Today was one of those fun, engaging, awesome days of learning. It was play-based, rigorous, and had my operating room of 1st grader doctors begging for more.  First grade students have been learning about contractions all week.  Figuring out what letters to “kick out” and remembering to replace them with an apostrophe is pretty tricky but the kids practiced and worked hard all week.

This morning, there was a terrible accident and all of the contractions we have been practicing all week fell apart! The contractions were split in half and had to immediately be taken to the operating room.  My Word Doctors were prepped by watching a video clip from Dr. John for a quick review before scrubbing down.  As we entered the operating room, doctors were given their patient charts to see which contractions they had to save.  Each student had 7 different patients so we had to quickly get to work!  We scrubbed down by putting on our surgical gloves and masks. (The kiddos were great sports when trying to work with gloves and masks on!  We had some hesitation but everyone gave it their best shot! Yay for learning its okay to step out of our comfort zones!) Each doctor got their operating tray, which included surgical glue, surgical scissors, band aids, and a sharpie.  After removing the extra letters, Word Doctors had to stitch up their contractions with a band-aid and add an apostrophe.

Surgery was successful for each Doctor although we had some close calls!!  I had one Doctor shouting, “He needs CPR! He’s not going to make it!”  Shortly after, another Doctor said that one of their contractions was flatlining!  Fortunately, they continued to work hard and their patients made it through!