"It's like america, but south."

Another late night at school.  Volleyball games really suck the time away.  I had 3-6th grade girls hanging out in my room after school, and they all had stuff to say to me.  The games we played tonight were probably the worst we've played all season.  Very sluggish volleyball players on our team.  Then I took forever to make a powerpoint about the Northern South American countries for geography.  The countries are actually really interesting.  I think the 8th graders will be able to get some good project ideas from tomorrow's lesson.


This morning I printed midterm grades and got them stuck in mailboxes.  Of course, all my students wanted to know what grades they got... I made them wait until after school to look.  We also had VIP day (our version of Grandparents' Day).  Our VIPs came bright and early this morning and hung out in our classrooms for a while.  Religion for today was the story of Balaam... a few of the VIPs were actually leaning forward in their chairs (hopefully because they found it interesting).  We finished religion early and got to play Pictionary for a few minutes.  The pods became the teams: Monarchs, Gorillas, and Sea Hawks.  The Monarchs won by a landslide. 


At 9:00, we made our way to the gym for donuts and lemonade, the breakfast of champions.  Maisy the clown (Miss H and I met her at last year's teacher's conference) provided entertainment for the morning.  I was shocked by how many adults/students told me they're scared of clowns!  One VIP left early (I'm wondering if it's because he didn't want to stay for the clown...).


The 8th graders finished up their STEM project from Friday.  Their objective was to make bouncy balls using the following ingredients: glue, borax, corn starch, and baking soda.  They got 1/2 cup of each, a few toothpicks (for stirring), a spoon (for measuring), and cups (for mixing bowls).  It was amazing; they turned into scientists!  I heard them experimenting and changing things and making hypotheses (even if they didn't realize they were doing it).  Today they did the "bouncy" test to see which ones were the bounciest.  I had them figure out which recipe was the cheapest (based on "cost per tablespoon" amounts I put on the board).  They're supposed to make an advertisement for their product... Yolo Bounce is one group's, and the other is Bouncy Fun.  Both groups kind of came up with commercial jingles; I think I'll just count that as the advertisement.  They wanted to make more bouncy balls, so I made them use their own glue.  We added food coloring this time.  One group added some popcorn flavoring a student had in his desk.  They said it smelled like a pop tart. 


Anyway.  It's about time I get myself home.  Tomorrow we have a fire drill right away in the morning.  I hope it's warmer than this morning was!