VIP Day

Yesterday was VIP day at our school.  (Basically the same as Grandparent's Day, but since some of the students don't have grandparents to bring, we call it VIP day so they can bring someone else important). 

We started the day by showing our VIPs the classroom.  My 6th graders were quite proud of their spider plants and painted pumpkins!  Afterwards, we played Pictionary on the whiteboards until it was time to eat donuts.  I thought it was kind of strange, but the VIPs sat at the tables behind the desks and watched while the 6th graders sat at their desks and shouted out the answers.  It got quite loud in our room.  Eventually I made a rule that they had to wait five seconds before shouting out a guess.  That worked pretty well, but then I would forget to count to five (because they were being quiet) and then they'd start yelling again. 

I had some other visitors that day before donuts.  Almost all the 7th and 8th grade boys showed up in my room to watch the Pictionary game.  They didn't want to play; they just wanted to sit.  I'm still not sure why they came to my room.  One of the 1st grade girls brought her grandparents into my room to meet me.  I thought it was so cute!  Her grandma was quite impressed with our variety of plants.

Finally it was time for donuts and everyone poured out of my room to the gym (which was decorated with tables and chairs that I had helped set up the day before).  After that came the entertainment for the morning.  Since October is Fire Prevention Month, we had the Courtland Fire Department come out to give everyone a talk.  They also brought some trucks for the kids to climb on, hoses for them to spray water from, and a fire safety house that they could walk through.  The VIPs got to come along for all of this.  The 3rd-8th graders were outside first.  My class got to spray the fire hose.  They LOVED it.  They all got to hang onto the hose, while each person took turns running the nozzle.  Not many of the VIPs wanted to try, but I thought I should while I had the chance. 

At this point, my two 6th grade boys decided to stand on the edge of the spray and try not to get wet.  There's a place on the nozzle that you can twist to adjust the wideness of the water spray.  Of course I experimented with that, but as soon as I made the water go wider, the boys decided to run underneath the spray.  Unfortunately, that was right about the time I turned the nozzle back to full spray.  Yeah, they got wet.  I was more worried about the pressure hurting them than I was about them getting wet.  But they were fine.  The VIPs were laughing, so I took that to be a good sign.

We went to the safety house next.  We found out that our class would probably die if we were in the upstairs room of a house on fire.  One of the boys volunteered to throw the metal escape ladder out the window, but he threw the wrong end out!  His VIP ended up tossing the end back up to the top so he could lower the right end of the ladder.  But by that time, we probably would've been toast if it were a real fire.

After touring the fire trucks, we headed inside to listen to the fire fighters talk about safety and making sure you have two ways out of your house in every room.  The VIPs left, and we started our day.  Man, my kids were crazy after their VIPs left! 

After school, we had a volleyball game in Mankato.  Normally I don't go to the away games, but since this one was close and it's the girls' second to last game, I decided to go anyway.  The girls played 8 games!  Our B squad played two against their 5th graders, two against the 6th grade, and the A squad played two games against the 7th graders, and two against the 8th graders.  All total, both the A and B squad lost one game apiece.