the flat lake valley part of Ithaca. I fully expect that the high school and some box stores down on Route 13 may flood, but the city in general should be safe.
