Stray Dog

This morning began with a half-late start.  Only New Ulm had a delay, so I had to follow my normal morning routine.  One of my 5th graders rode the bus to school.  About fifteen minutes later, another of my 5th graders got dropped off so she could do her memory work.  Amazingly, this prompted the first fifth grader to study her memory work too!  She normally dawdles and does everything but her memory.  After about 20 minutes, both girls had aced their memory and got to do other things.


Since they were at school so early, I met with them about their science fair projects.  We talked about hypothesis, variables, constants, controls, and procedures.  They wrote down a plan and started typing it on the computer.  I think the girls are going to start theirs at home tonight.  I met with one of the boys in the morning and the other in the afternoon.  I feel a lot better about their science fair projects. I know I'm not the one who has to do them, but I am the person responsible for making sure they know what they're doing.  Plus these projects are going to be displayed for everyone to see, so I want them to be something my students are proud of. 


There's only one 5th grader that I'm just not sure about.  One of the boys wants to build a Stirling engine as his project.  The one thing that keeps tripping me up (okay, there's more than one thing)... the main thing that makes me hesitate is that he needs to find a problem to solve.  The engine has to be the solution.  In the engineering project, instead of a scientific purpose, the problem needs to be defined, "Who needs what because why?"  I don't know enough about Stirling engines to be much help in this department, and I think this student just wants to build the engine because it's cool.  He's going to need to develop a notebook with research and background information and plans and designs/drawings and everything else he does until he has his problem solved.  And I'm worried he doesn't realize how much work it's going to be.  Sigh. 


Back to this morning... while the girls were typing their projects, they saw a dog go running past the window.  It was a collie!  It sat by the playground for a good long time.  My kids kept jumping up to look out the window, so much so we had to close the shade so they wouldn't get as distracted.  Then kids from other rooms rushed in wanting to know if they could see the dog from my room.  And then they peered out the window.  One of my girls called her mom to call dispatch so they could call the right people to come get the dog.  Right after she called, she remembered someone who might be the owner of the dog.  By that time, the propane truck had come to refuel the school's tanks, so the dog got up and moved.  And then the other bus came, almost hitting the dog, causing all the kids on the bus to scream.  So.  I don't know what ended up happening to this dog, but it's not at school anymore.


The hardtack was a success.  I gave each 5th grader a whole biscuit.  Next year, I think I'll break them in half.  Most of the students didn't eat the whole thing (I didn't expect they would). One girl really like it and ate all of hers.  Hopefully they'll remember why we ate hardtack and not just that it tasted bad.


Tomorrow is the last day of February!  I can't believe March is right around the corner.  I'm torn between wanting the school year to hustle up and get over and having it slow down so I make sure we learn as much as we can.  I guess that's all I can do; make sure my kids are learning every second they're at school.

Another Early Out

Well, in preparation for this "surprise" blizzard, we got out of school at 1:45.  And I say surprise because I just found out about it yesterday when the radio DJs wouldn't stop talking about it.  Normally I somehow hear about weather a little more in advance. 


We managed to keep the early out a secret until about 1:00 or so, at least in the upper grades.  I got the call before lunch during English.  After I got off the phone, one of the 5th graders asked, "So, what did she want?" thinking it was her mom.  I just kind of looked at her.  Then she asked, "Well who was it?"  Yes!  Perfect opening for... "Nunya."  She looked confused, "Nunya? Who is Nunya?"  "Nunya business!"  Hahahaha!  Ms. J got it right away.  Then one by one the 5th graders caught on.  I only had to explain it to one 5th grader.  Oh, I'm so glad I got to use that line!  I really want to use it on the 7th and 8th graders now...


Since we got out early, we didn't have enough time to go over science fair stuff.  We did Mystery Class instead.  The 5th graders have been asking when they can do it again, so I think they like it.  We were a little behind so I'm glad we had the chance to catch up a bit. 


Well, I suppose I should head out, especially if the wind is supposed to pick up around 3:00.  I want to get home before it gets bad.  All the 7th and 8th graders are planning on no school tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure 2-hours late is the worst we're going to get; the snow is supposed to stop at 3 in the morning.


Oh!  I made hardtack yesterday when I got home.  I think I rolled it a little too thin.  And it maybe cooked a bit too long.  I tested a piece to see if it was any good.  Surprisingly, it was not too bad!  Very filling and very hard.  I had to use my back teeth to bite into it.  I'm guessing my kids are going to try one bite and will want to throw the rest away.

Books on the Brain

I don't know what is with me... the past two nights I've dreamt about finding really cool books that I wanted for my classroom library at a thrift store (and then I paid practically nothing for them).  Then I woke up and was super bummed not to have new books for my classroom.  Today I got an email from the website I buy a lot of my books from.  They're having a 40% off sale.  Is that a sign or what?


Today was a much better day than yesterday, although we had a bit of a rocky start.  At school, I had a ton of things to do.  So many things I couldn't keep them all straight.  My throat was kind of achy and I felt a headache at the back of my brain/neck.  Then a parent came in to let me know she was taking one of my students to a dentist appointment and he wouldn't be back for a few hours.  And then she asked about the science fair projects.  Her son thought the whole thing was due today (even though I explained at least three times yesterday that they only needed a topic today).  So he spent a few hours after school crying about how he didn't have enough time to get it all done and it was so much work... I definitely need to start this project earlier in the year.  I know I said that last year.  This year kind of snuck up on me.  But I wrote a note!  Hopefully I'll see it and remember to make a note to start right after Christmas break.


After the parent left, I took some medicine, said a prayer, and did a few of the little things off my to-do list.  Everything ended up getting done that needed to be done.  The 5th graders and I talked about the scientific method.  We came up with a class experiment to do so we can apply the scientific method.  We're testing which kind of popcorn is the best based on taste, looks, seeds popped, and cost.  Tomorrow I'm going to meet with each individual student to go over their hypothesis, plan, and purpose.  Hopefully that will get them off and running on this thing.


One kid wants to build an engine to power a light bulb.  That doesn't fit well with the scientific method, but he could enter it in the engineering part of the science fair.  I'm not as familiar with that process.  He still wanted to do it, even though I warned him it would probably be more work and might be more confusing.  So now I have him pestering me about his project as I'm trying to get the other 5th graders situated with theirs.  We'll get it all figured out.


Other updates:  A mom had the great idea to serve muffins at our Lenten supper.  They'd be easier to do than a coffee cake, plus they're both a bread and a dessert.  So our updated menu is: egg bake, muffins, and fruit cocktail.  What do you suppose the beverages should be?  Coffee, water... lemonade?  I suppose we should have milk or some kind of juice since we're going with the breakfast theme.  Another thing to ask the parents.


Our day ended with recess in the gym.  Everyone is so antsy to get outside and it's just too cold!  We played a few games of Lightning and then a full-court basketball game: boys vs. girls.  There was a little argument about whether I should play or not.  3 to 1 wanted me to play.  The littlest girl in class got pushed around a lot.  She's so teeny if anyone bumps her, she's knocked to the ground.  She was freaking out because she thought her finger was jammed.  It wasn't swelling up, so I don't think it was injured too much.  One of the boys was messing around while we were figuring the injuries out and he lobbed the ball from half court and banked it!  He fell to the ground laughing because he was so surprised and happy.  It was the craziest shot I'd seen in a long time. 


And with that lovely story, I'll end for today.  I have a few more things to finish up and then I'm heading home to make hardtack for history on Thursday.  I probably should've thought ahead more and made it a few months back so it would be good and hard... oh well.  There's always next year.

Would you like your brain fried or scrambled?

Today was definitely a fried brain sort of day.  My head pretty much feels numb. 


With no school on Friday due to the blizzard, we had a lot of catching up to do today.  We started the day by driving over to church to learn about the symbolism/meaning behind certain things at church.  We looked at the stained glass windows, the organ, the Christ candle, the Everlasting Flame, etc.  The 5th graders were really into it.  Of course, it went longer than planned so we got back to school with not a whole lot of time before 2nd grade math.  There was enough time to do read-aloud and that was it.  One of the girls didn't do her handwriting memory work that actually went home with her over the weekend.  She was kind of like, "eh, I'll just get a bad grade on it."  Uh, no.  No you won't.  Well, you might, but you still have to finish the assignment.  Ugh!  It was like pulling teeth!  All morning!  And she still didn't get it done, so she had to stay in from recess.  Well, she only wrote like five words, so she still wasn't done!  Then we ran out of time the rest of the day, so she had to take it home to work on it.  Sigh.  I don't know what I can do to get her to write faster.  I know she's capable of it!  She just won't do it (probably a control thing). 


The 7th and 8th graders finished up their paper tower projects from last week.  Well, one group finished.  The rest of the groups tried and came up with new ideas, but they either ran out of tape, or they were dinking around and ran out of time.  So with about 10 minutes of class to go, we switched to Mystery Class.  It was amazing.  There were actually a few seconds of complete silence in the room.  And then one girl couldn't find her Mystery Class packet.  And I didn't have an answer for her.  I think she brought it home to work on it and didn't bring it back.  I sure hope she can find it, because I'm not going to print a new packet for her.


The 5th graders' science test went pretty well.  From looking over their shoulders, I think they knew most of the answers.  Now it's time to learn about the scientific method.  They freaked out when I had them look at the requirements for their science fair projects.  None of them understood we were going to break it down into parts; they all thought the whole thing was due tomorrow.  Sigh.  Eventually I got them straightened out (I think).


At least I don't have to be stressing about serving the Lenten supper.  Mr. E double-checked the dates and told me my class will serve on March 12th.  So we have a little more extra time beforehand.  I emailed the parents today and asked one to be in charge.  She said she would and then asked a ton of questions about recipes and buying ingredients, etc.  We're in good hands.  Now I don't know if I should completely hand over the reigns to her or if I should still try to spearhead the effort.  Hmm.


Now that that complication is gone (for now), a new one popped up: our school field trip to the Science Museum in the Cities.  We're trying to figure out how to pay for it and when we need to get a bus and if the 7th and 8th graders will be too bored going through the regular museum and if we should have them do the omnitheater... which is actually closed right now because of a leaky roof but it will probably be fixed by the end of March which is when we're going... whew.  So.  That's my life right about now.  And we don't have a day off school until the last day in March. 


But let's take one thing at a time.  Start with the things that need to be done for tomorrow.  And so I'm off to make my lessons. 

Early Out

School was let out at 10:45 today.  Well, one school that is.  The other school we go by let out at 11:45, so we had a few students sticking around to eat lunch. 


I started the day with three kids (one was sick) and Ms. J was sick too.  Then once parents found out school was being let out, they called to say they'd be coming early to pick their kids up.  One mom picked up her daughter at 9:50.  It didn't matter a whole lot.  We spent the morning doing our Daily 5 rounds.  The 5th graders were super excited they didn't have math homework again.  And they know tomorrow is going to be an easy day since the girls' basketball team lets out at 12:00-12:30ish to go to state.  So if we have two hours late tomorrow (which it looks like we will), I don't know how many kids I'll have at all! 


I'm ready for spring.

Mini-Engineers

This week is (National) Engineering Week.  We had two engineers from 3M come visit our school to talk about engineering and do a project with the 5-8th graders.  They brought a bunch of 3M goodies with them... a huge box of tape (used in the project), extra paper/binder clips, and gift bags for the teachers!  Woohoo!  Waterproof band-aids, post-it notes, command hooks (both purple and clear!), a window cleaning set of cloths, earplugs, and of course tape.  I was planning to leave most of it at school, but after seeing the variety of things I think I'm going to take it home.  I had no idea 3M made so many different products!


The kids had fun with the engineers too.  Their task was to use 10 pieces of computer paper and a roll of tape to make something that could hold up books.  They earned points for creativity, cost (amt. of materials used), how many books it could hold (load), time to build, and how tall the (paper) structure was.  I took some pretty cool pictures.  It was interesting to see what designs they came up with.  I think the most books the paper held was 30.  My favorite group got theirs to hold 19 before it fell and they spent the rest of the time trying to come up with a better way of stacking books.  They didn't just put the books flat on top of one another; they had some in triangles with other books resting on the spines (like a house of cards).  This group got first in three or four categories, but ended up in a tie for 3rd because of how tall the structure was.  Bummer.


It's kind of funny because we did a variation of this activity yesterday for 7th and 8th grade science.  They were trying to make the tallest building they could out of 10 sheets of paper and 2ft of tape.  Everyone had grumbled about the small amount of tape... so they were extra happy today to get a whole roll.  One group used a whole roll of tape on their tower today!


Other outstanding things of today: we got to walk over to chapel!  This was the first time it was sunny/nice enough to walk over since before Christmas!  The 5th graders were actually excited to do Mystery Class today.  They got a little confused on filling out the graphs.  Eventually we got it kind of figured out.  We ran out of time.  Hopefully we have school tomorrow so they can keep working on it.  This blizzard warning isn't happening at a great time, though I guess there is never a good time for a blizzard.  Everyone I've talked to keeps saying the blizzard is going to have 3-7in. of snow and 40mph winds.  Joe completely buried himself in his tank.  I walked in after leading the 5th graders out to the bus and he was nowhere to be found!  So he knows something's coming.  I just don't know.  When I look at the NOAA weather site, it doesn't look like it will be that bad... although my knees were achy yesterday and that generally means a storm is coming.


I'm still going to do my grocery shopping/library trip tonight, just in case.

The Teacher of Torture

Today was so sunshiney and nice!  I opened all the shades in the classroom to let the light in (sometimes when it's really cold I keep two of the shades down to keep in the heat).  Since it was so nice, the 5th graders wanted to go outside for recess.  One problem.  Only two of them had their snow stuff.  We decided to just go for it.  One of the girls had to stay inside for ten minutes to work on her math since she was dinking around in actual math class.  She was very upset.  So I made a deal with her: if she worked the whole time, she could come outside at 2:00 and still have ten minutes of recess.  And if she did it without complaining or whining, then we'd stay out for an extra five minutes.  Ten minutes later this student came out all bundled up, ready to sled.


One of the boys and I shoveled snow to make ramps and sledding paths.  The other two/three 5th graders took turns on the sleds we had.  (That was a pretty big source of conflict... but we got it figured out).  They all wanted me to take a turn, so I told them I'd be the very last person to sled before we went in.  They were so excited.  It was ridiculous. 


When we got back inside, we had about ten minutes of school left.  I wanted to practice our tone chime song (the complicated one where nobody knows which notes they play).  So we got all the books out and everyone grabbed the right notes... and one student was positive someone had taken her note.  I was 90% sure everyone had the notes they were supposed to, so I told her we were going to play and see what it sounded like.  Well, her note was correct, but someone else's was wrong.  Of course, this student kept shouting, "See, I was right!  My note is wrong!  Someone else has it!"  The other 5th graders were trying to keep cool, but I could tell they were about to lose their tempers with her.  Sigh.  We tried the song a couple of times, but it still didn't sound right (and every time this same student would make a snarky comment about her note being wrong).  It was super annoying.  By the time we got everything put away, we didn't have time for a video.  Instead, we went over our memory work for this week.  This put her in an even worse mood!


The other tortuous thing I did today was in 5th grade science.  We did a mini-review game to study for the test.  I had them in pairs to find the answers on the study guides and then I asked them questions from the study guide to earn points for their teams.  Cranky girl was still cranky and didn't want to be with her partner.  He didn't want to be with Miss Cranky-pants anyway.  Once we got that conflict sorted out then the other team complained that I wasn't asking them any of the questions they knew (it was good-natured complaining).  I kept asking question after question that they hadn't found in their notes/books, so one girl shouted, "Miss H!  Why are you torturing us!"  She said it with a smile, so I don't think she was too upset. 


In the game, I made them spell the words correctly or they wouldn't get a point.  This was also torture.  And then we were down to the last question.  I told them their answers had to be spelled correctly or they wouldn't count.  The question was: what are the planets in our solar system (in order).  I didn't say anything about capitalization, hoping they'd do it automatically.  Well.  They didn't.  A few were capitalized, but most weren't.  So then I was torturing them again when I wouldn't give them points for the planets that weren't capitalized.  Oh what a horrible teacher I am!


Another storm is coming... they say on Thursday we're supposed to get 40mph winds and lots of snow.  All I know is that my knees were aching today.  And when that happens, we usually get snow. Dun, dun, dun!

Packin' It Up

My classroom is covered in blue sheets.  Actually, they're the fabric that covers the foam when the upper grades play hand bells.  But hey, why not use them to keep out nosy basketball players?  We only had a half day of school today because of our home basketball tournament.  My room is being used as a girls' locker room, so all the things needed to be put away (so they don't walk away Friday or Saturday).  My kids dusted and sprayed and wiped down pretty much everything: computers, bookshelves, whiteboards.  I picked up all the loose things and tucked them away.  All that's left is to grab Joe and finish covering my desk. 


It's been interesting maneuvering around my classroom.  We have student desks blocking the entrance to the closet.  There are some plugging the hole between my desk and the wall; I have to move one every time I want to go in or out.  And we used Ms. Jones's desk to keep people away from the beanbags.  Hmm, maybe I should throw a sheet over them too, just in case. 


Surprisingly, there wasn't a whole lot to move around.  I hope this means there won't be a lot to move back, since I'll be doing that by myself on Monday.  Maybe the parents will move the desks back when they do their final clean-up after the tournament.  I suppose I'll just have to be surprised!


Our Valentine's party seemed a bit shoddy.  We had a normal morning of class.  Valentine's cookies were frosted and consumed during snack.  The 5th graders bustled around cleaning while I read aloud this morning (At their request; I didn't force them to clean.).  At 11, instead of doing English, we passed out our valentines and then played Telephone Pictionary.  It didn't go as well as planned.  They had some trouble figuring out how to do it.  Plus Valentine's Day is a pretty tricky holiday to come up with phrases. 


The 8th grade girls kept poking their heads into our room to ask me about doing a pep fest.  I don't know why I'm suddenly the expert on pep fests (perhaps because I'm the cheerleading coach?), but I was charged with deciding if we'd do one or not.  I didn't really want to, so I asked what Mr. E said.  He had told them to ask me.  So I told the girls to go ask the other teachers and then come back and tell me.  Well, they never came back so I assumed we weren't having one.  Pretty soon Mr. E comes in and asks what the plan is.  We decided we weren't going to have one.  A few minutes later, the girls came back in and asked if we could have a pep fest.  Then they tried to convince me to let them do it anyway because "the other teachers all said yes, we forgot to tell you before, and now they're all working on a cheer."  Sigh.  I have a feeling they were twisting the truth a little.  Regardless of that, we ended up doing a slapped together pep fest the last 10 minutes before everyone went home.  In the future, I think notice of a pep fest should be given at least 24 hours in advance so it can be properly planned. 


And now, I suppose I should finish up tidying my room and then go home to eat lunch.  The first game is at 3.  The boys are playing.  The girls play right after.


Oh!  That reminds me!  Last night after the basketball games, as I left my classroom I saw a note written on the whiteboard, "Drive safe, Miss Heintz! Love, [the student] nice cursive?" (she had written the note in cursive).  It's things like these that make me glad to be a teacher. :)

Smiley Day

Oh this day was full of smiles!


As I walked through the school to get to my classroom, I noticed something different.  It took me a while to put my finger on it... and then I realized the storage room was clean!  Normally it's an obstacle course to get from the gym to my classroom, but this morning, space on every side.  I'm getting a warm fuzzy feeling even now just thinking about it!


Math went a little better with the 2nd graders today.  One girl finished the rest of her packet.  The others have quite a few pages to go.  As their reward for getting 20 math pages 100% correct the first time, I gave them each 2 oreos leftover from the 5th graders' science.  I handed two cookies to one of the boys and he was so excited/distracted/in a hurry, he didn't grasp them all the way and they flopped perfectly into the garbage can.


In English, our lesson was on past participle and present participle.  I was telling them they couldn't abbreviate those words because the initials would both be PP when the giggles started.  The girls had no clue what was going on.  The boys giggling got louder and louder and finally one of the girls got it.  She explained to her classmate (neither of them could see why it was that funny).  The boys continued giggling the rest of English class.  I wasn't laughing, but the way those boys were giggling made it really hard to keep a straight face.


We had two chapters (and an epilogue) left in our read aloud book, Ella Enchanted, and I planned to finish the book on Friday.  Well, the second to last chapter ends in a cliff-hanger, so when I paused, all the 5th graders looked up from their work with panicked faces, "WHAT?! YOU CAN'T END THERE! Will you please, please, please read more???"  Oh who can resist such a plea?  Certainly not I; they've found my weakness.  And then they tacked on, "This could be one of our Daily 5 rounds... Read to Someone.  This can count for Read to Someone."  So we did.  We finished the book.  And it was lovely.  Now I need to find a new book by tomorrow.  Such a hard choice!  My problem is that I have too many books I want to read aloud!  (not to mention my students have books they want me to read)  How to pick?

Worn Out!

Man, am I ready for Friday.  I keep thinking today is Thursday.  Still two days to go.  Bummer.


It's been go, go, go all week.  My kids have been complaining of sore-throats, coughs, and stomachs that don't feel well.  They usually end up being all right, but I wonder when I'm going to pick something up from them... Oops.  I just realized...


For science today, we used oreos to show the phases of the moon.  None of the 5th graders wanted to eat the top part of the cookie that didn't have frosting, so they all gave theirs to me.  It's not like they slobbered on them or anything!  I ate some.  Now, thinking back on it, that probably wasn't the best idea.  Hmm.  To eat or not to eat?  There's still a plate of them lingering on my desk.  Well, I suppose I've already been exposed to their germs... what's a few more?  Eh, better safe than sorry.  Maybe the ones I ate weren't exposed to the germs.  Oh what a conflict!


The 2nd graders are practicing telling time.  Sigh.  Two of them totally get it and are awesome at time.  The other three drag their feet and whine about everything and say that their answer is correct even though it is actually wrong... it's exhausting.  I've tried and tried to get them to understand.  I'm probably doing a horrible job explaining how to tell time.  It's really hard when you have two people shoving their papers in your face for you to correct while you're trying to explain how to tell time to someone who is looking off in the distance while you're talking.  Then when you start to walk away, that student says, "Huh? I still don't get it."  UGH!  Why is this so complicated?!


On the plus side, there are no extra activities after school that I need to stick around for.  I still have to finish my lessons for tomorrow.  And I'll probably do my weekly excursion to the grocery store.  Oh, I just remembered.  Today was Crazy Hair Day.  Chances are, I'll forget about my crazy hair and go about my normal business at the library and the grocery store, and then I'll wonder why people are looking funny at me. 


Actually, my hair isn't as crazy as it could be.  I made a super-high pony tail, wound it into a bun, and anchored it with a hair scrunchy I haven't used in about ten years.  Do you remember back when ponytail holders with fake hair on them were all the rage?  Yep, I dug up that dinosaur.  The fake hair still matches my real hair pretty well.  Reactions to the hairdo: One girl said I look like a teenager.  Another said my hair looked pretty.  A 5th grade girl said I look like I'm going to a ball.  So maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for me to go out in public like this!

Camo Day

I think the cheerleaders wore Joe out.  Either that or he's terrified more loud little girls are going to pick him up and flip him around.  He's buried himself in the corner under the heat lamp.  I noticed yesterday that his shell is getting a few cracks in the top and parts are a little flaky.  I think I need to vary his diet more. 


All the students disappeared today!  Just kidding.  I really wanted to make that joke at some point today, but it just never happened.  My class wore a lot of camo, but not as much as some!  Since I have no camouflage, I wore an orangish shirt and a dark green sweater.  I think my outfit passed muster.  Tomorrow is Crazy Hair Day.  Great.  I'm thinking of doing a bun on the top of my head or else two small buns under my ears (like Princess Leia, but smaller).  We'll see. 


Basketball games in Mankato cleared school out pretty quickly today.  One of my 5th graders hung around for an extra half an hour because her mom forgot to tell me to send her on the bus.  She spent most of the time on the computer, working on a cat powerpoint she wants to present to the class. 


Nothing else too exciting is happening.  I guess the girls' basketball team officially making it to state is pretty big news.  My 5th graders asked if we could take a bus up there.  Then they wanted the cheerleaders to come too. 


The 5th graders have been making snowflakes to hang in our classroom.  Instead of white paper, we've been using super-bright colors.  I really like how they look!  One of the boys had the idea to string a bunch on the same string to make a garland to hang over the lab table (he didn't call it a garland). 


My kids are on such a learning roll!  It's great!  We're learning tons of cool stuff and they're remembering it too!  I've been so glad our days have been normal/on time for the past week and a half.  Let's keep this great track record going!  Thursday is supposed to be nice, so we're planning to go outside for recess.  The 5th graders asked me to email their parents to remind them to bring their stuff on Thursday.  I hope everyone remembers!

Hide and Seek with Joe

The cheerleaders were in my room after school today before the basketball game.  I got them all situated coloring or playing one of the dice story games... and then they lost interest.  So we played hide and seek with Joe.  Half of them wanted to follow him around.  The other half wanted to pick him up and hide him in a secret place for the others to find.  We kind of compromised.  I hid him and the girls would whisper their ideas in my ear.  A lot of them were "in the cupboard" or "on top of that bookshelf."  They kind of forgot that Joe is a living, moving creature who might fall off a height.  So I only did the suggestions that were on the ground.  And Joe lost all the time.  The girls were able to find him.


Today was also PJ Day.  I wore sweatpants and my Case IH shirt.  The two John Deere loving boys walked into the room, took one look at my shirt, and shook their heads.  One of the boys said, "That shirt needs to be burned."  But there were a few supporters of my shirt. :)  I noticed a lot of people staring at it, that's for sure.  I had brought clothes to change in to for the game, but there wasn't enough time, so I ended up wearing my "pjs" to the basketball game. 


We were playing Nicollet and the gym was packed!  The cheerleaders were all hyped up on sugar (from the bars Mrs. E fed them as a snack).  They were very peppy.  We were supposed to have practice Wednesday and cheer for home games Thursday and Friday, but after the drowsy game last week, we cut back on the schedule.  So our last dates for cheering will be for our boys' and girls' home games at our tournament on Friday.  Woohoo!


Speaking of woohoo... the girls' basketball team is officially going to the Lutheran school state tournament.  It is next weekend and also takes place over the Sunday we're supposed to sing/ring in church.  And it's also our rescheduled NLSW school activity at the WowZone.  So I had to call them again and postpone it.  I didn't give them a new date.  We're going to bring it up at PTL and see what they say.  It might just stay cancelled. 


One of my boys went home sick today.  Even from this morning, he didn't look so good.  I hope he's back tomorrow.  We're almost at the end of our space unit and we are working on learning the phases of the moon (with oreos!).  We didn't have enough time to get to the oreos today, so we'll deal with them on Wednesday.

Caution: Do Not Feed the Teachers

We had a faculty meeting today after school.  Beforehand, the Immanuelites from church made us "supper."  They cooked pizza in the ancient oven at school, served up fruit and vegetable trays, and poured us juice and lemonade.  A little before lunch, I got a phone call from this sweet old lady who belongs to the Immanuelites.  She wondered if she could perhaps borrow one of the white tables that was in my room to set up for our teacher appreciation meal.  Of course I let her use it.  She brought it into Miss H's room and put a fancy valentine tablecloth on it and some fake flowers and pretty valentine paper with special apple and heart shapes stamped out of it.  Whoo!  It was pretty spectacular.  There was also a collection of delicious chocolates in dishes on the table, plus a bowl of snack mix.  When all the kids were loaded on the buses, we gathered round the kitchen and the two ladies serving us gave a little speech about how grateful and blessed they are to have such a wonderful staff at Immanuel, etc.  Our cook was there too, and she got a little teary thinking about how much she loves her job (especially that so many students say thank-you).  Anyway, we prayed and then dug into the food.  Pretty soon the ladies followed us into Miss H's room with the food so we could get seconds.  And then!  They brought in a smores dessert pizza.  IT WAS DELICIOUS!  Gooey marshmallows, melted chocolate, flaky crust.  YUM.  It was dangerously delicious.  They left us each a plate of leftovers to take home (I don't think the dessert pizza made it on the plate).


The other exciting event of the day was mailing our surprise package to our Slovakian pen pals.  We finally finished our valentines and Friday was the deadline for the 5th graders to bring in extra stuff they wanted to send along.  The two girls remembered to bring in stuff; they brought candy.  One girl brought in a huge bag of really heavy red candy (like gumdrops, but in the shape of hearts).  She plunked it on my desk.  Unfortunately, it was super heavy.  We ended up putting a dozen pieces in a zip lock bag and stuck it in.


The last time we mailed something, I used the stamp printer thing we have at school.  Well, since then it's been disconnected.  So I had to go to the post office.  Problem.  The post office opens at 11 and closes at 1.  Solution.  Mr. E would watch everyone at recess and I would make the trek to Courtland.  After lunch I zoomed to the post office and... ran into problems.  First the lady couldn't figure out which country code goes with Slovakia.  The closest she could find was the Slovak Republic, but the stamp meter machine wouldn't accept that code.  So she tried calling other post offices to get their input.  And every line was busy (or no one was there).  In the meantime, two other people came into the office.  I felt bad holding up the line.  Then she asked if I needed to fill out a customs form.  Uh-oh.  I didn't do that last time.  We just shipped it off in the mail through our mailbox.  Did I need to do it this time?  Well, I did it regardless.  The postal worker gave me extra forms so I can have them filled out the next time I have to mail something internationally.  Finally she got ahold of someone and then she found a new list of country codes.  Slovakia was easy to find and soon I was on my way back to school.  I made it back just in time for 7th and 8th grade Mystery Class.  But that's a story for another time.

Mission Impossible: Renaissance Style

I ended up taking the webquest assignment home with me last night.  I was really dragging my feet about planning this assignment.  I ate some dinner, read a book, and then finally forced myself to do it.  And you know what, it was kind of fun!  I just had to get past my bad preconceptions.


The webquest starts by introducing the challenge: crooks have invented a time machine and are traveling back to the Renaissance era to steal things that will be worth millions of dollars in today's world.  The 7th and 8th graders are spies being trained to travel back to this era to prevent the thefts.  They need to complete a "training manual" so they are prepared to blend in with the locals of Renaissance Europe.  The websites were in a document for them to click on, so all they had to do was read the information and fill in the blanks!  They had to do things like: research jobs available to each social class (which ones will the crooks most likely target?), find out what foods they will be eating and what clothes they'll be wearing to blend in, catch up on the pop culture of the time (popular musicians, writers, and playwrights), and just in case the crooks sneak on a boat, which Renaissance explorer are the thieves most likely to steal from? 


At first when they saw the note to bring their history books to class, the 7th and 8th graders groaned and complained.  But when they found out they could work together (and after they actually read what they were doing), the room grew quite while they worked on it.  One of the 7th grade girls said afterwards, "Miss H., I thoroughly enjoyed this.  It was really fun."  I think she was actually serious.  Only a few people finished today; I said they could work on it tomorrow along with their Mystery Class assignment.


Another thing that was supposed to be a success (but was more like a failure... or at least a lot more complicated than anticipated) was 5th grade tone chimes today.  I passed out a new song today, "America the Beautiful."  Unfortunately, I didn't check to see how high our tone chimes are.  Most of the melody line's notes were for tone chimes we didn't have.  Solution: transpose down an octave.  It's hard enough for me to wrap my brain around it... imagine four loud 5th graders trying to figure out what's going on!  We eventually got it figured out.  And it sounds pretty good!  I made them make extra notes on their music about which tone chimes they were actually playing (they are still playing the really high notes that are written; they're just using the ones an octave lower).  Also, they're having to play eighth notes and dotted quarter notes.  Yikes!  Mrs. M didn't teach them this last year!  Well, we muddled our way through it.  This song is getting to be a lot more complicated than I thought.

Three in a Row

Three good days in a row... everyone stayed focused during our Daily 5 rounds.  Everyone that is except the 2nd grade girls.  They decided to forget all the math they learned in 1st grade.  They forgot how to round to the nearest ten!  And nothing I could do or say could get them to remember.  FINALLY we finished the page.  Sigh.  Can we be done yet?  The two boys zoomed through the rest of their math packet, so they're actually done with math for the week (or until the girls finish their packets).  They've earned over 20 tallies on the board, so technically they earned a class reward.  I think we're going to save it for Friday.  Hopefully the girls will all be done before then.


Cheerleading was pretty good today.  Mrs. E was picking up her daughter from the airport, so I was flying solo.  We spent most of the practice cutting out paper basketballs and making posters for the basketball tournament.  They turned out really cute!  There are a few families from Good Shepherd in Mankato that bring their boys to basketball practice so they can play on our team.  Today one boy's two sisters were along.  Since we were just coloring and cutting, I asked if the girls wanted to help us.  They were shy at first, but eventually their mom convinced them to join us.  I think they had a good time.  The cheerleaders fluttered around the girls asking them questions and being very friendly.  Then they wanted to show the new girls their cheers (and the school song).  We spent the last ten minutes of practice doing cheers.  The cheerleaders all went home without a hitch.  The new girls wanted to show their mom the poster they had helped color.  She noticed Joe, so we got to talking about where he came from and how we got him and all those good questions everyone asks about him. 


Now I'm trying to bring myself to make the 7th and 8th graders a webquest about Renaissance life.  I really feel like going home, but how can I make a webquest without the web?  Hmm.

And another...

Wow, two normal days in a row!


My 5th grader who was sick returned to school just in time for his birthday today.  He didn't bring treats.  Is it sad I'm a little bummed?  I'll just have to have some extra treats when I go home tonight.  We took our first actual 5th grade history test of the year.  In the past, I've just had them do some sort of summative assessment project thing that proves they know what they're talking about.  I didn't tell them ahead of time we were having a test today, so they put up a little fuss.  We did review the chapters they were being tested on prior to the test and I'm sure they all did well. 


The general attitude of the students today was "wound up" (this was true across all the grades, not just my 5th graders).  We did get a lot accomplished today.  I'm really hoping we can keep this great streak up! 


I showed the 5th graders the Weird Al video "I'm Fat" for our end of the day video.  They wanted to watch more.  My list of videos has just been resupplied!


There are two B squad games after school today.  Mrs. E has the cheerleaders since I'm doing practice tomorrow solo.  We're going to make some posters for our home tournament next weekend.

Finally, a normal day

Today was kind of weird... it was actually normal.  Nothing happened that was out of the ordinary.  Everyone stayed focused on their work.  We did a pretest in spelling, read some of the new books I got from the Book Fair, had an awesome time watching videos of astronauts on the International Space Station, and did everything else we normally do on Mondays.  It was great!  AND there's no snow in the forecast for the rest of the week, so the rest of the week should be normal too!  Woohoo!


We're almost finished with our surprise Valentines for our Slovakian pen pals (they don't know we're making them).  Some of the 5th graders wanted to make Valentines for the same people; they were yelling at each other about stealing their person when I told them we could always make extra ones for those people.  There are only two people who haven't been designated a Valentine yet.  I wonder, do Slovakians celebrate Valentine's Day?  ... I just googled it.  They do. 


Mrs. E dropped by with my pile of books ordered from profits from our Book Fair last year.  There are now 10 new books on the table for the 5th graders to look through tomorrow.  Yay, new books! 

Pep Fest and Sharing the News

Last day of National Lutheran Schools' Week.  The kids were crazy!  Everyone was excited to go to Cutty's and go swimming and stay up late and party with their friends (and play basketball too).  The 5th graders stayed pretty focused during the day.  The 7th and 8th graders, on the other hand... we didn't get much done.  I should've known better than to plan a whole bunch of things to accomplish Friday afternoon.  Of course these things all required a maximum amount of brainpower.  It was pretty much a disaster.  Oh well.  We'll just try again on Monday.

Throughout the day the little kindergartners kept popping in to drop off these pieces of paper from their religion books.  On the front was a bible verse and on the back they had written "Jesus Loves You."  They could give them to anyone in school that they wanted.  Over half the class gave them to me (Ms. J got one too).  Mrs. E came in at one point and said, "Sorry we keep disrupting your class.  They could give their bookmarks to anyone and they all want to give them to you!  They said because you have the most books." 

We celebrated Joe's seventh birthday in class.  We don't know when his actual birthday is, so the cheerleaders and I picked the last day of NLSW to be his birthday.  Hopefully I don't forget next year!  I forgot to bring treats, so I told everyone the lifesavers on top of his terrarium were Joe's birthday treats.  A lot of treats were handed out!  5th grade, 1st grade, 2nd grade... the 7th and 8th graders were supposed to get one, but class was so chaotic we didn't get the chance.  I'll probably let them get one on Monday.

Speaking of chaotic... the Pep Fest was wild!  Mr. E told the 7th and 8th graders that if they weren't showing much pep, we wouldn't have a pep fest again.  Of course this made them go over the top. 

At noon recess, the cheerleaders met in my room to practice one more time before the pep fest.  Mrs. E wanted to do the "Go Big Blue" cheer where we throw sticks of gum into the crowd.  We had leftover gum so I thought, why not?  There weren't enough packs for every cheerleader to get one, so we opened the packs and divided them up so each girl had the same amount of pieces.  I counted it out: 9 per person.  The pep fest commenced and each class did their cheers (the newspaper even came out!).  The 3rd and 4th graders did a pyramid with their cheer which pretty much stole the thunder of our big cheerleading surprise. 

Then it was time for the gum cheer.  The cheerleaders were so distracted by the crowd, they didn't see me calling them to huddle up.  Finally we all congregated together and I explained about the gum.  Mrs. E had little dishes I put the gum in.  Two or three girls were supposed to share a dish.  Nope.  It was a free-for-all.  Little hands dug into the dishes, grabbing as much gum as would fit.  Then they threw the gum at the crowd without doing the cheer.  And the crowd went crazy when they saw the cheerleaders had gum!  They left the bleachers and mobbed the little girls.  We finally got everybody settled down in the bleachers (thanks Mr. E) and the cheerleaders were ready to do the cheer... except they forgot the words.  So I started them off and then they forgot when they were supposed to throw the gum!  So I mimicked throwing gum.  After the first few pieces hit the bleachers, they pretty much gave up saying the cheer and just threw gum.  And everyone was loud and crazy.  Mrs. E and I looked at each other and shrugged.  What can you do?

We ended the pep fest with a prayer and by that point it was time for parents to pick up their kids going to Cutty's (they were dismissed at 2:15).  The game was at 5.  I had to stay and hover over the one student who wasn't in basketball for her brother to come pick her up.  Then I didn't leave school until 4:15.  I forgot how long it took to get to Lakefield.  There was a set of train tracks I had to cross and guess what?  I had to wait for a train.  It was so frustrating! 

I ended up getting there for the last 10 minutes of the game.  I was a little worried I'd have to pay the $3 admission just for 10 minutes, but when I asked, the ladies running the admissions were super nice.  They said if I'd donate $1 for diabetes they'd call it even.  I'd say that's a pretty good exchange.  Courtland lost (although they did better once I was there).  I did get to see my two 5th grade boys play and my brother too.  All in all, not the worst thing that could happen.