So what's next for me and my darlings? Well I finished our scope and sequence based on the book I have been teaching out of for my absolute beginners (National Geographic Cengage's Inside, orange book A, it replaced their Inside the USA purple book) and realized that no where in the book is there a unit for learning parts of the body. We have a unit on adjectives and describing people, a unit on family relationships, and all kinds of other great stuff, but nothing on parts of the body. So what's a teacher supposed to do? Of course the official answer is follow the curriculum, track with Atlas Rubicon! And of course that's what I'm doing, I'd never think of doing something other than what I've been told to do.....Oh wait, the curriculum isn't aligned with Atlas and I'm on the committee tasked with revamping Atlas. So if I think through this logically, that means if I deviate from the curriculum and insert an extra unit I'll actually be doing exactly what the district asked me to do---revamp the official Atlas curriculum! (Yeah, I'm on the data team too, we're experts at spinning things to say what we need them to say.)
The bottom line is that I've added an extra unit to the curriculum (seriously---how are they supposed to write descriptions of people when they haven't been taught the names of body parts???) and we're going to be learning the parts of the body. We have vocabulary sort cards (they double as a Memory-style game), a board game, crossword puzzles, a labeling activity, and plans for some fun craftivities (trace your partner and label all the parts, create a monster, etc.), and even a couple writing activities with Mr. Potato Head. I'm hoping the students will have a ton of fun working with them, I know I did putting everything together for them!