Can We Go Outside for Class???!?!

Spring has sprung in St. Chuck! Today it hit nearly 80 degrees, the convertible tops came down, and the hearts and minds of my students went out the window! "Can we go outside for class?" was the question heard throughout the halls as kids begged like 3rd graders for time out in the soft breezy air. And I almost.... just almost... gave in. I must admit, in my heart of hearts, I felt for them. What is it about education the necessitates "trapping" adolescents in a building for 7+ hours a day. Part of me KNOWS there has to be a better way to greet spring than just reading Wordsworth's "Daffodils" - it's high time to go ROMP with them!

Daffodils (1804)
I wander'd lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside a lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance,

The waves beside them danced but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund comapny:
I gazed.. and gazed.. but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
by William Wordsworth