Riveted

We read WAAAY more than intended in our new read aloud book, Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz: pg.86 out of 260.  I got to a good spot to stop and when I put the bookmark in the book, one of my reluctant readers said, "NOOO! Miss H, you can't stop there!  You've got to keep reading!" So we read one more chapter.  And then they wanted to keep going.  But we had Reading Buddies and spelling tests to take care of... so I made a deal.  Instead of playing the Adjective Game, we could read more in the book.  The class voted and it was unanimous (save one person who abstained).  Once all our other tasks were accomplished, we read on.  And when it came time for the Tap Game (to practice Spanish), they begged for "just one more chapter!"  It's such a great book!  And the best part is, it's history! 


The 8th graders had an interesting STEM project today.  We did a mini-lesson on microprocessors where I was the robot/computer that had to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich according to their instructions.  Heh heh heh.  They thought it would be so easy.  The two groups wrote their instructions on the whiteboard so they could erase and add as needed.  One group was verrrry specific in their instructions.  Take two pieces of bread out of the bag.  Set them down.  Pick up the knife.  Use the knife to scoop the peanut butter...  The other group said things like "get the peanut butter on the knife.  Then spread it on the bread."  I had a lot of fun with those instructions.  I put the whole container on the knife and rubbed it on the bread.  When they fixed it, they weren't specific enough on where to put the pb, so I spread it on the crusts of the bread and not on the face/white part. 


My favorite part of the lab was with the second group.  They had gotten their instructions perfect... or so they thought.  Their last step was "put the two pieces of bread together."  SHUNK! I slid the two pieces next to each other.  Their reactions were hilarious.  One of the girls was so exasperated, she just walked away from the board shaking her head.  They eventually fixed it and we ended up with a very lovely pb and j.


After that, we had a little bit of recess.  The girls played SNAKE with me and the boys kind of played hockey/shot hoops on the other end of the gym.  And then they decided to use the hockey net as a fishing net to trap one of the girls.  "Hey, look!  We caught a girl!" they hooted and hollered.  When they "released" her, they went after another one, chasing her all around the gym, finally cornering her in the coatroom.  I didn't know whether to tell them to stop or applaud them for their creativity...


The first basketball tournament of the season is today and tomorrow in Northrup.  I'm not planning to go, but we did have a pep fest to send them off.  The cheerleaders took FOREVER to change into their Braves shirts.  One of the girls had been sick, so she only knew a couple of the cheers we did.  Then I forgot we were supposed to use pompoms for one of the cheers and not use them for a different one... but no one could tell we did the cheers wrong.  And the 1st and 2nd grade girls looked cute enough no one would less of them for messing up.


And that's the end of the school week!  Only two more weeks until Christmas break.  I decided to do a new bell song, so we'll start that on Monday.  Tuesday I have a guest speaker coming to talk about her study abroad semester in Spain.  Friday we're having an all-school outdoor snow day in the afternoon after program practice.  Lot's of things to do before Christmas!