Midgets? *Tables Freebie

Today we were reading a poem about a volcano.
It is part of my muy super wow unit in which I integrate reading, science, and writing. I will share more of this soon, when we have some sort of culmination.

Which means probably never because I tend to overplan and do things FOR.EV.ER.
Not really; I will finish someday. Hopefully this or next week.

Anyway, we read this line from a poem about lava erupting from a volcano:
"It smothered the helpless, waiting earth."

I wanted kids to think about why the author chose the word, "smothered," rather than "kissed" or "covered." To do this, we had to talk about the meaning of the word, "smothered."

I said, "Smothered means when something is completely covering somebody so they can't breathe."

Blank stares.

I said, "It's not really a positive thing. Unless you say something is smothered in chocolate. Other than that, to completely cover something so it can't breathe or get out, is a pretty negative thing, right?"

Blank stares.

I said, "So if I have a blanket on my face, and I can't breathe, I am being smothered by the blanket."

"OH!" said Daisy. "Like midgets!"

..................

I don't think I need to tell you how I reacted to that.

But just so you know, smothered has nothing to do with midgets. And now, Daisy knows that, too.

This is a short one cause I'm sick.
Not completely pathetically sick, like I was last year at this time, but almost.
Enough for me to *cue the dramatic music* take tomorrow off. Because if I don't, I think I'm gonna be a wreck by Friday. And I have to teach Saturday school, as I may have mentioned.

In other news,
Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher is having a giveaway in honor of selling 100 items from her TPT store. You can enter her giveaway here:

Last item: Over the weekend, before I was so sadly sick, (like my alliteration?) I made this set of tables activities, posters, and handouts. They address using multiplication and division relationships to connect data in tables. Grab it at TPT or Teacher's Notebook.

 Here's your freebie: Grab it at TPT - just leave me a little note to let me know you did!

Scrappindoodles clipart, dafont fonts.