October Products for Payday

Happy payday! That happens every month on the 25th here on The Big Kids Hall, and I've always got a few things on my wish list waiting for it.

If you're looking for an easy-peasy way to challenge your readers and take care of reading homework, you might consider adding my Reading Homework Choice Boards to yours!

Three different menus let me focus on skills related to plot, theme, and character. All I do is print and go. Each board has 16 tasks, so you could use it for two or three weeks if you wanted to. I just do single-week assignments.

I would have classroom pictures to show this item in action, but we in room 301 have been in a different sort of action this week. I've just gotten back (as in got home about and hour and a half ago) from a three-day camp on beautiful Seabrook Island, SC studying ecosystems. It sits on a large estuary, and we've been walking in a palmetto forest, seine netting, and slogging through plough mud in the salt marsh. Sadly, it rained for most of the time there, but the kids still had a good time. Did I mention that there was a lot of plough (pronouce it 'pluff') mud?

If you've ever done one of these camps, you know how this smells. And sticks to utterly everything. It has the strangest gelatinous texture that sucks at your shoes. Of course, the kids thought this was the most awesome part. That, and petting a baby alligator.

If you've heard about the serious flooding South Carolina's had over the last few weeks, it's the salt marsh and its ability to absorb and distribute water, that's rescued Charleston. Stinky, but necessary.

I hope you've had as much fun as we've had this week! Hang on; it's almost payday, and the long September-October haul is nearly over!