Last Case Scenario

I'm a little sad. I came home, knowing at that point that Mayor Ballard had shut down the Indianapolis City-County Government for tomorrow, and I should have been under the assumption that Carmel Clay would follow suit. What has me down?

I did not bring home The Genius Files: From Texas With Love to read.

I have to admit that I think I'm as anxious to get to it as the kids are for me to read it aloud. There is something about those books that is like comfort food. They're extremely predictable. The reading follows the same beats and cadence throughout the books. They McDonald family is on one long summer road trip. But the fact is that I haven't even finished the third book; I'm reading it along with the kids this time.

Anyway, here are some ideas if any of my students get too antsy or annoying tomorrow during the big shut-in (not that any of them can ever get annoying...I just don't know how they are at home):

• Have them write their spelling words three times each. Tell them it's due on Wednesday. 
• Feel free to tell them that I assigned an hour of reading for tomorrow. Heck, feel free to tell them that I assigned two hours if they get in a fight with their brother or sister. 
• Sit them down in front of a computer or their research books where they can research their topics and write them down on notecards. If you don't have notecards available, tell them to write it on a piece of paper so that they can transfer the information onto their notecards. 

Hopefully that will buy you a couple hours, at least. Wish I'd had the foresight to send home their green reading books and their Social Studies books plus their white pages. They could have gotten even more real work done.

Have a terrific Tuesday!