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So tired.  I'm not even sure what I did to make me this worn out!  I went to bed at a decent hour last night, got up at my normal time, taught school the usual way... I just feel like I've been on my feet all day (which, I guess I have).


Mrs. B and her son, (we'll call him S) hung out with us most of the day.  He's going to school to be a teacher and wanted to observe a classroom.  Voila!  My kids enjoyed having a guy to pal around with (and someone who's name is not Miss H... I think they're getting sick of me).  He played games with them and read books and helped with math problems.  They went home for lunch and came back to help with our paper airplane contest. 


Woo, was that crazy!  We spent quite a bit of time researching designs and building the planes (and testing them in the classroom). Right when we were going to do our first test in the gym, the little ones went out for recess.  Thankfully, they were willing to squish to one half of the gym (split the long way down the middle), so we could still do our test trial.  It was still hazardous... lots of little feet not looking where they were going.  Quite a few airplanes died a dramatic death at the feet of unsuspecting first and second graders.  After a bunch of practice throws, we went back to the classroom and made modifications.  This time I let them use tape, scissors, and staples to change their design.  Most of the modifications were more of a hindrance than a help. 


The results of the contest are still out.  We had three contenders for first place, but some classmates were messing around and stomped on one of them, rendering it useless.  They got put in "time-out" and won't get any prizes (aka- candy).  Most planes made it to half court.  Two went to about 3/4ths of the way across.  One kid asked for a fourth rethrow (they originally got three tries).  His plane had been consistently getting 35ft, so I thought, eh, why not let him have another throw, it's not going to mess up the results (everyone else had already thrown their three).  And what do you know, he tied for first!  So everyone else was clamoring for a rethrow.  And they almost all did better.  So now we have a big mess and they spent forever arguing over whether the rethrows count.  I tried to get them to calm down and not worry about who's in first place, etc., but they were too worked up about it.  So I made them hand their labs in and told them results would be posted tomorrow.  I think the winners (maybe the people whose plane flew over 35ft) would all get candy regardless of what place they were in.  I don't want to give everyone candy otherwise it wouldn't be a contest.  Sigh.  I guess I'll just have to check out the lab reports and see what's what.


Balloon activity for tomorrow: one ride in a Courtland fire truck!  The fire chief thought we'd do it for an hour or an hour and a half.  I can't imagine doing it that long.  We're doing it at the end of the day, so if we finish early we can just have recess.  It cuts into our science/social/math time, but I suppose that's okay. 


Tomorrow night is our first summer volleyball match in Courtland.  We had a bye last week when it was so cold.  It sounds like it's not supposed to be much warmer this week!  57 degrees is what the forecast is.  My feet are going to freeze!  Maybe it'll be warmer than they're saying.  Tonight we actually have a frost warning.  Low of 36 degrees!  Let's pray it doesn't actually get that cold.