Christopher Columbia

Not a whole lot to write about today. 


The weather is waaay colder today.  The wind was in just the right direction to blow all the warm air out of our classroom, so the 8th graders complained about being cold during my class.  Their presentations on Europe were okay.  A lot of them did them the night before they were due, so there wasn't anything too spectacular.  Lots of powerpoints again.  Sigh.  It's probably just as boring to sit through them as it was for them to make them.  I wish they'd be more creative and make it more fun!  Like... make a board game about the geography of Europe, or a comic book about some historical event!  A few of them did speeches this time.  One girl made a crossword puzzle and gave a background on the words she chose.  One girl brought in "fish and chips" except she couldn't find any fish, so she just brought shrimp.  Creative idea... not very informative.


I'm driving my students crazy with those pictures I took of them yesterday.  They keep asking, "when do we find out what they are for?  You promised we'd know by Friday!"  At least three of them are so curious they're nearly bursting!  One boy even asked for a hint.  My response, "no, I like surprises too much."


Our biggest argument today was trying to decide on a movie to watch as a class reward.  Mr. E has been on a big kick about only watching G rated movies (at least for the whole-school movie for the Christmas parties).  That severely limits our options.  And of course all the movies my kids suggest are PG.  A teacher is a little like a parent, right?  A 5th grader argued, "We read books that are probably PG, so why can't we watch movies?"  I said I'd ask Mr. E about it.  I showed them the trailer for Fivel Goes West but the trailer wasn't very good, and they weren't impressed.  Right now, the top choices are Santa Claus 3 or Meet the Robinsons.


I played the game Taboo with two of my 5th graders during Daily 5.  I read the cards and they tried to guess the word.  They had so much trouble!  The first one was Christopher Columbus.  I gave them every hint I could and still, they got nothing.  Finally they figured out Christopher.  My student by that name wandered over when he heard his name and tried giving them more hints... it didn't work.  They were still stuck on the last name.  "Columbia!"  "Columbarus!" Every ending they could think of except the right one.  I tried another clue, "The last part is the same as what you ride to school in."  "Oh! Columcar!"  *facepalm*  "Oh! Columbius!"  "No, Columbiabus!"  No matter what, they could not get that last sound right!  They had a slightly easier time of it with Thomas Jefferson, but not by much.


I'm doing my weekly grocery/library run a day early this week.  My pottery is waiting for me at HyVee, so I'm going to pick that up while I'm there too.  Then it's correcting papers and taking it easy so I don't get sick before the Christmas program!