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!