Posts tagged 2nd grade

Every once in a while I like to help out in my kids classrooms. I really enjoy getting to know all of their friends so I can put faces and personalities to the stories I hear.  I have always said I’ll do it as long as they aren’t embarassed by me.

I’m cutting it really close with Savannah. 

For the past two weeks I have helped her teacher (who is absolutely amazing!) with a painting project she has been wanting to do with the students but hasn’t had the time. I was very excited, I’m all about more art in school, learning through creativity, etc.  A painting project is right up my alley.

On my first visit I was asked to help each student paint an entire page blue, like the ocean.   I set everything up neatly while the teacher explained what we were going to do and sent groups of four students at a time to paint with me while the rest of the class continued their work on math problems.  We were only using one color blue.  I thought it probably could have been a little more exciting but I quickly realized that second graders have no shortage of creative ideas. They thought of  so many ways to take all freaking day painting one sheet of paper, one color, with one paint brush. 

Because the students who were being the quietest got to come over the first group I got were three of the brown nosing girls, who informed me that girls take such a long time because we do everything more perfect than boys, and a boy who immediately painted blue mustaches on all the brides in the newspaper I had laid out.  I quickly realized that the only reason he had been sitting quietly was because he was confused about where he was.  Paint paper blue. That’s it. 

There were some artists, there were some neat freaks, there were a few nosy ones who had fifty million questions for me and were obviously trying to either trick me or catch me in a lie (I was very careful).  There were also a few easy ones, who I just had fun sitting and talking to while they painted.  I am happy to say Savannah was included in this bunch.  Her teacher had told me that she was an excellent student but I had to see it to believe it. Such is the Mom/Daughter relationship. After less than two hours I was exhausted and covered in blue paint, ready for a drink at 10am. Her teacher asked me to come back the next week and I happily agreed. I had a whole week to recover and I had already told her I was free, it was really a rhetorical question.

So this morning I went back excited (my memory isn’t so great) to get to work on part two of our painting project.  Turns out our oceans are going to eventually be a map of the world.  Today each student had a sheet of paper with the seven continents that they ha covered in sand for texture. My job was to have them paint each of the seven continents a different color.  Easy right?

Whoever said yes has way too much useless junk in their heads. I can’t understand why schools don’t teach our kids how to use google and spell check and call it a day (at least I’m smart enough to know I’m not cut out for homeschooling).  On top of the fact that I don’t remember the seven continents, all the students papers only had six continents. Well, thank God I didn’t point out the teachers mistake because it turns out Europe and Asia are connected! I’m sure I learned that at some point but it’s not something I have ever used. Especially since I’ve never seen a map with no words on it and if I did have a map with no words I would probably just look for directions on mapquest and they don’t require you to enter a continent. Luckily, I made it through without embarrassing Savannah.

Tomorrow, I’m headed bck for part three. We will be cutting out our continents and pasting them onto our oceans.  Obviously, I have some studying to do.