Holy buckets! Today has been go, go, go right from the beginning. We went to Martin Luther High School this morning for some presentations from the Minnesota Science Museum. The first one was geared towards 3-6th graders; it was about solids, liquids, and gases. The guy presenting had really sticky-up hair and cool science glasses (okay, so they looked more like your typical nerd glasses, but I thought they worked with his image). He showed us all sorts of cool things with dry ice, liquid nitrogen, and vinegar/baking soda. There was constant audience participation, and one of my students got to go up and help out! The students from our school kept asking really good questions and making great predictions about what was going to happen. Of course, they didn't want to share them with the whole group, but that's okay. At least their brains were engaged.
After that presentation, my 6th graders bolted for my car and we headed into Fairmont for lunch. They were set on eating at Subway, and when we finally found one, they each ordered a foot-long. A customer who was sitting in the booth behind us said, "Excuse me ma'am, but what kind of trip are you on?" I told him we were on a science trip. He replied, "Oh. I was wondering what they were doing that they were so hungry!" I turned around and saw that every last one of my 6th graders had eaten their whole 12 inch sub. Wow! And they all got chips to go along with their meal. Note to self: always bring snacks on a field trip so my students don't starve.
One of the boys ordered pickle chips and he finished off his meal by dumping all the crumbs of flavor into his mouth. Blech! His face afterwards was priceless; he was squinting for about two minutes afterwards... it's making my mouth water just thinking about all that sour!
We finished our meal and arrived back at MLHS with about 45 minutes until the next presentation (this one about the brain, geared for 7-8th graders). Thankfully, I had planned ahead and brought Apples to Apples. We found some couches outside the lunchroom and I gave my 6th graders the option of a nap or playing the game. Only one girl wanted to play at first, so we pulled out the cards and the two of us began to play. Pretty soon one of the boys joined in, and then another girl, and another boy, until everyone was playing. We did a modified version of the game: each person puts down one card before seeing what the green card is. I ended up winning with 6 cards, not that I was trying to win... I guess I just know my students.
While we were playing, the regular MLHS students were eating lunch. Of course, one of the boys decided to "be cool" and say "what's up man?" to everyone walking past... the first person he saw was one of my cousins coming out of the lunch room. I had waved since I of course recognized him, and my 6th grader gave me a weird look until I explained that I actually knew him. A few minutes later, the janitor stopped by to observe our game. And then a few more minutes later, another cousin of mine walked past, did a double take, and then said hi. She ended up sitting right in front of my class during the next science presentation.
Our school's 7th and 8th graders also came to this brain presentation. I didn't think this one was as good as the first one. There were less interactions and the presenter was using some pretty big words. My 6th graders said they understood maybe two of the words she said the entire hour (I think that's a bit of an exaggeration), but she was talking about the same things I had just taught the 7th and 8th graders yesterday. After we got back to school, I asked one of the 7th graders what he thought and he said it was really interesting knowing what each part of the brain controls. Hmm. I'm glad someone thought it was worthwhile. I wonder what the rest of his classmates thought.
We arrived back at school 15 minutes before the bus came to pick everyone up, and just in time for Bookmobile. I finally picked up the movie that had been waiting for me for a few weeks. Then my 6th graders all wanted to have recess time since they had been, "sitting on our butts all day." So we headed into the gym for about 5 minutes of hockey. Everyone packed up, went home, and then we teachers had a faculty meeting.
So now I'm pretty much drained of all energy. I need to stop at the library at some point before the weekend, get groceries, and get a haircut, but I don't feel like doing all that right now. Tomorrow, a SMARTboard is supposed to be dropped off at 3:15, and I don't know if I'm going to have to stick around while they install it or not, otherwise I can just go after school tomorrow. Then I'm off to visit Carissa and plan our Ireland/London/Scotland excursion. Whew!
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