Trying to "dig" into the Common Core

Thursdays and Fridays are my late nights to work as I plan out the next week's lesson plans. Thursdays are more of a strategic pre-planning brain-storming session where I usually end up agonizing over the current placement of my magnetic spare pencil cup. To get started, I ate half of a 4.4 oz bar of a Hershey's Special Dark bar and then moved my magnetic spare pencil cup two feet to the right of my dry erase board. Exhausted, I investigated my almost-empty package of Oreos and realized that it had been cross-contaminated by the addition of three Nutter Butter cookies. Unable to deal with this disaster, I sought solace by watching twenty minutes of "Big Bang Theory" bloopers.

Mostly recovered, I re-focused on my work. I opened my math module on metric conversions and considered this word problem:

            Enya walked 2 km 309 m from school to the store. Then she walked from the store to her home. If she walked a total of 5 km, how far was it from the store to her home?

The key to solving a mathematical word problem is to completely understand what its asking. Enya? What sort of name is Enya? My subsequent research revealed that, translated, Enya means "kernel of a nut."  Figures. Now I was back to being depressed about the Nutter Butter tragedy. Only one thing would overcome my despair. I immediately Googled "unusual animal friendships" with the dual intent of both a) cheering myself up and b) finding attention-getting pictures to decorate my daily agenda board. Polar bear "hugging" a Siberian Husky: check. Horse kissing a kitten: check. I was on fire! And just as I was about to make a return-visit to our little metric-loving friend, Enya...I saw it. Bonedigger the lion and the dachshund. Aww...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlLj5eaPOuk

Without hesitation, I placed the picture into my slideshow and revived, returned to Enya. I bet she walked to the store to buy peanut-butter. I thought about subtracting 2 km 309 meters from 5 km  (no, really, I did think about that) but couldn't get that picture of the large lion and the little dog out of my mind.

Two hours later, I had developed a cross-curricular reading/science lesson about Bonedigger and Milo. My class will have the opportunity to review inherited traits as we discuss Bonedigger's genetic bone disease. We'll explore the nature of relationships as we talk about the importance of acceptance and overcoming difficulties. We'll introduce the term "symbiosis" and debate whether Bonedigger and Milo's friendship is more mutualistic or commensalistic.  

At 8 o'clock, I finally threw in the towel and left, a Common Core failure. I grabbed up the remaining 2.2 oz of my Hershey's Special Dark bar and went home, feeling sorry for myself and feeling sorry for little Enya. Isn't there a transit system in her town? Poor little peanut.