#20

Joe is still buried.  Yesterday afternoon he dug himself into the corner of his tank and he still hasn't come out.  We had a pretty big rainstorm today and I'm wondering if there's another one coming since Joe hasn't moved...


Mystery Class is almost over for this year!  Answers are due on the website tomorrow.  The 7th and 8th graders have made a lot of progress.  Most have only a few more locations to find.  Even my pokey 5th grader made a dent in her graph/packet! 


We started our piñata project today.  The first layer of newspapers is over the balloons now.  The class is split into two groups with a boy and girl in each.  They were surprisingly squeamish to get their fingers in the glue mixture (I did 50/50 water and glue).  A few of them decided it would be smart to dip their hands in the glue and spread it over the balloon/newspaper instead of dunking the strips in the glue container.  The only problem with that is the floor gets more glue than the piñata.  I'm so glad we had tiling put in a corner of our room!  They're working on the floor so it's easier to clean. 


Our gum chewing activity was a success!  No one got their gum taken away during the morning.  Only one of the 5th graders forgot her gum, and she bummed a piece off someone else.  When the flavor was gone, she asked for a second, but I wouldn't let her. 


The balloons are tempting a lot of the students that trek through my room each day.  At least two of the second graders want to pop one.  In class today they asked, "Can I pop one?" My answer, "Sure! When you're in 5th and 6th grade!"  A 7th grade girl asked if she could pop one, which is a little ironic since her class last year was the class that didn't care if they got to do the balloon countdown or not (I'm still a little bitter on that one).  When one of the 8th grade boys emptied our garbage this afternoon, he wanted to know if he could throw a pencil at the balloon the 5th grader was holding.  A bunch of thoughts went through my mind, Huh, would that actually work?  Maybe I should let him try it... no, if he throws and misses, he could poke the 5th grader's eye out!  But still, maybe he'd hit it.  I think the pencil would bounce off though...  No, better safe than sorry.  Out loud I said, "No, not today."  Hmm, now they probably think they'll be able to do it some other time...


Balloon activity for tomorrow: sit anywhere for the day.  The 5th graders were already planning where they're going to sit tomorrow.  One wants to sit at the back table, another wants to use Ms. J's desk, the boys want to sit next to each other.  It's all good as long as they're in a chair.  Ms. J was sick again today so the girls left her a note on her desk asking about using it tomorrow.  "Miss J., Can I sit with you? I will explain it more when I get here! From [the student]" 


I'm being a little tricky with this one since most of the day we're not going to be sitting in our desks; we have musical practice over at church and we're going to be working on our Mystery Class at the computers.  Oh well, they still think it's an awesome treat!