#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.