It was good we had lots of recess planned for this afternoon because my 6th graders did not want to do ANYTHING after lunch. Not sure how math went for them, but when they came back to my room they were whining about school being boring and stupid and not fun (mostly just one student, but she was very vocal about her opinion. "School is supposed to be fun. This is stupid."). Another 6th grader kept wandering around the room, never settling in one place, never actually getting anything accomplished.
The 8th graders started out class after lunch okay, but things went downhill after their presentations. Today was the due date for their Africa projects. One of the boys was so wound up, he started marching while giving his presentation about the geography of Africa. And he talked in a goofy voice to make his classmates laugh until I put the kibosh on it. He and the other 8th grade boy asked random questions of the girls when they were presenting, so the girls came up with even harder questions for the guys to answer during their presentations. After everyone presented, we moved on to spelling. There was still time left, so I had them work on Mystery Class or their Animal Habitat projects. No one was very motivated to work. Then Mr. E called to ask if he could get an extra ten minutes of math with the 5th graders (bringing us up to the 1:40 singing time in Mr. E's room before all-school recess). The 8th graders got the memo, but they kept asking if it was time to go back. The student council members left early to draw chalk outlines of hopscotch and four-square on the pavement and their classmates thought they were getting extra recess. Oh the uproar! By the time everyone got settled down to work, it was time to leave.
We practiced our song once, then booked it outside for recess! I played four-square with a bunch of 4-6th graders. Mrs. E and Mr. E joined the game too. Before going out, my whiny 6th grader had mumbled that recess was a stupid idea and it wasn't going to be any fun... I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time. There were people playing on the playground, playing football, playing mini-basketball, playing two games of four-square, drawing with chalk... all the grades were intermixed and the weather was perfect. A lot of my students said we should do it again some time. So not all bad reviews.
And now it's time for me to depart! I have everything packed up in my classroom (just need to close the windows). There are a few things left on my to-do list at home and then I'm off to Carissa's. Tomorrow our flight leaves at 9:00 and we'll be in Cancun by 1:00. I'm leaving all my plans and papers at home to work on Monday. So, adios amigos!
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
Spy Camp
Our new read-aloud book, Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs, was a big hit today. My students reminded me that since today is "technically" Thursday, we should read an extra chapter. I'll give you one guess if that logic worked... :)
The religion lesson for the day was Peter, John, and the Lame Man. There was a skit written in our book for the lesson, so we talked about parts of a script and then split into groups to act it out. Very timely what with the groups preparing for their Variety Night skits. The group that's writing their script added a part where the grandpa walks in and faints at the sight of all the pie on everyone. I'm hoping I can convince them to add the only kid in my class who doesn't have a group as maybe a party guest/bystander without any lines.
April's bell songs are actually sounding pretty good. We have to play the Sunday after Easter... yet another crunch for time, so I still haven't given the 6th graders their Fruit/Veggie Challenge extra recess yet. And we still haven't done the class reward movie. They've just been too crazy! And chatty! This morning was pretty quiet, but once we started Daily 5 all that talking leapt out of their mouths.
The book orders came in!!! Woohoo! I had one very excited 5th grader. She'd been hoping they'd come in before break, and here they are! While the class was out at PE, I catalogued the new additions to our library and put them out for people to glance over. A bunch of them were sequels or third books in a series, but I think I hooked a few readers with my choices. One of the books is Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen (the third book in the False Prince series). Mrs. B is borrowing the first one in the series I think, and the 5th grader was pretty bummed he couldn't bring it home today. I think he's going to look for it at the library.
Tomorrow is our last day of school for the week. We're doing typical Friday stuff on Tuesday... reading buddies and Mystery Class. Our all-school activity for the month is tomorrow: recess together on the blacktop. We're going to play 4-square, hopscotch, basketball, and some other games too. After that my plan is to close up shop and head to my traveling companion's apartment and we leave for Cancun the next day! I have mostly everything packed, just a few odds and ends here and there. I did some digging for churches in Mexico and as expected, there are a ton of Catholic churches, but no Lutheran ones that I could find. I'm thinking we might just have to ask at the hotel desk once we get there. I sent an email to the head of the Lutheran church in Mexico (I think that's who he was) to see if he knew of any churches in the area, but I haven't heard back from him. We'll see I guess!
The religion lesson for the day was Peter, John, and the Lame Man. There was a skit written in our book for the lesson, so we talked about parts of a script and then split into groups to act it out. Very timely what with the groups preparing for their Variety Night skits. The group that's writing their script added a part where the grandpa walks in and faints at the sight of all the pie on everyone. I'm hoping I can convince them to add the only kid in my class who doesn't have a group as maybe a party guest/bystander without any lines.
April's bell songs are actually sounding pretty good. We have to play the Sunday after Easter... yet another crunch for time, so I still haven't given the 6th graders their Fruit/Veggie Challenge extra recess yet. And we still haven't done the class reward movie. They've just been too crazy! And chatty! This morning was pretty quiet, but once we started Daily 5 all that talking leapt out of their mouths.
The book orders came in!!! Woohoo! I had one very excited 5th grader. She'd been hoping they'd come in before break, and here they are! While the class was out at PE, I catalogued the new additions to our library and put them out for people to glance over. A bunch of them were sequels or third books in a series, but I think I hooked a few readers with my choices. One of the books is Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen (the third book in the False Prince series). Mrs. B is borrowing the first one in the series I think, and the 5th grader was pretty bummed he couldn't bring it home today. I think he's going to look for it at the library.
Tomorrow is our last day of school for the week. We're doing typical Friday stuff on Tuesday... reading buddies and Mystery Class. Our all-school activity for the month is tomorrow: recess together on the blacktop. We're going to play 4-square, hopscotch, basketball, and some other games too. After that my plan is to close up shop and head to my traveling companion's apartment and we leave for Cancun the next day! I have mostly everything packed, just a few odds and ends here and there. I did some digging for churches in Mexico and as expected, there are a ton of Catholic churches, but no Lutheran ones that I could find. I'm thinking we might just have to ask at the hotel desk once we get there. I sent an email to the head of the Lutheran church in Mexico (I think that's who he was) to see if he knew of any churches in the area, but I haven't heard back from him. We'll see I guess!
Friday, March 27, 2015
Not A Lot
Not a lot exciting happening today. One of my trouble-makers was sick today, and the classroom was a bit calmer, not too much though.
The 6th grade boys watched their puberty ed video today. The girls were supposed to, but one of them was gone, so we postponed it until she's back in school. The 6th graders were supposed to get their smoothies from the nurse today, and the boys did, but she ran out of strawberries, so the girls are going to wait until they watch the video before they get their smoothies.
We read about five chapters in our read aloud book, Spy School by Stuart Gibbs, and thus finished the book because each chapter was "too much of a cliff-hanger... we have to keep reading!" Yes, we read for about an hour this morning. And they're begging to start the next book. It's not in my library, but thankfully the New Ulm Library has it, and coincidentally I have to run to New Ulm today so I can pick it up then.
My car is fixed. The motor that sends the air in was broken, so it was just a matter of replacing it or putting the old one back in. Since they'd already taken apart the dashboard, I figured they may as well fix it now. So that's where I'm off to after typing this. Other plans for the weekend: My cousin is getting confirmed on Sunday. Tonight and tomorrow my plan is to hang out with college friends in Mankato (and maybe Ivy too).
Only two days of school next week!!!
The 6th grade boys watched their puberty ed video today. The girls were supposed to, but one of them was gone, so we postponed it until she's back in school. The 6th graders were supposed to get their smoothies from the nurse today, and the boys did, but she ran out of strawberries, so the girls are going to wait until they watch the video before they get their smoothies.
We read about five chapters in our read aloud book, Spy School by Stuart Gibbs, and thus finished the book because each chapter was "too much of a cliff-hanger... we have to keep reading!" Yes, we read for about an hour this morning. And they're begging to start the next book. It's not in my library, but thankfully the New Ulm Library has it, and coincidentally I have to run to New Ulm today so I can pick it up then.
My car is fixed. The motor that sends the air in was broken, so it was just a matter of replacing it or putting the old one back in. Since they'd already taken apart the dashboard, I figured they may as well fix it now. So that's where I'm off to after typing this. Other plans for the weekend: My cousin is getting confirmed on Sunday. Tonight and tomorrow my plan is to hang out with college friends in Mankato (and maybe Ivy too).
Only two days of school next week!!!
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Special Ed...
Today was actually a pretty quiet day. Two things excited my class today (one a positive, and one they were more negative about), but first an update on the Lenten supper!
We served about 69 people and made $341 for our class field trips! Woohoo! All my students showed up, they were super polite serving, and I only heard good things from the people who attended. And the parents did most of the clean-up too. I kept notes so if we do this same menu next year, we'll be a bit more prepared. I forgot to add paper products to the list of supplies needed... plates, cups, napkins, bowls... we had to borrow from Mr. E until one of the parents could get to the store and get some more. I'm glad he did since we ended up using all the stuff we bought.
Back to today's "drama". The 5th graders had puberty ed. The school nurse brought her VHS player and made popcorn and the boys and girls took turns watching "the movie" (separate one for boys and girls). It wasn't as bad as they made it all seem; they just like being dramatic about it. Tomorrow is the 6th graders' turn.
The other drama of the day was literally drama. We brainstormed ideas for the spring Variety Night. I have two groups doing skits, one that picked a skit from the internet and another that's writing their own skit so they can throw a pie in their classmate's face (his idea). Now they want to have a cash prize for the winner because they're sure their play will be the best. I have one kid playing piano and two that aren't in a group and don't know what to do with themselves. I asked if they wanted to do something together and they kind of shrugged noncommittally. Once we decided to do skits, everyone was buzzing with excitement and wanted to get started right away. I think our next English lessons will be about writing scripts and reading with feeling! Hopefully this energy keeps up!
I had to leave school early today, as in 3:00 early. Two bank stops were on my list: one to drop off the proceeds from yesterday's fundraiser, and the other to get a prepaid card for my Cancun trip (we leave in less than a week!). I got all that accomplished in record time and made it to the car dealership with time to spare. My vehicle has been blowing hot air no matter what temperature the vent is set at (even on AC!). I sat their correcting papers for an hour and they still hadn't figured out what was wrong with it. They're going to try again tomorrow, so for now I'm driving a red van. Much different than I'm used to!
We served about 69 people and made $341 for our class field trips! Woohoo! All my students showed up, they were super polite serving, and I only heard good things from the people who attended. And the parents did most of the clean-up too. I kept notes so if we do this same menu next year, we'll be a bit more prepared. I forgot to add paper products to the list of supplies needed... plates, cups, napkins, bowls... we had to borrow from Mr. E until one of the parents could get to the store and get some more. I'm glad he did since we ended up using all the stuff we bought.
Back to today's "drama". The 5th graders had puberty ed. The school nurse brought her VHS player and made popcorn and the boys and girls took turns watching "the movie" (separate one for boys and girls). It wasn't as bad as they made it all seem; they just like being dramatic about it. Tomorrow is the 6th graders' turn.
The other drama of the day was literally drama. We brainstormed ideas for the spring Variety Night. I have two groups doing skits, one that picked a skit from the internet and another that's writing their own skit so they can throw a pie in their classmate's face (his idea). Now they want to have a cash prize for the winner because they're sure their play will be the best. I have one kid playing piano and two that aren't in a group and don't know what to do with themselves. I asked if they wanted to do something together and they kind of shrugged noncommittally. Once we decided to do skits, everyone was buzzing with excitement and wanted to get started right away. I think our next English lessons will be about writing scripts and reading with feeling! Hopefully this energy keeps up!
I had to leave school early today, as in 3:00 early. Two bank stops were on my list: one to drop off the proceeds from yesterday's fundraiser, and the other to get a prepaid card for my Cancun trip (we leave in less than a week!). I got all that accomplished in record time and made it to the car dealership with time to spare. My vehicle has been blowing hot air no matter what temperature the vent is set at (even on AC!). I sat their correcting papers for an hour and they still hadn't figured out what was wrong with it. They're going to try again tomorrow, so for now I'm driving a red van. Much different than I'm used to!
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Amylase Action
Ohhhh boy, today's lab was... interesting.
We usually don't do labs on Wednesdays because we only have a half an hour before PE, and my class takes longer than that to do labs. But today's lab didn't seem like it would take all that long. Yesterday we went over what to do so they could get started right away today.
Here's the basic outline of the lab: Spit saliva into a cup, put bread in it, stick it in the fridge. Do the same but leave the cup in room temperature. While they're sitting for a half an hour, take a piece of bread, chew it for 30s, another for 1min, another for 2-3min. Then drip iodine on them to see how much starch is in them.
There's an enzyme in saliva that cuts starches into little glucose molecules, so theoretically, the iodine shouldn't have turned the bread dark (because the saliva would've been breaking it apart). We didn't exactly get those results...
My class was completely grossed out. Like, they couldn't even put the bread in their mouths because it was too gross to think about, let alone chew and spit it out. This completely surprised me. They love talking about gross stuff in class! And now when it comes time to do a gross/cool experiment, they flake out on me. A few kids looked like they were going to throw up; one claimed he actually threw up in the garbage. A few got white and asked if they could stand by an open window to get air. Enough of them were freaking out that I actually passed out ice cream pails to each group, just in case.
It was crazy! They were complaining about how gross this lab was and how they didn't want to do it... we did finally get the lab done, but they didn't keep the bread in their mouth long enough, so it didn't really work. Disappointing. And the 6th graders were in an uproar because the now 8th graders didn't have to do it when they were in my class (this is the first year we're doing this curriculum).
Anyway. We went over to church right after school to set up for our Lenten supper. Now it's time to head back over and check up on things. Hopefully we get a good turnout! It's been really windy today and kind of gross... so I'm guessing a bunch of people are going to stay home.
We usually don't do labs on Wednesdays because we only have a half an hour before PE, and my class takes longer than that to do labs. But today's lab didn't seem like it would take all that long. Yesterday we went over what to do so they could get started right away today.
Here's the basic outline of the lab: Spit saliva into a cup, put bread in it, stick it in the fridge. Do the same but leave the cup in room temperature. While they're sitting for a half an hour, take a piece of bread, chew it for 30s, another for 1min, another for 2-3min. Then drip iodine on them to see how much starch is in them.
There's an enzyme in saliva that cuts starches into little glucose molecules, so theoretically, the iodine shouldn't have turned the bread dark (because the saliva would've been breaking it apart). We didn't exactly get those results...
My class was completely grossed out. Like, they couldn't even put the bread in their mouths because it was too gross to think about, let alone chew and spit it out. This completely surprised me. They love talking about gross stuff in class! And now when it comes time to do a gross/cool experiment, they flake out on me. A few kids looked like they were going to throw up; one claimed he actually threw up in the garbage. A few got white and asked if they could stand by an open window to get air. Enough of them were freaking out that I actually passed out ice cream pails to each group, just in case.
It was crazy! They were complaining about how gross this lab was and how they didn't want to do it... we did finally get the lab done, but they didn't keep the bread in their mouth long enough, so it didn't really work. Disappointing. And the 6th graders were in an uproar because the now 8th graders didn't have to do it when they were in my class (this is the first year we're doing this curriculum).
Anyway. We went over to church right after school to set up for our Lenten supper. Now it's time to head back over and check up on things. Hopefully we get a good turnout! It's been really windy today and kind of gross... so I'm guessing a bunch of people are going to stay home.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Jammin' Out
My students (the girls) have been bugging me to put new music on the iPad so they can listen to it during recess. FINALLY I went through my music and put some new songs on the iPad. With the three inches of snow on the ground, we stayed in from recess and they could finally play their music! Oh they were so excited! There was such discussion over which song was played first. Then they told me all the songs I didn't have, but I should get. Aside from that, they were perfectly content to dance and sing along to the music while the boys played a full court floor hockey game.
The new BINGO prizes I picked up yesterday were also a success. I got some polka dot sidewalk chalk, shark-shaped squirt guns, play dough, and of course caramel apple suckers (their favorite). Not as many BINGOs as last quarter. This sheet was more difficult; I had actual things to look for in a book instead of just genres. Some challenges: a book published this year, a book with an animal on the cover, a book recommended by me, a book with the name of a place in the title, a book with a number in the title. The last quarter's BINGO sheet is much the same (different challenges of course).
It was the first day of the new quarter today. In my muddle of entering grades, getting report cards ready, and lesson planning yesterday, I forgot that I was going to look at the seating chart I'd made up for 4th quarter and maybe move some people around... oops. This morning rolled around and I didn't get a chance to make switches. Guess they'll have to live with the chart the way I made it. One girl was not happy with the arrangements. I have the boys split into two pods and an all girls pod. There's one girl who constantly talks and annoys people ("She's a nuisance!" one of her classmates announced, using one of last week's spelling words). And the student in question had to sit by the noisy student all third quarter. But I have no where else to put Miss Disruption! So I said we would see how this seating arrangement goes and I will move people as the need arises. Another girl in that pod said, "It really doesn't matter because [the noisy student] spends most of the time in the office." Sad, but mostly true.
Mrs. E emailed me this weekend to see when I wanted to meet to go over plans for the Talent/Variety Show in May. I had told her Tuesday or Thursday, completely forgetting I had made a car appointment on Thursday... by the time I remembered, she'd emailed back "Thursday it is!" and she was so excited I didn't want to change it around. So this morning I was all set to call the car place and see if they could switch my appointment, when I noticed the note in the office said the meeting was on Tuesday. Huh. Typo? Or date change? Date change! Mrs. E stopped by to see if it was okay to switch it to Tuesday, so problem solved! The meeting went well. Both Mr. D and Mrs. B joined us. Not a whole lot of planning to do. Each student is required to participate in some way/shape/form, and each teacher is in charge of making sure each student participates. We teachers were going to do a "Survivor" teacher edition, but decided that was going to be really complicated. So our skit is going to be similar to the one we did last time (dance to clips of a bunch of popular songs). We also came up with the idea of doing a "Teacher Trivia Challenge" before the show kind of like they do in movie theaters before the film. Each teacher is going to think of three little known facts about themselves and make up a question to go on a powerpoint before the Variety Night.
Well, my lessons are mostly ready for tomorrow. Two students brought in book orders, so I placed them in the hopes we'll get the books before Easter break... it's going to be close! I think we're all set for serving our Lenten supper too. Now hopefully the weather is nice so people actually come!
The new BINGO prizes I picked up yesterday were also a success. I got some polka dot sidewalk chalk, shark-shaped squirt guns, play dough, and of course caramel apple suckers (their favorite). Not as many BINGOs as last quarter. This sheet was more difficult; I had actual things to look for in a book instead of just genres. Some challenges: a book published this year, a book with an animal on the cover, a book recommended by me, a book with the name of a place in the title, a book with a number in the title. The last quarter's BINGO sheet is much the same (different challenges of course).
It was the first day of the new quarter today. In my muddle of entering grades, getting report cards ready, and lesson planning yesterday, I forgot that I was going to look at the seating chart I'd made up for 4th quarter and maybe move some people around... oops. This morning rolled around and I didn't get a chance to make switches. Guess they'll have to live with the chart the way I made it. One girl was not happy with the arrangements. I have the boys split into two pods and an all girls pod. There's one girl who constantly talks and annoys people ("She's a nuisance!" one of her classmates announced, using one of last week's spelling words). And the student in question had to sit by the noisy student all third quarter. But I have no where else to put Miss Disruption! So I said we would see how this seating arrangement goes and I will move people as the need arises. Another girl in that pod said, "It really doesn't matter because [the noisy student] spends most of the time in the office." Sad, but mostly true.
Mrs. E emailed me this weekend to see when I wanted to meet to go over plans for the Talent/Variety Show in May. I had told her Tuesday or Thursday, completely forgetting I had made a car appointment on Thursday... by the time I remembered, she'd emailed back "Thursday it is!" and she was so excited I didn't want to change it around. So this morning I was all set to call the car place and see if they could switch my appointment, when I noticed the note in the office said the meeting was on Tuesday. Huh. Typo? Or date change? Date change! Mrs. E stopped by to see if it was okay to switch it to Tuesday, so problem solved! The meeting went well. Both Mr. D and Mrs. B joined us. Not a whole lot of planning to do. Each student is required to participate in some way/shape/form, and each teacher is in charge of making sure each student participates. We teachers were going to do a "Survivor" teacher edition, but decided that was going to be really complicated. So our skit is going to be similar to the one we did last time (dance to clips of a bunch of popular songs). We also came up with the idea of doing a "Teacher Trivia Challenge" before the show kind of like they do in movie theaters before the film. Each teacher is going to think of three little known facts about themselves and make up a question to go on a powerpoint before the Variety Night.
Well, my lessons are mostly ready for tomorrow. Two students brought in book orders, so I placed them in the hopes we'll get the books before Easter break... it's going to be close! I think we're all set for serving our Lenten supper too. Now hopefully the weather is nice so people actually come!
Friday, March 20, 2015
It's Time for Africa!
Our guest speaker came super early this morning. He was here at 10:45; we were just finishing up the 6th grade spelling test. He apologized for being here so early, but it was no big deal. He set his stuff up on the lab table while we kept doing Daily 5. Then he showed the 5th and 6th graders the artifacts he'd brought. Oh, they were so impressed! They had a ton of questions for him. I was wrong in my guess of 20 years in Africa... turns out he was only there for five. He and his wife spent about two years in Kenya and then three in Nigeria. She kept the books for five countries in Africa, passing out money to the places that needed it.
Missionary Jerry hung around until lunchtime, ate lunch with us, and hung out at recess. I really wonder what was going through his head... there was an incident in the lunch line. You'd think for once my class would stand like they're supposed to, nice and friendly, while I wash my hands and mark down the lunch count. Nope. Not possible. One of the 5th graders got stabbed in the stomach with a fork. We're still not sure if the other individual stabbed with her fork or if she shoved him and he stabbed himself with the fork. Either way, the student had a red fork mark in the middle of his stomach. Sigh.
My class was in uproar because the 1st and 2nd grade teacher took forever to go to lunch and we had to take basketball team pictures right in the middle of recess (so our two Good Shepherd players could be in the pictures without missing school). They were a bit mollified by my assurance that Mr. E and I were working on a way for them to get more noon recess.
The 8th graders were quiet in class, as per usual. They don't think of many questions for our guest speakers. Once we looked at the artifacts, they seemed to get a little more involved. Men of the tribes in Kenya carry a stick called a "rangu" to protect the women. The one Missionary Jerry had was beaded and was quite hefty. One of the 8th graders loved it and said she was going to ask for one for her birthday.
We ended our day with a little bit of Mystery Class, a little bit of art (making booklets to go with the Project Linus blankets), and a little bit of recess. A few of my kids were frustrated because I made them finish their science labs before going outside. But hey, it's due today and the quarter ends. It needs to get turned in.
So, now we're finally after school on Friday. No school Monday. Six school days before Easter break. I hope everyone has a chance to relax and cool down (or run around outside to get rid of some energy!) this weekend so they can focus this week at school! Myself included!
Missionary Jerry hung around until lunchtime, ate lunch with us, and hung out at recess. I really wonder what was going through his head... there was an incident in the lunch line. You'd think for once my class would stand like they're supposed to, nice and friendly, while I wash my hands and mark down the lunch count. Nope. Not possible. One of the 5th graders got stabbed in the stomach with a fork. We're still not sure if the other individual stabbed with her fork or if she shoved him and he stabbed himself with the fork. Either way, the student had a red fork mark in the middle of his stomach. Sigh.
My class was in uproar because the 1st and 2nd grade teacher took forever to go to lunch and we had to take basketball team pictures right in the middle of recess (so our two Good Shepherd players could be in the pictures without missing school). They were a bit mollified by my assurance that Mr. E and I were working on a way for them to get more noon recess.
The 8th graders were quiet in class, as per usual. They don't think of many questions for our guest speakers. Once we looked at the artifacts, they seemed to get a little more involved. Men of the tribes in Kenya carry a stick called a "rangu" to protect the women. The one Missionary Jerry had was beaded and was quite hefty. One of the 8th graders loved it and said she was going to ask for one for her birthday.
We ended our day with a little bit of Mystery Class, a little bit of art (making booklets to go with the Project Linus blankets), and a little bit of recess. A few of my kids were frustrated because I made them finish their science labs before going outside. But hey, it's due today and the quarter ends. It needs to get turned in.
So, now we're finally after school on Friday. No school Monday. Six school days before Easter break. I hope everyone has a chance to relax and cool down (or run around outside to get rid of some energy!) this weekend so they can focus this week at school! Myself included!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Creeper
"Wow, Miss H! Creeper moved a lot!" No, we didn't get a new class pet. Creeper is the name we've given the rug that's in the reading corner. For some reason, it likes to inch its way closer and closer to the desks. This morning, my students' crates were actually set on top of it. I really don't know how it's moving. It could be the janitor moves it while vacuuming (he cleans Wed. nights) or it could be the way the rubber is on the back of it that causes it to move in a certain direction. It's still a mystery!
My students' invention reports were due today. Last week I gave them a list of things that were invented between 1900-1920 and they had to pick one and research how it got its start. One girl liked the assignment so much, she did three! Some pretty cool things were invented in the 20s: air conditioning, airplanes, cars, life savers, Hershey's chocolate bars, teddy bears, and the list goes on and on. I'm excited to see what things they all found!
Yesterday's bell performance went pretty well. They were really quiet for some reason... but everyone remembered to table damp at the beginning of the song. While we played it, I thought, "Oh man, I hope this doesn't sound stupid this way. I bet everyone thinks it sounds dumb. Why did we change the song?" But it was just me psychoanalyzing everything again. One of the grandmas came up to me after church and was almost teary-eyed over our performance. She was so glad we played recognizable songs (Onward Christian Soldiers, Abide With Me) and she said she saw two ladies (two of our older members) singing along with the music. And she thought the special clunking at the beginning of the song was neat. So all in all, she loved our performance. Whew! We play bells again April 12th, so we only have six practices to get new songs down. That's one of the good things about having the 8th graders for so long; I can take extra bell practices if I need them.
After school, a few students stayed to get caught up on their math since the end of the quarter is, well, tomorrow. One girl did her science lab she missed earlier this week. They both hung out in my room while Mr. E ran an 8th grader's paperwork over to Nicollet (she forgot it on her desk and needed it to play softball over there). All my lessons are planned for tomorrow. We're supposed to have a guest speaker tomorrow... I haven't heard from them since I first set it up, so I'm not absolutely positive they're coming tomorrow. I did send a "we're so excited for your visit tomorrow, do you need anything?" email as a gentle reminder, but I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm just going to trust that they'll show up. It's a retired missionary couple that lived in Africa for oh, maybe 20 years or so? (not sure on that number, but they came to talk to the geography class two years ago and I think that's how long they said they were there). I do have a back-up plan if they don't show up. Let's hope that they do!
My plans for the evening: get my drivers license renewed, library, grocery store, correct papers... read a book? Haven't done that in a while. I've been too busy!
My students' invention reports were due today. Last week I gave them a list of things that were invented between 1900-1920 and they had to pick one and research how it got its start. One girl liked the assignment so much, she did three! Some pretty cool things were invented in the 20s: air conditioning, airplanes, cars, life savers, Hershey's chocolate bars, teddy bears, and the list goes on and on. I'm excited to see what things they all found!
Yesterday's bell performance went pretty well. They were really quiet for some reason... but everyone remembered to table damp at the beginning of the song. While we played it, I thought, "Oh man, I hope this doesn't sound stupid this way. I bet everyone thinks it sounds dumb. Why did we change the song?" But it was just me psychoanalyzing everything again. One of the grandmas came up to me after church and was almost teary-eyed over our performance. She was so glad we played recognizable songs (Onward Christian Soldiers, Abide With Me) and she said she saw two ladies (two of our older members) singing along with the music. And she thought the special clunking at the beginning of the song was neat. So all in all, she loved our performance. Whew! We play bells again April 12th, so we only have six practices to get new songs down. That's one of the good things about having the 8th graders for so long; I can take extra bell practices if I need them.
After school, a few students stayed to get caught up on their math since the end of the quarter is, well, tomorrow. One girl did her science lab she missed earlier this week. They both hung out in my room while Mr. E ran an 8th grader's paperwork over to Nicollet (she forgot it on her desk and needed it to play softball over there). All my lessons are planned for tomorrow. We're supposed to have a guest speaker tomorrow... I haven't heard from them since I first set it up, so I'm not absolutely positive they're coming tomorrow. I did send a "we're so excited for your visit tomorrow, do you need anything?" email as a gentle reminder, but I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm just going to trust that they'll show up. It's a retired missionary couple that lived in Africa for oh, maybe 20 years or so? (not sure on that number, but they came to talk to the geography class two years ago and I think that's how long they said they were there). I do have a back-up plan if they don't show up. Let's hope that they do!
My plans for the evening: get my drivers license renewed, library, grocery store, correct papers... read a book? Haven't done that in a while. I've been too busy!
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Great Depression
This morning the first thing my students did was to check on their polymer mixes from yesterday's lab. Most of them had oozed over the piece of paper they were on. A few of them were getting crispy (the white glue mixes). Surprisingly, the blue glue mixes were still rubbery, the consistency of Silly Putty. Oh we had good conversation about what kinds of cross-links they had and if they were linear or branched polymers! They made them into balls and could actually bounce them around the room! So that's what entertained them most of the day. We did make a set of rules for them: only playing with them at read aloud/recess, and if they bounce away from the desk or are out at any other point of the day, Miss H. gets to take them. We didn't have any problems with them after that.
My kids were in the zone for MN history! We started by talking about the Roaring 20s and moved onto the Great Depression... we only made it through four slides of the powerpoint, but man did they ask some good questions! We talked about what happened after soldiers came home from WWI and how the stock market works and how banks work and why the Great Depression happened. Oh it was good stuff. I can't wait to continue this lesson tomorrow.
Chapel was at 9:30 today since Camp Omega came to visit. I didn't get the memo on the late chapel start until yesterday when Mrs. B told me during lab. The memo didn't get passed around either, because both Mr. D and Mrs. B (1st and 2nd) walked out the door at 8:35 to get to chapel. One of my kids ran out to tell them chapel wasn't until 9:30. Crisis averted! Mr. E called later that morning to say the Camp Omega guy was running a little late and chapel would be pushed off to 9:45. After chapel, we practiced the song we're singing tonight for church. The bells are going to play first and then we sing. As an added complication, Mrs. E (our normal director) is in Florida right now. Mr. E is going to be directing. I got a call this morning from a 6th grader's mom; he has swimming lessons after school tonight that he can't miss... so is it okay if he misses bells? Well what am I supposed to say? At practice we found other people to play his bells, so it's fine. But really, why are we playing bells if no one shows up to play them?!
Last night I did get my sauerkraut made. Cabbage flakes were all over the place! And I forgot to write down how much each cabbage weighed so I'd know how much salt to include. But I think I estimated right. I mixed them all together and the juice came up to the surface, so I'm thinking it will be okay. Water bags are on top, plastic wrap and plastic bag covering everything else. And the crock has found a home in my guest bathtub. Now we wait five-six weeks for it to ferment! And what do you know, it will be done on my birthday! How's that for timing?
I'd better get working on my lesson for tomorrow. 1st and 2nd Mrs. B and I are going over to eat at 5:45 which gives me about an hour to get everything ready for tomorrow. Not a lot to do... just finish a geography powerpoint (but those take the longest for me to make). I'm caught up on everything else! Well, except putting grades in the grade book, but I can save that for tomorrow.
My kids were in the zone for MN history! We started by talking about the Roaring 20s and moved onto the Great Depression... we only made it through four slides of the powerpoint, but man did they ask some good questions! We talked about what happened after soldiers came home from WWI and how the stock market works and how banks work and why the Great Depression happened. Oh it was good stuff. I can't wait to continue this lesson tomorrow.
Chapel was at 9:30 today since Camp Omega came to visit. I didn't get the memo on the late chapel start until yesterday when Mrs. B told me during lab. The memo didn't get passed around either, because both Mr. D and Mrs. B (1st and 2nd) walked out the door at 8:35 to get to chapel. One of my kids ran out to tell them chapel wasn't until 9:30. Crisis averted! Mr. E called later that morning to say the Camp Omega guy was running a little late and chapel would be pushed off to 9:45. After chapel, we practiced the song we're singing tonight for church. The bells are going to play first and then we sing. As an added complication, Mrs. E (our normal director) is in Florida right now. Mr. E is going to be directing. I got a call this morning from a 6th grader's mom; he has swimming lessons after school tonight that he can't miss... so is it okay if he misses bells? Well what am I supposed to say? At practice we found other people to play his bells, so it's fine. But really, why are we playing bells if no one shows up to play them?!
Last night I did get my sauerkraut made. Cabbage flakes were all over the place! And I forgot to write down how much each cabbage weighed so I'd know how much salt to include. But I think I estimated right. I mixed them all together and the juice came up to the surface, so I'm thinking it will be okay. Water bags are on top, plastic wrap and plastic bag covering everything else. And the crock has found a home in my guest bathtub. Now we wait five-six weeks for it to ferment! And what do you know, it will be done on my birthday! How's that for timing?
I'd better get working on my lesson for tomorrow. 1st and 2nd Mrs. B and I are going over to eat at 5:45 which gives me about an hour to get everything ready for tomorrow. Not a lot to do... just finish a geography powerpoint (but those take the longest for me to make). I'm caught up on everything else! Well, except putting grades in the grade book, but I can save that for tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Gooey Glue
Nothing too spectacular today. My students are still really restless. I had to get after them to settle down and listen pretty much all day. The 8th graders visited New Ulm High School and went out to Pizza Ranch afterwards, so one of my students had to help serve lunch. Oh, the dramafest! One of the 6th graders was turning it into this huge deal and it really wasn't. We picked a stick to choose the person to do the serving.
Since we were in a signing up mood, we signed everyone up for bringing stuff for our Lenten supper next Wednesday. And we picked who's doing what jobs (serving milk, coffee, etc.). It was surprisingly drama-free. Some kids were disappointed that others took the things they were going to sign up for, and a lot of the ones who picked first offered to switch to something else so everyone would be happy. It was nice to have them be so nice to each other! We're having chicken fajitas, rice, fruit, and bars for our meal.
One of my students has completed her time in the speech program. She can now say all her /r/s and doesn't need to go anymore! We had a meeting today to sign all the paperwork.
Our lab this afternoon was quite sticky and messy. Of course, it was dealing with glue, so what do you expect? We learned about polymers (many parts) that make up plastics and tons of other things we come into contact with on a daily basis. I quizzed them before the lab today and they actually remember quite a bit! I just hope that translates to their lab sheets... I'm worried they won't write much on their papers... a few of them have been slacking off in the reading/writing department lately. So the lab involved mixing liquid starch with different types of glue to see if the same thing happens with each. We did regular Elmer's glue and Elmer's glitter glue. At first they reacted differently (they both made a Silly Putty like substance), but the more they worked with it, the more it mixed and the more the bonds formed, so it didn't stretch as much. They were so excited! A bunch said they were going to go home and make a big batch in different colors. We left them on the lab table overnight to see what happens to it. It will probably dry out. I suppose I could've let them put them in bags and take them home. Ah, well, too late now. Mrs. B came over to help supervise the lab. She ran back home to get some wood putty and some plumber putty to show the class different consistencies of putties. It was pretty neat. Our clean-up almost took longer than the lab did! We did get outside for about 10 minutes of recess. The 8th graders were out too, so we got to play a little softball. They all want to go on the soccer field side of the school for recess tomorrow, at least, all the boys do. The girls will probably want to spend recess on the playground equipment. It's supposed to be really cold tomorrow, so who knows what will happen?
Since we were in a signing up mood, we signed everyone up for bringing stuff for our Lenten supper next Wednesday. And we picked who's doing what jobs (serving milk, coffee, etc.). It was surprisingly drama-free. Some kids were disappointed that others took the things they were going to sign up for, and a lot of the ones who picked first offered to switch to something else so everyone would be happy. It was nice to have them be so nice to each other! We're having chicken fajitas, rice, fruit, and bars for our meal.
One of my students has completed her time in the speech program. She can now say all her /r/s and doesn't need to go anymore! We had a meeting today to sign all the paperwork.
Our lab this afternoon was quite sticky and messy. Of course, it was dealing with glue, so what do you expect? We learned about polymers (many parts) that make up plastics and tons of other things we come into contact with on a daily basis. I quizzed them before the lab today and they actually remember quite a bit! I just hope that translates to their lab sheets... I'm worried they won't write much on their papers... a few of them have been slacking off in the reading/writing department lately. So the lab involved mixing liquid starch with different types of glue to see if the same thing happens with each. We did regular Elmer's glue and Elmer's glitter glue. At first they reacted differently (they both made a Silly Putty like substance), but the more they worked with it, the more it mixed and the more the bonds formed, so it didn't stretch as much. They were so excited! A bunch said they were going to go home and make a big batch in different colors. We left them on the lab table overnight to see what happens to it. It will probably dry out. I suppose I could've let them put them in bags and take them home. Ah, well, too late now. Mrs. B came over to help supervise the lab. She ran back home to get some wood putty and some plumber putty to show the class different consistencies of putties. It was pretty neat. Our clean-up almost took longer than the lab did! We did get outside for about 10 minutes of recess. The 8th graders were out too, so we got to play a little softball. They all want to go on the soccer field side of the school for recess tomorrow, at least, all the boys do. The girls will probably want to spend recess on the playground equipment. It's supposed to be really cold tomorrow, so who knows what will happen?
Monday, March 16, 2015
Dilly-Dallying
I don't know if it's the Monday jitters or what, but my kids were really hard to settle today. They were whispering and chitter-chattering all morning and had a hard time focusing... even the kids who are normally quick to listen were having a hard time.
We had Mexican haystacks for lunch today. They taste all right, but they take forever to serve, so the 8th graders always complain about how they're getting gypped on recess. I even gave them extra recess today and they still complained! Granted, it was only about five minutes, but Mr. E needs all the time he can get with math. The haystacks are made with tortilla chips, browned hamburger, and nacho cheese spread on top. In other words, very messy. One of the fifth graders asked if he could dump and go out to recess. He had a ton of cheese smeared all over his face. I said "yes, but you got a little something on your face." He tried to lick it off with his tongue, failed, then wiped his face on the sleeve of his white shirt. *Cringe* Not exactly what I had in mind for cleaning purposes.
In other news, our side door now works again! To get it open, you had to shove your whole body against it... now it swings open easily! The school trustee's kid is in my class, so they came over this weekend to fix it. All it took was a few swings of a hammer to move the siding/door frame back to where it was supposed to be.
But more things are needing fixing! After school, I spent about an hour calling a bunch of people so that I can finally be able to send/receive texts. Welcome to the 21st century, Emily, even if you don't necessarily want to be there. I'm sure I'll appreciate texting now that I have it, but it takes so long to type out a message on my flip phone! Once that was all straightened out, I made a call about my car. The vents aren't working; they only blow out hot air, even on AC. I'm waiting on a guy to call me back to talk about what might be wrong with it. But it's after five, so I'm guessing he's not going to call back today. Sigh. He'll probably call back tomorrow while I'm teaching and I won't be able to get back to him until after school...
However, to end on a somewhat exciting note, I'm going to try my hand at making sauerkraut! Cabbage was on sale at the grocery store this week, so I stocked up. Grandma is letting me use her crock, recipe, canning salt, and cabbage chopper thing, so I should be set! It's on the agenda for tomorrow night. Tonight I need to finish reading a book one of my students lent me (he said I could read it while he finished reading the Conspiracy 365 series... he's on the second to last book and I'm guessing he'll want his book back soon).
We had Mexican haystacks for lunch today. They taste all right, but they take forever to serve, so the 8th graders always complain about how they're getting gypped on recess. I even gave them extra recess today and they still complained! Granted, it was only about five minutes, but Mr. E needs all the time he can get with math. The haystacks are made with tortilla chips, browned hamburger, and nacho cheese spread on top. In other words, very messy. One of the fifth graders asked if he could dump and go out to recess. He had a ton of cheese smeared all over his face. I said "yes, but you got a little something on your face." He tried to lick it off with his tongue, failed, then wiped his face on the sleeve of his white shirt. *Cringe* Not exactly what I had in mind for cleaning purposes.
In other news, our side door now works again! To get it open, you had to shove your whole body against it... now it swings open easily! The school trustee's kid is in my class, so they came over this weekend to fix it. All it took was a few swings of a hammer to move the siding/door frame back to where it was supposed to be.
But more things are needing fixing! After school, I spent about an hour calling a bunch of people so that I can finally be able to send/receive texts. Welcome to the 21st century, Emily, even if you don't necessarily want to be there. I'm sure I'll appreciate texting now that I have it, but it takes so long to type out a message on my flip phone! Once that was all straightened out, I made a call about my car. The vents aren't working; they only blow out hot air, even on AC. I'm waiting on a guy to call me back to talk about what might be wrong with it. But it's after five, so I'm guessing he's not going to call back today. Sigh. He'll probably call back tomorrow while I'm teaching and I won't be able to get back to him until after school...
However, to end on a somewhat exciting note, I'm going to try my hand at making sauerkraut! Cabbage was on sale at the grocery store this week, so I stocked up. Grandma is letting me use her crock, recipe, canning salt, and cabbage chopper thing, so I should be set! It's on the agenda for tomorrow night. Tonight I need to finish reading a book one of my students lent me (he said I could read it while he finished reading the Conspiracy 365 series... he's on the second to last book and I'm guessing he'll want his book back soon).
Friday, March 13, 2015
Fine Arts Fair
Today was a lot better of a day than yesterday. I got all my papers corrected and did some lesson planning last night, so I'm feeling a little more prepared for the coming week.
When I got to school, I noticed my classroom door was open and the light was on... one of my students was already here! Her mom dropped her off on her way to work. There was also a surprise on my desk... Mr. D felt so sorry that I had a bad day yesterday that he gave me a pack of M&Ms. They were lying on my desk this morning with a "Happy Friday" post-it note on them.
Most of my students said their memory without too much trouble. One student didn't like her partner for Reading Buddies and instead of trying to coerce her into reading, I just decided to read with her partner. It was fun! We read The Cat in the Hat and the 1st grader was a good enough reader to read every other page. He said he practices reading that book at home so he gets to be even better at reading.
The day ended with a preview of the participants in the Fine Arts Fair tomorrow giving us a preview of their performances. Everyone in grades 1-8 is required to do some sort of performance in addition to submitting an art project for judging. The 6-8th graders perform bells, the 5-6th graders do a science fair project, and everyone younger than that does either a dramatic reading or a vocal performance. All the girls in my class wanted to do a vocal performance too. And one of the 6th grade boys played piano. He's really good! He has his whole song memorized so well he was making faces at the audience and winked at us at the end. Everyone loved it. I hope he does the same thing tomorrow too. I was a little nervous about my shyest student, but she projected her voice and sang really well! She'll do just fine tomorrow. For the preview, we set up a short, sturdy table in Mr. E's room and brought my step stool in as stairs up to the "stage". The performers could stand on the stage just like they were performing for real. It was cool.
After school, Mr. E sent me an email he'd gotten from someone who found our school website. This mom had stumbled on my geography resources for the 8th graders and LOVED them. I still don't see what the big deal is... there are a few kid-friendly study sites and then maps to study from for each continent. Nothing too spectacular. But I guess something made an impression on her. She sent a link she thought would be a good addition to our resource site (and wants to surprise her daughter that her link made it on our site). We're still not sure where these people are from. Still, it's pretty neat they found us!
My last tasks for the day are to pack up the science fair boards and then go pick up the nice bell table covers from church. I think I'll be out of here by 5:30! Tomorrow, I have to be down in Northrup at 8:00 to set up the science fair boards and run the table at 8:30. If anyone wants to see me direct bells, the whole-group concert starts at 11:00!
When I got to school, I noticed my classroom door was open and the light was on... one of my students was already here! Her mom dropped her off on her way to work. There was also a surprise on my desk... Mr. D felt so sorry that I had a bad day yesterday that he gave me a pack of M&Ms. They were lying on my desk this morning with a "Happy Friday" post-it note on them.
Most of my students said their memory without too much trouble. One student didn't like her partner for Reading Buddies and instead of trying to coerce her into reading, I just decided to read with her partner. It was fun! We read The Cat in the Hat and the 1st grader was a good enough reader to read every other page. He said he practices reading that book at home so he gets to be even better at reading.
The day ended with a preview of the participants in the Fine Arts Fair tomorrow giving us a preview of their performances. Everyone in grades 1-8 is required to do some sort of performance in addition to submitting an art project for judging. The 6-8th graders perform bells, the 5-6th graders do a science fair project, and everyone younger than that does either a dramatic reading or a vocal performance. All the girls in my class wanted to do a vocal performance too. And one of the 6th grade boys played piano. He's really good! He has his whole song memorized so well he was making faces at the audience and winked at us at the end. Everyone loved it. I hope he does the same thing tomorrow too. I was a little nervous about my shyest student, but she projected her voice and sang really well! She'll do just fine tomorrow. For the preview, we set up a short, sturdy table in Mr. E's room and brought my step stool in as stairs up to the "stage". The performers could stand on the stage just like they were performing for real. It was cool.
After school, Mr. E sent me an email he'd gotten from someone who found our school website. This mom had stumbled on my geography resources for the 8th graders and LOVED them. I still don't see what the big deal is... there are a few kid-friendly study sites and then maps to study from for each continent. Nothing too spectacular. But I guess something made an impression on her. She sent a link she thought would be a good addition to our resource site (and wants to surprise her daughter that her link made it on our site). We're still not sure where these people are from. Still, it's pretty neat they found us!
My last tasks for the day are to pack up the science fair boards and then go pick up the nice bell table covers from church. I think I'll be out of here by 5:30! Tomorrow, I have to be down in Northrup at 8:00 to set up the science fair boards and run the table at 8:30. If anyone wants to see me direct bells, the whole-group concert starts at 11:00!
Thursday, March 12, 2015
One of those days...
This past weekend I watched the movie Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (based on the book with the same title). I kind of had one of those days today. But like Alexander says in the book, "My mom says some days are like that." And all we can do is move forward and hope that tomorrow is better.
I guess looking back on it now, it wasn't quite so bad. My thoughts were colored because I didn't have much time to recuperate from the field trip yesterday and I'm tired. That, and I feel like I'm slacking off in teaching certain classes, like English. I'm one of those people who wants to do everything and do everything well. And while I'm doing that in a lot of subject areas, there are some areas that end up getting brushed aside, and I definitely know I can do better in them. And then the Iowa Tests are coming up after Easter. And a psychologist from Nicollet is coming to observe students with IEPs in my class. And I have parents dreading science fair projects and asking if we want to do another class fundraiser and kids who don't want to play bells and... the list goes on and on. So basically, I'm thinking about all the things I could be doing better at and am getting frustrated because I don't have time to do them all well. So I feel like I'm failing my students (or not letting them reach their full potential) because of it. But I'm maxed out! I don't think I have the time to fix it! I know, take baby steps and do things little by little, and I am working on that. But I'm also one of those people who likes to have things perfect right away. So it's tough. But... enough of the ranting.
All but two science fair boards have been dropped off at school. Their parents have talked to me and are bringing them tomorrow. Not a ton of stuff stapled to their boards, so I should be able to fit them all in the back of my car nicely.
The weather was nice again today. It was a little cooler than I was expecting (ha, 65 degrees is "cooler"). I'd heard today was supposed to get up to 75, but we didn't get that warm. It was still warm enough without a coat! For afternoon recess, the sixth graders and the 5th grade girls played swing-ball-tag. It's a game we invented last year. Students swing on the swings, and two people on the ground try to hit them with a foam ball. Once a swinger has been hit three times, he switches places with the person on the ground who got the third hit. It's a lot harder than it sounds!
So, one more day this week. Then the Fine Arts Fair. Next week the quarter ends, so I'll get Monday off school... and Easter is only two and a half weeks away!
I guess looking back on it now, it wasn't quite so bad. My thoughts were colored because I didn't have much time to recuperate from the field trip yesterday and I'm tired. That, and I feel like I'm slacking off in teaching certain classes, like English. I'm one of those people who wants to do everything and do everything well. And while I'm doing that in a lot of subject areas, there are some areas that end up getting brushed aside, and I definitely know I can do better in them. And then the Iowa Tests are coming up after Easter. And a psychologist from Nicollet is coming to observe students with IEPs in my class. And I have parents dreading science fair projects and asking if we want to do another class fundraiser and kids who don't want to play bells and... the list goes on and on. So basically, I'm thinking about all the things I could be doing better at and am getting frustrated because I don't have time to do them all well. So I feel like I'm failing my students (or not letting them reach their full potential) because of it. But I'm maxed out! I don't think I have the time to fix it! I know, take baby steps and do things little by little, and I am working on that. But I'm also one of those people who likes to have things perfect right away. So it's tough. But... enough of the ranting.
All but two science fair boards have been dropped off at school. Their parents have talked to me and are bringing them tomorrow. Not a ton of stuff stapled to their boards, so I should be able to fit them all in the back of my car nicely.
The weather was nice again today. It was a little cooler than I was expecting (ha, 65 degrees is "cooler"). I'd heard today was supposed to get up to 75, but we didn't get that warm. It was still warm enough without a coat! For afternoon recess, the sixth graders and the 5th grade girls played swing-ball-tag. It's a game we invented last year. Students swing on the swings, and two people on the ground try to hit them with a foam ball. Once a swinger has been hit three times, he switches places with the person on the ground who got the third hit. It's a lot harder than it sounds!
So, one more day this week. Then the Fine Arts Fair. Next week the quarter ends, so I'll get Monday off school... and Easter is only two and a half weeks away!
YWAC
Yesterday was so crazy busy, I completely forgot to make a post! So here's all that happened yesterday...
Before the school day started, Mr. D came into my room asking for directions and a map to get to BLC. He almost seemed offended that I didn't already have one made. But, in my defense, before this year I was the only driver for my class's field trips; I didn't need to make maps for the drivers since I was the only one. And, in this day and age of technology, most people have a GPS or can use their phones to get directions. That, and most people have been to BLC for sporting events, etc. (Mt. Olive uses their soccer fields and gym sometimes). And we'd be riding in a convoy of vehicles, so I assumed most people would be able to find it. But, for Mr. D's sake I quickly put together a map and directions. He played it off later like he was only trying to make me look more prepared and efficient/organized with a professional-looking map to give to parents.
There were a few parents who complained (not to me) about having to have their student to school by 8:00am. Some parents didn't get the note home about the field trip until the day before (it went home last week!) and panicked trying to find an early ride to school for their child. There were a couple of New Ulm people chaperoning, so they volunteered to give rides to students that needed them. Still, one girl missed the memo and got on the New Ulm bus. So we had to wait for her anyway. Everyone got loaded in the vehicles, so as soon as she got off the bus and in her car, we were off! We made it to BLC by 8:45 and were quickly registered. Next time, we'd probably be okay waiting for the New Ulm bus kids to arrive, but since this was the first time I'd gone, I didn't want to risk being late.
The 3rd and 4th grade boys rode with me. Two of them are farm boys and talked my ears off about all things farming the whole way to Mankato. I am now up to date on all the latest farming equipment!
The main speaker of the event, Michael Perry, was really cool. He's from WI and writes mostly non-fiction. He climbed Mt. Rainer (for a story), winter camped near Canada (another story), worked as a cowboy in WY, farms pigs and some other animals, and is in general, a cool dude. He told lots of stories about how writing doesn't have to be boring, sit around and think all the time. Doing research is all about experiencing different things. He showed us a video his neighbor took... Tom is an 80 yr. old who makes his own cannons in his spare time... and then shoots them. One day, another neighbor asked him to shoot down a silo that was looking like it would fall over. So he did. And that's the video we watched. It was sweet.
The rest of the day I hung around random students. I wandered a bit and stumbled upon students from our school at different sessions. Some invited me to join them. I went to one session where students got a rock with a word on it and they had to write a story about it. The second one was making a flag book. It's a cross between a scrapbook and a notebook; the decorations are only made out of paper. Book art, that's what it's called. The last class was called "Cute vs. Creepy". An illustrator taught us how to draw cute characters (lots of circles) and creepy characters (lots of triangles). One student got sick during the day and Mr. E had to bring her back to school. The camera case was forgotten at BLC, but the YWAC people are going to mail it to us later. Aside from that, the day went great! I think we're going to make it an annual thing (at least for my class).
After school, a student stayed to work on her written report for science. She kept asking me questions and needed help, so my to do list didn't get much crossed off. Before I knew it, it was time for supper/church! The ladies' choir had asked me to sing with them, so I sat with them up front by the piano. I'm not used to having people watch me sing... I pretty much kept my eyes on my music so I wouldn't have to look at them. After church, I still had some things to finish up at school... I didn't get out of here until 8:00! Yikes! It looks like the craziness isn't about to let up either. The Fine Arts Fair is on Saturday, we sing/play bells on Wednesday at church, the quarter ends next Friday, my class serves supper the following Wednesday, and then it's Easter break! Maybe then I can relax a bit.
Before the school day started, Mr. D came into my room asking for directions and a map to get to BLC. He almost seemed offended that I didn't already have one made. But, in my defense, before this year I was the only driver for my class's field trips; I didn't need to make maps for the drivers since I was the only one. And, in this day and age of technology, most people have a GPS or can use their phones to get directions. That, and most people have been to BLC for sporting events, etc. (Mt. Olive uses their soccer fields and gym sometimes). And we'd be riding in a convoy of vehicles, so I assumed most people would be able to find it. But, for Mr. D's sake I quickly put together a map and directions. He played it off later like he was only trying to make me look more prepared and efficient/organized with a professional-looking map to give to parents.
There were a few parents who complained (not to me) about having to have their student to school by 8:00am. Some parents didn't get the note home about the field trip until the day before (it went home last week!) and panicked trying to find an early ride to school for their child. There were a couple of New Ulm people chaperoning, so they volunteered to give rides to students that needed them. Still, one girl missed the memo and got on the New Ulm bus. So we had to wait for her anyway. Everyone got loaded in the vehicles, so as soon as she got off the bus and in her car, we were off! We made it to BLC by 8:45 and were quickly registered. Next time, we'd probably be okay waiting for the New Ulm bus kids to arrive, but since this was the first time I'd gone, I didn't want to risk being late.
The 3rd and 4th grade boys rode with me. Two of them are farm boys and talked my ears off about all things farming the whole way to Mankato. I am now up to date on all the latest farming equipment!
The main speaker of the event, Michael Perry, was really cool. He's from WI and writes mostly non-fiction. He climbed Mt. Rainer (for a story), winter camped near Canada (another story), worked as a cowboy in WY, farms pigs and some other animals, and is in general, a cool dude. He told lots of stories about how writing doesn't have to be boring, sit around and think all the time. Doing research is all about experiencing different things. He showed us a video his neighbor took... Tom is an 80 yr. old who makes his own cannons in his spare time... and then shoots them. One day, another neighbor asked him to shoot down a silo that was looking like it would fall over. So he did. And that's the video we watched. It was sweet.
The rest of the day I hung around random students. I wandered a bit and stumbled upon students from our school at different sessions. Some invited me to join them. I went to one session where students got a rock with a word on it and they had to write a story about it. The second one was making a flag book. It's a cross between a scrapbook and a notebook; the decorations are only made out of paper. Book art, that's what it's called. The last class was called "Cute vs. Creepy". An illustrator taught us how to draw cute characters (lots of circles) and creepy characters (lots of triangles). One student got sick during the day and Mr. E had to bring her back to school. The camera case was forgotten at BLC, but the YWAC people are going to mail it to us later. Aside from that, the day went great! I think we're going to make it an annual thing (at least for my class).
After school, a student stayed to work on her written report for science. She kept asking me questions and needed help, so my to do list didn't get much crossed off. Before I knew it, it was time for supper/church! The ladies' choir had asked me to sing with them, so I sat with them up front by the piano. I'm not used to having people watch me sing... I pretty much kept my eyes on my music so I wouldn't have to look at them. After church, I still had some things to finish up at school... I didn't get out of here until 8:00! Yikes! It looks like the craziness isn't about to let up either. The Fine Arts Fair is on Saturday, we sing/play bells on Wednesday at church, the quarter ends next Friday, my class serves supper the following Wednesday, and then it's Easter break! Maybe then I can relax a bit.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Food Fear Factor
We went outside for recess today!!! And can you believe it, the 8th graders complained about HAVING to go outside. Granted, it was a little muddy, but still. The weather was gorgeous! I sat there and let the sun sink into my bones... I didn't want to go back inside. We actually opened the windows in the classroom because it was getting too warm!
Chapel was at church this morning for the first time since before winter. We didn't freeze walking over!
The school nurse did a Food Fear Factor nutrition lesson today. She talked about calories and the food pyramid and what different fruits and vegetables do for your body. Then came the challenge. She brought 18 fruits and vegetables of different colors for the students (and me!) to try. Some were cooked (parsnips, beets, eggplant with spaghetti sauce, turnips, squash, and rutabaga), most were uncooked (figs and Fig Newtons, prunes, okra pickles, pea pods, avocado, tomatillo salsa with chips, mango, cauliflower, jicama, red peppers, and blood oranges). Most of my kids tried everything! I added a little incentive to the mix. For every three kids that try one of the food items, we can put a marble in the class prize jar. So if there are 18 foods, and thirteen kids, that makes a potential for 78 marbles. One prize= 65 marbles. We ended up with 64 and 2/3rds of a marble. So I rounded it up and the class gets to pick a reward... extra recess, a movie morning, something like that. They were really excited.
After school was chaotic. We went over to church to pack up the books from the book fair, but Pastor wasn't over there and the door to the room was locked. Rachel and I had left our phones at school, and Mr. D only had their home phone number in his phone... we called and got the answering machine. So we walked over and rang their doorbell, but they weren't home. After a while they called school and told us they'd unlocked the room. So we went back over to church and loaded up all the stuff, brought it back to school, packed it in the boxes, and finished just in time for the PTL meeting.
In between there, I got a call from one of the chaperones for tomorrow's field trip... the lady she got to cover her shift at work ended up not being able to work for her. So we're short one chaperone and a few seats. Mr. D didn't want to drive and we had planned for him to ride with another driver, but now it looks like he'll have to drive. He's trying to figure out a way he doesn't have to drive... we'll see if anyone is sick tomorrow...
Now the PTL meeting is over, I think I'm set for tomorrow, and it's about time to go home!
Chapel was at church this morning for the first time since before winter. We didn't freeze walking over!
The school nurse did a Food Fear Factor nutrition lesson today. She talked about calories and the food pyramid and what different fruits and vegetables do for your body. Then came the challenge. She brought 18 fruits and vegetables of different colors for the students (and me!) to try. Some were cooked (parsnips, beets, eggplant with spaghetti sauce, turnips, squash, and rutabaga), most were uncooked (figs and Fig Newtons, prunes, okra pickles, pea pods, avocado, tomatillo salsa with chips, mango, cauliflower, jicama, red peppers, and blood oranges). Most of my kids tried everything! I added a little incentive to the mix. For every three kids that try one of the food items, we can put a marble in the class prize jar. So if there are 18 foods, and thirteen kids, that makes a potential for 78 marbles. One prize= 65 marbles. We ended up with 64 and 2/3rds of a marble. So I rounded it up and the class gets to pick a reward... extra recess, a movie morning, something like that. They were really excited.
After school was chaotic. We went over to church to pack up the books from the book fair, but Pastor wasn't over there and the door to the room was locked. Rachel and I had left our phones at school, and Mr. D only had their home phone number in his phone... we called and got the answering machine. So we walked over and rang their doorbell, but they weren't home. After a while they called school and told us they'd unlocked the room. So we went back over to church and loaded up all the stuff, brought it back to school, packed it in the boxes, and finished just in time for the PTL meeting.
In between there, I got a call from one of the chaperones for tomorrow's field trip... the lady she got to cover her shift at work ended up not being able to work for her. So we're short one chaperone and a few seats. Mr. D didn't want to drive and we had planned for him to ride with another driver, but now it looks like he'll have to drive. He's trying to figure out a way he doesn't have to drive... we'll see if anyone is sick tomorrow...
Now the PTL meeting is over, I think I'm set for tomorrow, and it's about time to go home!
Friday, March 6, 2015
2015 ILS Winter Olympics
Drama, drama, drama went down today at school.
All three of my troubled triumvirate had issues to deal with today. One went home early, one hung out in the office doing work, and the other finished work in the classroom. Out of the three, only one actually made it to participate in the Olympics. But that individual got all the late work done and was respectful/dealt with the consequences of prior actions in an appropriate manner.
One student got sent to eat lunch in the office. This student mushed pretty much all of the lunch on the tray in one heap and shoveled it together into a sandwich (spaghetti, French dressing, pb and j sandwich with butter and cinnamon... it was gross). Then, I had just gotten the class to calm down from the "oh gross, it looks like barf!" when the student forced out an incredibly loud fart (on purpose). When I ordered the student to the office, the individual said, "What? I said excuse me." It was just the straw that broke the camel's back. On the way to the office, the student shoved the lunch tray in a classmate's face.
After school, another student came back to school teary-eyed because she couldn't find her phone. She had it in her coat pocket all day and wondered if an upset classmate hid it somewhere... they found the phone lying on the floor of the loft above our coatroom. Most likely placed there by another student.
But, on to happier things. This afternoon, our last NLSW activity was the Winter Olympics. We had to make some team adjustments since one of my students was sick and the triumvirate wouldn't be participating. First place team got three points, second got two, third got three, and everyone else got none. Our first event was the biathalon! Students ran from one side of the gym to the other, crawling under chairs on the way there and weaving around them on the way back. A lot of the bigger kids got stuck under the chairs. Speed Skating: run a lap around the gym in sock feet. That one was good, but there were too many runners for the space. We should've done four heats of that event (we did two). The hockey shootout ended in a tie for second. Originally, players had five tries to make it in the net. For the tie breaker, they had three balls. The next event was curling. One student sat on a scooter, another gave them a push to see how close they could get to center court. It took a while to get the hang of it, so we gave them some practice pushes. In the real deal, a bunch made it pretty close! One even made it in the circle! Dog sled racing was interesting... they tried to tie the jump rope to the scooter... I told them they'd be disqualified if they did that. The musher had to hold the rope with both hands. Once they got that figured out, we ran into the trouble of the kids falling off the scooters. Some even crashed into the wall as they tried to turn around for the race back. We had to do it a second time because the second place winner fell off her scooter on the way back and just scooted on her bottom the whole way back... disqualification? Not sure. We just redid it. The luge also used scooters. Two scooters hooked together, two kids sitting on them, one pusher. Down the gym and back. Our final event was the bobsled race. The whole team (minus one pusher) sat on a folded up mat on top of four scooters. The pusher pushed the whole team down and back. It even sounded like a real bobsled! We ended up splitting that event into three separate events: six person, five person, and four person bobsled race. With all these people gone, the teams didn't have equal numbers on them, making it harder/easier for certain teams to push. So everyone got some points in the bobsled race.
England won our Olympics, Mexico got second, and USA got third. Germany was fourth and lost only because their bobsled time was a little longer. Canada did really well too. I announced the winners during the award ceremony and forgot that you're supposed to announce third place before second and second before first... I announced first place first. Oops. I was just so excited! Mr. D had made medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, so we passed those out. And we had just enough time for everything! All in all, a successful first Winter Olympics.
Now I'm shutting down my classroom, going to head up to Clarissa, MN to visit college friends. Mr. D and Mrs. B are moving the book fair over to church. They told me to pack up and go, so that's what I'm doing!
All three of my troubled triumvirate had issues to deal with today. One went home early, one hung out in the office doing work, and the other finished work in the classroom. Out of the three, only one actually made it to participate in the Olympics. But that individual got all the late work done and was respectful/dealt with the consequences of prior actions in an appropriate manner.
One student got sent to eat lunch in the office. This student mushed pretty much all of the lunch on the tray in one heap and shoveled it together into a sandwich (spaghetti, French dressing, pb and j sandwich with butter and cinnamon... it was gross). Then, I had just gotten the class to calm down from the "oh gross, it looks like barf!" when the student forced out an incredibly loud fart (on purpose). When I ordered the student to the office, the individual said, "What? I said excuse me." It was just the straw that broke the camel's back. On the way to the office, the student shoved the lunch tray in a classmate's face.
After school, another student came back to school teary-eyed because she couldn't find her phone. She had it in her coat pocket all day and wondered if an upset classmate hid it somewhere... they found the phone lying on the floor of the loft above our coatroom. Most likely placed there by another student.
But, on to happier things. This afternoon, our last NLSW activity was the Winter Olympics. We had to make some team adjustments since one of my students was sick and the triumvirate wouldn't be participating. First place team got three points, second got two, third got three, and everyone else got none. Our first event was the biathalon! Students ran from one side of the gym to the other, crawling under chairs on the way there and weaving around them on the way back. A lot of the bigger kids got stuck under the chairs. Speed Skating: run a lap around the gym in sock feet. That one was good, but there were too many runners for the space. We should've done four heats of that event (we did two). The hockey shootout ended in a tie for second. Originally, players had five tries to make it in the net. For the tie breaker, they had three balls. The next event was curling. One student sat on a scooter, another gave them a push to see how close they could get to center court. It took a while to get the hang of it, so we gave them some practice pushes. In the real deal, a bunch made it pretty close! One even made it in the circle! Dog sled racing was interesting... they tried to tie the jump rope to the scooter... I told them they'd be disqualified if they did that. The musher had to hold the rope with both hands. Once they got that figured out, we ran into the trouble of the kids falling off the scooters. Some even crashed into the wall as they tried to turn around for the race back. We had to do it a second time because the second place winner fell off her scooter on the way back and just scooted on her bottom the whole way back... disqualification? Not sure. We just redid it. The luge also used scooters. Two scooters hooked together, two kids sitting on them, one pusher. Down the gym and back. Our final event was the bobsled race. The whole team (minus one pusher) sat on a folded up mat on top of four scooters. The pusher pushed the whole team down and back. It even sounded like a real bobsled! We ended up splitting that event into three separate events: six person, five person, and four person bobsled race. With all these people gone, the teams didn't have equal numbers on them, making it harder/easier for certain teams to push. So everyone got some points in the bobsled race.
England won our Olympics, Mexico got second, and USA got third. Germany was fourth and lost only because their bobsled time was a little longer. Canada did really well too. I announced the winners during the award ceremony and forgot that you're supposed to announce third place before second and second before first... I announced first place first. Oops. I was just so excited! Mr. D had made medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, so we passed those out. And we had just enough time for everything! All in all, a successful first Winter Olympics.
Now I'm shutting down my classroom, going to head up to Clarissa, MN to visit college friends. Mr. D and Mrs. B are moving the book fair over to church. They told me to pack up and go, so that's what I'm doing!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Project Linus
Favorite Book Character Day. I dressed up as Rapunzel from the book Rapunzel's Revenge. Most kids didn't recognize me, so I found some nametag stickers and wrote my "name" on one. Other cute costumes from today are: Fly Guy, Elsa (from Frozen), the Pigeon (Mrs. E), Nancy Drew, Winnie the Pooh, Pinkalicious, Thing 1 and Thing 2... and some normal looking ones... Cal (from Conspiracy 365), Ordinary Boy (except it was a girl who dressed like him... again, normal clothes), and Brian from the Gary Paulsen books. Mrs. B dressed up like Max from Where the Wild Things Are, Mrs. B (1st and 2nd) was a hall monitor from Eerie Elementary.
Our blanket-tying activity went really well! We tied all the blankets in 1 1/2 hours. The older kids started out cutting, but they got tired after a while and switched to tying. The little ones wanted to try their hand at cutting, and they actually did pretty well! I had to go dig out more scissors partway through because so many wanted to help cut. Our pile of blankets is impressive, and they're all going to Project Linus! The cards to go with aren't finished yet, but we did get the picture/personal messages written in.
Since we finished No More Dead Dogs yesterday, we started a new read aloud book today... Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (easily my class's favorite author). I had planned to read a different book, but the book order came yesterday and with it a bunch of new books I got for free with tons of coupons! Seriously, I had a ton of them. Enough to get five books for free. One word: awesome.
Now, I'm headed to Mankato for a book talk at Barnes and Noble... hopefully the books there won't prove too tempting!
Our blanket-tying activity went really well! We tied all the blankets in 1 1/2 hours. The older kids started out cutting, but they got tired after a while and switched to tying. The little ones wanted to try their hand at cutting, and they actually did pretty well! I had to go dig out more scissors partway through because so many wanted to help cut. Our pile of blankets is impressive, and they're all going to Project Linus! The cards to go with aren't finished yet, but we did get the picture/personal messages written in.
Since we finished No More Dead Dogs yesterday, we started a new read aloud book today... Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (easily my class's favorite author). I had planned to read a different book, but the book order came yesterday and with it a bunch of new books I got for free with tons of coupons! Seriously, I had a ton of them. Enough to get five books for free. One word: awesome.
Now, I'm headed to Mankato for a book talk at Barnes and Noble... hopefully the books there won't prove too tempting!
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Back in Action
Yeah, the blizzard yesterday? Not really a blizzard. The sun shining down was just warm enough to melt a little of the snow and the wind didn't blow it around nearly as much as everyone thought. I did enjoy my day off though! I made waffles for lunch, read some books, made soup for supper, read another book, watched a movie... very relaxing.
Today's agenda was rush, rush, rush! We had chapel a little later than usual, so we did a hymn sing at our normal time, did read-aloud early (yeah, we finished the book... I really need to work on stopping reading when I say I am...), had time for one round of Daily 5, and then went to chapel in the gym. Pastor Bode from Redeemer was our guest pastor for the day. His message was on being faithful servants/disciples and washing others' feet. He washed Mr. E's feet.
After chapel, we ate lunch in the gym. I helped cut and serve the cake (delicious! from HyVee!) and my lines were actually straight! It helped that there were pre-marked lines on the frosting... I had just enough time to eat before our entertainment for the day showed up, a ventriloquist/magician/juggler from North Mankato, Randy Christensen. He did a variety show for us, and all I heard from the kids was how awesome he was! I heard gut-busting laughter from a lot of the students sitting around me. So I'd say our day was a success.
My class and the 8th graders helped clean up the tables and chairs from the meal and bring them over to church, thereby wiping out their recess time. So we gave them a little recess afterwards. I moved the 8th graders' science test to tomorrow (a lot forgot to study what with the early out yesterday) and just did geography/bells today. So much arguing! They fight over who can see more of the music in the book! Some even to the point of tears! Ugh.
It's getting time for church... I better buzz over and eat some supper before they pack everything up!
Today's agenda was rush, rush, rush! We had chapel a little later than usual, so we did a hymn sing at our normal time, did read-aloud early (yeah, we finished the book... I really need to work on stopping reading when I say I am...), had time for one round of Daily 5, and then went to chapel in the gym. Pastor Bode from Redeemer was our guest pastor for the day. His message was on being faithful servants/disciples and washing others' feet. He washed Mr. E's feet.
After chapel, we ate lunch in the gym. I helped cut and serve the cake (delicious! from HyVee!) and my lines were actually straight! It helped that there were pre-marked lines on the frosting... I had just enough time to eat before our entertainment for the day showed up, a ventriloquist/magician/juggler from North Mankato, Randy Christensen. He did a variety show for us, and all I heard from the kids was how awesome he was! I heard gut-busting laughter from a lot of the students sitting around me. So I'd say our day was a success.
My class and the 8th graders helped clean up the tables and chairs from the meal and bring them over to church, thereby wiping out their recess time. So we gave them a little recess afterwards. I moved the 8th graders' science test to tomorrow (a lot forgot to study what with the early out yesterday) and just did geography/bells today. So much arguing! They fight over who can see more of the music in the book! Some even to the point of tears! Ugh.
It's getting time for church... I better buzz over and eat some supper before they pack everything up!
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Short and Sweet
In anticipation of the blizzard, school was called off at 10:30! The buses came at 10:15 and took all the kids. We quickly set up the tables and chairs for tomorrow's event and now all that's left is for me to pack up my things and hit the road! There are a bunch of books calling to me at home...
Monday, March 2, 2015
I'm Melting!
The first day of our celebration of NLSW went very well! Mr. D's devotion was a hit, we got the school sorted into country teams for the Winter Olympics, and everyone signed up correctly! Not to mention the country banners look great too. We still have a few groups that didn't finish yet (they're actually trying to draw their flag correctly). The countries represented in this year's Olympics are: USA, Canada, Mexico, China, Spain, France, Germany, and England.
Most of my class has finished their positive/negative space art project. Quite a few are taking them to the Fine Arts Fair (or part of the project... either the positive space or the negative space). Now we just have to mat them. Still not sure if I should do them all or see if I can make them do it... I think our week is packed enough there won't be time to do it!
And the weather is throwing a wrench into the mix. We're supposed to get 1-3 (to 5) inches of snow tonight. The wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow at 9:00am... with gusts up to 45mph. Yay. Not early enough in the day to call off school. Not late enough to avoid it. Although, word on the street is that MVL is going to call off school tonight. I doubt we'd be so lucky. Still, there is a backup plan in place for our NLSW activities just in case we don't have school. The dads brought tables and chairs over from church today for our meal on Wednesday (we were going to do that tomorrow... but better safe than sorry). We can do our tie blanket-making activity on Thursday (See? I knew there was a reason I procrastinated planning Thursday's activity so long!). Lots of plan Bs and Cs and Ds.
My class has been making table decorations for Wednesday. Mrs. E lent us colorful flowerpots with paper flowers in them (Bible verses are the yellow centers), but there were a few pots missing flowers. So the girls have been cutting out more and gluing them together. The only way to get the flower to stay attached to the pipecleaner stem is to hot glue them. But. Halfway through we ran out of glue sticks... or the small ones at any rate; big ones are aplenty. Using their problem-solving skills, the girls took a pen and were about to use it to shove the remaining stick all the way through when they realized it would probably melt. So they used a pencil. The funny thing is, the pencil melted too! The tip of the pencil squished back on itself, kind of like when you press the top of a Hershey's kiss down on those kiss cookies fresh from the oven. The lead was still normal, but pencil itself could be bent without breaking. Science time! Why is the pencil doing that? Does wood usually bend? No? Then what do we know about what the pencil is made of? Probably plastic. It was a pretty cool teachable moment. Here's a picture:
Most of my class has finished their positive/negative space art project. Quite a few are taking them to the Fine Arts Fair (or part of the project... either the positive space or the negative space). Now we just have to mat them. Still not sure if I should do them all or see if I can make them do it... I think our week is packed enough there won't be time to do it!
And the weather is throwing a wrench into the mix. We're supposed to get 1-3 (to 5) inches of snow tonight. The wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow at 9:00am... with gusts up to 45mph. Yay. Not early enough in the day to call off school. Not late enough to avoid it. Although, word on the street is that MVL is going to call off school tonight. I doubt we'd be so lucky. Still, there is a backup plan in place for our NLSW activities just in case we don't have school. The dads brought tables and chairs over from church today for our meal on Wednesday (we were going to do that tomorrow... but better safe than sorry). We can do our tie blanket-making activity on Thursday (See? I knew there was a reason I procrastinated planning Thursday's activity so long!). Lots of plan Bs and Cs and Ds.
My class has been making table decorations for Wednesday. Mrs. E lent us colorful flowerpots with paper flowers in them (Bible verses are the yellow centers), but there were a few pots missing flowers. So the girls have been cutting out more and gluing them together. The only way to get the flower to stay attached to the pipecleaner stem is to hot glue them. But. Halfway through we ran out of glue sticks... or the small ones at any rate; big ones are aplenty. Using their problem-solving skills, the girls took a pen and were about to use it to shove the remaining stick all the way through when they realized it would probably melt. So they used a pencil. The funny thing is, the pencil melted too! The tip of the pencil squished back on itself, kind of like when you press the top of a Hershey's kiss down on those kiss cookies fresh from the oven. The lead was still normal, but pencil itself could be bent without breaking. Science time! Why is the pencil doing that? Does wood usually bend? No? Then what do we know about what the pencil is made of? Probably plastic. It was a pretty cool teachable moment. Here's a picture:
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