A Million Bucks

Today I started off the day in third grade. I love being with this particular class because my good friend is the teacher. Even though we are both working, it's just nice to be in the company of a teacher that I know really well. She has great classroom management skills and I have learned a lot from her this year, so her classroom is one of my favorite stops on my schedule.

She actually has a student teacher from the US that is currently working with her and today was the first day that this new teacher took full control of the class. The students were given the question, what would you do with a million dollars? The teacher wrote the words spend, save, and give on the brand new Smart board (commence drooling now!) and gave the students an opportunity to think about what they would do if they suddenly won a million dollars.

The kids gave answers like buy a fancy house, buy a car, give money to the poor, invest the money in a business, take care of my family, buy some fancy clothes etc. My little friend raised his hand and said that he would buy a 100 km slip and slide. Gotta love the way he thinks! After brainstorming as a group, the kids returned to their seats to independently complete a graphic organizer detailing what they would buy, how much they would save and for what, and how much they would give away and to whom. My friend wanted to save for a golden bathroom, a Ferrari, and a 1 ton pizza to share with his friends. I have no idea where these funny ideas come from, but this kid is just destined to be a square peg, yet I know someday he will do great, amazing, astoundingly impressive things with his life. He does not conform to the typically expectations of the classrooms as much as the other children, yet he is so creative and imaginative. I wish I got to spend more time with him during the week!

It's pretty interesting to realize how kids at this age have no concept of how much money a million dollars is. Some indicated they would save $200 for a car or house, while others felt a real spending spree would be to buy all of the Wii games or some fancy scarves. The word "fancy" certainly was a reoccurring theme in today's activity. I guess money implies a little bit of bling. One little girl generously decided to give $100 to her brother. I think she thought that was really generous.

I loved how the kids were definitely interested in selecting items to purchase, yet they were just as eager to select who they would share their money with such as charities, family members, and people who are less fortunate.

All in all, it was a great first day back. I easily slid back into the groove and it was nice to see the kids I work with after being on break for so long. In between classes, I printed out the Blueprint for Reform from the US Department of Education and I am looking forward to reading up on what President Obama and Arne Duncan have in store for us. I am also planning on taking a good hard look at the Kindergarten standards that I will be using next year and I ordered a book from Amazon about Differentiating Instruction in Kinder. (Just gearing up for the warm days ahead that I can spend enjoying the sun on our new patio furntiture!)

Also, on the bloggy design front, I found a wonderfully fantastic tutorial that helped me understand how to add tabs to my blog! I practiced on the class blog I made for next year and added  "Contact Me," "About Me," "Class Schedule," and "Important Information" tabs which I think would be helpful for parents that read the blog next year.  I am debating if I want to add tabs to this blog. I suppose having an "About Me" page would be nice for new followers (by the way welcome to the new followers who have popped up recently!), but I am not sure what other tabs I would use for this particular blog. Any ideas?

Hope your Monday was great!

What would you do with a million dollars? 

Have you used a Smart Board? What is your favorite function?