Students: 14

One thing that went well: Mad Libs.  We’re starting a letter-writing project, so I wrote a sample letter.  Then, on the other side of the paper, I made it into a Mad Lib by removing some words and replacing them with a blank and a note about the part of speech.  I modeled it a lot (a lot), and then handed out one copy to each of four small groups.  They got a good grammar review (students were reminded of comparative adjectives, infinitives, and irregular plurals) and got a chuckle out of the ridiculous letters they created together.  When we were finished with the game, I made sure everyone had a copy of the paper and then we read the real, complete letter on the back and commenced with a pretty normal lesson.

One thing to improve:  I talk too much (I list this one pretty often.  Perhaps I should, you know, actually improve it.)

One surprise:  “Condo” and “condom” sound awfully alike.  I’d never really noticed before today.