Well, yesterday went a little differently than I was expecting, at least, the end of it did. The beginning of the day was pretty normal.
Before the bell, my kids painted a poster we're going to give Mr. E in celebration of his 25th year of teaching at ILS. Everyone came in to sign it... at the same time. The 7th and 8th graders had signed their names during bells yesterday so Mr. E wouldn't get suspicious of his whole class leaving at the same time. Once the bell rang, we did devotions.
The Bible verse centered on us being heirs of eternal life. The 5th graders wanted to know what "heirs" meant. So I gave them some examples. "Let's say the owner of a huge horse farm dies and gives you [the two girls] all the horses. You are the heir to the horse farm." Oh the girls were excited about that! I gave another example about one of the boys... and then I decided to tease the last boy just a little, "Let's say that the owner of the Case IH industries dies and leaves you [the boy who loves John Deere tractors] all his tractors. You would be..." He interrupted me before I could continue, "I would be throwing them all away because John Deere is WAY better." Ms. J piped up, "No, you would be selling them and become a millionaire!" I think they get the idea of what an heir means.
The rest of the school day was packed with flying papers and the smell of cleaning sprays. It didn't take long for my students to cram everything in their backpacks, so I put them to work cleaning whiteboards, straightening the reading corner, and taking down decorations. One student took everything out of her desk and spread it around. She'd pick up a piece of paper, "Miss H, do I need this? What should I do with it?" Then she'd grab another item, "I don't want this, what should I do with it?" I'd tell her the same thing, "Throw it away or recycle it." "But what if someone else wants it?" All morning. Finally I said, "You must really like school and not want to leave." "What? I want to leave school!" "Oh, I thought since you're taking so long to pack up, you must want to stay longer!" She shot me an evil look after that one.
Nonetheless, we made it to chapel on time. When we got back to school, I passed back their time capsules we made at the beginning of the year. The most anyone grew was two inches. 5th grade really isn't the best time to be comparing measurements. They emptied their mailboxes one last time, we said one last prayer, and I dismissed my 5th graders for the last time. The poky one still had things to pack, so she stuck around while her mom tapped her foot. This student had forgotten her last handwriting assignment at home (her mom was supposed to bring it when she picked her up from school), and her mom forgot to bring it. So they left and came back.
It was so peaceful once everyone left. The other teachers left fairly soon after the students did. I wanted to do as much tidying as I could since I'll be in Fulda until the 150th celebration. People are going to see my classroom; I want it to look good. I found a few things tucked into recesses of the lab table that the students forgot. Good thing they'll all be back June 1st! The school nurse stopped by to drop of an end of the year present for the teachers: bottles of homemade wine! Since I was the only teacher still at school, I got first pick. Hooray!
Now for the change-in-plan part. At the beginning of the day, I had intended to stay at school for a while, go home and do laundry, maybe read a book, do my grocery shopping for the week, and hang out until our 10:00 staff meeting the next morning. When I got to school yesterday morning, I found an email from my dad saying my grandma fell and broke her hip and would have surgery later in the day. So after calling Dad to see what was up with Grandma, I found out the rest of my family was going to visit her later that afternoon. And I decided to go with them. She seemed like she was doing all right; she was glad we were visiting. Afterwards, we went out to eat at Famous Dave's and then went to Sheels to see their new addition. We got back to Fulda late, so I spent the night, got up early, and drove back to school for our meeting.
And then it's back to cleaning up... I have most of it done; I need to gather up Joe and his things for his summer migration to the Fulda library. I suppose it's time for me to close so I can actually accomplish some of the things on my list!
Friday, May 23, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
#1
Second to last day of school (last full day of school) and what do I do? I forget my phone at home. I hope no one tried to call me today!
There is a HUGE stack of thank-you notes lying on the corner of my desk. Over half of them are thanking groups that donated money toward our prairie planting at school. Two are for the Ecology Bus. I have to glue in a few pictures and then they'll be ready to be mailed out! Now all I need are the addresses...
Our room smelled delicious today. The 2nd graders came down for their last day of math. I owed them two class rewards, so we watched a Cyberchase episode about multiplication and popped two bags of popcorn. One would've been plenty, but by the time I figured that out, the 5th grade volunteer popper was already long gone to the kitchen.
The 5th graders also had popcorn (part of their Challenge of the Week class prize); I think I spoiled their appetites a bit. They chose to wait until English time for theirs so they could eat it and watch the "How the States Got Their Shapes" episode at the same time.
We finished a lot of things today... The 7th and 8th graders finished the episode they'd been watching. The 5th graders finished science for the year (we went outside to talk about pitch... I forgot to bring the trombone out so we tweaked my plans a little). We finished learning about the Civil War (only 15 minutes to cover Reconstruction! barely squeaked it in). We finished our read-aloud book (I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg). We finished coloring the table tent decorations for the 150th anniversary. We finished next year's class letters. Oh! And I found the ones last year's 6th graders had written to the 5th graders and passed them out. The 5th graders mostly laughed at what their predecessors had written. A lot had to do with not yelling and avoiding playing the piano without permission.
The last full day of school ended with all-school kickball (we divided into four teams and played two separate games, one on each side of the school). Afterwards, the students trekked into school, signed the multitude of thank-yous lying on the counter, and enjoyed a Bomb Pop popsicle. Even the teachers got to have one!
Now I'm hanging out at school until 7:00 when we have choir rehearsal for the 150th anniversary choir. I thought about going home in between, but if I stay here, I can get my grades done and can send them home tomorrow. And I still need to go through my desk for all the "distracting" items that have been confiscated from one particular 5th grader this year. Mrs. E needed some help downloading the pictures from her camera onto the computer and onto CDs for her kindergartners. It turns out her computer doesn't have CD burning capabilities, so we did it on my computer. There were a lot of pictures! It was fun to see what went on in their classroom this year. Mrs. E said she showed her students the pictures of the chicks I had taken when we visited the farm. Her kids loved them! They were so excited to see how much they've grown.
I suppose I should get back to work doing my "teachery" things. I wrote a big TO DO list on the board so the 5th graders won't get confused about what they're supposed to do tomorrow. Ms. J reminded us we only have three hours of school tomorrow. That's not a lot to get everything accomplished!
Tomorrow's balloon activity: drink Gatorade or juice in class! (but no pop)
There is a HUGE stack of thank-you notes lying on the corner of my desk. Over half of them are thanking groups that donated money toward our prairie planting at school. Two are for the Ecology Bus. I have to glue in a few pictures and then they'll be ready to be mailed out! Now all I need are the addresses...
Our room smelled delicious today. The 2nd graders came down for their last day of math. I owed them two class rewards, so we watched a Cyberchase episode about multiplication and popped two bags of popcorn. One would've been plenty, but by the time I figured that out, the 5th grade volunteer popper was already long gone to the kitchen.
The 5th graders also had popcorn (part of their Challenge of the Week class prize); I think I spoiled their appetites a bit. They chose to wait until English time for theirs so they could eat it and watch the "How the States Got Their Shapes" episode at the same time.
We finished a lot of things today... The 7th and 8th graders finished the episode they'd been watching. The 5th graders finished science for the year (we went outside to talk about pitch... I forgot to bring the trombone out so we tweaked my plans a little). We finished learning about the Civil War (only 15 minutes to cover Reconstruction! barely squeaked it in). We finished our read-aloud book (I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg). We finished coloring the table tent decorations for the 150th anniversary. We finished next year's class letters. Oh! And I found the ones last year's 6th graders had written to the 5th graders and passed them out. The 5th graders mostly laughed at what their predecessors had written. A lot had to do with not yelling and avoiding playing the piano without permission.
The last full day of school ended with all-school kickball (we divided into four teams and played two separate games, one on each side of the school). Afterwards, the students trekked into school, signed the multitude of thank-yous lying on the counter, and enjoyed a Bomb Pop popsicle. Even the teachers got to have one!
Now I'm hanging out at school until 7:00 when we have choir rehearsal for the 150th anniversary choir. I thought about going home in between, but if I stay here, I can get my grades done and can send them home tomorrow. And I still need to go through my desk for all the "distracting" items that have been confiscated from one particular 5th grader this year. Mrs. E needed some help downloading the pictures from her camera onto the computer and onto CDs for her kindergartners. It turns out her computer doesn't have CD burning capabilities, so we did it on my computer. There were a lot of pictures! It was fun to see what went on in their classroom this year. Mrs. E said she showed her students the pictures of the chicks I had taken when we visited the farm. Her kids loved them! They were so excited to see how much they've grown.
I suppose I should get back to work doing my "teachery" things. I wrote a big TO DO list on the board so the 5th graders won't get confused about what they're supposed to do tomorrow. Ms. J reminded us we only have three hours of school tomorrow. That's not a lot to get everything accomplished!
Tomorrow's balloon activity: drink Gatorade or juice in class! (but no pop)
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
#2
This past month I've noticed that I tend to being my posts with a comment about the weather. Once I noticed, I tried to avoid doing it... but I've decided to embrace my farming heritage and talk about the weather when I feel like it. Feel free to skip this part if you don't enjoy hearing about the weather.
This morning was so beautiful! When I got up, I could barely see out my window it was so foggy. By the time I left for school, the sun was burning off some of the fog. The horizon was all swirly and mysterious and glowing. I really wanted to take a picture of it... but I was driving and figured it was safer to have both hands on the wheel. School has too many buildings and trees surrounding it, and I didn't have a very good angle to take a picture once stationary. Then I had a brilliant idea. Why doesn't someone invent a camera that can be installed in the front/side of the car that lets the driver take pictures at the touch of a button? I suppose there are enough reasons not to do it, but right now I can't think of any; the pros outweigh the cons. I could take pictures of sunsets and foggy mornings and fancy clouds... the list goes on and on. And I wouldn't have to take my hands off the wheel!
This morning, one of the other teachers caught me in the office and informed me that the rest of the school is working on posters for the 150th anniversary. The poster/signs are supposed to tell "What Immanuel means to me" (the students). And they're supposed to be finished before school is out for the year. Well, Thursday is out since we will be cleaning and going to chapel. That left today and tomorrow. I figured it was better to get it finished today than to be scrambling to get it done tomorrow. We brainstormed during English and made a group poster. At the top, I wrote "I am blessed to go to Immanuel because..." and each of the students wrote a little blurb about why they are blessed to go to our school. Many of them are because they can learn about God or talk about Him here. I think we'll hang it on our door so people looking in our room can read it on the way in.
The rest of the day went pretty much as planned. There was a mad scramble to get the last piñata finished in time. We spent a little extra time reading aloud, partly so they could finish the piñata (all four of them worked on it at the same time) and partly because I want to finish this book before the end of the year! It's going to be close!
During Daily 5, I met with everyone to make some last minute reading goals. I made a deal with one student that if he finishes his book before Thursday, he'll get an A in reading for the quarter. He has about fifty or so pages left to read. (He was doing a great job before midterms reading and meeting his goals, but lately he's been slacking off. So hopefully this is enough to motivate him to keep reading!)
We got our ITBS scores back already. The class all improved from last year, some more than others. I showed them their scores today and walked them through the data. They were pretty pumped to see how they did.
After another lesson on the Civil War, we went outside to break the piñatas! I brought out bandannas and held the string while Ms. J took pictures and spun the students around. It was pretty crazy doing only two piñatas... imagine what it will be like next year with six piñatas!
Our ceiling is looking bare. We have one balloon left and two chains left. The balloon activity for tomorrow: have science outside. We're doing a lesson on pitch, so I'll bring out Ivy's trombone and play some notes to demonstrate pitch. Then they can graph the estimated amplitude/frequency of the waves. Hopefully it won't rain! The other teachers want to do an all-school kickball game tomorrow afternoon and practice singing and have Popsicles. So much to squeeze into the last full day of school! It will all work out.
This morning was so beautiful! When I got up, I could barely see out my window it was so foggy. By the time I left for school, the sun was burning off some of the fog. The horizon was all swirly and mysterious and glowing. I really wanted to take a picture of it... but I was driving and figured it was safer to have both hands on the wheel. School has too many buildings and trees surrounding it, and I didn't have a very good angle to take a picture once stationary. Then I had a brilliant idea. Why doesn't someone invent a camera that can be installed in the front/side of the car that lets the driver take pictures at the touch of a button? I suppose there are enough reasons not to do it, but right now I can't think of any; the pros outweigh the cons. I could take pictures of sunsets and foggy mornings and fancy clouds... the list goes on and on. And I wouldn't have to take my hands off the wheel!
This morning, one of the other teachers caught me in the office and informed me that the rest of the school is working on posters for the 150th anniversary. The poster/signs are supposed to tell "What Immanuel means to me" (the students). And they're supposed to be finished before school is out for the year. Well, Thursday is out since we will be cleaning and going to chapel. That left today and tomorrow. I figured it was better to get it finished today than to be scrambling to get it done tomorrow. We brainstormed during English and made a group poster. At the top, I wrote "I am blessed to go to Immanuel because..." and each of the students wrote a little blurb about why they are blessed to go to our school. Many of them are because they can learn about God or talk about Him here. I think we'll hang it on our door so people looking in our room can read it on the way in.
The rest of the day went pretty much as planned. There was a mad scramble to get the last piñata finished in time. We spent a little extra time reading aloud, partly so they could finish the piñata (all four of them worked on it at the same time) and partly because I want to finish this book before the end of the year! It's going to be close!
During Daily 5, I met with everyone to make some last minute reading goals. I made a deal with one student that if he finishes his book before Thursday, he'll get an A in reading for the quarter. He has about fifty or so pages left to read. (He was doing a great job before midterms reading and meeting his goals, but lately he's been slacking off. So hopefully this is enough to motivate him to keep reading!)
We got our ITBS scores back already. The class all improved from last year, some more than others. I showed them their scores today and walked them through the data. They were pretty pumped to see how they did.
After another lesson on the Civil War, we went outside to break the piñatas! I brought out bandannas and held the string while Ms. J took pictures and spun the students around. It was pretty crazy doing only two piñatas... imagine what it will be like next year with six piñatas!
Our ceiling is looking bare. We have one balloon left and two chains left. The balloon activity for tomorrow: have science outside. We're doing a lesson on pitch, so I'll bring out Ivy's trombone and play some notes to demonstrate pitch. Then they can graph the estimated amplitude/frequency of the waves. Hopefully it won't rain! The other teachers want to do an all-school kickball game tomorrow afternoon and practice singing and have Popsicles. So much to squeeze into the last full day of school! It will all work out.
Monday, May 19, 2014
#4 and #3
Last Friday I took most of the day off school. That was actually the first time I've ever taken a day off school. (Okay, last year I did take two days off for my Ireland trip, but that doesn't count because I wasn't in the country and was too busy to worry about my students. That and they were hanging out in Mr. E's room.) This time, they had a sub. Well, kind of a sub. Ms. J volunteered to substitute for the day. I made the schedule pretty simple so she just had to supervise the 5th graders.
I did go to school on Friday. I went to chapel, did a little read-aloud, then took off for Mankato to watch my sister graduate college. Not surprisingly, I had a hard time leaving. I'm sure Ms. J was thinking, "get out of here already!"
On Saturday, I stopped by school to see what the classroom looked like. Still in good shape. The classroom printer was still on, so it was a good thing I stopped! I checked for progress on the piñatas... I didn't see much difference from when I left. This morning, Ms. J gave me the update: it took almost an hour to do the mile run for the Presidential Physical Fitness, so they didn't have a lot of time to work on the piñatas or the special activity (making cards for next year's students). One of the 5th graders puked during the run, so I'm sure that added some time to the event.
Today we were on the Ecology Bus all morning. We did go out to Swan Lake even though it was windy. There was some torrential rain too, plus thunder and lightning (we stayed on the bus for those parts). Our topic was "soil." We took some soil samples and examined the percentage of sand/silt/clay (very muddy). We did a skit depicting how soil forms (Mr. E and I were bison closely followed by two "dung beetle" students). Other actors included an ice berg, worms, plants, wind, rain... I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but you get the picture. It's too bad it was so wet out! That really put a damper on the day. :)
Since it was so wet and icky, the Ecology Bus staff recommended the bus stay at school for the afternoon insect session with the younger grades. The woods behind school are an excellent place to find insects, even better than Swan Lake. I heard there were tears in the 3rd and 4th grade room when they found out they weren't going to get to ride the bus (they did get to sit on it! even though it didn't go anywhere). Afterwards, the younger grade teachers kept exclaiming how great the program was and how much the kids loved it! So I'm guessing we're going to do it again! Maybe every other year though, unless we can get funding for it every year. This year, the trip was entirely funded by the Nicollet Conservation Club. Which reminds me... we need to write a thank-you note.
Unfortunately, the prairie grass planting area will not be ready in time for us to plant seedlings this school year. I'm super bummed! The area was sprayed with Round-Up and then someone mowed the area a few hours later without checking to see if it should actually be mowed. I think they had to re-spray it. And the grass isn't dead yet; it's slowly turning yellow. The plan is to have planting nights on Thursdays in June. Anyone who wants to help plant can show up and help! Hopefully I'll be able to make it to a few of them.
The 7th and 8th graders have one more lesson of notes to take. This afternoon, I didn't feel much like teaching. The 7th and 8th graders didn't feel much like learning. So I gave them the choice: we could take notes today and have the worksheet due on Wednesday; or we could do something else today, take notes tomorrow and the worksheet is still due on Wednesday. They chose the second option. Today, I handed back their Mystery Class answers/certificates and we watched part of an episode from the TV show "How the States Got Their Shapes". It's pretty interesting. The one we watched was about the Mississippi's role in shaping Illinois. They built a canal to connect the Illinois River to the Great Lakes. This in turn connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, making Illinois a powerhouse for water transportation. Sweet! Only now there are jumping fish that threaten the entire fishing industry in the Great Lakes should they get past the locks in the canal. So tomorrow we'll do our last notes session and the next day we'll finish the episode. Same stuff accomplished, just in a little different order than originally planned. Ah, the joys of teaching!
The 5th graders got a lot accomplished this afternoon! We extended our history time. We're learning about the civil war and there's SO MUCH STUFF TO TALK ABOUT! I love the civil war, so it's pretty hard for me to cut it so short. Thankfully, the 5th graders love it too, so they're not bored out of their minds when we go over the normal history time. Today's special activity was to use beanbags all day, so the 5th graders put those beanbags to use! I found this neat site that digitally animated all the battles of the civil war and has a commentary to go along with it. And just in case you're as nerdy as me, here's the link! We watched the one on the Battle of Antietam (the bloodiest day of the war). Originally, we were only going to watch the first two sections of the video, but when I moved to pause/stop it, they all shouted, "No! Can't we keep watching it? We have to know how it ends!" (Me internally jumping for joy), "Oh all right. I suppose we can..." I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to hide the smile on my face.
That put us at about an hours worth of social studies and not that much time for science. But we made it work (We skipped recess... they were outside all morning! That counts as recess, right?). The 5th graders had been bugging me to show them what was in the strange black case under the lab table for about a week. Finally. Today was the day they found out. We sped through a lesson on wind instruments and then I whipped out Ivy's old trombone and tried playing a few notes on it. I also had my old tuba mouthpiece, so I buzzed a bit on it. Of course they wanted me to use that mouthpiece on the trombone (it didn't fit). They kept asking if I had any other instruments I could show them/play for them. Maybe next year we should take a field trip to Nicollet and see their band room!
The end is in sight! The 5th graders have one more science lesson and two more social studies lessons and two days to do them in. I think I can squeeze them in!
Tomorrow's special activity: break open the piñatas! I bought Jolly Ranchers and Life Savers to put in the piñatas. Only one of them is done though! Poor C. He's been working on his pretty much all by himself since his partner has the tendency to avoid her math corrections (so she has to do them instead of art). Thankfully, the other two 5th graders volunteered to help him. Actually, I volunteered them, though they didn't argue about it.
I did go to school on Friday. I went to chapel, did a little read-aloud, then took off for Mankato to watch my sister graduate college. Not surprisingly, I had a hard time leaving. I'm sure Ms. J was thinking, "get out of here already!"
On Saturday, I stopped by school to see what the classroom looked like. Still in good shape. The classroom printer was still on, so it was a good thing I stopped! I checked for progress on the piñatas... I didn't see much difference from when I left. This morning, Ms. J gave me the update: it took almost an hour to do the mile run for the Presidential Physical Fitness, so they didn't have a lot of time to work on the piñatas or the special activity (making cards for next year's students). One of the 5th graders puked during the run, so I'm sure that added some time to the event.
Today we were on the Ecology Bus all morning. We did go out to Swan Lake even though it was windy. There was some torrential rain too, plus thunder and lightning (we stayed on the bus for those parts). Our topic was "soil." We took some soil samples and examined the percentage of sand/silt/clay (very muddy). We did a skit depicting how soil forms (Mr. E and I were bison closely followed by two "dung beetle" students). Other actors included an ice berg, worms, plants, wind, rain... I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but you get the picture. It's too bad it was so wet out! That really put a damper on the day. :)
Since it was so wet and icky, the Ecology Bus staff recommended the bus stay at school for the afternoon insect session with the younger grades. The woods behind school are an excellent place to find insects, even better than Swan Lake. I heard there were tears in the 3rd and 4th grade room when they found out they weren't going to get to ride the bus (they did get to sit on it! even though it didn't go anywhere). Afterwards, the younger grade teachers kept exclaiming how great the program was and how much the kids loved it! So I'm guessing we're going to do it again! Maybe every other year though, unless we can get funding for it every year. This year, the trip was entirely funded by the Nicollet Conservation Club. Which reminds me... we need to write a thank-you note.
Unfortunately, the prairie grass planting area will not be ready in time for us to plant seedlings this school year. I'm super bummed! The area was sprayed with Round-Up and then someone mowed the area a few hours later without checking to see if it should actually be mowed. I think they had to re-spray it. And the grass isn't dead yet; it's slowly turning yellow. The plan is to have planting nights on Thursdays in June. Anyone who wants to help plant can show up and help! Hopefully I'll be able to make it to a few of them.
The 7th and 8th graders have one more lesson of notes to take. This afternoon, I didn't feel much like teaching. The 7th and 8th graders didn't feel much like learning. So I gave them the choice: we could take notes today and have the worksheet due on Wednesday; or we could do something else today, take notes tomorrow and the worksheet is still due on Wednesday. They chose the second option. Today, I handed back their Mystery Class answers/certificates and we watched part of an episode from the TV show "How the States Got Their Shapes". It's pretty interesting. The one we watched was about the Mississippi's role in shaping Illinois. They built a canal to connect the Illinois River to the Great Lakes. This in turn connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, making Illinois a powerhouse for water transportation. Sweet! Only now there are jumping fish that threaten the entire fishing industry in the Great Lakes should they get past the locks in the canal. So tomorrow we'll do our last notes session and the next day we'll finish the episode. Same stuff accomplished, just in a little different order than originally planned. Ah, the joys of teaching!
The 5th graders got a lot accomplished this afternoon! We extended our history time. We're learning about the civil war and there's SO MUCH STUFF TO TALK ABOUT! I love the civil war, so it's pretty hard for me to cut it so short. Thankfully, the 5th graders love it too, so they're not bored out of their minds when we go over the normal history time. Today's special activity was to use beanbags all day, so the 5th graders put those beanbags to use! I found this neat site that digitally animated all the battles of the civil war and has a commentary to go along with it. And just in case you're as nerdy as me, here's the link! We watched the one on the Battle of Antietam (the bloodiest day of the war). Originally, we were only going to watch the first two sections of the video, but when I moved to pause/stop it, they all shouted, "No! Can't we keep watching it? We have to know how it ends!" (Me internally jumping for joy), "Oh all right. I suppose we can..." I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to hide the smile on my face.
That put us at about an hours worth of social studies and not that much time for science. But we made it work (We skipped recess... they were outside all morning! That counts as recess, right?). The 5th graders had been bugging me to show them what was in the strange black case under the lab table for about a week. Finally. Today was the day they found out. We sped through a lesson on wind instruments and then I whipped out Ivy's old trombone and tried playing a few notes on it. I also had my old tuba mouthpiece, so I buzzed a bit on it. Of course they wanted me to use that mouthpiece on the trombone (it didn't fit). They kept asking if I had any other instruments I could show them/play for them. Maybe next year we should take a field trip to Nicollet and see their band room!
The end is in sight! The 5th graders have one more science lesson and two more social studies lessons and two days to do them in. I think I can squeeze them in!
Tomorrow's special activity: break open the piñatas! I bought Jolly Ranchers and Life Savers to put in the piñatas. Only one of them is done though! Poor C. He's been working on his pretty much all by himself since his partner has the tendency to avoid her math corrections (so she has to do them instead of art). Thankfully, the other two 5th graders volunteered to help him. Actually, I volunteered them, though they didn't argue about it.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
#5
Although the trip to Ft. Ridgely started out with a delay, it was overall a success! The instruction letter said we were supposed to stop at the contact center to get a vehicle permit for the day. So at 8:40am we rolled up to the center and... there was an "Out of the Office" sign on the door. Shoot! We were supposed to be checked in by 8:45 and the clock on the sign said they'd be back at 8:57. So we waited. And waited. And then three New Ulm buses pulled up... and left. And three vans from another school pulled up... and left. And we were still sitting there. Huh. Should we stay or should we go? We sat there until 9:57 and still no sign of anyone. And then I gave in and drove up to the meeting site.
One reason the builders of the fort chose this location was because the landscape was wide open (you could see friends and enemies coming from a long ways away). It also let the cold wind blow without stopping. There aren't many buildings at Fort Ridgely, leaving us out in the open with the wind. Brr!
Since my class is so small, we were paired with two other schools as we went to the stations. We didn't make it to all ten stations. The ones we did go to were really interesting (our group never made it to the boring ones...). We played a game about the water cycle, learned about shoe-making in the 1800s, listened to explanations about the artillery used during the civil war and about differences in uniforms (higher up officers have larger colored piping on their pants; color of braid on the uniform tells which branch they belong to: green=medic, red=artillery, yellow=cavalry, blue=infantry; this was so you could tell where someone belonged from far away on the battlefield). We also discussed fish and how they would've caught them (and other ways the rivers were used).
The last station we were able to get to was one by the wildlife people; they taught us about fighting prairie fires. They picked a student and dressed him up as a fire cadet. The suit is made of special material (synthetic fabric) that won't melt in the high heat of the fire. People fighting the fires wear cotton or silk underneath so their clothes don't melt. Prairie firefighters use this thing called a water bladder to carry water into a fire. On the end of it is a handle called a "trombone" because you pump it like a trombone to shoot the water out. They also carry a mini-fire torch... something filled with lighter fluid that drops little drops of flame on the ground wherever the user aims. This burns up the fuel and can make a barrier between the firefighter and the fire. The last thing the kid had to do was use the fire safety tent. It looks sort of like a very thin green cocoon sleeping bag. He had 30 seconds to get tucked into the bag and roll so the opening was facing down. He did it! With 20 seconds to spare (And he thought he wouldn't be able to do it!)
After that, it was time for the live cannon demonstration. The cannon they were using could reach 1.25 miles away... that's across the river! They didn't use live rounds, so of course it didn't go that far. They had an aluminum "shell" containing gunpowder that they shot off. Picture the scene in the movie Sahara where Dirk and Al are firing the cannon. That's pretty much what it was like (except the people were dressed like Union soldiers and there wasn't as much dust and yelling).
My kids were super cold after that; they asked if we could eat lunch in the car. So we did. Then we drove over to the gift shop and made some purchases. Man those kids can blow through money! One boy kept asking Ms. J and me if what he was thinking of buying was a good deal or not. Then he couldn't decided between a walking staff with an eagle carved in the top or a wooden bow and arrows. He went with the walking staff. There was one with a turtle carved on the top; they wanted me to get it and put it next to Joe's tank.
The other boy was all about the candy. Yesterday, I convinced him to get some Pop Rocks at End-O-Line; he'd never tried them before. The whole way home he kept exclaiming over the popping in his mouth, "It feels so cool!" and "Miss H. I'm so glad I bought these!" Well today he called me over to the candy rack and asked which kinds I thought he should buy. He'd picked out these rock-like things. They ended up being sort of like gushers. I spotted some of those wax bottle candies, the ones with the liquid inside. I remember my mom got us some one time; she had liked them when she was a girl. So I recommended them to my student. Then he convinced the other boy to get a pack. On the way home they were eating them. "Whoa! These are so good! Did you try the blue one? That's the best!" "Yeah, the green is pretty good too." "I'm gonna try a red one now... wow, this one tastes really good too! They're all the best!"
After the gift shop we still had some time to kill before heading back to school. Originally, I had intended us to go on a nature walk on some of the trails... but it was too cold. So we snuck in on a few of the stations we missed in the morning. We watched the farriers trim a hoof and then the 5th graders pet the horses while I chatted with the farriers. The two girls in my class have horses and this farrier does all the footwork for their horses. So he was asking who their parents were. We got around to talking about where I was from and when I mentioned Fulda, the second farrier perked up a bit. He asked when I graduated from Fulda, and when I said the year he was surprised. I guess I'm a lot younger than he thought I'd be. He said he'd gone to school with some guys from Fulda. Before he could mention their names, it was time to move to the next session.
We still had a little time left and there was a station that looked sort of interesting with no people gathered around it, so we walked up and asked if they could do their spiel for us. The watershed people said yes and we got to play with their water table for a while. It was filled with tiny plastic beads meant to act as sediment. They carved out a river bed and turned on the water so we could watch the erosion. The 5th graders had seen something like this at the Water Festival they went to in 3rd and 4th grade, so they already knew the tricks to it. The guys running the show still let them put branches and rocks in the river to see if they could stop the erosion. It was pretty neat!
And then it was time to leave Fort Ridgely. We were a little early back to school, but we found ways to occupy our time. After school I was finishing up some stuff when a parent came in looking for historical items for the 150th anniversary. No one had set aside items found during the cleaning day last weekend, so she wanted to dig around in the loft between my room and the gym. She brought her two boys with her and the preschooler got bored fast. He kept calling me "Miss Hinz". Actually, everything he said began with, "Um, Miss Hinz..." Very polite; not easily entertained. His younger brother must've just learned to walk (well, he was pretty proficient at it). That one kept getting into everything. He went in the closet, peeked into the game cabinet, tried to dig around the garbage can... I've realized my classroom is not young child-proof. Then their mom kept calling me to come look at uniforms and tell her how old they were. I told her I probably wouldn't be much help since this was only my second year here. She was quite surprised; she thought I'd been around for five years! Huh, I must look old today or something.
By the time she waded through the loft and the basement, Mr. E and his class were back from their class trip. He stopped in to see how our trips this week had gone and to talk about his a little. And then he scolded me for staying at school so late. "Em, I thought I told you you weren't supposed to stay after 5?" Anyway, it's long past 5:00 now, so I think I'll end here.
Aha! The balloon activity for tomorrow: make a card for next year's students about what to expect next year. They weren't too enthused about that one. Oh well. Ms. J will be subbing tomorrow, and that's pretty exciting in and of itself.
One reason the builders of the fort chose this location was because the landscape was wide open (you could see friends and enemies coming from a long ways away). It also let the cold wind blow without stopping. There aren't many buildings at Fort Ridgely, leaving us out in the open with the wind. Brr!
Since my class is so small, we were paired with two other schools as we went to the stations. We didn't make it to all ten stations. The ones we did go to were really interesting (our group never made it to the boring ones...). We played a game about the water cycle, learned about shoe-making in the 1800s, listened to explanations about the artillery used during the civil war and about differences in uniforms (higher up officers have larger colored piping on their pants; color of braid on the uniform tells which branch they belong to: green=medic, red=artillery, yellow=cavalry, blue=infantry; this was so you could tell where someone belonged from far away on the battlefield). We also discussed fish and how they would've caught them (and other ways the rivers were used).
The last station we were able to get to was one by the wildlife people; they taught us about fighting prairie fires. They picked a student and dressed him up as a fire cadet. The suit is made of special material (synthetic fabric) that won't melt in the high heat of the fire. People fighting the fires wear cotton or silk underneath so their clothes don't melt. Prairie firefighters use this thing called a water bladder to carry water into a fire. On the end of it is a handle called a "trombone" because you pump it like a trombone to shoot the water out. They also carry a mini-fire torch... something filled with lighter fluid that drops little drops of flame on the ground wherever the user aims. This burns up the fuel and can make a barrier between the firefighter and the fire. The last thing the kid had to do was use the fire safety tent. It looks sort of like a very thin green cocoon sleeping bag. He had 30 seconds to get tucked into the bag and roll so the opening was facing down. He did it! With 20 seconds to spare (And he thought he wouldn't be able to do it!)
After that, it was time for the live cannon demonstration. The cannon they were using could reach 1.25 miles away... that's across the river! They didn't use live rounds, so of course it didn't go that far. They had an aluminum "shell" containing gunpowder that they shot off. Picture the scene in the movie Sahara where Dirk and Al are firing the cannon. That's pretty much what it was like (except the people were dressed like Union soldiers and there wasn't as much dust and yelling).
My kids were super cold after that; they asked if we could eat lunch in the car. So we did. Then we drove over to the gift shop and made some purchases. Man those kids can blow through money! One boy kept asking Ms. J and me if what he was thinking of buying was a good deal or not. Then he couldn't decided between a walking staff with an eagle carved in the top or a wooden bow and arrows. He went with the walking staff. There was one with a turtle carved on the top; they wanted me to get it and put it next to Joe's tank.
The other boy was all about the candy. Yesterday, I convinced him to get some Pop Rocks at End-O-Line; he'd never tried them before. The whole way home he kept exclaiming over the popping in his mouth, "It feels so cool!" and "Miss H. I'm so glad I bought these!" Well today he called me over to the candy rack and asked which kinds I thought he should buy. He'd picked out these rock-like things. They ended up being sort of like gushers. I spotted some of those wax bottle candies, the ones with the liquid inside. I remember my mom got us some one time; she had liked them when she was a girl. So I recommended them to my student. Then he convinced the other boy to get a pack. On the way home they were eating them. "Whoa! These are so good! Did you try the blue one? That's the best!" "Yeah, the green is pretty good too." "I'm gonna try a red one now... wow, this one tastes really good too! They're all the best!"
After the gift shop we still had some time to kill before heading back to school. Originally, I had intended us to go on a nature walk on some of the trails... but it was too cold. So we snuck in on a few of the stations we missed in the morning. We watched the farriers trim a hoof and then the 5th graders pet the horses while I chatted with the farriers. The two girls in my class have horses and this farrier does all the footwork for their horses. So he was asking who their parents were. We got around to talking about where I was from and when I mentioned Fulda, the second farrier perked up a bit. He asked when I graduated from Fulda, and when I said the year he was surprised. I guess I'm a lot younger than he thought I'd be. He said he'd gone to school with some guys from Fulda. Before he could mention their names, it was time to move to the next session.
We still had a little time left and there was a station that looked sort of interesting with no people gathered around it, so we walked up and asked if they could do their spiel for us. The watershed people said yes and we got to play with their water table for a while. It was filled with tiny plastic beads meant to act as sediment. They carved out a river bed and turned on the water so we could watch the erosion. The 5th graders had seen something like this at the Water Festival they went to in 3rd and 4th grade, so they already knew the tricks to it. The guys running the show still let them put branches and rocks in the river to see if they could stop the erosion. It was pretty neat!
And then it was time to leave Fort Ridgely. We were a little early back to school, but we found ways to occupy our time. After school I was finishing up some stuff when a parent came in looking for historical items for the 150th anniversary. No one had set aside items found during the cleaning day last weekend, so she wanted to dig around in the loft between my room and the gym. She brought her two boys with her and the preschooler got bored fast. He kept calling me "Miss Hinz". Actually, everything he said began with, "Um, Miss Hinz..." Very polite; not easily entertained. His younger brother must've just learned to walk (well, he was pretty proficient at it). That one kept getting into everything. He went in the closet, peeked into the game cabinet, tried to dig around the garbage can... I've realized my classroom is not young child-proof. Then their mom kept calling me to come look at uniforms and tell her how old they were. I told her I probably wouldn't be much help since this was only my second year here. She was quite surprised; she thought I'd been around for five years! Huh, I must look old today or something.
By the time she waded through the loft and the basement, Mr. E and his class were back from their class trip. He stopped in to see how our trips this week had gone and to talk about his a little. And then he scolded me for staying at school so late. "Em, I thought I told you you weren't supposed to stay after 5?" Anyway, it's long past 5:00 now, so I think I'll end here.
Aha! The balloon activity for tomorrow: make a card for next year's students about what to expect next year. They weren't too enthused about that one. Oh well. Ms. J will be subbing tomorrow, and that's pretty exciting in and of itself.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
#7 and #6
I think my numbers are off... I didn't write a post on Track and Field Day, so technically there are only six days of school left (and we popped balloon #6 today).
Well, I survived sand volleyball last night. Since the court is fairly close to my apartment, I walked. The sun was shining and the wind died down for a while! It was quite a nice walk. No one else wore shoes on the court, so I gave in to peer pressure and took off my socks and shoes. Surprisingly, the sand was not that cold! We lost the first two games of the set (they were close!) and won the last game.
I also made my mac and cheese! Since I'm efficient by nature, I balanced my checkbook while making supper. The battery on my kitchen timer is dead and I was going to keep an eye on the clock. Yeah, I let the noodles boil too long and they didn't taste as good as normal. Oh well.
Today everyone got to school by the 7:45 meeting time. We hustled to End-O-Line and made it there as the new director was just starting to give her spiel. Another school was scheduled for the same time we were; they had about 50 kids. Our guide didn't share all the little tidbits I had picked up during my stint at the park, so I began whispering extra facts that I remembered about the park to my class. The 5th graders were very impressed by the fact I used to work at the park. One of them even said, "I'm going to stand by you so you can tell us the things they forget to tell us."
Let me tell you, it was pretty hard for me to keep my mouth shut and let our tour guide tell us the facts! Our guide didn't have a knack for telling stories; she gave the straight details and left out all the good(in my opinion), juicy details which only made me want to tell the stories more. Having the other school there helped me in that regard (I didn't want to interrupt their tour with all my random facts). Though when I did tell a few stories to my students, the other kids around mine listened.
One downside to being with the bigger group was that they always stood in front of the displays making it hard for my class to see everything. And since we were a bigger group, they skipped taking us into the caboose! Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's one of my favorite parts of the park. The 5th graders were bummed we skipped the grist mill and the courthouse and the church. After our tour was over, our guide asked me if there were any buildings we wanted to look at again. How thoughtful! (She knew I had worked at the park before). The 5th graders were STARVING by that point, so we decided to look around more after we ate lunch. And we did. We spent a lot more time at the park than I had anticipated.
After thoroughly exploring the buildings, we made our way down to Fulda to visit the family farm! I took the back gravel roads to my parents' house and all the 5th graders could talk about was how long the road was. "Are we STILL on this road? Man, how long does it go for, two miles?"
Once we got there, we put on some rubber boots so our shoes wouldn't get messy. Everyone had a pair, although some boots fit better than others. I don't think any of them leaked either! So for the next hour, we wandered around looking at animals. The 5th graders were captivated by the birds. Ducks, geese, chickens... they wanted to pet each and every one. We got to visit the chicks hatched by Mrs. E's room and catch 4-H chickens (they didn't want to leave). They also pet Angel and the two leftover dogs (and reluctantly left the pen). In the hoop barn we corralled a baby calf. The cows got a little riled up by the 5th graders and danced around the pen. There were a few 5th graders who feared for their lives! That didn't stop them from wanting to pet the calves though!
We played a little bit of bale tag (they wanted to play more) and walked past the tractors. The two boys had been griping the whole way down about Case tractors being way worse than John Deere and why did they have to be around the horrible Case? Dad told me he had the red machinery sitting out, just for the two of them. As we walked past our lovely red machinery, I heard one boy say to the other, "I feel for us!" We took a class picture at End-O-Line (with the automatic timer and the camera balanced on twigs I might add) and I wondered aloud if we should take another at the farm. At the time, we were passing a very red quadtrac Case. Dad said we should take it in front of the tractor. What a great idea! The boys refused. But we had to walk right past it to get to the car. I tried to get a picture of the boys walking next to the tractor, so it would look like they were enjoying being around the red, but my camera was too slow. But Ms. J got one! She said the picture looks like the two boys are staring up in awe at the tractor. Ha!
In Fulda we took a detour past the Lutheran school and stopped for gas. The 5th graders took the chance to restock their snack supply inside the gas station. Before we left the farm, I let the 5th graders pick a long peacock feather to bring home with them. Some of them wanted to turn them into feather pens (one did when we got back to school). And many of them were used to annoy people on the way back.
That reminds me about another incident that happened on the way back. Before we even got to Fulda we saw one of the neighbors planting with a Case. One of the boys said, "If I see another Case, I'm gonna scream!" I said, "If you scream, I'm pulling over and you're walking back to school." Well, he saw the neighbor and made a little screaming noise, not very loud, but just enough to qualify as a scream. The car in front of me was slowing down to turn, and I figured, eh, why not. So I pulled over on the side of the road... right next to the neighbor. He looked a little confused, but he waved as we drove away (no one ended up getting kicked out of the car).
When we got back, we cleaned out the car and met in the classroom to pop tomorrow's balloon. Someone looked in Joe's tank and saw there was a spider on his back! At first I thought she was kidding... but lo and behold, there actually was! It skittered all over and tried to go in Joe's shell. When it couldn't hide there, it ran to a corner of the tank. Weird. We don't get that many spiders in our classroom.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: watch a cannon being fired in real life! Our trip tomorrow is to Ft. Ridgely. Last year some of the sessions were a little boring, even for me. I forgot to fill out the evaluation form, so hopefully enough other teachers sent theirs back that tomorrow's sessions will be more interesting!
Well, I survived sand volleyball last night. Since the court is fairly close to my apartment, I walked. The sun was shining and the wind died down for a while! It was quite a nice walk. No one else wore shoes on the court, so I gave in to peer pressure and took off my socks and shoes. Surprisingly, the sand was not that cold! We lost the first two games of the set (they were close!) and won the last game.
I also made my mac and cheese! Since I'm efficient by nature, I balanced my checkbook while making supper. The battery on my kitchen timer is dead and I was going to keep an eye on the clock. Yeah, I let the noodles boil too long and they didn't taste as good as normal. Oh well.
Today everyone got to school by the 7:45 meeting time. We hustled to End-O-Line and made it there as the new director was just starting to give her spiel. Another school was scheduled for the same time we were; they had about 50 kids. Our guide didn't share all the little tidbits I had picked up during my stint at the park, so I began whispering extra facts that I remembered about the park to my class. The 5th graders were very impressed by the fact I used to work at the park. One of them even said, "I'm going to stand by you so you can tell us the things they forget to tell us."
Let me tell you, it was pretty hard for me to keep my mouth shut and let our tour guide tell us the facts! Our guide didn't have a knack for telling stories; she gave the straight details and left out all the good(in my opinion), juicy details which only made me want to tell the stories more. Having the other school there helped me in that regard (I didn't want to interrupt their tour with all my random facts). Though when I did tell a few stories to my students, the other kids around mine listened.
One downside to being with the bigger group was that they always stood in front of the displays making it hard for my class to see everything. And since we were a bigger group, they skipped taking us into the caboose! Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's one of my favorite parts of the park. The 5th graders were bummed we skipped the grist mill and the courthouse and the church. After our tour was over, our guide asked me if there were any buildings we wanted to look at again. How thoughtful! (She knew I had worked at the park before). The 5th graders were STARVING by that point, so we decided to look around more after we ate lunch. And we did. We spent a lot more time at the park than I had anticipated.
After thoroughly exploring the buildings, we made our way down to Fulda to visit the family farm! I took the back gravel roads to my parents' house and all the 5th graders could talk about was how long the road was. "Are we STILL on this road? Man, how long does it go for, two miles?"
Once we got there, we put on some rubber boots so our shoes wouldn't get messy. Everyone had a pair, although some boots fit better than others. I don't think any of them leaked either! So for the next hour, we wandered around looking at animals. The 5th graders were captivated by the birds. Ducks, geese, chickens... they wanted to pet each and every one. We got to visit the chicks hatched by Mrs. E's room and catch 4-H chickens (they didn't want to leave). They also pet Angel and the two leftover dogs (and reluctantly left the pen). In the hoop barn we corralled a baby calf. The cows got a little riled up by the 5th graders and danced around the pen. There were a few 5th graders who feared for their lives! That didn't stop them from wanting to pet the calves though!
We played a little bit of bale tag (they wanted to play more) and walked past the tractors. The two boys had been griping the whole way down about Case tractors being way worse than John Deere and why did they have to be around the horrible Case? Dad told me he had the red machinery sitting out, just for the two of them. As we walked past our lovely red machinery, I heard one boy say to the other, "I feel for us!" We took a class picture at End-O-Line (with the automatic timer and the camera balanced on twigs I might add) and I wondered aloud if we should take another at the farm. At the time, we were passing a very red quadtrac Case. Dad said we should take it in front of the tractor. What a great idea! The boys refused. But we had to walk right past it to get to the car. I tried to get a picture of the boys walking next to the tractor, so it would look like they were enjoying being around the red, but my camera was too slow. But Ms. J got one! She said the picture looks like the two boys are staring up in awe at the tractor. Ha!
In Fulda we took a detour past the Lutheran school and stopped for gas. The 5th graders took the chance to restock their snack supply inside the gas station. Before we left the farm, I let the 5th graders pick a long peacock feather to bring home with them. Some of them wanted to turn them into feather pens (one did when we got back to school). And many of them were used to annoy people on the way back.
That reminds me about another incident that happened on the way back. Before we even got to Fulda we saw one of the neighbors planting with a Case. One of the boys said, "If I see another Case, I'm gonna scream!" I said, "If you scream, I'm pulling over and you're walking back to school." Well, he saw the neighbor and made a little screaming noise, not very loud, but just enough to qualify as a scream. The car in front of me was slowing down to turn, and I figured, eh, why not. So I pulled over on the side of the road... right next to the neighbor. He looked a little confused, but he waved as we drove away (no one ended up getting kicked out of the car).
When we got back, we cleaned out the car and met in the classroom to pop tomorrow's balloon. Someone looked in Joe's tank and saw there was a spider on his back! At first I thought she was kidding... but lo and behold, there actually was! It skittered all over and tried to go in Joe's shell. When it couldn't hide there, it ran to a corner of the tank. Weird. We don't get that many spiders in our classroom.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: watch a cannon being fired in real life! Our trip tomorrow is to Ft. Ridgely. Last year some of the sessions were a little boring, even for me. I forgot to fill out the evaluation form, so hopefully enough other teachers sent theirs back that tomorrow's sessions will be more interesting!
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
#8
Windy and cold. Those are the two words of the day. This same time last year (on Caswell Softball Day), the temp was 100 degrees. Today, the high was 55. That's almost 50 degrees cooler! And it definitely felt like it. I actually went back to my car for a blanket and my headband.
The cold didn't faze the students for long. Some kids were in shorts and short sleeves! (not very many of them though). One student rode with me to Caswell. She talked pretty much nonstop the entire ride there... and on the way back too.
Tonight I think I'm going to make mac and cheese for supper. They were selling it at the concession stand and a bunch of the ILS girls bought some. It looked SO GOOD. The wait was 10 minutes though. One of the moms told me that tonight is the first night of sand volleyball league in Courtland. Lovely. I don't have anything going on, so I'll be there. It's going to be so cold! What's the proper protocol for cold sand volleyball? Can you wear shoes? Will I roll my ankles if I do? I guess I'll find out... but back to Caswell...
So, how'd we do in the Tournament? We got 2nd place overall. Truman beat us by 5 runs. I think the game against them was the shortest we played all day. 1-2-3 outs, boom, boom, boom, both for us and them. In the first inning, they scored four runs. We held them there until the bottom of the sixth when they snuck one more runner in. We scored one run the whole game.
Since everyone got rides from their parents (who came to watch the games), our class never convened at school to pop tomorrow's balloon. I think I was supposed to bring it along so we could pop it at lunch, but I forgot and we were never all in one place to pop it. Oh well, we'll do it tomorrow morning before we leave for End-O-Line.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: visit Miss H's parents' farm (and see the chicks hatched by the kindergartners)
The cold didn't faze the students for long. Some kids were in shorts and short sleeves! (not very many of them though). One student rode with me to Caswell. She talked pretty much nonstop the entire ride there... and on the way back too.
Tonight I think I'm going to make mac and cheese for supper. They were selling it at the concession stand and a bunch of the ILS girls bought some. It looked SO GOOD. The wait was 10 minutes though. One of the moms told me that tonight is the first night of sand volleyball league in Courtland. Lovely. I don't have anything going on, so I'll be there. It's going to be so cold! What's the proper protocol for cold sand volleyball? Can you wear shoes? Will I roll my ankles if I do? I guess I'll find out... but back to Caswell...
So, how'd we do in the Tournament? We got 2nd place overall. Truman beat us by 5 runs. I think the game against them was the shortest we played all day. 1-2-3 outs, boom, boom, boom, both for us and them. In the first inning, they scored four runs. We held them there until the bottom of the sixth when they snuck one more runner in. We scored one run the whole game.
Since everyone got rides from their parents (who came to watch the games), our class never convened at school to pop tomorrow's balloon. I think I was supposed to bring it along so we could pop it at lunch, but I forgot and we were never all in one place to pop it. Oh well, we'll do it tomorrow morning before we leave for End-O-Line.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: visit Miss H's parents' farm (and see the chicks hatched by the kindergartners)
Monday, May 12, 2014
#9
A perspective student visited our classroom this morning. The 5th graders welcomed him with open arms. He seemed pretty comfortable with them too. He stuck around until it was time for 2nd grade math; then his mom picked him up. One of the 5th grade boys immediately decided the two of them were destined to be best friends and he tried to find ways to hang around the potential new kid. And... one of the girls developed a crush on him. As we walked down the hallway, she whispered loudly, "Miss H., guess what? Now I have TWO crushes! I have a crush on..." and then she started to tell me the names. I plugged my ears and said, "Nope! I'm not listening! I don't want to hear it!" Of course she thought that was the funniest thing EVER!
The rest of the day, all I heard was, "Miss H, who is the other special guest?!" And when I told them it was going to be a surprise, they replied, "You're killing us! Can't you at least tell us what time they're coming?" Nope. A few of them tried to trick me into telling them. Ha. It didn't work.
The two final special guests of the day arrived at about 1:00, right when the 7th and 8th graders were setting up for bells in my room. "Miss H, do you know your sisters are here?" "Wait, why are Miss H's sisters here?" "Miss H, why are they here?" Pretty soon they were waiting outside Mr. E's room (the 5th graders were finishing their math class). I walked in an gave a short introduction... "It's time for the surprise visitors!" They all gasped in awe as my sisters walked in. Yes, they actually did gasp. One kid did a fist pump, "Oh I so called it! I knew it was going to be her sisters!"
We ended up playing Pictionary on the whiteboard. It was boys vs. girls with Eileen and I playing on the boy side and Ms. J and Ivy on the girl side. They didn't want to stop playing.
By that point, it was time for the Student Council to explain the new posters they'd put up around school. Our class went the same time as the 7th and 8th graders. Mr. E had to deal with a recess problem, so Ms. J, Miss H, and I were flying solo in keeping his class under control. The older kids treated it like a joke and were making snide comments. I chewed them out and they got a little better. And of course it got worse again. You have to pick your battles.
Both the 5th graders and the 7th8th graders earned the Challenge of the Week prize. The 7th and 8th graders were definitely ungrateful about the whole thing. They got to brainstorm ideas: movie, recess, ice cream/pizza party, extra credit points, no homework. I would've picked the no homework idea, but only one student wanted that. We voted on having a movie, recess, and extra credit points. The girls thought those ideas were stupid. They boys all wanted extra credit. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, they ended up picking the extra credit. I don't know what the 5th graders are going to do. Maybe I'll let them chew gum again one day at school. Or we could do a movie party... though we're running out of time. Hmm.
Balloon Activity for tomorrow: eat a picnic lunch outside. (We're having the Caswell Softball Day tomorrow).
The rest of the day, all I heard was, "Miss H, who is the other special guest?!" And when I told them it was going to be a surprise, they replied, "You're killing us! Can't you at least tell us what time they're coming?" Nope. A few of them tried to trick me into telling them. Ha. It didn't work.
The two final special guests of the day arrived at about 1:00, right when the 7th and 8th graders were setting up for bells in my room. "Miss H, do you know your sisters are here?" "Wait, why are Miss H's sisters here?" "Miss H, why are they here?" Pretty soon they were waiting outside Mr. E's room (the 5th graders were finishing their math class). I walked in an gave a short introduction... "It's time for the surprise visitors!" They all gasped in awe as my sisters walked in. Yes, they actually did gasp. One kid did a fist pump, "Oh I so called it! I knew it was going to be her sisters!"
We ended up playing Pictionary on the whiteboard. It was boys vs. girls with Eileen and I playing on the boy side and Ms. J and Ivy on the girl side. They didn't want to stop playing.
By that point, it was time for the Student Council to explain the new posters they'd put up around school. Our class went the same time as the 7th and 8th graders. Mr. E had to deal with a recess problem, so Ms. J, Miss H, and I were flying solo in keeping his class under control. The older kids treated it like a joke and were making snide comments. I chewed them out and they got a little better. And of course it got worse again. You have to pick your battles.
Both the 5th graders and the 7th8th graders earned the Challenge of the Week prize. The 7th and 8th graders were definitely ungrateful about the whole thing. They got to brainstorm ideas: movie, recess, ice cream/pizza party, extra credit points, no homework. I would've picked the no homework idea, but only one student wanted that. We voted on having a movie, recess, and extra credit points. The girls thought those ideas were stupid. They boys all wanted extra credit. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, they ended up picking the extra credit. I don't know what the 5th graders are going to do. Maybe I'll let them chew gum again one day at school. Or we could do a movie party... though we're running out of time. Hmm.
Balloon Activity for tomorrow: eat a picnic lunch outside. (We're having the Caswell Softball Day tomorrow).
Thursday, May 8, 2014
#10
The big rainstorm was all anybody could talk about today. It rained before school, so the ground was a little wet and everyone was wondering if we'd go outside for noon recess. We did, but Mr. E told the 7th and 8th graders we'd be going inside so they wouldn't complain when we told them we were going outside... middle school logic.
In the afternoon, the 5th graders made their Mother's Day presents. Our cook saved some large fruit cans for us to decorate. Then we piled dirt inside and shoved, I mean, planted flowers (French marigolds). They had a blast picking stuff to put on the outside. Originally, I wanted them to glue things from magazines in a collage sort of thing. They decided they wanted plain paper wrapped around the outside with shapes cut out of more plain paper (or pictures printed from the computers). I dug around the closet and pulled out my collection of ribbons and acrylic paint which they were more than happy to put on their cans. The presents turned out super cute! (some cuter than others) One of the boys grabbed a purple ribbon and glued it on his can. Then he found a mostly red ribbon that he wanted to use too. I cringed inside, but told him he could use it if he wanted. He wrapped it around to see what it would look like... "No, I think it's too much," he decided. I breathed an internal sigh of relief.
Then it was time for the dirt. Since the glue wasn't dry and we didn't want the dirt to stick to it, I made a funnel of paper that corralled the dirt inside. The 5th graders picked three flowers to plant (I had three different colors of marigolds), and once they were planted, they watered them and set them on their desk to bring home. Right in the middle of adding the dirt, the 1st and 2nd grade teacher poked her head in to tell us it was time to do ice cream (a treat celebrating the end of the musical). Dirt was coating my hands. We needed to pack up for the end of the school day in 10 minutes. My brain couldn't figure out a way to make both work. I ended up sending them down one by one as they finished their present. Of course, this meant they were eating ice cream while they picked up the mess... and then it started thunderstorming.
"Woah! Miss H! I saw lightning strike literally right over there. Right in that field!" Connection! This week we discussed why thunder follows lightning, and the thunder after that lightning strike came awful fast. The student who saw the lightning reminded me all about what we'd learned. It took us a while, but eventually everything got picked up (storms are so distracting). I had to calm down one of the girls; she was scared something bad was going to happen. And the boys weren't making things better; they kept talking about the storm and how dark it was and all the things that could go wrong... sigh. But we got through it! And they all made it on the bus with their Mother's Day presents.
Another round of storms went through about a half an hour ago. All of a sudden the wind picked up and whooshed through the open windows in my classroom. I got up to close them and noticed the sky getting darker. No sooner had I closed them then the rain came pouring down. I couldn't even see my car in the parking lot (which is right outside my window). Thinking it might be a good idea to turn on the radio in case there was a tornado alert, I went back to my desk. Sure enough, we were in a tornado warning. I should've gone to the basement, but I didn't want to miss any of the weather alerts, so I stayed in my classroom (and prayed). Next time I'll go. The radio said the tornadoes were popping up slightly west of Mankato, near Minneopa State Park. That's a fairly good distance from our school; I figured I was probably safe. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out and I'm still in one piece!
Track and Field Day is tomorrow. I'm giving at least one girl a ride down there. It was a little complicated finding her a ride back since I'll be heading straight to Fulda afterwards. We did get it figured out. Right before noon recess, one of the 7th grade girls came up to me and asked for a ride. Sigh. She didn't think of it sooner? My answer: Yes, but you'll have to be to school by 7:45am and find a different ride home. I made her repeat the time to be at school at least three times so she wouldn't forget. By the end of the day she told me her grandma would probably drive her, but what time should she be at school, just in case?
Balloon activity for tomorrow: Recess all day. (I'm hoping this won't bite me in the butt tomorrow. If it's raining, Track and Field is cancelled and we still have a day of school. Ahh! The forecast says it's all supposed to come tonight; tomorrow should be a little cold, but dry.)
Since we're not going to be around to pop the balloon tomorrow, I popped the balloon so we know what's going on Monday: Special activity with a special guest. Ha! They thought the special guest would be our Junior Achievement speaker (someone who's been coming to teach the 5th graders about economics and jobs). Nope. It's not him!!!
In the afternoon, the 5th graders made their Mother's Day presents. Our cook saved some large fruit cans for us to decorate. Then we piled dirt inside and shoved, I mean, planted flowers (French marigolds). They had a blast picking stuff to put on the outside. Originally, I wanted them to glue things from magazines in a collage sort of thing. They decided they wanted plain paper wrapped around the outside with shapes cut out of more plain paper (or pictures printed from the computers). I dug around the closet and pulled out my collection of ribbons and acrylic paint which they were more than happy to put on their cans. The presents turned out super cute! (some cuter than others) One of the boys grabbed a purple ribbon and glued it on his can. Then he found a mostly red ribbon that he wanted to use too. I cringed inside, but told him he could use it if he wanted. He wrapped it around to see what it would look like... "No, I think it's too much," he decided. I breathed an internal sigh of relief.
Then it was time for the dirt. Since the glue wasn't dry and we didn't want the dirt to stick to it, I made a funnel of paper that corralled the dirt inside. The 5th graders picked three flowers to plant (I had three different colors of marigolds), and once they were planted, they watered them and set them on their desk to bring home. Right in the middle of adding the dirt, the 1st and 2nd grade teacher poked her head in to tell us it was time to do ice cream (a treat celebrating the end of the musical). Dirt was coating my hands. We needed to pack up for the end of the school day in 10 minutes. My brain couldn't figure out a way to make both work. I ended up sending them down one by one as they finished their present. Of course, this meant they were eating ice cream while they picked up the mess... and then it started thunderstorming.
"Woah! Miss H! I saw lightning strike literally right over there. Right in that field!" Connection! This week we discussed why thunder follows lightning, and the thunder after that lightning strike came awful fast. The student who saw the lightning reminded me all about what we'd learned. It took us a while, but eventually everything got picked up (storms are so distracting). I had to calm down one of the girls; she was scared something bad was going to happen. And the boys weren't making things better; they kept talking about the storm and how dark it was and all the things that could go wrong... sigh. But we got through it! And they all made it on the bus with their Mother's Day presents.
Another round of storms went through about a half an hour ago. All of a sudden the wind picked up and whooshed through the open windows in my classroom. I got up to close them and noticed the sky getting darker. No sooner had I closed them then the rain came pouring down. I couldn't even see my car in the parking lot (which is right outside my window). Thinking it might be a good idea to turn on the radio in case there was a tornado alert, I went back to my desk. Sure enough, we were in a tornado warning. I should've gone to the basement, but I didn't want to miss any of the weather alerts, so I stayed in my classroom (and prayed). Next time I'll go. The radio said the tornadoes were popping up slightly west of Mankato, near Minneopa State Park. That's a fairly good distance from our school; I figured I was probably safe. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out and I'm still in one piece!
Track and Field Day is tomorrow. I'm giving at least one girl a ride down there. It was a little complicated finding her a ride back since I'll be heading straight to Fulda afterwards. We did get it figured out. Right before noon recess, one of the 7th grade girls came up to me and asked for a ride. Sigh. She didn't think of it sooner? My answer: Yes, but you'll have to be to school by 7:45am and find a different ride home. I made her repeat the time to be at school at least three times so she wouldn't forget. By the end of the day she told me her grandma would probably drive her, but what time should she be at school, just in case?
Balloon activity for tomorrow: Recess all day. (I'm hoping this won't bite me in the butt tomorrow. If it's raining, Track and Field is cancelled and we still have a day of school. Ahh! The forecast says it's all supposed to come tonight; tomorrow should be a little cold, but dry.)
Since we're not going to be around to pop the balloon tomorrow, I popped the balloon so we know what's going on Monday: Special activity with a special guest. Ha! They thought the special guest would be our Junior Achievement speaker (someone who's been coming to teach the 5th graders about economics and jobs). Nope. It's not him!!!
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
#11
Our balloons are looking pretty sparse! Not that many days left!
The 7th and 8th graders did more exploring/engineering with wire and nails today. Yesterday I picked up some thinner wire (20 gauge? it's used for thermostats) so it would be easier to twist. The students found out it isn't as powerful as the 14 gauge. They also discovered the magnetism moves with the wire and more coils around the nail mean an even more powerful magnet.
The 5th graders explored sound today. First they tapped on their desks to see what it sounded like. Then they put their heads on their desks to see how the sound changed. Then I gave them different types of cups. They put their ears on the cups on the desks and tapped their fingers on the desks. And lo and behold we realized that sound travels better through objects than through the air! We also realized that the wider the cup, the lower the sound. Narrower cups make higher pitched sounds.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: make a Mother's Day present.
The 7th and 8th graders did more exploring/engineering with wire and nails today. Yesterday I picked up some thinner wire (20 gauge? it's used for thermostats) so it would be easier to twist. The students found out it isn't as powerful as the 14 gauge. They also discovered the magnetism moves with the wire and more coils around the nail mean an even more powerful magnet.
The 5th graders explored sound today. First they tapped on their desks to see what it sounded like. Then they put their heads on their desks to see how the sound changed. Then I gave them different types of cups. They put their ears on the cups on the desks and tapped their fingers on the desks. And lo and behold we realized that sound travels better through objects than through the air! We also realized that the wider the cup, the lower the sound. Narrower cups make higher pitched sounds.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: make a Mother's Day present.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
#12
Happy National Teacher Day! (and also National School Nurse Day) Coincidentally, it's my baptism birthday today as well, so I'm double celebrating.
Someone (representing our PTL) dropped off apples and cupcakes in the office for the teachers. There were little gift packets of teachery things like post-it notes and pencils. I grabbed one of the pencil packs since my "sharp/not sharp" jars are running low on pencils. At the end of the day, I found two letters in my school mailbox. They were exactly the same size and the address was written in the same handwriting. What a mystery! The back of it read 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004. I figured it was probably junk mail (especially since I got two), but I opened them anyway. Hey, mail is mail right? Both of them were cards expressing appreciation for me being a teacher and for nominating students for these special event things: one for the Junior National Young Leaders Conference and the other for the National Young Leaders State Conference. Earlier this year I had gotten something in the mail asking me to nominate stellar students to participate in these conferences, so I did (I seem to recall being nominated for something like this when I was in grade school too).
Well, the handwriting on the cards looked like it was actually written by hand and not duplicated by a computer, but I wanted to be sure. I mean, what person is actually going to hand write cards for all the teachers across the US that nominate kids for this thing? I seriously doubt I'm the only one. One of the ways to test if it's real is to rub a little bit of rubbing alcohol across the ink and see if it smears. No rubbing alcohol around, so I licked my thumb and then did it. Both of the cards smeared! So that means Marguerite Regan (or someone writing in her place) hand wrote all those cards. Huh. That's a lot of paperwork.
My curiosity was piqued. Who is Marguerite Regan? According to Google, she's the Dean of Academic Affairs at Envision EMI, LLC (the organization that sponsors the Young Leader Conferences). Some people were all up in arms about this being a hoax... I don't think it's fake. You can actually go to these conferences; it's just not as elite as people are led to believe and it's pretty expensive.
In other news, it's really windy outside. This afternoon, the 5th graders mixed it up by playing softball for 2nd recess. I was all-time pitcher (though almost every single one of them tried to con me out of it!). I didn't have a glove, so I borrowed from whoever was up to bat. I really need to remember to bring mine. It was really fun! The wind made pitching kind of hard... I would expect it to take the ball and then the wind would die down right as I pitched.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: play games during Word Work/Work on Writing. My intent was that they could play any board games they wanted... the 5th graders automatically thought kickball, the state ID game, etc. The state game was vetoed because the 5th graders get really in-to it and their voices go up a few decibels. If we didn't have the 2nd graders coming in, it wouldn't be a problem. But they have a hard time focusing as it is; four yelling 5th graders won't help the problem.
Speaking of the 2nd graders... We're working on triple-digit addition and subtraction. I have two of them who don't borrow/regroup when they need to (or else they start on the wrong side of the problem and work left to right). One kid made a mistake in her subtracting, so I tried to get her to see her mistake, "How far is 15 from 10?" She thought for a bit, "I'd say, quite a ways." A little more thinking, "No wait, not that far!" I rephrased my question, "How many numbers are between 10 and 15?" "Ohhhhh...." Then she counted on her fingers to find the answer.
Someone (representing our PTL) dropped off apples and cupcakes in the office for the teachers. There were little gift packets of teachery things like post-it notes and pencils. I grabbed one of the pencil packs since my "sharp/not sharp" jars are running low on pencils. At the end of the day, I found two letters in my school mailbox. They were exactly the same size and the address was written in the same handwriting. What a mystery! The back of it read 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004. I figured it was probably junk mail (especially since I got two), but I opened them anyway. Hey, mail is mail right? Both of them were cards expressing appreciation for me being a teacher and for nominating students for these special event things: one for the Junior National Young Leaders Conference and the other for the National Young Leaders State Conference. Earlier this year I had gotten something in the mail asking me to nominate stellar students to participate in these conferences, so I did (I seem to recall being nominated for something like this when I was in grade school too).
Well, the handwriting on the cards looked like it was actually written by hand and not duplicated by a computer, but I wanted to be sure. I mean, what person is actually going to hand write cards for all the teachers across the US that nominate kids for this thing? I seriously doubt I'm the only one. One of the ways to test if it's real is to rub a little bit of rubbing alcohol across the ink and see if it smears. No rubbing alcohol around, so I licked my thumb and then did it. Both of the cards smeared! So that means Marguerite Regan (or someone writing in her place) hand wrote all those cards. Huh. That's a lot of paperwork.
My curiosity was piqued. Who is Marguerite Regan? According to Google, she's the Dean of Academic Affairs at Envision EMI, LLC (the organization that sponsors the Young Leader Conferences). Some people were all up in arms about this being a hoax... I don't think it's fake. You can actually go to these conferences; it's just not as elite as people are led to believe and it's pretty expensive.
In other news, it's really windy outside. This afternoon, the 5th graders mixed it up by playing softball for 2nd recess. I was all-time pitcher (though almost every single one of them tried to con me out of it!). I didn't have a glove, so I borrowed from whoever was up to bat. I really need to remember to bring mine. It was really fun! The wind made pitching kind of hard... I would expect it to take the ball and then the wind would die down right as I pitched.
Balloon activity for tomorrow: play games during Word Work/Work on Writing. My intent was that they could play any board games they wanted... the 5th graders automatically thought kickball, the state ID game, etc. The state game was vetoed because the 5th graders get really in-to it and their voices go up a few decibels. If we didn't have the 2nd graders coming in, it wouldn't be a problem. But they have a hard time focusing as it is; four yelling 5th graders won't help the problem.
Speaking of the 2nd graders... We're working on triple-digit addition and subtraction. I have two of them who don't borrow/regroup when they need to (or else they start on the wrong side of the problem and work left to right). One kid made a mistake in her subtracting, so I tried to get her to see her mistake, "How far is 15 from 10?" She thought for a bit, "I'd say, quite a ways." A little more thinking, "No wait, not that far!" I rephrased my question, "How many numbers are between 10 and 15?" "Ohhhhh...." Then she counted on her fingers to find the answer.
Monday, May 5, 2014
#14
Things have almost gone back to normal after the crazy week with the musical. Speaking of the musical... it went off without a hitch! Our lead, "Yacky Doodle" wore her costume (up until Friday, she was too self-conscious and didn't want to wear it). The songs from the CD were played at exactly the right time (I didn't mess up, yay!). The actors remembered all their lines. Oh! And the entrance of the chorus went smoothly. My aunt and uncle lent us 50 state flags (thank-you!!!) to use for our musical. Originally we were going to have them stuck in 2x4s in front to represent the states, and then I had the brilliant idea to let each kid bring his/her own state flag in. Each of our kids had a state they were representing at the Amerikid Convention. It took a little arm-twisting, but I convinced our musical director to match up each kid with the matching state flag and have them put the flag up front as they walked in to the convention. It was so cool! (Though things were a little crazy with all the flag wavers before they went on stage...) My class served root beer floats afterwards. One of the 8th graders' parents donated a keg of 1919 root beer. We also had orange pop to make Creamsicles.
It was nice having the end of the school day back... it was also weird having bells in my classroom at the usual time. Before bells, the 7th and 8th graders made electromagnets out of wire and really long nails (60d!). The wire I got was 14 gauge and this morning I saw the instructions recommend 20 gauge. Oops. I made one last night to make sure it would work. It did. Now it makes sense why the wire was so hard to twist. Oh well. Struggles build character. I think everyone in the class got their magnet to work. Some groups finished everything; some still have a little yet to do. I'm debating whether I want to have them continue the experiment on Wednesday or if we should move on and do something else.
The plant the school nurse is lending us bloomed over the weekend! The flowers are big, red, and gorgeous. I moved the planter up to the front of the room so we could enjoy them more.
Our activity for today was reading outside. Only one of the 5th graders remembered to bring a blanket and sunglasses. Ms. J and I brought towels to sit on. I had an extra blanket in my car so I lent it to the other 5th grade girl. The boys decided they were going to sit on the grass. Since the younger grades were out to recess when we went out, we went to the soccer field side of school. My instructions were to "sit where I can see you", so the boys jogged all the way to the far end of the soccer field. I watched them for a bit to see if they actually started reading and they did. One of them even finished his book. He's going to start one of the "I Survived" books I brought from the library. The other book we're going to read aloud once we finish "Belly Up." Speaking of our read-aloud book. We only have two chapters left! The 5th graders are begging me to keep reading, but I do want to save some of it for later!
Tomorrow's activity: listen to music during Daily 5.
It was nice having the end of the school day back... it was also weird having bells in my classroom at the usual time. Before bells, the 7th and 8th graders made electromagnets out of wire and really long nails (60d!). The wire I got was 14 gauge and this morning I saw the instructions recommend 20 gauge. Oops. I made one last night to make sure it would work. It did. Now it makes sense why the wire was so hard to twist. Oh well. Struggles build character. I think everyone in the class got their magnet to work. Some groups finished everything; some still have a little yet to do. I'm debating whether I want to have them continue the experiment on Wednesday or if we should move on and do something else.
The plant the school nurse is lending us bloomed over the weekend! The flowers are big, red, and gorgeous. I moved the planter up to the front of the room so we could enjoy them more.
Our activity for today was reading outside. Only one of the 5th graders remembered to bring a blanket and sunglasses. Ms. J and I brought towels to sit on. I had an extra blanket in my car so I lent it to the other 5th grade girl. The boys decided they were going to sit on the grass. Since the younger grades were out to recess when we went out, we went to the soccer field side of school. My instructions were to "sit where I can see you", so the boys jogged all the way to the far end of the soccer field. I watched them for a bit to see if they actually started reading and they did. One of them even finished his book. He's going to start one of the "I Survived" books I brought from the library. The other book we're going to read aloud once we finish "Belly Up." Speaking of our read-aloud book. We only have two chapters left! The 5th graders are begging me to keep reading, but I do want to save some of it for later!
Tomorrow's activity: listen to music during Daily 5.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
#15
Grumpy Cat? Ha, try Grumpy Teacher! I think all of us teachers were feeling this by the end of the day.
Mr. E was gone again today. Since we had so many things planned for the day, he didn't get a substitute. Instead, I watched his class for the first half hour of the morning until Pastor came to do religion. (My 5th graders hung out in our classroom with Ms. J until the bell rang.) We did flag pledges and devotions together and then waited around for Pastor to arrive. Once he did, the 5th graders and I went back to our room, did a skit for religion, and then did our read-aloud/piñata time.
Mrs. M had to borrow one of my boys to go over to church to test a microphone that wasn't sounding very clear. She wanted to use the student who actually uses that microphone, but he was sick today! So one of my boys filled in. Mr. D has been running the sound system for the musical, so he went too. Ms. J watched their classes in the gym while I did Daily 5 with the remaining 5th graders.
Since the bus for the play was leaving early, the Bookmobile didn't come today. I was bummed (not that I don't get enough time at the library each week). The 5th grade boys have been reading the "I Survived" series nonstop. They've burned through at least three of the six books that are in our library. Currently there are nine in the series. They asked me to email the Bookmobile librarian to get #7-9 and then they argued over whose card the books would be put on. You should've seen their faces when I told them the Bookmobile wasn't coming today! Good thing I drive right past the North Mankato library when I go to Mankato. I'll swing by when I'm in town on Saturday.
At 10:30 we had musical practice at church. Then we came back for lunch, ate super fast, and loaded the bus for MLC. The play was pretty good; it was a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. I recognized at least two of the actors from last year. We sat pretty close to the front and directly in front of the speakers, so my ears hurt by the end of the play (the hundreds of screaming kids didn't help matters). Then it was the bus ride back to school. There's something about riding the bus that makes kids do squirrely things. And of course the teachers have to police everyone.
Balloon activity for tomorrow (Friday!): Use markers/colored pencils all day! The 5th graders are really excited for this one.
Mr. E was gone again today. Since we had so many things planned for the day, he didn't get a substitute. Instead, I watched his class for the first half hour of the morning until Pastor came to do religion. (My 5th graders hung out in our classroom with Ms. J until the bell rang.) We did flag pledges and devotions together and then waited around for Pastor to arrive. Once he did, the 5th graders and I went back to our room, did a skit for religion, and then did our read-aloud/piñata time.
Mrs. M had to borrow one of my boys to go over to church to test a microphone that wasn't sounding very clear. She wanted to use the student who actually uses that microphone, but he was sick today! So one of my boys filled in. Mr. D has been running the sound system for the musical, so he went too. Ms. J watched their classes in the gym while I did Daily 5 with the remaining 5th graders.
Since the bus for the play was leaving early, the Bookmobile didn't come today. I was bummed (not that I don't get enough time at the library each week). The 5th grade boys have been reading the "I Survived" series nonstop. They've burned through at least three of the six books that are in our library. Currently there are nine in the series. They asked me to email the Bookmobile librarian to get #7-9 and then they argued over whose card the books would be put on. You should've seen their faces when I told them the Bookmobile wasn't coming today! Good thing I drive right past the North Mankato library when I go to Mankato. I'll swing by when I'm in town on Saturday.
At 10:30 we had musical practice at church. Then we came back for lunch, ate super fast, and loaded the bus for MLC. The play was pretty good; it was a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. I recognized at least two of the actors from last year. We sat pretty close to the front and directly in front of the speakers, so my ears hurt by the end of the play (the hundreds of screaming kids didn't help matters). Then it was the bus ride back to school. There's something about riding the bus that makes kids do squirrely things. And of course the teachers have to police everyone.
Balloon activity for tomorrow (Friday!): Use markers/colored pencils all day! The 5th graders are really excited for this one.
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