Food Fear Factor

Frequently, when my kiddos don't know a spelling word's meaning, they'll look it up on the iPad via Dictionary.com.  The site features a word of the day and today's word is "fubsy," or short/stout. My kiddos loved this word.  A bunch of them wanted to use it in their spelling packet for the week... I told them if they use the word in their weekly story, they'd maybe get extra credit... hopefully I remember I said that! 


Today's dress up day was Neon Day, kind of at odds with Ash Wednesday.  After chapel, Pastor had ash available to mark people who wanted marks.  I wasn't going to do it, but all the other teachers did, so I gave in to peer pressure and had him mark my forehead.  My mark lasted all day!  Most others' marks wore off or were brushed away.  An interesting thing I learned this year is that Pastor saved palms from Palm Sunday and burned them to get the ashes for Ash Wednesday.  Isn't it neat that it comes full circle?


We did finish watching National Treasure this morning.  And we again had some great teachable moments!  Now they want to watch the second movie.  I know the Bookmobile has it... they want to watch it for their next marble prize.  We currently are about halfway to our next prize, so they're pretty fired up.


It helped that they earned 13 marbles this afternoon.  The school nurse did a Food Fear Factor challenge with my students today.  She brought in 18 different, strange, out of the ordinary foods, some hot some cold for us to try.  They were all different colors of the rainbow: red peppers, beets, tamarind, squash, beans, star fruit, blood orange, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (in Borscht), sweet potatoes, raw coconut... I can't remember what the others were.  Some students were surprised by how tasty they were!  Others were grossed out and only tried a few.  To encourage more participation, I gave the incentive that for each 16 foods tried, the class would earn one marble.  Since there were 18 things, we had the potential to earn over 14 marbles (one kid was sick).  13 marbles= not a bad result!