Program practice today went AMAZING. We are so ready for Saturday night.
Actually, the whole day was pretty amazing. We finished our science lab from yesterday, much to the surprise of my 5th and 6th graders. They were sure it would take waaay more time to do it. They all handed them in before present opening! Memory work was all said before the bell rang, handwriting was in before program practice. We finished the read aloud book and got both spelling tests in before heading over to church at 9:50. Man, we sure stuck to the schedule today!
After program practice, we went back to school for our annual meal of sloppy joes, chips, and pickles, served to us by the school board. Typically, we have it at church, but since the carpet has just been washed over there, the powers that be asked us to eat at school. We all ate in the gym together; it was kind of cool. Students could mix with other grades to eat. Not too many of them went crazy after eating. A few boys went overboard on their food... a 7th grader set the record for sandwiches this year- eight sloppy joes, closely followed by his 6th grade brother who ate seven. The all time record is 20. Can you believe it???
We opened presents after lunch... the general theme was "LC" lots of candy. And that's what they got too! My presents were a bit more varied: candles, a toasty warm blanket scarf, gift cards, summer sausage, and a kitchen timer. My timer's battery wore out a long time ago and I don't have one on my microwave, so I've just been eyeballing it when cooking! The girl who gave me the timer had asked me earlier this week what I wanted, and that's what I told her. The girl said her mom was super confused when her daughter said that I wanted a timer. "But that's what she said she wanted!" the girl told her mom.
Another cool present I got was from the same girl... a Case IH calendar! What's super weird is that their family is 100% John Deere supporters. But the girl said her dad sent it to school for me. Now we'll have red tractors up the rest of the year!
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Running
There was too much running today! It seemed like all the boys forgot there is no running in the classroom. Two boys got a timeout at recess because they were chasing each other out of the gym, into the classroom. Yesterday the same two had done the same thing, but into the hallway. Today after PE, two different boys were running in the room and one pushed past a 5th grade girl, tripping her, and the second boy plowed her over the rest of the way. I scolded him, he tried to justify himself, I said I wasn't looking for excuses, he got even madder and took a break in the reading corner to calm down. He had been upset about something the other boy had said (a 7th grader), and then for him to get in trouble when his friend had been the mean one? It was too much for him.
I wanted to get one more science lab in before Christmas break. It's a Wednesday, which means we have PE at 2:00. That always makes it tricky to get much accomplished after math before PE. Usually it takes a while for them to get back from math. Today was no different. We actually got quite a bit done on the lab before we were crunched for time.
The lab was about chromatography. We mixed pen ink in beakers of rubbing alcohol and stuck paper strips in them. The paper strips were taped to the roof of a box so the ink could travel up the coffee filter. Different colors of ink travel at different speeds. So our experiment should show (after sitting overnight) that black ink is made of a bunch of different colors. We also tried red ink, purple ink, and orange ink. Unfortunately, one group tipped over their box right at the end, so they had to redo the experiment. Bummer. They had been in a rush to get to PE. Oops. Now all the jars/boxes are resting on the lab table. Hopefully we'll have time tomorrow to examine them and finish up the experiment... Tomorrow is going to be a crunch day! Last day of school before break!
I wanted to get one more science lab in before Christmas break. It's a Wednesday, which means we have PE at 2:00. That always makes it tricky to get much accomplished after math before PE. Usually it takes a while for them to get back from math. Today was no different. We actually got quite a bit done on the lab before we were crunched for time.
The lab was about chromatography. We mixed pen ink in beakers of rubbing alcohol and stuck paper strips in them. The paper strips were taped to the roof of a box so the ink could travel up the coffee filter. Different colors of ink travel at different speeds. So our experiment should show (after sitting overnight) that black ink is made of a bunch of different colors. We also tried red ink, purple ink, and orange ink. Unfortunately, one group tipped over their box right at the end, so they had to redo the experiment. Bummer. They had been in a rush to get to PE. Oops. Now all the jars/boxes are resting on the lab table. Hopefully we'll have time tomorrow to examine them and finish up the experiment... Tomorrow is going to be a crunch day! Last day of school before break!
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Pop
We had a mishap today... one of the exercise balls got popped. It happened during noon recess when everyone was supposed to be in Mr. E's room or the gym. But some kids have been sneaking into my classroom to work on stuff since it's quieter in there. Apparently, one kid made a comment to another kid (one with a quick-temper) about him liking a 5th grade girl. The other kid got SUPER mad and started chasing him around the room, pencil gripped in his hand. Another kid laughed at the whole situation, making the mad kid even more upset. One of the teasers threw an exercise ball at the angry student's head and he stabbed it with his writing utensil. Or so the angry kid says. No teachers were present at this time.
They tried to tape it, which worked for about three minutes. Not even duct tape would work. So the kid who speared it is buying our classroom a new one.
That episode pretty much sums up the day. Everyone was CRAZY!
Christmas program practice was particularly insane. People were talking and shoving and pestering on the risers. We probably would've been fine without this practice; everyone knew their parts and where they were supposed to be. But, I suppose it's good to keep it fresh in their heads. It was warm enough that we could walk over to church for practice, so we did. You'd think they'd know by now they're not allowed to throw snow at each other. And what do the 7th and 8th graders do? Throw snow, shove each other in a snowbank, etc. Yep. Not so good. The office had a revolving door today...
The morning actually went pretty good for us. Christmas present candles got decorated; we just need to wrap them. We decided to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson since it's so short. That way we'll finish it before Christmas and will start a book fresh in the new year. I love that book. The first time I read it, I was reluctant to read it since it didn't sound that interesting to me. But once I got started... it's hilarious. On a scale of 1-10, my students ranked it between a 7-10 (more votes on the higher end of the scale). We only have four chapters to go. Two more to read tomorrow, two more on Thursday.
I was surprised with a present from the Student Council today. Remember that day they were suspiciously asking my favorite candy? This morning I came back from running errands in Mr. E's room to find a gift bag casually perched on a chair in the coatroom. I left it there, thinking maybe one of them was going to give it to me. And they were all like, "Miss H! Didn't you see the present out there for you?" I guess I was supposed to grab it! Anyway, they made me open it right away. I got a package of Twix, a package of Milky Way, and a bottle of root beer. Yum!
They tried to tape it, which worked for about three minutes. Not even duct tape would work. So the kid who speared it is buying our classroom a new one.
That episode pretty much sums up the day. Everyone was CRAZY!
Christmas program practice was particularly insane. People were talking and shoving and pestering on the risers. We probably would've been fine without this practice; everyone knew their parts and where they were supposed to be. But, I suppose it's good to keep it fresh in their heads. It was warm enough that we could walk over to church for practice, so we did. You'd think they'd know by now they're not allowed to throw snow at each other. And what do the 7th and 8th graders do? Throw snow, shove each other in a snowbank, etc. Yep. Not so good. The office had a revolving door today...
The morning actually went pretty good for us. Christmas present candles got decorated; we just need to wrap them. We decided to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson since it's so short. That way we'll finish it before Christmas and will start a book fresh in the new year. I love that book. The first time I read it, I was reluctant to read it since it didn't sound that interesting to me. But once I got started... it's hilarious. On a scale of 1-10, my students ranked it between a 7-10 (more votes on the higher end of the scale). We only have four chapters to go. Two more to read tomorrow, two more on Thursday.
I was surprised with a present from the Student Council today. Remember that day they were suspiciously asking my favorite candy? This morning I came back from running errands in Mr. E's room to find a gift bag casually perched on a chair in the coatroom. I left it there, thinking maybe one of them was going to give it to me. And they were all like, "Miss H! Didn't you see the present out there for you?" I guess I was supposed to grab it! Anyway, they made me open it right away. I got a package of Twix, a package of Milky Way, and a bottle of root beer. Yum!
Monday, December 19, 2016
Busy, Busy, Busy
Whew, today was pretty crazy. But kind of in a good way.
The kids were chatterboxes, and they knew it too. After school, one 6th grader said to me, "Miss H, tomorrow we'll be better."
We made our parent Christmas presents today. I melted the candle wax I'd found in the cupboard. While it was melting, they used the beeswax sheets to roll candles. Some of the bottoms weren't very flat, so they dipped the ends in the melted wax. They turned out pretty neat! Some used little pieces of wax to make decorations for the outside. ...I let them get out the glitter too... and as expected, glitter exploded. But, my students are responsible for their actions; they cleaned it up. And vacuumed even!
Making the candles took most of the morning. All we need to do is decorate the outsides of the jars and wrap them. Even with all the candle-making, we had time for two rounds. They were noisy until I said the next person who talked got 5 sentences, then 6, then 7, etc. They were quiet as a church mice after that!
We finished our read aloud book today. I'm not sure if I should start reading another book since we only have three days left this week, or if I should wait until after Christmas. They might forget the story between now and then. Or I could read a shorter book. Or short stories. I suppose I can ask them what they think.
The 7th and 8th graders had a lab today too. Mr. E watched the kids at noon recess so I'd have time to set up the lab. I'm glad he did! It took a while to cleanup the candle mess and put out the supplies for DNA extraction. Yes, you read that right. The 7th and 8th graders extracted DNA from wheat germ and strawberries today. They were really into it!
I tested out the experiment over the weekend, but couldn't get it to work. I did some more research and found that to get better results I could 1) use ethyl alcohol instead of rubbing alcohol, 2) freeze the alcohol for at least two hours (or overnight), 3) add meat tenderizer to keep the DNA strands together. Every group got it to work today! We weren't able to lift much of it out of the test tubes, but it was clearly precipitating out of the solution. Even the groups that thought they messed up were able to see the DNA. It was pretty cool. Some girls wanted to know if oranges would have lots of DNA or other fruits. If we have time some day, we might test it out! We were supposed to look at the DNA under a microscope, but we ran out of time. Save that for another day too!
Weekend update: I did make it down to Truman for Christmas celebrations. I stayed longer than expected due to the cold weather, but my travels were safe! The Christmas program went very well Sunday night... only a few mistakes, and they were ones most people didn't notice. The kids enunciated their parts clearly and slowly too. We took the day off from program practice, but we'll practice twice more this week, just to keep their parts fresh in their heads. Round Two is Saturday night, Christmas Eve at 6:00pm.
The kids were chatterboxes, and they knew it too. After school, one 6th grader said to me, "Miss H, tomorrow we'll be better."
We made our parent Christmas presents today. I melted the candle wax I'd found in the cupboard. While it was melting, they used the beeswax sheets to roll candles. Some of the bottoms weren't very flat, so they dipped the ends in the melted wax. They turned out pretty neat! Some used little pieces of wax to make decorations for the outside. ...I let them get out the glitter too... and as expected, glitter exploded. But, my students are responsible for their actions; they cleaned it up. And vacuumed even!
Making the candles took most of the morning. All we need to do is decorate the outsides of the jars and wrap them. Even with all the candle-making, we had time for two rounds. They were noisy until I said the next person who talked got 5 sentences, then 6, then 7, etc. They were quiet as a church mice after that!
We finished our read aloud book today. I'm not sure if I should start reading another book since we only have three days left this week, or if I should wait until after Christmas. They might forget the story between now and then. Or I could read a shorter book. Or short stories. I suppose I can ask them what they think.
The 7th and 8th graders had a lab today too. Mr. E watched the kids at noon recess so I'd have time to set up the lab. I'm glad he did! It took a while to cleanup the candle mess and put out the supplies for DNA extraction. Yes, you read that right. The 7th and 8th graders extracted DNA from wheat germ and strawberries today. They were really into it!
I tested out the experiment over the weekend, but couldn't get it to work. I did some more research and found that to get better results I could 1) use ethyl alcohol instead of rubbing alcohol, 2) freeze the alcohol for at least two hours (or overnight), 3) add meat tenderizer to keep the DNA strands together. Every group got it to work today! We weren't able to lift much of it out of the test tubes, but it was clearly precipitating out of the solution. Even the groups that thought they messed up were able to see the DNA. It was pretty cool. Some girls wanted to know if oranges would have lots of DNA or other fruits. If we have time some day, we might test it out! We were supposed to look at the DNA under a microscope, but we ran out of time. Save that for another day too!
Weekend update: I did make it down to Truman for Christmas celebrations. I stayed longer than expected due to the cold weather, but my travels were safe! The Christmas program went very well Sunday night... only a few mistakes, and they were ones most people didn't notice. The kids enunciated their parts clearly and slowly too. We took the day off from program practice, but we'll practice twice more this week, just to keep their parts fresh in their heads. Round Two is Saturday night, Christmas Eve at 6:00pm.
Friday, December 16, 2016
Early Out
No snow so far... school let out at 1:10 today, so we boarded the buses at 12:45, just enough time to eat lunch and have recess.
We were worried about the weather, so we bumped up Christmas program practice time to 9:00am. I feel bad; we forgot to let some of the Bible school teachers know about the time change until the last minute. Some were able to be there at 9, but a few showed up shortly before 10 and only got to see about ten minutes of practice.
The program is ready! Of course, we could still use some polishing on a few parts, but overall we'll be fine to perform on Sunday.
I'm going to keep this short since I'm headed down to Truman now. My farmer's family Christmas is tonight. All my stuff is packed up, so I should be able to stay ahead of the storm!
We were worried about the weather, so we bumped up Christmas program practice time to 9:00am. I feel bad; we forgot to let some of the Bible school teachers know about the time change until the last minute. Some were able to be there at 9, but a few showed up shortly before 10 and only got to see about ten minutes of practice.
The program is ready! Of course, we could still use some polishing on a few parts, but overall we'll be fine to perform on Sunday.
I'm going to keep this short since I'm headed down to Truman now. My farmer's family Christmas is tonight. All my stuff is packed up, so I should be able to stay ahead of the storm!
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Better
Christmas program practice went better today! With one more practice, we'll be ready! We had more of our costumes at church (a volunteer had taken them home to wash/freshen them up). Everyone remembered where they were supposed to go (except the 7th grader who has the last speaking part of the whole program... he missed his cue, but that's what he gets for not paying attention!). The bell song sounds a lot better too. Still, we need to practice the songs with our piano player. If we don't get that practice tomorrow, things might be a little messy Sunday.
Mrs. E thought if that happens we should just sing from the CD and not have piano accompanying. That will work for some songs, but not the first two! The first song, the recording is not in tune with the hand bells, and their part sounds not so good. The second song has a tricky start; the bells wait one beat and then come in. If we play from the CD, I never know when the music will actually start, so I can't cue the bell players when to come in. Let's hope the snow holds off.
No two hour late start today. Probably not one tomorrow either, but we may get an early out. Thankfully, practice is in the morning. We'll probably get out at noon. I'm kind of bummed. I had some Christmas plans for the weekend, but now it's looking like I'll be snowed in until Sunday. And with the Christmas program that evening (6pm!), I should probably stick around.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Weather...
Oh boy, weather is throwing a wrench into things, as it often does this time of year.
First complication of the day, Mr. D was home sick, so Miss F (preschool) was the sub in his room and Mrs. E took the preschoolers with her kindergartners. We moved program practice time up to 1:00 since we haven't been getting through the whole program. Plus it was super windy and the snow kept making drifts outside the E's house, so we drove kids over to church.
Today's practice finally flowed better. Not too many tweaks were made. Our songs sound MUCH better. The bell song could use more practice, but with practice Thursday and Friday, we'll be ready for Sunday.
However, we might not get two practices in this week... Tomorrow is supposed to be super cold with extra powerful wind chills. Gross. If school is two hours late because of the cold temperatures, no worries, we'll still have afternoon practice. But if it gets cancelled Thursday (or even cancelled on Friday... there's a chance of 3-5 inches), we'll only have one practice before the big performance Sunday, aka not enough preparation time. Mr. E says if that's the case we'll cancel Sunday's program. I'm sure many people won't be happy about that. But we really need the practice.
Another potential complication... Tomorrow a guest speaker is supposed to come in the afternoon to talk about life in Russia. He hasn't been very good about responding to emails, but I emailed him anyway to let him know the situation. I don't have internet at home, so if school is cancelled tomorrow, I won't have a way to contact him. Nevertheless, I have a plan in place! Mr. E is going to log on to my email and send a message to him (if school is cancelled). If it's two hours late, we can proceed as planned. I guess we'll see what happens!
First complication of the day, Mr. D was home sick, so Miss F (preschool) was the sub in his room and Mrs. E took the preschoolers with her kindergartners. We moved program practice time up to 1:00 since we haven't been getting through the whole program. Plus it was super windy and the snow kept making drifts outside the E's house, so we drove kids over to church.
Today's practice finally flowed better. Not too many tweaks were made. Our songs sound MUCH better. The bell song could use more practice, but with practice Thursday and Friday, we'll be ready for Sunday.
However, we might not get two practices in this week... Tomorrow is supposed to be super cold with extra powerful wind chills. Gross. If school is two hours late because of the cold temperatures, no worries, we'll still have afternoon practice. But if it gets cancelled Thursday (or even cancelled on Friday... there's a chance of 3-5 inches), we'll only have one practice before the big performance Sunday, aka not enough preparation time. Mr. E says if that's the case we'll cancel Sunday's program. I'm sure many people won't be happy about that. But we really need the practice.
Another potential complication... Tomorrow a guest speaker is supposed to come in the afternoon to talk about life in Russia. He hasn't been very good about responding to emails, but I emailed him anyway to let him know the situation. I don't have internet at home, so if school is cancelled tomorrow, I won't have a way to contact him. Nevertheless, I have a plan in place! Mr. E is going to log on to my email and send a message to him (if school is cancelled). If it's two hours late, we can proceed as planned. I guess we'll see what happens!
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Sneaky Kids!
Ha, my kids were so cute today.
There was a student council meeting over lunch, and I'm pretty sure they are planning a surprise for the teachers that involves candy and pop. How do I know? Well, let me tell you!
While I went through the lunch line getting my lunch, everyone else had made it back to the classroom and was eating. The student council meeting had just gotten over, so our councilwoman was in the room getting her classmates up to speed. The door was closed, nothing too odd about that. But when I walked in, there were quite a few wide eyes and innocent faces, like I walked in while they were talking about me.
Then there was the whole, "Okay, [student's name], you know what you have to do? Right? Right? About that thing we were talking about before... *ahem*" It's not a direct quote, but my memory is about 90% accurate on this. One kid (not too skilled at being subtle) answered, "You mean what we were talking about before Miss H came in here?" Then came the, "Hey! Shhh! Don't say...!" and those meaningful looks you give people when they're saying too much.
A few minutes later, one of them casually asked me what my favorite kind of candy is. Another one asked me again while I was watching recess duty. Then the same kid, plus a few more, brought it up during 7th and 8th grade geography! They wanted to know my favorite pop too. Those little sneakers!
It was so hard to keep a straight face! The 7th and 8th graders were a bit more subtle than my kiddos; they made it into a conversation about favorite candy and talked about their favorites too. For some reason, this talk made them think of our teacher gift exchange. They've been bugging me to tell them the letters/initials I picked for the thing I want (we're doing gift exchange the same way I do it with my class). At the same time, one of them asked me, "Miss H, do you have a boyfriend?" (He'd asked that question a while ago in the middle of class, so I didn't answer). Since it was the beginning of class, I did answer him this time. Then another kid said, "Oh, I bet it's AR, a ring." Well, that got me flustered! The letters I picked were MC. That same boy who made the ring comment said, "Does it stand for 'many kids'?" Oh boy. I set him straight and then we got down to geography business. But for all you, I may as well spill the beans. MC stands for 'mint chocolate'. I wonder if my person will figure it out!
There was a student council meeting over lunch, and I'm pretty sure they are planning a surprise for the teachers that involves candy and pop. How do I know? Well, let me tell you!
While I went through the lunch line getting my lunch, everyone else had made it back to the classroom and was eating. The student council meeting had just gotten over, so our councilwoman was in the room getting her classmates up to speed. The door was closed, nothing too odd about that. But when I walked in, there were quite a few wide eyes and innocent faces, like I walked in while they were talking about me.
Then there was the whole, "Okay, [student's name], you know what you have to do? Right? Right? About that thing we were talking about before... *ahem*" It's not a direct quote, but my memory is about 90% accurate on this. One kid (not too skilled at being subtle) answered, "You mean what we were talking about before Miss H came in here?" Then came the, "Hey! Shhh! Don't say...!" and those meaningful looks you give people when they're saying too much.
A few minutes later, one of them casually asked me what my favorite kind of candy is. Another one asked me again while I was watching recess duty. Then the same kid, plus a few more, brought it up during 7th and 8th grade geography! They wanted to know my favorite pop too. Those little sneakers!
It was so hard to keep a straight face! The 7th and 8th graders were a bit more subtle than my kiddos; they made it into a conversation about favorite candy and talked about their favorites too. For some reason, this talk made them think of our teacher gift exchange. They've been bugging me to tell them the letters/initials I picked for the thing I want (we're doing gift exchange the same way I do it with my class). At the same time, one of them asked me, "Miss H, do you have a boyfriend?" (He'd asked that question a while ago in the middle of class, so I didn't answer). Since it was the beginning of class, I did answer him this time. Then another kid said, "Oh, I bet it's AR, a ring." Well, that got me flustered! The letters I picked were MC. That same boy who made the ring comment said, "Does it stand for 'many kids'?" Oh boy. I set him straight and then we got down to geography business. But for all you, I may as well spill the beans. MC stands for 'mint chocolate'. I wonder if my person will figure it out!
Monday, December 12, 2016
Tweaking
Another day of tweaking the Christmas Program. I almost forgot to send the bulletin insides to the church secretary today (like I told her I would). I'm getting to the scatterbrained stage of Christmas program preparation!
We have almost all of our props accounted for and in position at church. Miss S and I ironed out the bell/tone chime location situation. Our solution is to play all the songs on hand bells and have the music in the books just so, so we don't have to have tables put up for tone chimes. Miss S taught them how to mart and use mallets; practice went well today! We still have a lot of work to do, but there are four practices left. We can do it!
Our speakers were more confident today and knew the places where they should be and when. We shaved about 15 minutes off our total program time today! I know we'll be even faster tomorrow now that I've tweaked mostly everything.
I do have one more change to add tomorrow... The shepherds don't do much acting this year, and I feel kind of bad about that since we have a Bible school kid who is coming to two of our practices so he can be a shepherd. The 3rd and 4th graders' speaking part is the area where shepherds would normally be doing their acting. The other speaking part that talks about shepherds already has so many people center stage, it would be too crazy to squeeze a bunch of shepherds up there too. So my brilliant plan is to have the shepherds do some acting during our song "Run Shepherds Run." The words of the song are perfect for it! They'll look around like, "oh, hey, we should go check that baby out!" and then they'll scurry up the side aisle and down the center aisle, gathering around baby Jesus in the manger. It will be adorable. I'm so excited for practice tomorrow!
While our speaking parts are coming together, the songs almost seem to be getting worse... the two middle songs are solid, but the beginning and ending songs were kind of a mess today. Our piano player teaches at another school, so she's only with us for one practice before the service. To help with the transition, we recorded her playing those two songs on the piano so we could "practice" with her playing. But the recording is waaaay slower than the kids are used to, and they kind of steamrolled all over those songs. It was hard to hear because we were playing it off Mrs. E's phone held up to a microphone. Tomorrow we're going to try plugging the phone into the speakers (we didn't have the necessary cord today).
To end on a positive note, we have just the right amount of microphones now! Mr. D found a cord and another microphone, so we plugged it in and have it in a stand, leaving a cordless mic and a headset for our two main speakers! Nice!
We have almost all of our props accounted for and in position at church. Miss S and I ironed out the bell/tone chime location situation. Our solution is to play all the songs on hand bells and have the music in the books just so, so we don't have to have tables put up for tone chimes. Miss S taught them how to mart and use mallets; practice went well today! We still have a lot of work to do, but there are four practices left. We can do it!
Our speakers were more confident today and knew the places where they should be and when. We shaved about 15 minutes off our total program time today! I know we'll be even faster tomorrow now that I've tweaked mostly everything.
I do have one more change to add tomorrow... The shepherds don't do much acting this year, and I feel kind of bad about that since we have a Bible school kid who is coming to two of our practices so he can be a shepherd. The 3rd and 4th graders' speaking part is the area where shepherds would normally be doing their acting. The other speaking part that talks about shepherds already has so many people center stage, it would be too crazy to squeeze a bunch of shepherds up there too. So my brilliant plan is to have the shepherds do some acting during our song "Run Shepherds Run." The words of the song are perfect for it! They'll look around like, "oh, hey, we should go check that baby out!" and then they'll scurry up the side aisle and down the center aisle, gathering around baby Jesus in the manger. It will be adorable. I'm so excited for practice tomorrow!
While our speaking parts are coming together, the songs almost seem to be getting worse... the two middle songs are solid, but the beginning and ending songs were kind of a mess today. Our piano player teaches at another school, so she's only with us for one practice before the service. To help with the transition, we recorded her playing those two songs on the piano so we could "practice" with her playing. But the recording is waaaay slower than the kids are used to, and they kind of steamrolled all over those songs. It was hard to hear because we were playing it off Mrs. E's phone held up to a microphone. Tomorrow we're going to try plugging the phone into the speakers (we didn't have the necessary cord today).
To end on a positive note, we have just the right amount of microphones now! Mr. D found a cord and another microphone, so we plugged it in and have it in a stand, leaving a cordless mic and a headset for our two main speakers! Nice!
Friday, December 9, 2016
First Practice
Ohhh man, my brain is very mushy right now. We had our first Christmas program practice at church this afternoon. Everyone was over there, in their places by 1:30pm. There are lots of logistical issues to work out with this program... It's called "The Road to Christmas" and there are two people who are following the road to Christmas, seeing signs along the road, talking to people they meet on it. We're also having instrumentalists accompany two of our first songs, so we need an extra place for those people to stand together (but not cover anyone up). Last night, we underestimated how much room they'd need. They were squished today and did not hesitate to let me know! Their playing went well, but we need to figure out a different arrangement. I think we'll split the choir and have the tone chimes on one side and the instruments on the other.
I did not assign instrument parts very well. The 8th grader with the most parts is playing instruments for the two songs accompanying our choir. So she has to do a lot of back and forth running around. Today we did a lot of "who goes where when?" and "which side of the stage do I need to be on?" I also pulled some of the 3rd and 4th grade angels to do some special acting with Mary and Joseph (when the angels come tell them the news). But I made the mistake of just picking kids, not drawing a name out of a hat, and one of the third graders was not too pleased. So I told them I would draw names out of a hat for the permanent roll on Monday, and the ones today would just be the ones doing it for today. Sigh. Drama, drama, drama.
Mostly what our issues today come down to is that we need a few more microphones and just a little more space up front. I should probably go through the program in my head, seeing where people should be and when. Today was rough, but a surprising number of kids showed up where they were supposed to, when they were supposed to, without me having to say anything to them! We were supposed to be off book today. My kiddos had their parts memorized this morning as part of their memory work. Some of them still had it memorized during practice. A few forgot their lines and remembered when prompted. A few totally blanked. So Mrs. E and I stressed that everyone should look over their parts over the weekend, even if it's already memorized. Only five more practices until our first performance! Yikes!
I found a new "English" game for my kids to play during Work on Writing. It's called "Mad Libs: The Game" and it's basically Apples to Apples mixed with Mad Libs. One card is in the middle with a sentence on it that has blanks where the nouns/adj/verbs are. For example, "If you can't be (verb), be (verb)." Players have seven cards in their hands to pick from, and they place their selections face down on the table. They take turns reading the sentence with their card selections substituted for the spaces on the main card. Afterward, people vote on which one is the best. My kids had a blast! We played in pods, dividing the cards up amongst the three groups. They came up with some pretty silly sentences! The best one from the morning was, "If you can't be handcuffed, be explosive!"
I did not assign instrument parts very well. The 8th grader with the most parts is playing instruments for the two songs accompanying our choir. So she has to do a lot of back and forth running around. Today we did a lot of "who goes where when?" and "which side of the stage do I need to be on?" I also pulled some of the 3rd and 4th grade angels to do some special acting with Mary and Joseph (when the angels come tell them the news). But I made the mistake of just picking kids, not drawing a name out of a hat, and one of the third graders was not too pleased. So I told them I would draw names out of a hat for the permanent roll on Monday, and the ones today would just be the ones doing it for today. Sigh. Drama, drama, drama.
Mostly what our issues today come down to is that we need a few more microphones and just a little more space up front. I should probably go through the program in my head, seeing where people should be and when. Today was rough, but a surprising number of kids showed up where they were supposed to, when they were supposed to, without me having to say anything to them! We were supposed to be off book today. My kiddos had their parts memorized this morning as part of their memory work. Some of them still had it memorized during practice. A few forgot their lines and remembered when prompted. A few totally blanked. So Mrs. E and I stressed that everyone should look over their parts over the weekend, even if it's already memorized. Only five more practices until our first performance! Yikes!
I found a new "English" game for my kids to play during Work on Writing. It's called "Mad Libs: The Game" and it's basically Apples to Apples mixed with Mad Libs. One card is in the middle with a sentence on it that has blanks where the nouns/adj/verbs are. For example, "If you can't be (verb), be (verb)." Players have seven cards in their hands to pick from, and they place their selections face down on the table. They take turns reading the sentence with their card selections substituted for the spaces on the main card. Afterward, people vote on which one is the best. My kids had a blast! We played in pods, dividing the cards up amongst the three groups. They came up with some pretty silly sentences! The best one from the morning was, "If you can't be handcuffed, be explosive!"
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Christmas Setup
I think we have a floor map planned out for the Christmas service... it took some figuring, but I'm pretty sure we'll have everything in place so we can still move around somewhat easily. Complications this year include having bells/instruments accompany two choir songs. Where to put them? A place where they're not covering anyone up, but they're not in the way the rest of the program. We decided to have the two tables set up in front of the manger scene for the first part of the program. We're not using the manger, so they won't be covering anyone. After those songs, the kids will move the tables and put their bells away. Actually, they'll be playing tone chimes so the bells can be set up on other tables for our offering song. Those tables will be set up, but shoved against the wall so they're not in the way. We'll pull them out when it's time to play on them.
Miss S showed me some of the special bell techniques we'll be using in our offering song. We've been practicing the song with normal ringing, but next week we'll add the fancy effects... things like "marting" or striking the bell on the table (I usually call it table damping) and malleting (or striking the bells with mallets). We've never used mallets before so it should be interesting!
Miss S showed me some of the special bell techniques we'll be using in our offering song. We've been practicing the song with normal ringing, but next week we'll add the fancy effects... things like "marting" or striking the bell on the table (I usually call it table damping) and malleting (or striking the bells with mallets). We've never used mallets before so it should be interesting!
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Birthday Surprise
Mr. D's 50th bday is tomorrow. The 3rd and 4th grade parents planned a bunch of surprises for him today so he wouldn't suspect. First, everyone in school wore all black today. Only two kids forgot! I thought for sure he would figure it out before school, but he didn't. He didn't even figure it out in chapel when we were all together. But once we gathered in Mr. E's room for Christmas program practice (after chapel), THEN he figured out something was up. After the fact, he said he thought something was suspicious when all four volunteers that went up during Pastor's message were wearing black, but he chalked it up to a coincidence. But after seeing the sea of black accumulated in Mr. E's room... The funny thing is, he said he almost wore his black shirt to school today! Wouldn't that have been funny?
We sang Happy Birthday, of course, and the 3rd and 4th grade parents got cupcakes for the whole school. Tonight, some of the older girls are decorating his classroom with black decorations (and putting a few presents from the parents in there as well). I bet he'll be surprised!
The Christmas program is coming together... Mrs. E and I got the seating chart figured out (I think) and the bulletin covers have been selected. Well, there are seven choices. The church secretary will have to narrow it down from there. Each year, students get to draw a possible bulletin cover, and the best ones are used as the covers for the Christmas program bulletins. I've helped the secretary print them in the past, and it's actually a lot more work than you'd think. I don't imagine she'll want to print seven varieties... but we'll see what she says!
We sang Happy Birthday, of course, and the 3rd and 4th grade parents got cupcakes for the whole school. Tonight, some of the older girls are decorating his classroom with black decorations (and putting a few presents from the parents in there as well). I bet he'll be surprised!
The Christmas program is coming together... Mrs. E and I got the seating chart figured out (I think) and the bulletin covers have been selected. Well, there are seven choices. The church secretary will have to narrow it down from there. Each year, students get to draw a possible bulletin cover, and the best ones are used as the covers for the Christmas program bulletins. I've helped the secretary print them in the past, and it's actually a lot more work than you'd think. I don't imagine she'll want to print seven varieties... but we'll see what she says!
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Crack-a-lackin'
Since I bought more yoga balls last night, today was the day for cracking down on usage behavior. We had a class discussion about what was distracting and what was acceptable. I made a Rules chart and posted it on the front of my podium. It already came in handy twice today! One boy dribbled his ball and all I had to do was say his name and he put it away in the closet. The other time was when the 7th and 8th graders came in for class. They were jacked up about the extra balls and were bouncing and kicking and dribbling, so I pointed to the chart and said, "Not allowed!" And they calmed down right away. One 7th grader got his taken away and he fussed a bit, but I held my ground.
Here are our rules:
We did a science lab on mixtures today. It took a lot of setup, both before science started and after I passed out the lab sheets to my students. Still, they had fun and we were able to find a good-ish stopping point. Now I have a large pile of dishes to do. Two test tubes were broken in the course of the lab. One while a student dumped out the contents into the dump container (she tapped it against the side of the glass). The other was while they were rinsing out their glassware; somehow another broke. Thankfully, I have a "sharps" container in the closet. And I also have plenty of test tubes. Still, I don't like dealing with broken glass.
Tomorrow we'll have to finish the second portion of the lab and work on our conclusions/review. I was hoping to get to another lesson so we could have a second lab this week since next week our science/social time is going to be used for Christmas program practice. Oh well. We'll see how tomorrow goes.
My church doesn't have an advent services, but my farmer's church has them Tuesday nights, so I'm headed down to Truman for church tonight. The weather is good so far! I think there's a small chance of snow and it's supposed to get cold later, but that won't be terrible to drive in.
Here are our rules:
- Moderate bouncing/wiggling
- Use your own ball (don't ask to use a classmate's)
- No dribbling
- No kicking
- No hitting the sides
- No rolling around
- No warnings! Ball goes in the closet
We did a science lab on mixtures today. It took a lot of setup, both before science started and after I passed out the lab sheets to my students. Still, they had fun and we were able to find a good-ish stopping point. Now I have a large pile of dishes to do. Two test tubes were broken in the course of the lab. One while a student dumped out the contents into the dump container (she tapped it against the side of the glass). The other was while they were rinsing out their glassware; somehow another broke. Thankfully, I have a "sharps" container in the closet. And I also have plenty of test tubes. Still, I don't like dealing with broken glass.
Tomorrow we'll have to finish the second portion of the lab and work on our conclusions/review. I was hoping to get to another lesson so we could have a second lab this week since next week our science/social time is going to be used for Christmas program practice. Oh well. We'll see how tomorrow goes.
My church doesn't have an advent services, but my farmer's church has them Tuesday nights, so I'm headed down to Truman for church tonight. The weather is good so far! I think there's a small chance of snow and it's supposed to get cold later, but that won't be terrible to drive in.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Flexible Seating
The adventures in flexible seating continue...
This weekend, I bought a few exercise balls for our classroom, one 55cm and one 65cm. Monday morning my kiddos blew them up. The 65cm ball was HUGE! They were so excited to try it out. The only thing I didn't like was that it was too big to fit under the desks. The kid who got to use it (we're rotating who gets the privilege each day) is a bigger guy, and he has trouble staying in his 40 acres as it is... He enjoyed sitting on it, but he did take up a lot more space. I would tolerate the size more, except it doesn't fit under a desk, so it's a bit more free-floating. Chairs where they're not supposed to be drive me crazy!!!
The 7th and 8th graders want me to convince Mr. E to let them have exercise balls as seating in their room. Today, the boys took over the pod the girls usually sit in (so they could use the yoga balls). The boys were much quieter, but the girls at the table were super loud today! Normally they're the quiet ones. Maybe I need to outlaw sitting at the folding table. I brought it up to Mr. E after school while we teachers were waiting to wave off the buses. He's not too thrilled with the prospect, but he feels like he should have more of an open mind about it.
The 7th graders' idea was to have them use regular chairs during their lessons, and while Mr. E is teaching the other grade, then they could use the balls. Mr. E was not a fan; it would waste so much time! True enough! I'm stopping at the store tonight to return the big 65cm ball and replace it with another 55cm ball. I offered to get one that would be passed around to other classrooms to see how they like it (before we commit to a ton of them). This weekend I sent a note to go in the bulletin that if people have extra exercise balls they don't want, they can send them the 5th and 6th graders' way. We'll see what happens!
Our first home basketball game was tonight, only B squad (we played their A squad team there last week). I watched the last half of the girls' game and the first half of the boys' game. Girls won! Boys have a closer game, but we were behind when I left.
This weekend, I bought a few exercise balls for our classroom, one 55cm and one 65cm. Monday morning my kiddos blew them up. The 65cm ball was HUGE! They were so excited to try it out. The only thing I didn't like was that it was too big to fit under the desks. The kid who got to use it (we're rotating who gets the privilege each day) is a bigger guy, and he has trouble staying in his 40 acres as it is... He enjoyed sitting on it, but he did take up a lot more space. I would tolerate the size more, except it doesn't fit under a desk, so it's a bit more free-floating. Chairs where they're not supposed to be drive me crazy!!!
The 7th and 8th graders want me to convince Mr. E to let them have exercise balls as seating in their room. Today, the boys took over the pod the girls usually sit in (so they could use the yoga balls). The boys were much quieter, but the girls at the table were super loud today! Normally they're the quiet ones. Maybe I need to outlaw sitting at the folding table. I brought it up to Mr. E after school while we teachers were waiting to wave off the buses. He's not too thrilled with the prospect, but he feels like he should have more of an open mind about it.
The 7th graders' idea was to have them use regular chairs during their lessons, and while Mr. E is teaching the other grade, then they could use the balls. Mr. E was not a fan; it would waste so much time! True enough! I'm stopping at the store tonight to return the big 65cm ball and replace it with another 55cm ball. I offered to get one that would be passed around to other classrooms to see how they like it (before we commit to a ton of them). This weekend I sent a note to go in the bulletin that if people have extra exercise balls they don't want, they can send them the 5th and 6th graders' way. We'll see what happens!
Our first home basketball game was tonight, only B squad (we played their A squad team there last week). I watched the last half of the girls' game and the first half of the boys' game. Girls won! Boys have a closer game, but we were behind when I left.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Listening Art
This afternoon for art, we did a project I stole from Miss S. She plays a classical music piece for her students, and they draw the picture they get in their heads from the music. They also write about what they pictured. My kids LOVED it! I didn't have any classical songs picked out, so I played a song by Waterflame (a video game composer). They were dancing and having a grand old time! And they wanted to do it again! This time, I played "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs. They loved that song too, but most had the same visual because it's played in the movie The Sandlot. Then I played more Waterflame. Next time, I think we'll do some Lindsey Stirling or maybe try some classical composers.
As I scrolled through the songs I have on my desktop computer, I noticed sound effects from the summer reading program's "soundtrack scrimmage" or "sound effect scrimmage". I have a feeling my kids would like to play that too. Maybe next week! Except we are starting Christmas program practice at church soon, which will take up most of our afternoons. I've been considering cutting down on Daily 5 time in the morning to squeeze in some science/social studies time. I have another week before I have to decide that though.
As I scrolled through the songs I have on my desktop computer, I noticed sound effects from the summer reading program's "soundtrack scrimmage" or "sound effect scrimmage". I have a feeling my kids would like to play that too. Maybe next week! Except we are starting Christmas program practice at church soon, which will take up most of our afternoons. I've been considering cutting down on Daily 5 time in the morning to squeeze in some science/social studies time. I have another week before I have to decide that though.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Seed Dinner
Gotta keep this short tonight. We had a faculty meeting after school, and there is a seed appreciation dinner in Truman I'm a plus one for...
NaNo update: all 10 of my kiddos won their NaNo! Our class word count total was 92,268, which was 4,768 over our cumulative class goal (87,500). Lots of words!
NaNo update: all 10 of my kiddos won their NaNo! Our class word count total was 92,268, which was 4,768 over our cumulative class goal (87,500). Lots of words!
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