Art & End of the Day

Four weeks in, and I'm still shocked at how fast the days fly by! With a late start tomorrow and then music class, I know the day will be over before I know it. I'm learning that 1) everything takes longer than planned...and 2) flexibility is absolutely essential. As important as it is to have a plan, I can see how it's necessary to "plan" that things will go differently.

Art.
On Friday, we had an artist come in to give a presentation about some of her sculptural work in a local competition. The students were enthralled, which showed me:
1) How awesome guest speakers can be for expanding knowledge (who could come in for math? science? social studies? writing? authors? etc etc etc...my mind is spinning)
2) How important it is for students to see themselves as artists too, and all of the connections between art and their content-area subjects. Some students thrive in art...this should be celebrated!

End of the Day.
I'd like to learn more about how teachers make the most of this "empty" space at the end of the day. I am so blessed to work with the CT I have...however I still like to dream about how I would do things in a classroom of "my own". There are usually a good 15-20 minutes at the end of the day that the students spend talking or wandering once their jobs (picking up the floor, cleaning up) are completed...I envision this differently in my own classroom!

Some ideas I have:

• Boggle (or I have seen "Noggle" for numbers!)
• I Have, Who Has games
• Educational clips (School-House Rock, Youtube)
• Hangman with vocabulary or word study words
• Sparkle with math multiples

The tricky part is this...school ends at 3:40. At 3:25 bus buddies and safeties are dismissed. At 3:30 "sibling pick up" is dismissed. The rest can leave around 3:35. So, I'd just like to plan something a little more structured with the students who stay until nearly the end. I'm still pondering...maybe just having them stay in their seats and free-writing or reading would be enough. Oh the possibilities.