Wednesday, April 30, 2014

#16

It finally stopped raining!  Though it's still pretty dismal outside... I've noticed the lower grades are pumped full of energy and the upper grades are pretty mellow. 


Our piñatas are coming along.  The 5th graders have begun to put the tissue paper on.  I don't think it will take too many more days, which is good because we're running out!  There are only a few more chapters left of our read-aloud book.  I don't think we'll finish in time to start a new chapter book.  I'll probably pick some traditional literature stories (aka- folk tales) to read each day. 


Nothing super outstanding happened today.  We examined our images in spoons during 5th grade science (studying convex and concave surfaces).  Next we'll move on to sound.  Which reminds me... I need to borrow an instrument that I can somewhat play.  Hmm...


Oh that's right!  We had a special delivery today.  The school nurse stopped by this morning with a potted plant about to bloom.  She's lending it to us so we can watch the flower bloom.  I can't remember what it's called... something beginning with an "a"?  All I know is it's supposed to be really pretty!


Track and field day events have been chosen.  The two boys and two girls in my class had the pick of the litter.  And there are a ton of extra spaces.  Mr. D didn't want any of his 4th graders to move up an age level, which is too bad because those boys are very athletic.  We're having a practice day on Friday.


Tomorrow's balloon activity: go to MLC to see their spring play.  The 5th graders thought using the play as the special activity wasn't fair because it had been planned way in advance and it was something they already got to do.  I just shrugged and reminded them they wouldn't have science or social studies or math tomorrow, so should they really be complaining? 

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

#17

I've decided the 5th graders are not that observant.  I wore my new scarf today... one of my sisters saw the arm-knitting craze that hit Pinterest and must've figured, "This looks pretty cool.  I should try this!  Emily's birthday is coming up; she likes scarves.  I'll make one for her!" (at least, that's what I would've been thinking if the situations were reversed).  Anyway, she made me a fluffy pastel green infinity scarf she likes to call "the cat cloud scarf" because it is cozy like a cat and fluffy like a cloud.  It coincidentally matches the sea green watch I also received for my birthday and a mint green shirt I have in my closet.  Let's just say that I my outfit was super coordinated today. 


None of the 5th graders said anything.  As soon as the 2nd graders walked in, "Wow Miss H! We love your scarf!"  I walked in the office over lunch and saw one of the preschool helpers, "Oh Miss H, what a lovely scarf you have on today!"  After school, standing in the hallway waving kids on the bus, Mrs. E commented on my "cozy" scarf (she was very impressed it was arm-knitted).  But none of the 5th graders.  Eh, I'm used to it by now.


I hit the book jackpot yesterday at the annual BEC library book sale.  It was .25 per book and after browsing the entire children's section I came up with 32 books.  I thought about putting some back, but my sisters convinced me to keep them all.  Now in the past, I've asked for an extra discount since I'm a teacher, and though the ladies running the sale hem and haw about it, I usually get the price knocked down a little.  Yesterday they gave me all 32 books for $5.  That's about .15 per book!  Woot woot! 


The musical is taking over our lives.  We had practice over at church again today.  And it was raining.  Again.  So we shuttled everyone over in our cars.  All this nonstop rain reminds me of Noah!  The pieces are coming together, though we realized the kids don't know the words to the songs all that well.  Extra practice tomorrow!  These afternoon practices are sucking away my history and science time!  I'm getting about 15 minutes here and there, but it's hard to squeeze an already condensed lesson into that small space.  Plus we're missing our afternoon recess, which makes the 5th graders a little grumpy.  They've been really good sports about it so far.


Balloon Activity for tomorrow: extra time to work on piñatas.

Monday, April 28, 2014

#18

Today's main attraction was the rain.  We could hear the dripping on the roof even with our door closed.  It was so windy the gym fans looked like they were going and they weren't even turned on!  Everyone's energy is zapped.


Well... the 7th and 8th graders were pretty peppy today.  They took a bus to tour MVL today.  I guess there was a poster advertising for Bethany at MVL and my picture was on it.  So the 7th and 8th graders thought that was pretty cool (Mr. E told me).  In class today, we took our own fingerprints using pencil lead and tape.  The 7th and 8th graders identified which kind of print they had on each finger.  It was pretty neat to see how many kinds of prints there are, even on just one person!


The 5th graders learned about light today.  Now they want to do all sorts of light experiments.  *wince* We just don't have much time!  I want to teach them about sound too and I don't know if there's going to be enough time for both.  Musical practice is cutting into our normal science/social time.  If we squish, I think we can make it. 


No more progress has been made on the piñatas.  I did get a brilliant idea during 2nd grade math... the 2nd graders can break the piñatas with us!  I'm keeping that idea to myself for now.  Hopefully the 5th graders will be on board with me about that one.


Balloon activity for tomorrow: work without your shoes on.  The boys weren't too excited about this one; they asked if they had to participate (no, participation is optional on this one).  The girls were pretty pumped though. 


I'm being a little sneaky about the balloon that will be popped tomorrow.  The special activity is supposed to be a rubber band shooting gallery.  I just don't feel like messing with that this week. (And I want more time to teach science).  So I'm pulling a switcheroo.  Instead we're skipping English to work on our piñatas more.  We can always do the rubber band gallery next year.  And none of the 5th graders are the wiser!



Friday, April 25, 2014

#19

The Mystery Class locations got turned in today.  There's a form we have to fill out on the Journey North website, so we did that right before lunch.  The 5th graders had a blast!  They were working together, hurrying to find the last locations before the time was up.  One of the 5th graders found the only location I wasn't 100% sure about!  Woohoo!  We'll see if our answers are correct next Friday.  I think we're going to have a party.  Maybe I should bring cookies.


The 7th and 8th graders didn't have nearly as much fun... I think they did enjoy it; they're just better at hiding it.  There was a group of boys working together and a group of girls working together.  They usually came up with different answers, so we had to vote on which answer we were going to put on our official form.  Since there were five girls in the group and only three boys, the girls usually won.  Now the boys are acting all cocky, "Well, we'll just see who was right next week when we find out the answers for real.  You're going to be sorry you didn't listen to us."  Unfortunately, I think the girls found more of the correct answers. 


Next week is our last week of spelling and the week before the musical.  Everyday we're having practice over at church.  We had practice today at church; I get to run the CD player.  Before musical practice, we added another layer to our piñatas.  One more layer ought to do it; then we can start the tissue papering!


The 2nd graders thought there were fruit roll ups inside the balloons hanging from the ceiling.  I set the record straight in math today.  Now that I look at them, they do look like fruit roll ups. 


Our helper of the day tried to pop his balloon by throwing his sharp pencil at it (the balloon was on the floor and no one was nearby).  He missed.  So he tried again.  It bounced off.  Then he got fed up and grabbed a tack from my desk to pop it.  Our activity for Monday: watch a Wishbone episode.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

#20

Joe is still buried.  Yesterday afternoon he dug himself into the corner of his tank and he still hasn't come out.  We had a pretty big rainstorm today and I'm wondering if there's another one coming since Joe hasn't moved...


Mystery Class is almost over for this year!  Answers are due on the website tomorrow.  The 7th and 8th graders have made a lot of progress.  Most have only a few more locations to find.  Even my pokey 5th grader made a dent in her graph/packet! 


We started our piñata project today.  The first layer of newspapers is over the balloons now.  The class is split into two groups with a boy and girl in each.  They were surprisingly squeamish to get their fingers in the glue mixture (I did 50/50 water and glue).  A few of them decided it would be smart to dip their hands in the glue and spread it over the balloon/newspaper instead of dunking the strips in the glue container.  The only problem with that is the floor gets more glue than the piñata.  I'm so glad we had tiling put in a corner of our room!  They're working on the floor so it's easier to clean. 


Our gum chewing activity was a success!  No one got their gum taken away during the morning.  Only one of the 5th graders forgot her gum, and she bummed a piece off someone else.  When the flavor was gone, she asked for a second, but I wouldn't let her. 


The balloons are tempting a lot of the students that trek through my room each day.  At least two of the second graders want to pop one.  In class today they asked, "Can I pop one?" My answer, "Sure! When you're in 5th and 6th grade!"  A 7th grade girl asked if she could pop one, which is a little ironic since her class last year was the class that didn't care if they got to do the balloon countdown or not (I'm still a little bitter on that one).  When one of the 8th grade boys emptied our garbage this afternoon, he wanted to know if he could throw a pencil at the balloon the 5th grader was holding.  A bunch of thoughts went through my mind, Huh, would that actually work?  Maybe I should let him try it... no, if he throws and misses, he could poke the 5th grader's eye out!  But still, maybe he'd hit it.  I think the pencil would bounce off though...  No, better safe than sorry.  Out loud I said, "No, not today."  Hmm, now they probably think they'll be able to do it some other time...


Balloon activity for tomorrow: sit anywhere for the day.  The 5th graders were already planning where they're going to sit tomorrow.  One wants to sit at the back table, another wants to use Ms. J's desk, the boys want to sit next to each other.  It's all good as long as they're in a chair.  Ms. J was sick again today so the girls left her a note on her desk asking about using it tomorrow.  "Miss J., Can I sit with you? I will explain it more when I get here! From [the student]" 


I'm being a little tricky with this one since most of the day we're not going to be sitting in our desks; we have musical practice over at church and we're going to be working on our Mystery Class at the computers.  Oh well, they still think it's an awesome treat!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

#21

We popped the first balloon today.  Tomorrow's special activity: chew gum in the morning.  The 5th graders were very adamant that I chew gum with them tomorrow because "It's a privilege for everyone! Even the teachers!"  Ms. J was sick today so they wanted me to let her know so she'd be prepared. 


This morning I cut up the jicama.  It is the consistency of an apple/potato and tastes pretty much like garden peas with a slight dirt aftertaste.  There was a bunch left so the 2nd graders and the 7th and 8th graders got a taste.  Overall, opinions were split 50/50 on whether it tastes good or not. 


More Mystery Class locations are being found.  I think I've discovered all 10 of them; the students like to check their answers with mine to see if they're right.  The 5th graders are catching on to the tricks/methods of solving the clues.  The boys are using the longitude data and a map to find the cities.  The girls are using key words and pictures in the clues to look up locations on the internet.  Everything is due Friday... time is running out!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Birthday Business

Teacher birthdays are a bit tricky in my experience.  Do you bring treats for your class? What about healthy eating?  Do you want to keep your birthday a secret?  Should you share it with the world?  Do the students care?  Do you care?  My birthday was even more problematic because it didn't happen on a school day.  Yesterday was my birthday.  I figured my kids would probably remember, so I planned to pick up a pomegranate from the grocery store (something edible and exciting and also healthful).  Well, Walmart didn't have any pomegranates.  Bummer.  I stumbled across an interesting-looking Mexican produce called jicama.  The sign said it has an apple-pear flavor, so I figured why not try something new?


This morning I forgot to grab a peeler/knife and a bowl.  When I looked it up online, it turns out jicama is actually a vegetable.  A sweet tasting vegetable, but a vegetable nonetheless.  My kids thought it was an onion.  I kept forgetting the name of it and had to relook it up on the computer.  We're hopefully going to eat it tomorrow (you cut it like a pineapple).


Along the line of birthdays... one of the kindergartners had a birthday today.  He brought me a birthday cupcake.  One of the 5th grade girls made him a card and had everyone in the class sign it.  Then she snuck down to their classroom (with my permission, of course) and dropped it off and ran away before anyone could see who left it.  And that was pretty much all the birthday things that happened in our classroom today. 


Sometime during the day Mrs. E wrote a note on the board in the office saying "Happy Belated Birthday Miss H!"  One of the 7th and 8th graders saw it and asked me when my birthday was.  Then they all chimed in their birthday greetings.  But none of the 5th graders did.  Ms. J was the only one to ask if I had a good birthday (that was before any students arrived).  It seems the 5th graders totally forgot my birthday was yesterday!  Or if they remembered, they didn't say anything.  It's okay.  I'm not super bummed.  I'm a little proud that our class made it through the day without any of them remembering. 


At the end of the day we discussed the jicama a little more and one of the 5th graders asked why we were eating it... "just for fun?"  I hemmed and hawed a little (I still don't feel comfortable parading my birthday around to the world) and finally said it was going to be my birthday treat to the class.  None of them batted an eye.  I'm pretty sure only one or two of them was paying attention at that point, so who knows. 


After school today, we did first aid and CPR training.  The lady who did it was really good.  She gave us all sorts of tricks on how to remember the stuff we're learning.  Now I want to put together a couple of first aid kits to have around, just in case!  She showed us how to use a t-shirt to make a sling and explained the wonders of tampons for plugging bullet wounds (hunting accidents).  Diapers are a must in a first aid kit since they hold a lot more blood than your typical gauze, plus there's a leak-proof barrier between the absorbent part and you.


Following our class, I hung up the balloons for our countdown to the last day of school.  As of tomorrow, there are only 21 days of school left.  Earlier in the day I printed the special activities for each day, rolled them up, and slipped them into the balloons.  The 5th graders saw me doing this and tried to get a look at the special activities.  Ha!  I was pretty sneaky about it, so the activities are a complete surprise.  It took me a while to blow up all those balloons!  Now the ends are tucked under the ceiling tiles of our room; it looks quite festive.  I think they'll have a great time finding the balloon that matches each day.  We get to pop the first one at the end of the day tomorrow so the 5th graders know if they need to bring anything or not.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Green Booger

Have you ever heard of a game called "Green Booger"?  I hadn't either until today.  Mr. D was playing some sort of tag game with the 1st grade girls at afternoon recess today.  He stopped by Ms. J and me to take a break and said, "It's been such a long time since I played Green Boogers; I can't even remember how to play!"  Once he explained some of the rules, I remembered a similar game we used to play called Cherry Bomb.


The 7th and 8th graders had about 15 minutes left of the movie we've been watching all week.  The plan was to finish it and then work on Mystery Class.  Before class I went to get it ready and the DVD wasn't recognized by my computer... even though it worked the last two days.  So I moved it to the DVD player hooked up to the sound system.  When we played the movie, the picture kept freezing and skipping.  So we moved it back to the computer.  Still didn't work.  Moved it back to the DVD player.  It worked okay for a while and then started freezing and skipping again.  So I looked up a YouTube link for the video.  By the time I found the spot I wanted, the DVD player was working fine.  And then it began freezing up again.  UGH!  So we watched the last 7 minutes of the movie on YouTube.  And by that time there were only five minutes left of class.  We put the beanbags away and went to the gym for three minutes of recess.


This morning before school I was working in my classroom (I hadn't lifted the shades yet) when I heard a vehicle drive up.  It was too early for it to be students getting dropped off and too early for Ms. J, so I wondered who it was.  A few seconds later I heard faint scritch scratching at the side door of my classroom.  I thought to myself, "Hmm, I hope that person doesn't expect to get let in by that door."  Then I heard the whoosh of a tape measure.  Ohhh.  It was probably the person going to fix our outside door!  Yay, no more cold air sneaking in through the cracks!  Just in time for the nice warm weather next week.


Easter break starts tomorrow.  Halleluiah!  All our kids are so tired; they all need a break.  The teachers too!  Mrs. E is sending a box of chicks home with me.  None of the kindergarten parents wanted any, so all ten are going to live at my parents' farm.  She got them all boxed up and ready for me after school.  For a while they were peeping up a storm, but they've calmed down now... just in time for me to pick them up and get them situated in my car.  Joe's coming home with me this weekend too.  I wonder how he feels about chicks?

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Slovakian Food and Manifest Destiny

"Miss H, where's a fun place to go that's within 2 hours of here?"  This was the question posed to me by the 8th grade boy emptying the classroom's garbage cans at the end of the day.  Looking back on it now, I should've said the library.  Sigh.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  Instead, my mind drew a blank.  When he didn't hear any ideas from me, he clarified a bit more, "Like for a field trip."  Ohhh.  Hmm.  Then he added a little more, "And it has to have a good hotel too."  Ha! Like I know fun places to go with good hotels?  I told him I'd think on it and get back to him.  Valley Fair?  The student said it's only open on weekends.  I'm pretty sure I saw a flyer somewhere with school program dates during the week...  Anyway, enough about that.


We're cruising right along in our social studies book.  Man, the 5th graders are like little sponges just waiting to soak up the next thing I tell them.  Today was our last day on Westward expansion.  Manifest Destiny is complete on our classroom United States "map/puzzle" on the wall.  As the United States grew in our textbook, we added each parcel puzzle piece to a space on the wall.  For a long time it was just the Original 13 Colonies and Land from the Treaty of Paris.  Last week we added the Louisiana Purchase.  Today we remembered the Alamo and added land from the Gadsden Purchase, the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, and the Mexican Cession. 


Then we went out for some recess with the 3rd and 4th graders (I think we'll switch stuff around to do the same tomorrow).  We ended our day with a little time to catch up on homework that needed to be turned in.  The two girls wrote down yesterday's math assignment wrong, so they didn't have the last section finished.  Mr. E wanted them to get it done by the end of the day.  One of them was NOT happy to be finishing her math instead of getting to work on her art project. 


Our Slovakian pen pals sent us a letter about their favorite foods.  Most of them mentioned eating yogurt, sheep cheese, and apple pie.  Some even included recipes!  We got two recipes for apple pie and one for pancakes.  Now the 5th graders want to send some of their recipes back.  I think it's a great idea!  They seem pretty excited to write the reply to this letter.  Food will do that to you I guess.  An interesting thing the 5th graders picked up on was the units of measure featured in the recipe.  Instead of cups, they measure everything in grams since everyone besides the US uses the SI system of units.  I should've done some homework ahead of time.  What is the conversion rate of grams to cups?  600g= ~2.5c  Now I want to try one of the recipes!

Monday, April 14, 2014

The Trail We Blaze

That's right ladies and gentlemen, we started watching The Road to El Dorado today in 7th and 8th ancient history.  The topic was fitting since we are learning about the early civilizations of Central America.  So far I haven't heard any complaining about the movie; let's hope it stays that way.


We took our last Iowa Test this morning.  I think they did pretty well.  I'm really glad we covered the branches of governments as much as we did!  Now we're focusing on Mystery Class.  The majority of the class is finished with the graph and data packets.  They're slowly but surely working on using culture clues to find the 10 mystery locations (most are on #3).


The 2nd graders got through a whole math packet today!  It was one on metric units (which they probably won't use until 5th and 6th grade) so we skipped some of the stuff.  I was a little surprised at how quickly they grasped the concepts.  Tomorrow we'll start a packet on perimeter and area.


I forgot that one of my students was absent on Friday and completely forgot to give him his spelling test this morning!  Oops.  I guess we'll do that tomorrow. 

Friday, April 11, 2014

Meet the Chicks

There are three little fluff balls hanging out in Mrs. E's room.  The chicks are hatching!  It's amazing to think that it only took 21 days for a living, breathing creature to grow.  And in a school no less!


It didn't take much for any 5th grader to find an excuse to meander into Mrs. E's room to check on the chicks.  Every time they'd come back from the bathroom or the drinking fountain it seemed they had an update for me.


It seemed like a slow day today.  The day went fast and we were constantly doing stuff; it didn't seem like a high academic achievement kind of day. We were short one student today (he was sick), so we pushed off our last Iowa test until Monday.  We did Reading Buddies with the 1st graders, took a regular English test, worked on Mystery Class, and practiced for the musical. 


Since next week is a short week, I don't have many lessons to prep before Easter.  I'm "homework" free for the weekend! (aside from the stack of papers to correct... they've been piling up all week).  Next stop, Fulda to celebrate my youngest brother's confirmation.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

pH

This was probably the windiest day of the school year.  It really made me want to fly a kite.  Too bad we don't have a stash of them at school. 


I had a nice chat with the Bookmobile librarian.  She helped me find a few good books to read.  I found a few that I've been wanting to read, so I got those too.  Good thing Easter break is coming up!  I'll have plenty of time to read!


We only have one more ITBS test to take... social studies.  I wanted to try to squeeze it in this morning, but we ran out of time.  Instead, we played the States Slap Game.  I call out a state and two 5th graders go head to head to try and tap it first (on a map of the US).  One of our musical songs is called "Sing the States" and we sing the states in alphabetical order.  I grabbed our songbook and went through the order.  Pretty soon the 5th graders caught on (especially when I began to sing the verses and paused right before the next state they'd have to find).  They did pretty well on the song... not so much locating the states.  We need to work on that.


There were a lot of hard questions on the ITBS science test we took.  A lot of the 5th graders were stumped by the topics we won't cover until next year... pH, protons, solvents.  Some guessed right.  Some guessed wrong.  All were outraged that they were being tested on stuff they hadn't learned yet.  "How are we supposed to know what the answers are?"  They did use their brains on the test though!  After one boy finished, I saw a light bulb flash on over his head, "Miss H., can I go look at the Periodic Table?"  Another boy finished and he wanted to look at the poster too.  They stared at the table for a long time.  Finally I wandered over and asked what they were looking for.  "We're trying to find which element Ph is.  It's got to be on here somewhere."


The 2nd graders weighed their shoes today.  Mrs. M and I sat down to figure out what math we absolutely need to get through by the end of the year and what stuff it's okay to skip.  We pieced together a few math packets centering around certain concepts that need a little review.  Today's was all about measurements.  I forgot to borrow a scale from one of the other teachers and all I had was a metric triple beam balance (kind of like a mini scale they used to weigh people on at the doctor's office... or the kind we have in our feed shed to weigh feed).  We learned how to use the scale and that we can measure things in grams.  Then we predicted which 2nd grade shoe would weigh the most.  And then someone had the bright idea to compare a 2nd grade shoe to a 5th grade shoe.  The 5th graders all wanted to watch too.  So we did.  (I tried to shoo the 5th graders away, but they still hovered near enough to see).

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Sandals

The weather was so tricky today!  The morning started out in the mid-30s, but it got up to the 70s this afternoon. We walked over to church for chapel this morning and the nippy air made me rethink my wardrobe choice of capris.  The afternoon heated up, so I ended up being warm enough. 


At noon recess, the 7th and 8th graders played softball.  In the middle of the field, there was some arguing over teams.  All of a sudden I heard someone yell, "Okay, everyone go over by Miss. H!"  It turned out they wanted me to make teams for them!  Ugh.  I'm horrible at divvying up people for teams.  No one complained very much, surprisingly.


At the end of the day recess, the 5th graders wanted to play boys vs. girls kickball and they wanted me or Ms. J to play on the girls team.  Ms. J noticed that neither of us were wearing the appropriate shoes to play.  And the 5th graders remembered that I keep a pair of hiking sandals under my desk.  Shoot!  I knew I should've brought them home!  Actually, playing kickball wasn't that bad.  There were no arguments over who got to be up to bat or if a person was actually out.  The kindergartners were out for recess too, so a few of them played with us.  One kindergarten girl kicked a home run!  That was exciting.  We made a rule that kindergartners couldn't get out at first base.  The 5th graders did a great job making sure the kindergartners knew what they were doing (or at least made it past first base).


Joe's light bulb burned out in the middle of the day.  It seems like I just replaced it!  Just in case, I'm still hanging onto the old bulb.  I need to keep better track of when the bulbs burn out. 

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Testing, Testing, More Testing

Today was a day of silence.  Ms. J made a comment to me that Mr. E is concerned about how much the 5th graders talk when they're not supposed to, especially during tests.  I guess my ability to tune out pretty much anything is a blessing and a curse.  So this morning, I gave the 5th graders a talk about the importance of staying quiet during tests/while the teacher is talking.  They did a great job in the morning... then they lost it a little bit in the afternoon.  We'll keep working on it. 


It was pretty disheartening to have the 2nd graders barge into the room (when there was a "Quiet Please! Testing!" sign taped to the door).  Their whole math class was filled with blaming others/accusing classmates of cheating, wiggling around in chairs (some of them lost the privilege of sitting in a chair for class), and 5th graders asking them to please be quiet.


Our ITBS for today was all about math.  We did parts one and two and then squeezed in the computation section instead of doing English today.  The first two went great!  Everyone finished all the problems on the test with time to spare.  The last part, computation, was a little different.  While the majority of the class got right to work doing the mental/paper and pencil computing, the one 5th grader who doesn't like math fiddled around, looking off into space, rubbing her eyes, etc.  I'm really glad she went to the bathroom before the test, otherwise she probably would've asked to go to escape doing it!  She did okay on the first two parts, probably because she could use a calculator and didn't have to think too hard.  Still, she got most of the answers completed in the time period.  She scared me because she only had 6 done out of 30 by the time we reached the halfway point on the timer.


Since we squeezed in that extra test, we were a little late to lunch.  I was going to call down to Mr. E's room and tell him to go ahead of us, but I didn't want to disturb their class if they were testing.  By the time we went to lunch, the 7th and 8th graders were already in line!  Not a big deal.  Mr. E was surprised to see us going to lunch so late.  Then the 7th and 8th graders wanted to know if we were going outside for recess (I thought we went over it this morning before the bell rang... sending someone to check for mud outside).  The 8th grade boys told my 5th graders we'd be playing softball at recess to practice, so they all wanted to call parents to bring their gloves to school since they didn't know.  That's always tricky business, letting kids call home in the middle of the day.  You don't want the parents to be bothered, especially if it's not important.  I ended up letting one of them call and his dad dropped off his glove. 


At lunch, all the boys made a huge fuss about going outside!  "But we don't have our gloves with us today! Can't we go inside for recess?"  Augh!  It made me want to pull my hair out!  Mr. E was right there with me.  He said, "Oh, so what we should've said was that we're going inside for recess; then you'd be begging to go outside for recess."  Then the boys complained, "There's nothing to do!"  Inside I was shaking my head.  When I went to school we always went outside for recess, no matter what. 


We ended up going outside for half the time.  The girls wanted to play on the playground side.  I have no clue what the boys wanted to do.  I told one of the girls to talk with the rest of her class to figure out which side we would go on.  Someone told me the playground side.  So that's where we were going to go.  Then half their class came up to ask which side we were going on!  It was super windy, which made the temperature pretty cold, especially for 7th and 8th graders trying to look cool in their sweatshirts.  I made them be outside for 10 minutes and then we went in the gym for the rest.  The boys put up a fuss when I asked them to stay at half-court for basketball so the girls who didn't want to play could have space to do something else.  You'd have I asked them to give up a kidney!  Mumbling and grumbling all over the place.  Recess is definitely not my favorite class.


My box of books came yesterday, just before I packed up for home.  Now we have a bunch of new picture books to add to our class library!  I can't wait to share them with the 5th graders, though I might wait a few days since we're testing this week.  Eh, maybe not.  They can read them if they finish their tests early.

Monday, April 7, 2014

The Truck Got Stuck

The most exciting thing that happened today was the garbage truck getting stuck outside our window.  There was a small drift of snow left in front of the dumpster and the truck backed right over it.  When the driver tried to leave, his back tires were spinning but he didn't go anywhere!  He ended up stuck at our school for a good hour or two while he waited for a tow truck to pull him out.


The 5th graders took their ITBS reading test today.  The first half went really well.  The second half... the reading passages were longer, so they got more intimidated.  And they were tired.  One student kept hissing at the person next to her, "Stop being so loud!  Quit it!" and shot her so many dirty looks I lost count.  This made her neighbor protest loudly, "I'm not doing anything!"  And the first student would say even louder, "Yes you are, you're..." and so on an so forth.  Solution?  Grab a chair and an extra tri-fold display board and stick them between the two.  That worked for a while until one of them moved and accidentally knocked the board on top of the original complainer.  Surprisingly, the first student didn't blow up (I had braced myself, just in case).  One day down, four to go.


We went outside for recess today.  It was a bit chilly, but no one complained.  Our game was kickball, boys vs. girls.  Halfway through the girls complained because the teams were unfair, so we mixed them up for the last few minutes of recess.


Our school got a new t-ball stand, completely made out of rubber/plastic stuff.  So that lovely scent is permeating the hallway/my classroom.  Maybe that's what's giving me a headache.  Or it could be the hour long conversation I had with someone who explained the new school bus/field trip transportation statute for Minnesota.  It's so depressing I don't even want to talk about it right now.  Plus it will take too long to explain and I have a bunch of lessons I still need to do for tomorrow.  So maybe tomorrow I'll explain more.  Sigh.

Friday, April 4, 2014

The Last Hoorah!

And... we had a two hour late start this morning.  With the "extra" time I corrected papers, vacuumed my apartment, swept the floors, and brushed snow off my car.  I'd guess we got about 6-7 inches of snow overnight.


Next week we begin our standardized testing (Iowa Tests of Basic Skill).  Each teacher makes his/her own test schedule.  Since we had a little extra time with our schedule mixed up from the 2-hour delay, I figured why not get a head start and at least fill out the name bubble page ahead of time?  So we did.  While we were at it we took the 10 minute spelling portion of the test. 


5th graders are so fickle.  Teachers have to read the instructions word for word from the booklet, but my 5th graders kind of zoned out claiming they knew how to do everything.  When it came time to fill out the bubbles, half of them had to erase what they'd put down because they did it wrong or didn't look carefully at the headings.  Sigh.  Then they wanted to know why we do these tests in the first place.  So we talked about doing their best so that I can see how much they are learning/areas that we need to work on more. 


Another thing that got them up in arms was a phone conversation they overheard this morning... I've been hearing talk of teachers not being able to drive their own students to go on field trips, very concerning since it's ridiculous for me to get an entire bus to take four kids on a trip when they easily fit in my vehicle.  So I'm trying to get to the bottom of it.  I had called the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library to see if they'd heard of any law.  They weren't able to find anything, but suggested I call the MN Department of Education.  So I called them and spoke with the Government Relations and Communications department.  She said that there is such a law that was passed in 2013 and sent me an email of the statue.  I know I'm not the best at reading legalese, but I can't see that it forbids teachers from driving their own students on field trips.  It was also suggested that I call the Department of Public Safety since they are in charge of school bus regulations.  So that's next on my list.


My students all wanted to know if we were going to be able to take our field trips scheduled in May.  At this point, I don't know.  Of course they were outraged.  If the law is indeed true, next week we're going to write letters to our senators and representatives (which fits in very nicely with our study of American History).

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Do you like fluoride?

One of the 5th graders had a dentist appointment this morning, resulting in a late arrival at school.  This, of course, caused much conversation in our classroom. 


"Miss H, do you like fluoride?"  I had walked in on the middle of the conversation, so I missed the whole 'I hate the dentist' bit.  I thought they were asking me about the singer Flo Rida, leaving off the -a on his name.  Confused, I asked, "The singer?"  "No that stuff they put on your teeth!"  "Ohhhh, that fluoride! Not really, no."


Later in the day, one of the girls came up to me, "Miss H, from now on I'm going to call your scarf the Minecraft scarf because it has squares on it like on Minecraft."  I had no idea she has names for all my scarves!  The one I'm wearing today is supposed to look like a cross-stitch, so the print is kind of pixilated, which I guess looks like Minecraft. 


So far we've escaped the snow that's forecasted.  It's been raining on and off all day.  Yesterday Joe was pretty hunkered down under the heat lamp and I made a comment about it at lunch.  That led to a discussion on how animals can tell when bad weather is coming.  One of the girls got all excited, "Miss H, do your knees hurt?"  I can't believe she remembered that!  A while back I told the 5th graders that my knees ache any time there's a big storm coming.  They've been ache free since yesterday, but they're a little sore today... I still don't think we're going to get the 12 inches of snow predicted.  The number keeps dropping down to seven, then five, then three.  I'm bringing extra school stuff home just in case, though I'm predicting we'll get all the precipitation as rain.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

French Fry Fun

I never knew how educational French fries could be!  Lunch began with my 5th graders digging through their piles of fries searching for the longest fry.  They even held them up to compare the sizes.  Next was the hunt for the thickest cut fry followed by the smallest fry followed by the most burnt fry.  One of the boys commented, "It's just not my day!  My fries won all the categories!" (thinking about the burned fry and the smallest fry)


The 5th graders had fun on their "treasure" hunt this afternoon.  Last week we made creatures that would blend in with their surroundings.  So today before science, I hid them around the classroom.  One was tucked in an empty slot under the lab table; another hid on the pile of black construction paper in the mailboxes.  My favorite hiding spot was the creature I stuck in the collar of a coat in the corner!  The timer was set for five minutes for them to search the classroom, searching for their "prey."  By the time the five minutes were up, they hadn't found too many, so we added another minute.  Only one person found five out of five.  They all wanted to try again!

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

April Fool's Day

Surprisingly, my day was fairly free of pranks.  When I got to school, Mr. D passed me in the hall and said, "Your shoe's untied."  Didn't even look down.  (I was wearing slip-on shoes).  I thought about calling everyone in from noon recess early and then yelling "APRIL FOOLS!" But I figured that wouldn't go over too well and it wasn't worth the effort.  My kids didn't do anything fancy.  Ms. J was too worried about how her interview yesterday went to be thinking of pranks.  So a pretty uneventful day.


Since it is the start of a new quarter, I passed out prizes for my 5th graders' Book Bingos last quarter.  One girl left her notebook listing all the books she read at home.  She begged for one more chance to remember it, so hopefully she brings it tomorrow.  One boy read enough books to earn 3 bingos!  They were pretty excited to see the prizes my mom contributed to our prize bag. :) 


After school I was hoping to get a lot accomplished so I could make it home at a decent hour... then I got waylaid by Mr. E and one of the 8th grade girls.  Tonight is Pre-school Round-up and he was having the 8th grader fix an introductory PowerPoint for him (aka- make it fancy).  Well she was having some trouble, so I ended up helping her for about an hour and a half after school.  And now it's time to make a PowerPoint of my own for tomorrow's 7th and 8th grade science class.