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.
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