Ladies and Gentleman, without any FURTHER ado, I present to you our BRAND new class pets, adopted from a loving state-wide foster home that takes in shamefully abused and neglected animals.
The class saw pictures on Friday, and voted on their top two names from OUR witty list of 10 nominees.
So, please meet the 19th and 20th students in our fourth grade classroom:
Rafa & Rufus!
And YES - they honestly chose both names separately (actual ballot cropped for identity reasons shown below). And NO, I never thought they'd unwittingly pick two names that went so PERFECTLY together. That's my class!
And I've unexpectedly found creative ways to use them within my classroom before I bring them in tomorrow. Like: A teachable moment on democracy, voting, and the secrecy of ballots....or.... in my first official principal's observation lesson (which was a writers workshop lesson), I revised my story about the first time I met them using more vivid vocabulary, figurative language and sensory details:
i.e. Changing
"These two brothers were so close!"
-to-
"These two brothers were so close, they went together like peanut butter & jelly!"
And, changing "I couldn't stop staring at how cute they both were!"
-to-
"While staring at these adorable piggies, the strong smell of timothy hay wafted towards my nose."
It was a successful lesson both with my students AND Clarissa! Whew! First one down - and no major hiccups! But I have to run for now - tons more of weekend work ahead of me! More on my first principal's observation later - and a Dennis The Menace update!
