Wanna See my Van?

Friday was letter V day.  For some reason, I thought we were on letter P, and when I started writing it on the board, all my first graders bellowed, "Cha!  No!," and held up their notebooks to show me that we had just covered letter U yesterday.  Oh.  Whoops.  I was all set to talk about pigs.  I had an animal book and everything.  Anyway, thank goodness I have that MEd in Curriculum & Instruction because I was  immediately able to improvise a new lesson. 

 

V.  Big V.  Small v.  V sounds like vvvvvv.  V is for Van.  And not just any van.  We are talking a groovy, 1970's, Scooby Doo, psychedelic, Volkswagen bus with curtains in the window.  You can't tell in the picture, but there is a bumper sticker that says, "Arms are for Hugging," and the backseat has been stripped out, and there is a bed with velvet pillows, a hookah, and a bunch of Grateful Dead bootlegs scattered about. 

The students took their pictures very seriously.  Some came closer to the board to make sure they were creating an accurate portrayal of my van.

When the students are finished, every single one of them has to show me their completed task.  I used to just nod or say, "Good."  Now, I use different expressions like, "Great or Nice."  Their favorite one is, "Wow."  For some reason, they really like that word.  They get all excited and run back to their desk, repeating, "Wow!"