Mmm, it smells so good outside! The farmers have been combining the corn across the road from school so the smell of harvest is in the air. Sigh. Crisp and rustley. I think fall is my favorite season.
Word on the street (from the farming boys in my class) is that yields are way up this year. People around here are combining corn and have been getting around 220ish bushels per acre on fields that normally get around 190 or so.
Today was kind of a catch up day for us. My kiddos had many things they hadn't handed in or had to fix/redo or assignments due today, so we ended Daily 5 early and did a "ketchup" round. They got a chuckle out of that one. The afternoon was a little laid back too. The 7-8th graders set up tables in the gym over noon recess for Monday's VIP day, so my class got a little extra recess until everything was set up. Then the 7th and 8th graders just corrected their spelling books and took their spelling tests... no time for anything else in the hour I had them in my room. When my class got back from math we had art. They had two projects to work on: fire posters (for Fire Prevention Week) and their tissue paper collages. Surprisingly, quite a few of them finished both! And were getting up to some mischief. So I had them clean out their desks too.
The day ended with recess, and since the 7th and 8th graders didn't get noon recess (they'd been setting tables up), Mr. E let them come out for recess with my class. They played a huge game of GaGa Ball.
Now the week is over and it's time for me to pack up and get out of here! I think I'll actually make my 5:00 goal tonight!
Friday, September 30, 2016
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Write this down
I should really start to write things down that I want to talk about on here. Throughout the day I'll think, "hey, I should say this on my blog." But by the time I get around to writing it, my mind is blank.
Oh, it's starting to come back to me... I had two things I wanted to talk about...
We placed a book order last week Wednesday and the books were scheduled to arrive yesterday. I'd told my kiddos that they were scheduled for delivery Wednesday, so all day yesterday they were pestering me about when they'd arrive. The UPS usually stops after school, maybe between 4-5:30 or so, but sometimes they get here before the school day is over. So my kids were very optimistic that their books would get here before the day ended. No such luck. Then they were hoping they'd get here before volleyball practice ended. Nope. Still nothing. The book orders finally came yesterday at about 4:30pm. So I put the books on their desks and they got them this morning.
Two girls ordered a geology kit that includes 40 rocks. They opened them up this morning... and one of them accidentally let the rocks fall out. The rocks had all been in separate little compartments, but now most of them were in one big heap. Bummer. But it turned out to be kind of a cool thing anyway. A book came with the rock kit with pictures of the kinds of rocks, so at afternoon recess, she and I looked through the book and tried to match the rock sample with the name in the book. By the end of recess, she only had 10 more to classify. It was fun!
Last night I put my second batch of dried apples in the oven before I went to Bible study. By the time I got home, they were nice and crispy! My plan for this evening is to correct papers. I'd hoped to find a good movie on the Bookmobile today, but no such luck. Maybe I'll put on music (which gets the correcting done faster anyway... less chance of getting distracted) or maybe I'll watch an old favorite.
Oh, it's starting to come back to me... I had two things I wanted to talk about...
We placed a book order last week Wednesday and the books were scheduled to arrive yesterday. I'd told my kiddos that they were scheduled for delivery Wednesday, so all day yesterday they were pestering me about when they'd arrive. The UPS usually stops after school, maybe between 4-5:30 or so, but sometimes they get here before the school day is over. So my kids were very optimistic that their books would get here before the day ended. No such luck. Then they were hoping they'd get here before volleyball practice ended. Nope. Still nothing. The book orders finally came yesterday at about 4:30pm. So I put the books on their desks and they got them this morning.
Two girls ordered a geology kit that includes 40 rocks. They opened them up this morning... and one of them accidentally let the rocks fall out. The rocks had all been in separate little compartments, but now most of them were in one big heap. Bummer. But it turned out to be kind of a cool thing anyway. A book came with the rock kit with pictures of the kinds of rocks, so at afternoon recess, she and I looked through the book and tried to match the rock sample with the name in the book. By the end of recess, she only had 10 more to classify. It was fun!
Last night I put my second batch of dried apples in the oven before I went to Bible study. By the time I got home, they were nice and crispy! My plan for this evening is to correct papers. I'd hoped to find a good movie on the Bookmobile today, but no such luck. Maybe I'll put on music (which gets the correcting done faster anyway... less chance of getting distracted) or maybe I'll watch an old favorite.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Douglas Wood
Monday is VIP day, our school's version of Grandparent's Day. We always have a guest speaker and this year's is an author/illustrator from Minnesota, Douglas Wood. Mrs. E checked out a bunch of his books from the library so we would be familiar with his work before he comes.
One of the books, "Old Turtle" confused my students. It's a story about the animals arguing who God is and then the turtle speaks up. They didn't know if the book was talking about our God or some other god or if the turtle was supposed to be god... I think we got it figured out? Either way, that one wasn't our favorite. There was one I thought was super cute called When a Dad Says "I Love You". Mrs. E had some others in her room, but we only took a few.
Last night after I got home from the bank it was only 4:00pm. What was I going to do with all that time??? Well, I made dried apples in the oven. The idea came from one of the speakers at Ft. Ridgely; she'd shown us dried apples she said she'd made in the oven. I still had a bag of apples in my fridge I hadn't used. I'd thought about making them into Brown Betty or more applesauce, but dried apples are something different! Only two baking trays fit in my oven at a time, so I still have a container of cut up apples in my fridge that I didn't have space on the trays for (they're in pineapple juice, so hopefully they don't turn brown too fast). Maybe I'll have enough time to dry them tonight...
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday, man my kiddos can talk! I found out on the ride to Ft. Ridgely that metal detectors are all the rage in my class. Some boys made a youtube channel with videos of them searching for coins. They've found a bunch I guess! They're on a mission to find the most valuable coins possible. One kid is saving up his money to buy a really good detector so he'll find even more stuff. Who knew?!
One of the books, "Old Turtle" confused my students. It's a story about the animals arguing who God is and then the turtle speaks up. They didn't know if the book was talking about our God or some other god or if the turtle was supposed to be god... I think we got it figured out? Either way, that one wasn't our favorite. There was one I thought was super cute called When a Dad Says "I Love You". Mrs. E had some others in her room, but we only took a few.
Last night after I got home from the bank it was only 4:00pm. What was I going to do with all that time??? Well, I made dried apples in the oven. The idea came from one of the speakers at Ft. Ridgely; she'd shown us dried apples she said she'd made in the oven. I still had a bag of apples in my fridge I hadn't used. I'd thought about making them into Brown Betty or more applesauce, but dried apples are something different! Only two baking trays fit in my oven at a time, so I still have a container of cut up apples in my fridge that I didn't have space on the trays for (they're in pineapple juice, so hopefully they don't turn brown too fast). Maybe I'll have enough time to dry them tonight...
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday, man my kiddos can talk! I found out on the ride to Ft. Ridgely that metal detectors are all the rage in my class. Some boys made a youtube channel with videos of them searching for coins. They've found a bunch I guess! They're on a mission to find the most valuable coins possible. One kid is saving up his money to buy a really good detector so he'll find even more stuff. Who knew?!
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Fort Ridgely
First field trip of the year today! We went to Fort Ridgely School Day and the weather was beautiful (if not a bit windy). I came prepared with my gloves and extra jacket/sweatshirt/headband, but many of my students did not check the weather beforehand... they were cold. We ended up eating our sack lunches in our cars where it was toasty warm.
It was a good day! I had two great chaperones along, both who were interested in the history of the place. The kiddos were slightly on the wild side, but since we were outside for most of it, their wildness could be let loose a bit. And kids from the other schools were about the same, so we did all right.
They changed things up this year, having us unload at a totally new place (next to the fort instead of by the parking lot). There weren't any signs, so we didn't actually unload in the place we were supposed to. Apparently the change is due to political reasons... there's some controversy going on between the state park, the fort, and the golf course. Many of the speakers were ones I hadn't heard before, and they were good! We learned lots of interesting stuff about the history of Fort Ridgely and the lives of soldiers and settlers in the area. There were even people from the Lower Sioux Agency who had a station about Dakota tipis. Did you know that the women were in charge of the tipis? It took two of them about 20 minutes to set up an average one. And if a couple was thinking of divorce, the Indian woman was the one who made the decision; the man couldn't. She let him know she was done with him by putting all his stuff outside the tipi. He couldn't come in without her permission!
I'm keeping this short for today since the bank closes at 3:30 and I need to drop off our bake sale earnings... we raised enough to cover Camp Omega for the year! Woohoo! It think the grand total for donuts/bake sale was about $175.
It was a good day! I had two great chaperones along, both who were interested in the history of the place. The kiddos were slightly on the wild side, but since we were outside for most of it, their wildness could be let loose a bit. And kids from the other schools were about the same, so we did all right.
They changed things up this year, having us unload at a totally new place (next to the fort instead of by the parking lot). There weren't any signs, so we didn't actually unload in the place we were supposed to. Apparently the change is due to political reasons... there's some controversy going on between the state park, the fort, and the golf course. Many of the speakers were ones I hadn't heard before, and they were good! We learned lots of interesting stuff about the history of Fort Ridgely and the lives of soldiers and settlers in the area. There were even people from the Lower Sioux Agency who had a station about Dakota tipis. Did you know that the women were in charge of the tipis? It took two of them about 20 minutes to set up an average one. And if a couple was thinking of divorce, the Indian woman was the one who made the decision; the man couldn't. She let him know she was done with him by putting all his stuff outside the tipi. He couldn't come in without her permission!
I'm keeping this short for today since the bank closes at 3:30 and I need to drop off our bake sale earnings... we raised enough to cover Camp Omega for the year! Woohoo! It think the grand total for donuts/bake sale was about $175.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Volleyball
The tournament this weekend went well overall. The B girls got 3rd of 4 teams, A got 4th of 6 teams. The girls got a little tired (playing back to back to back), but they powered through! And we also gained a new player. The 6th grader who agreed to substitute for us decided to join for the rest of the season. She stayed for practice today and was super excited about it!
One not so good thing from the tournament... the principal from MLHS emailed Mr. E detailing negative sportsmanship from our fans. Great, just when we thought the drama was over. Apparently (I never watched the A games) some of the ladies were yelling at the line judges and making some not-so-nice comments. The coaches said the line judges hadn't been paying attention and made some bad calls (why the parents were yelling), but that's no excuse for poor sportsmanship. Mr. E has taken charge of this incident, thankfully, so I don't have to do much about it. We forwarded the email to the parents and will see if anyone comes forward.
The school day was full of squirrely children. We had a good science session though! The 7th and 8th graders learned about organelles in cells and the 5th and 6th graders learned about molecules and covalent/ionic bonds. Tomorrow is our first field trip. That means I need to go grocery shopping for sack lunch supplies!
One not so good thing from the tournament... the principal from MLHS emailed Mr. E detailing negative sportsmanship from our fans. Great, just when we thought the drama was over. Apparently (I never watched the A games) some of the ladies were yelling at the line judges and making some not-so-nice comments. The coaches said the line judges hadn't been paying attention and made some bad calls (why the parents were yelling), but that's no excuse for poor sportsmanship. Mr. E has taken charge of this incident, thankfully, so I don't have to do much about it. We forwarded the email to the parents and will see if anyone comes forward.
The school day was full of squirrely children. We had a good science session though! The 7th and 8th graders learned about organelles in cells and the 5th and 6th graders learned about molecules and covalent/ionic bonds. Tomorrow is our first field trip. That means I need to go grocery shopping for sack lunch supplies!
Friday, September 23, 2016
Kevin
Our Venus fly trap finally has a name! The votes are in and Kevin won (Chompers was a close second). The 7th and 8th graders were being dumb about it. Some of them didn't want to vote, at least until they saw that "Kevin" won. Then they all wanted to vote. Too late!
The cook caught a live fly for us under a lid. I stuck Kevin under a big, clear plastic container so we could keep the fly close and maybe we could see him eating it. That fly is so big! I don't know if it will fit in Kevin's tiny traps. But we're going to try! The kiddos were super distracted, rushing over to check if the fly had been lured to its death yet. Thankfully we were doing art, so the distractions were not super interrupting.
I had picked out an art project way ahead of time (instead of my morning-of selection I tend to do), but when I put my example on the board, they were all like, "Oh! We've done that before!" What?! When? "Remember Miss H? You taught us art in 1st and 2nd grade." Ohhh... right. Shoot. Should I pick a different project? No, no, they all wanted to do it.
This project involved "drawing" a picture with glue and then coloring between the lines. We drew our glue pictures this morning, but they weren't dry by art time. So on to project #2 (I had picked it out for NEXT Friday, but I guess we're bumping the time frame up). This one is using tissue paper to make a collage in a fall associated shape. Most are doing pumpkins; one girl is making a leaf. The 5th graders were surprisingly frustrated by it: their tissue paper didn't stick to the glue, the colors weren't right, it looked dumb (the papers were spread too far apart). I kept telling them to stick with it; give it time to come together!
The cook caught a live fly for us under a lid. I stuck Kevin under a big, clear plastic container so we could keep the fly close and maybe we could see him eating it. That fly is so big! I don't know if it will fit in Kevin's tiny traps. But we're going to try! The kiddos were super distracted, rushing over to check if the fly had been lured to its death yet. Thankfully we were doing art, so the distractions were not super interrupting.
I had picked out an art project way ahead of time (instead of my morning-of selection I tend to do), but when I put my example on the board, they were all like, "Oh! We've done that before!" What?! When? "Remember Miss H? You taught us art in 1st and 2nd grade." Ohhh... right. Shoot. Should I pick a different project? No, no, they all wanted to do it.
This project involved "drawing" a picture with glue and then coloring between the lines. We drew our glue pictures this morning, but they weren't dry by art time. So on to project #2 (I had picked it out for NEXT Friday, but I guess we're bumping the time frame up). This one is using tissue paper to make a collage in a fall associated shape. Most are doing pumpkins; one girl is making a leaf. The 5th graders were surprisingly frustrated by it: their tissue paper didn't stick to the glue, the colors weren't right, it looked dumb (the papers were spread too far apart). I kept telling them to stick with it; give it time to come together!
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Cookies
A parent stopped in this afternoon to drop off a box of very fancy cookies. They were in a sturdy box, tied with colorful ribbons, wrapped up fancy in tissue paper. Each cookie was decorated (and by decorated, I mean, the frosting looked like it was painted on) in a school fashion: notebook, apple, ruler, chalkboard, pencil. They look too good to eat! The lady who dropped them off said she ordered them online. (The other teachers got cookies too).
Volleyball today was fun. My voice is a little hoarse; the games were close! We played Gaylord and won only one of the five games. B squad lost both (they were very sleepy... hopefully they'll be more awake for the tournament this weekend!), A squad lost one, won one, lost one. Even though our girls played sloppy, the games were super close! We could've won if they'd have tightened their playing up. I think everyone was distracted. I wore a necklace to school today that I made in pottery (an owl pendant on a long gold chain, brown glaze on one side, permanent marker drawing on the other). They kept grabbing it to look at it. "Whoa! Miss H! Where'd you get this??? It's so cool! ...You made it? Can you make me one?" Right in the middle of our volleyball huddle. I blame it on the weather.
We got a lot of rain last night, but not as much as some. I heard on the radio this morning that Janesville and Waseca got about 13 inches! Schools were being called two-hours late or even called off due to flooding! The state closed down part of Hwy 14 and 22 as well. But by the time school started, the rain was over, for us at least. Yikes! What a mess! What's even more of a mess is the office... someone forgot to close the windows last night and when the rain came down... the whole carpet in front of the window is soaked along with all the mail piled under the window.
Stomach update: I'm a member of the clean plate club once again! Both breakfast and lunch.
Volleyball today was fun. My voice is a little hoarse; the games were close! We played Gaylord and won only one of the five games. B squad lost both (they were very sleepy... hopefully they'll be more awake for the tournament this weekend!), A squad lost one, won one, lost one. Even though our girls played sloppy, the games were super close! We could've won if they'd have tightened their playing up. I think everyone was distracted. I wore a necklace to school today that I made in pottery (an owl pendant on a long gold chain, brown glaze on one side, permanent marker drawing on the other). They kept grabbing it to look at it. "Whoa! Miss H! Where'd you get this??? It's so cool! ...You made it? Can you make me one?" Right in the middle of our volleyball huddle. I blame it on the weather.
We got a lot of rain last night, but not as much as some. I heard on the radio this morning that Janesville and Waseca got about 13 inches! Schools were being called two-hours late or even called off due to flooding! The state closed down part of Hwy 14 and 22 as well. But by the time school started, the rain was over, for us at least. Yikes! What a mess! What's even more of a mess is the office... someone forgot to close the windows last night and when the rain came down... the whole carpet in front of the window is soaked along with all the mail piled under the window.
Stomach update: I'm a member of the clean plate club once again! Both breakfast and lunch.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Better
I actually ate some breakfast this morning. Woohoo! I think this round of "yuck" is over.
The volleyball yuck... well, I think that's winding down too. The student decided to quit for good, so we're down to five B squad volleyball players. Then we found out one of the little girls wouldn't be able to come. Or so she said. That'd bring us down to four players. So I checked with her mom, and mom said, "yep she's coming!" So all was good... until... at practice, the girls were positive another B squad player was going to be gone because she had a birthday party to go to. And we were down to four again.
Then I recalled that a 5th grade girl (not in volleyball) was going along to watch... she almost went out for volleyball this year... so maybe...
I called her mom and her mom asked her and to make a long story short, the 5th grader will play volleyball with us!
We had a Pork Chop Planning Meeting tonight (the 5th and 6th grade parents are in charge, so it was in my room). The birthday party girl's mom was at the meeting and revealed that this particular volleyball player WILL be at the tournament. So now we're up to six players again.
The other complication is that A and B are playing at two different schools since there isn't enough room to play all the games in one gym. A is at MLHS, B is at Truman. Thankfully we have enough coaches to be split up and have enough people at both places!
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
GAH!
I am frustrated. I feel like banging my head against my desk or the wall. Volleyball is full of drama. Drama from players, drama from parents, drama from coaches. People keep threatening to pull their kids, or the kids don't want to play, or the coaches are saying they'll step down. It makes me want to cancel volleyball for the rest of the season! The older girls keep picking on the younger girls and try to be the coaches. So the younger girls want to quit. The parents are mad their girls are unhappy and yell at the coaches. The coaches don't want to get yelled at. So all it is is a giant mess. And now I want to quit too. Grrr...
But we three coaches talked it out tonight after the game and I think we're now on the same page. Hopefully they aren't secretly offended and quit tomorrow. We're all good with one of the parents in question (at least I hope... we kind of had a bit of a yelling/arguing match before the game started, but I think she sees now that I'm just as upset about the situation as her and we coaches are trying our best to deal with it in a fair manner). There's one parent who could go either way. Still waiting to hear back from her on whether she keeps her girl in volleyball until after the tournament or not. And we still need to talk with the older girls and tell them to quit bossing the younger girls. Ugh. It gives me a headache.
On a happier note, we won all our games tonight! Two B games and three A games!
In other cool news, Mrs. E's class found a neat spider on the playground yesterday and captured it in a bucket.
But we three coaches talked it out tonight after the game and I think we're now on the same page. Hopefully they aren't secretly offended and quit tomorrow. We're all good with one of the parents in question (at least I hope... we kind of had a bit of a yelling/arguing match before the game started, but I think she sees now that I'm just as upset about the situation as her and we coaches are trying our best to deal with it in a fair manner). There's one parent who could go either way. Still waiting to hear back from her on whether she keeps her girl in volleyball until after the tournament or not. And we still need to talk with the older girls and tell them to quit bossing the younger girls. Ugh. It gives me a headache.
On a happier note, we won all our games tonight! Two B games and three A games!
In other cool news, Mrs. E's class found a neat spider on the playground yesterday and captured it in a bucket.
Neither of us was sure what it was, so Mrs. E took a picture and I emailed it to my biology professor at BLC who's a bit of a spider enthusiast. He emailed me back today and said it's a female Marbled Orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus). He also said they're a pretty common species, but this is the first record of this species in Nicollet County. So we're making history! Since this year's science for 7th and 8th grade is life science, and we'll learn about spiders this spring, I asked my professor if he'd be interested in talking spiders/collecting some with my class. He said sure! And now we have another tentative guest speaker for the spring. Woohoo!
Stomach issue update: not a whole lot of improvement. I started the new meds yesterday and my stomach was iffy until about 1:30. After that I've been fine, although we'll see what happens when I try to eat supper. Keep the prayers coming!
Monday, September 19, 2016
Naming the "Pet"
Our Venus fly trap was the center of attention today. The 7th graders were miffed I didn't get it last year. But they had the most fun with it today! They found a dead fly and I used a tweezers to put it in one of the traps. It didn't close. Maybe it was too big or too crispy. Then they found a dead mosquito. That one was the right size, but it took a while to get the trap to close. The fly traps are so tiny! They need to grow bigger.
Now we're trying to come up with a name for it... the best ones so far are: Chompers, Cornelius, Einstein, Venus, Steve, Bob, Kevin, Tom, Todd, Frank, and Sam. Our presidential candidates' names also made it on the list (courtesy of the 7th and 8th graders), but I erased them. We vote tomorrow! I'll pick five from the list and go from there.
And here's some not fun news... my stomach has been feeling yucky again. I called the specialist and they're putting me on more medication. Lovely. I also have an appointment, but not until November 7th because that was the soonest they could get me in. I'm on the wait-list, so if someone cancels, they'll call me. Until then, I'll just keep praying and try to eat when/what I can.
Now we're trying to come up with a name for it... the best ones so far are: Chompers, Cornelius, Einstein, Venus, Steve, Bob, Kevin, Tom, Todd, Frank, and Sam. Our presidential candidates' names also made it on the list (courtesy of the 7th and 8th graders), but I erased them. We vote tomorrow! I'll pick five from the list and go from there.
And here's some not fun news... my stomach has been feeling yucky again. I called the specialist and they're putting me on more medication. Lovely. I also have an appointment, but not until November 7th because that was the soonest they could get me in. I'm on the wait-list, so if someone cancels, they'll call me. Until then, I'll just keep praying and try to eat when/what I can.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Venus Fly Trap
Gotta keep this short today! Somehow my kiddos convinced me to buy a venus fly trap and I gotta pick it up in Mankato before the store closes at 6:00. I'll be cutting it close!
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Goals and Writing Workshop
I might just make my goal today! As long as I get this typed before 5:30...close enough.
My kiddos did a lot more writing today. I bit the bullet and jumped right in to Writer's Workshop. One of these days I just need to make myself sit down and map it all out. Mr. D was asking me questions about Writer's Workshop yesterday after school, so that forced me to open the book and flip through my notebook of notes (I made last year when I read it). It helped refresh my memory about how to make it work in my room. I think we'll be okay. But boy do we have a lot of work to do!
I got the 5th graders typing on the computers, but first we had to learn what Microsoft Word is and how to save a document and what spell check is and how it works... stuff the 6th graders already know how to do, stuff I forgot I taught them last year. These little guys soaked it all up! I can tell it's going to be a good year.
I'm a little worried at how fast they're burning through the prompts in my prompt pail. They'll pull sticks out of the can at least two or three times a session. Hopefully they don't get bored with them for a long time. Or maybe I can have some blank sticks set out so they can write their own prompts. There are actually five cans they can pick from: one with characters, one with settings, one with objects, one with situations/problems/obstacles, and one with creative thinking prompts. I do have some other places they can get ideas on what to write, but they like the sticks!
We've been doing a lot of sharing writing too, something we didn't do much of last year. The kiddos have been good about offering suggestions or having comments about the stories that have been shared. I hope we can keep up this excitement! At least until November, when NaNoWriMo starts... I've already had some students talking about it. Some have story ideas already too!
My kiddos did a lot more writing today. I bit the bullet and jumped right in to Writer's Workshop. One of these days I just need to make myself sit down and map it all out. Mr. D was asking me questions about Writer's Workshop yesterday after school, so that forced me to open the book and flip through my notebook of notes (I made last year when I read it). It helped refresh my memory about how to make it work in my room. I think we'll be okay. But boy do we have a lot of work to do!
I got the 5th graders typing on the computers, but first we had to learn what Microsoft Word is and how to save a document and what spell check is and how it works... stuff the 6th graders already know how to do, stuff I forgot I taught them last year. These little guys soaked it all up! I can tell it's going to be a good year.
I'm a little worried at how fast they're burning through the prompts in my prompt pail. They'll pull sticks out of the can at least two or three times a session. Hopefully they don't get bored with them for a long time. Or maybe I can have some blank sticks set out so they can write their own prompts. There are actually five cans they can pick from: one with characters, one with settings, one with objects, one with situations/problems/obstacles, and one with creative thinking prompts. I do have some other places they can get ideas on what to write, but they like the sticks!
We've been doing a lot of sharing writing too, something we didn't do much of last year. The kiddos have been good about offering suggestions or having comments about the stories that have been shared. I hope we can keep up this excitement! At least until November, when NaNoWriMo starts... I've already had some students talking about it. Some have story ideas already too!
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Speakers from Around the World
I'm super excited for geography...
Two years ago, when I last taught this subject, I had a guest speaker for each continent (except Oceania...time slipped away from me for that continent). Most of my speakers were friends/schoolmates who'd studied abroad. Now all those people have gotten jobs/moved away, and even if they could come, it's been a while since they've been to those places, so the stories and information is not fresh.
Mrs. E has been working on getting a piano teacher to replace Miss N. She contacted MLC to find out if they had a teacher/music student who'd be interested in teaching our kiddos... and she found one! Since she had such good luck with that, I thought I'd give it a try.
This morning I emailed both MLC and BLC's study abroad coordinators to see if they could recommend guest speakers and I heard back from MLC within a few hours! The coordinator gave me a list of countries they have represented and it sounds like I'll have all the continents covered except Oceania. But that continent is last on the list, so I have time to check around. And maybe BLC will have someone to fit the bill. Our first speaker will actually be two people, one from Canada and the other from St. Luci (an island in the Bahamas). Woo! I can't wait! The best part is, this lady will coordinate between the students, so I don't have to scramble!
Volleyball update: our B team won the match (2-1) and our A team lost the match by two points in overtime (1-2).
Two years ago, when I last taught this subject, I had a guest speaker for each continent (except Oceania...time slipped away from me for that continent). Most of my speakers were friends/schoolmates who'd studied abroad. Now all those people have gotten jobs/moved away, and even if they could come, it's been a while since they've been to those places, so the stories and information is not fresh.
Mrs. E has been working on getting a piano teacher to replace Miss N. She contacted MLC to find out if they had a teacher/music student who'd be interested in teaching our kiddos... and she found one! Since she had such good luck with that, I thought I'd give it a try.
This morning I emailed both MLC and BLC's study abroad coordinators to see if they could recommend guest speakers and I heard back from MLC within a few hours! The coordinator gave me a list of countries they have represented and it sounds like I'll have all the continents covered except Oceania. But that continent is last on the list, so I have time to check around. And maybe BLC will have someone to fit the bill. Our first speaker will actually be two people, one from Canada and the other from St. Luci (an island in the Bahamas). Woo! I can't wait! The best part is, this lady will coordinate between the students, so I don't have to scramble!
Volleyball update: our B team won the match (2-1) and our A team lost the match by two points in overtime (1-2).
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Straws on the Ground
For some reason, lunch took quite a long time to serve today. We had hamburgers and fries, so I'm not sure what the holdup was... maybe putting stuff on the burgers? Anyway, we were in line way early with many 3rd and 4th graders in front of us. A lot of them had straws to drink their milk with. The only bad thing was they were skittering around so much they kept dropping their straws on the dirty floor! And then picked them up! And kept them to use still! Gross.
We did our first day of Work on Writing (with Daily 5). They were actually really excited about using the prompt pails. We didn't have nearly enough time to write, but now they have ideas about what to write tomorrow. Some wanted to share their writing already, so I'll set aside class time tomorrow for sharing. We haven't done Writing Workshop yet... I'm still a bit shaky on how I want to run it/what I want to teach with it in my classroom, so I'm a bit scared to start this year. I suppose I should just dive right in and make changes as we go along. I should re-read the book that goes along with it. It's been in my teacher bag for weeks; I just haven't pulled it out to look at it.
Our first soccer and volleyball games are today. I wanted to watch part of the soccer game... and it sounds like halftime is over... so I'd best get out to the field. It's right outside my classroom now so I can kind of hear what's going on. After that is B squad volleyball followed by A squad. Then probably more teacher work...
We did our first day of Work on Writing (with Daily 5). They were actually really excited about using the prompt pails. We didn't have nearly enough time to write, but now they have ideas about what to write tomorrow. Some wanted to share their writing already, so I'll set aside class time tomorrow for sharing. We haven't done Writing Workshop yet... I'm still a bit shaky on how I want to run it/what I want to teach with it in my classroom, so I'm a bit scared to start this year. I suppose I should just dive right in and make changes as we go along. I should re-read the book that goes along with it. It's been in my teacher bag for weeks; I just haven't pulled it out to look at it.
Our first soccer and volleyball games are today. I wanted to watch part of the soccer game... and it sounds like halftime is over... so I'd best get out to the field. It's right outside my classroom now so I can kind of hear what's going on. After that is B squad volleyball followed by A squad. Then probably more teacher work...
Monday, September 12, 2016
Long Day
Today was good. Long, but good.
I taught my kiddos about the periodic table of elements in Chemistry class today. Some were so excited, they wanted me to give them a copy of the table of elements so they could take it home and hang it on their walls. We've been talking about atoms and matter, not to mention protons, neutrons, and electrons. I think they're getting it for the most part.
We got on the topic of DNA in religion this morning. This year is all about Bible history, so we're starting at Genesis and working our way through the bible. Thus, the topic of who Adam and Eve's kids married came up. And since they thought it was gross brothers married sisters, we had to talk about why it wasn't bad to do that back then and why nowadays it's not such a good idea. Of course they wanted to learn more about DNA, but they'll have to wait until they get to 7th and 8th grade. That's actually what the 7th and 8th graders will learn about next week!
After school, I skipped volleyball practice and went to our staff meeting instead. It was supposed to be a short meeting, but it ended up getting over at about 4:40pm. And as usual, my to-do list grew exponentially after the meeting. Got some of the things done after the meeting, but by that point, my motivation decided to call it a day, so I'll have to do more of those things later this week. It's going to be a busy one!
Soccer and volleyball games tomorrow, PTL meeting on Wednesday, Friday my sisters are coming up to see Theater Physics at Bethany that evening, and Saturday my cousin is getting married!
This past weekend's volleyball tournament went well, though I actually didn't get to play in the actual tournament. The morning's games were all played to determine ranking for the tournament bracket. By the time we'd played each of the teams once (we only lost one of five games), I had to leave to get ready for Miss N's wedding. I found out our team took first place in the tournament. Kind of a bummer I didn't get to stay for it, but the wedding was fun, so that makes up for it! My farmer and I actually ran into quite a few people we knew... he saw more people he knew than I did! The same was true at the Clay County Fair the next day... all sorts of people we knew were there... relatives, friends, people from college days... it's a small world after all!
I taught my kiddos about the periodic table of elements in Chemistry class today. Some were so excited, they wanted me to give them a copy of the table of elements so they could take it home and hang it on their walls. We've been talking about atoms and matter, not to mention protons, neutrons, and electrons. I think they're getting it for the most part.
We got on the topic of DNA in religion this morning. This year is all about Bible history, so we're starting at Genesis and working our way through the bible. Thus, the topic of who Adam and Eve's kids married came up. And since they thought it was gross brothers married sisters, we had to talk about why it wasn't bad to do that back then and why nowadays it's not such a good idea. Of course they wanted to learn more about DNA, but they'll have to wait until they get to 7th and 8th grade. That's actually what the 7th and 8th graders will learn about next week!
After school, I skipped volleyball practice and went to our staff meeting instead. It was supposed to be a short meeting, but it ended up getting over at about 4:40pm. And as usual, my to-do list grew exponentially after the meeting. Got some of the things done after the meeting, but by that point, my motivation decided to call it a day, so I'll have to do more of those things later this week. It's going to be a busy one!
Soccer and volleyball games tomorrow, PTL meeting on Wednesday, Friday my sisters are coming up to see Theater Physics at Bethany that evening, and Saturday my cousin is getting married!
This past weekend's volleyball tournament went well, though I actually didn't get to play in the actual tournament. The morning's games were all played to determine ranking for the tournament bracket. By the time we'd played each of the teams once (we only lost one of five games), I had to leave to get ready for Miss N's wedding. I found out our team took first place in the tournament. Kind of a bummer I didn't get to stay for it, but the wedding was fun, so that makes up for it! My farmer and I actually ran into quite a few people we knew... he saw more people he knew than I did! The same was true at the Clay County Fair the next day... all sorts of people we knew were there... relatives, friends, people from college days... it's a small world after all!
Friday, September 9, 2016
Tic Tac Toe Relays
Woohoo! First Friday of the year! We made it through the first week of school! Not that I had any doubts of course, but it's still fun to celebrate.
My class has started settling into our routine. The 6th graders remember a lot from last year and the 5th graders are picking things up fast. Everyone said memory work on time, everyone turned their spelling in on time, and everyone turned in handwriting on time. Excellent. Even the 7th and 8th graders had everything done on time. I hope we can keep it up!
I remembered a funny story from volleyball practice yesterday... one little girl came up to me (4th grade) and said her chest hurt when she bumped the ball. I had her stretch and go back to the drill, but a few minutes later she came back and said it still hurt. Well, send her home or keep her playing? She didn't want to go home, just wanted to sit on the bleachers. After a while, I stopped back over to see if she wanted to play again, but no, she wanted to keep sitting. She still didn't want to call her mom, which I kind of thought was weird. I mean, she's at practice to practice, right? So why be bored watching when you could go home?
I figured her back was probably just out of alignment and once it was popped back into place, she'd be all right. But messing with backs is tricky business, one I don't feel comfortable doing, so I told the girl if her chest still hurt when she got home, she should tell her mom. She didn't want to do that either (her mom is a nurse).
Then she asked a question that put all the pieces together... "Miss H, can you have surgery on your chest?" When I answered affirmatively, her eyes got big and worried. "But don't worry, you're too young; most of the people who need surgery are older." She was still worried. And didn't want to tell her mom about her chest hurting. "I don't want to tell my mom! She'll make me have surgery!"
Aha... light bulb! "You don't need surgery, your back is just a little bunched up. It needs to get popped back into place." And then came an explanation of chiropractors and spines, etc. and after that she was a little calmer. Today she stopped me in the hallway to say her mom popped her back last night and she's all better. Whew!
At the end of the day today we did an all-school activity. First we signed yearbooks, then we played relays, then we ate Popsicles, and then we played Gaga Ball (it was dry enough, yay!). Mr. D lead one of the relays... use a flyswatter to swat a balloon past the black line and back to your team. Mine was a bit more complicated. It's called the "tic tac toe relay" and you play it with hula hoops and scarves for a tic tac toe board. Here's a video:
My class has started settling into our routine. The 6th graders remember a lot from last year and the 5th graders are picking things up fast. Everyone said memory work on time, everyone turned their spelling in on time, and everyone turned in handwriting on time. Excellent. Even the 7th and 8th graders had everything done on time. I hope we can keep it up!
I remembered a funny story from volleyball practice yesterday... one little girl came up to me (4th grade) and said her chest hurt when she bumped the ball. I had her stretch and go back to the drill, but a few minutes later she came back and said it still hurt. Well, send her home or keep her playing? She didn't want to go home, just wanted to sit on the bleachers. After a while, I stopped back over to see if she wanted to play again, but no, she wanted to keep sitting. She still didn't want to call her mom, which I kind of thought was weird. I mean, she's at practice to practice, right? So why be bored watching when you could go home?
I figured her back was probably just out of alignment and once it was popped back into place, she'd be all right. But messing with backs is tricky business, one I don't feel comfortable doing, so I told the girl if her chest still hurt when she got home, she should tell her mom. She didn't want to do that either (her mom is a nurse).
Then she asked a question that put all the pieces together... "Miss H, can you have surgery on your chest?" When I answered affirmatively, her eyes got big and worried. "But don't worry, you're too young; most of the people who need surgery are older." She was still worried. And didn't want to tell her mom about her chest hurting. "I don't want to tell my mom! She'll make me have surgery!"
Aha... light bulb! "You don't need surgery, your back is just a little bunched up. It needs to get popped back into place." And then came an explanation of chiropractors and spines, etc. and after that she was a little calmer. Today she stopped me in the hallway to say her mom popped her back last night and she's all better. Whew!
At the end of the day today we did an all-school activity. First we signed yearbooks, then we played relays, then we ate Popsicles, and then we played Gaga Ball (it was dry enough, yay!). Mr. D lead one of the relays... use a flyswatter to swat a balloon past the black line and back to your team. Mine was a bit more complicated. It's called the "tic tac toe relay" and you play it with hula hoops and scarves for a tic tac toe board. Here's a video:
We set up two hula hoop "boards" in the middle of the gym so four teams could play at once (two games at a time). They had a blast! There were quite a few kids per team, so not everyone got to put a scarf down each time, but we played more than once so everyone at least got a few turns. When they weren't running, they were cheering on their teammates. There's definitely some strategy involved in addition to speed!
Well, I suppose it's time to close for the week. I still have a few things to do before I make my library run for the week. Tonight my plan is to get my lessons ready for next week and bake cookies. Tomorrow late morning/early afternoon is our sand volleyball tournament. I'm supposed to bring dessert for our team. I might make brownies tomorrow morning too. We'll see. Then Saturday afternoon, my farmer and I will go to Miss N's wedding. Sunday our plan is to go to his parent's early church service before heading to the Clay County Fair. Boy this weekend is busy!
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Gaga Ball
Last year, the Student Council made it their mission to get a Gaga Ball pit for our school. We learned about it from Camp Omega and my class fell in love from the first game. They fund-raised and found volunteers to build it for our school, but alas, things did not fall together to have it in place before the end of school last year. Over the summer, we put it together outside school kind of in the area by the prairie garden and the soccer field.
But with all the traffic along our road, people in the congregation/community/school have said we should not and cannot have kids playing so close to the road. So how can we use our new Gaga ball court if we're not allowed to be over there? The wooden outside and metal brackets make it too heavy for people to move...
The answer: get two guys with massive Bobcats come after school and move it. They came after the first day of school (was that really only three days ago???) and stuck it by the kickball diamond (where we also moved our soccer field). My kiddos used it for the first time this afternoon. A surprising number of them didn't know how to play... but the rest quickly remedied that situation. By the end of recess, the whole class (including me) was playing. Mr. E even stopped by to watch for a while. We'll teach the rest of the school how to play tomorrow afternoon as part of our all-school activity. Hopefully it won't rain!
But with all the traffic along our road, people in the congregation/community/school have said we should not and cannot have kids playing so close to the road. So how can we use our new Gaga ball court if we're not allowed to be over there? The wooden outside and metal brackets make it too heavy for people to move...
The answer: get two guys with massive Bobcats come after school and move it. They came after the first day of school (was that really only three days ago???) and stuck it by the kickball diamond (where we also moved our soccer field). My kiddos used it for the first time this afternoon. A surprising number of them didn't know how to play... but the rest quickly remedied that situation. By the end of recess, the whole class (including me) was playing. Mr. E even stopped by to watch for a while. We'll teach the rest of the school how to play tomorrow afternoon as part of our all-school activity. Hopefully it won't rain!
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Chirping Little Frog
Another rainy day... it brings the frogs out! I went in the outside door of my classroom when I got to school, and as I opened the door through the dripping rain, out popped a little green frog! And by green, I mean super bright green, the greenest frog I've ever seen. It was about the size of a quarter!
A little blurry, but you can still see the little guy.
We heard his (or some other frog's) chirruping the rest of the day... it sounded like our air conditioner was squeaking, but we're pretty sure it was a frog...
The rest of the day went fairly normal. We finally got our tomatoes and our tomato labs are underway. Speaking of which, I need to clean off the lab table from that... some of our cut tomatoes got a little juicy and with volleyball practice after school I didn't have a chance earlier to clean up. Well, I had some time while Mr. E taught my class PE, but I was distracted by the Scholastic book order that arrived. Five new chapter books and four new picture books! Woohoo! Books galore! I haven't read any of the chapter books, but they're all on my to-read list, so they might come home with me before I add them to our library. Besides, the kids just picked their books to read, so they probably won't need to pick another one anytime soon. Right?
After school we had our first volleyball practice. It went very well. Many of the girls went to volleyball camps over the summer (and practiced with their parents too), so we are much improved from last year. Another parent volunteered to coach the A squad, a job I am more than happy to let her take, so my coaching role is more of the organizing and directing variety than actual skill teaching.
After volleyball, we teachers went over to church for the Ice Cream Social, a fundraiser meal our church puts on. When I first heard about it my first year of teaching, I thought it was a chance for the congregation to meet the teachers and feed them ice cream. Nope. It's a full-on meal with freewill donation. So I had supper at 4:30pm, much earlier than my usual supper meal. But eating so early means I have lots of time to work at school without getting hungry...
So far I'm not doing so well on my "leave school between 5-5:30" goal. Eventually, when volleyball season is over, I will hopefully do better. Until then, it's going to be kinda tough to get out of here when practice ends at 4:15.
Sand volleyball last night went well, playing wise. It did not rain for most of our games, and at the end it only sprinkled a little. But the mosquitoes though! Ugh. They were terrible. I put bug spray on three times and I still got bit up! We did win both matches. Only lost one game each match. We should be ranked pretty high for the tournament this weekend.
A little blurry, but you can still see the little guy.
We heard his (or some other frog's) chirruping the rest of the day... it sounded like our air conditioner was squeaking, but we're pretty sure it was a frog...
The rest of the day went fairly normal. We finally got our tomatoes and our tomato labs are underway. Speaking of which, I need to clean off the lab table from that... some of our cut tomatoes got a little juicy and with volleyball practice after school I didn't have a chance earlier to clean up. Well, I had some time while Mr. E taught my class PE, but I was distracted by the Scholastic book order that arrived. Five new chapter books and four new picture books! Woohoo! Books galore! I haven't read any of the chapter books, but they're all on my to-read list, so they might come home with me before I add them to our library. Besides, the kids just picked their books to read, so they probably won't need to pick another one anytime soon. Right?
After school we had our first volleyball practice. It went very well. Many of the girls went to volleyball camps over the summer (and practiced with their parents too), so we are much improved from last year. Another parent volunteered to coach the A squad, a job I am more than happy to let her take, so my coaching role is more of the organizing and directing variety than actual skill teaching.
After volleyball, we teachers went over to church for the Ice Cream Social, a fundraiser meal our church puts on. When I first heard about it my first year of teaching, I thought it was a chance for the congregation to meet the teachers and feed them ice cream. Nope. It's a full-on meal with freewill donation. So I had supper at 4:30pm, much earlier than my usual supper meal. But eating so early means I have lots of time to work at school without getting hungry...
So far I'm not doing so well on my "leave school between 5-5:30" goal. Eventually, when volleyball season is over, I will hopefully do better. Until then, it's going to be kinda tough to get out of here when practice ends at 4:15.
Sand volleyball last night went well, playing wise. It did not rain for most of our games, and at the end it only sprinkled a little. But the mosquitoes though! Ugh. They were terrible. I put bug spray on three times and I still got bit up! We did win both matches. Only lost one game each match. We should be ranked pretty high for the tournament this weekend.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Contact Lens
Survived the first day of school! It rained/thundered pretty much all day, but it still stayed hot and humid. My air conditioner was no match for the sweaty bodies occupying my room even though I turned it on almost right away in the morning.
One of my students is on vacation the whole first week. I knew about it before they left, so she has some of her assignments, but there's a lot crammed into the first week of school! We got most of my to-do list for today accomplished, but not everything. Going over the all-school rules took longer than anticipated and we also did an unplanned religion lesson. But those are good things to do too and there's plenty of time in the school year, so life goes on.
My tomatoes never arrived at school today... a parent was supposed to have dropped them off over the weekend, but she forgot. Thankfully, we had another activity to do, so the tomato lab has been pushed off until tomorrow.
The worst part of the day was in the afternoon when my contact somehow got out of whack... as in, it got stuck behind my eye. It's happened before and I just have to wait it out. Eventually things will right themselves. This time took forever though! I was walking around the room with one eye opened and one eye closed. Of course my kiddos noticed, how could you not? I felt kinda like a pirate. But I was back to normal before the school day ended.
Tonight I have my last two sand volleyball games of the year (aside from the tournament this weekend). They are rescheduled games from one of the weeks we got rained out... though I was wondering with all the rain earlier today if they'd be cancelled again! I think the rain has stopped for now, so we're still on as far as I know.
One of my students is on vacation the whole first week. I knew about it before they left, so she has some of her assignments, but there's a lot crammed into the first week of school! We got most of my to-do list for today accomplished, but not everything. Going over the all-school rules took longer than anticipated and we also did an unplanned religion lesson. But those are good things to do too and there's plenty of time in the school year, so life goes on.
My tomatoes never arrived at school today... a parent was supposed to have dropped them off over the weekend, but she forgot. Thankfully, we had another activity to do, so the tomato lab has been pushed off until tomorrow.
The worst part of the day was in the afternoon when my contact somehow got out of whack... as in, it got stuck behind my eye. It's happened before and I just have to wait it out. Eventually things will right themselves. This time took forever though! I was walking around the room with one eye opened and one eye closed. Of course my kiddos noticed, how could you not? I felt kinda like a pirate. But I was back to normal before the school day ended.
Tonight I have my last two sand volleyball games of the year (aside from the tournament this weekend). They are rescheduled games from one of the weeks we got rained out... though I was wondering with all the rain earlier today if they'd be cancelled again! I think the rain has stopped for now, so we're still on as far as I know.
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