Tuesday

My kiddos made creatures last week to "hide" in our classroom. We've been learning about ecosystems and niches and food webs lately, so I had them create creatures that would blend in our classroom and they would be the predators trying to find them. It's an activity I copied from my 5/6th grade teacher. In fact, I still have the little creature guy I made back then!

I was a little disappointed in their creativity; many of their creatures looked the same, most being made of painted walnut shells. Still, only one person out of 11 found 17. I hid 18 creatures total. Some kids forgot to look way up and way down. Before I hid them, I let students write me a note detailing where they thought their creature should be hidden. A few still couldn't even find theirs, even with the instructions they gave me!

We started working on our Biome presentations today. I put a fun twist on it this year. Each group works for a 'tour company' and has to sell a vacation package to their biome to the 1-2nd graders. So they'll make powerpoints trying to convince their peers to go to their location (desert, rain forest, tundra, taiga, savanna, etc.). They are super pumped! I introduced the project yesterday and today each group picked their biome. Pretty much everyone had the one they wanted to do picked out yesterday, but we waited today to draw sticks.

Two 5th grade girls had their hearts set on the savanna. They had this awesome plan to dress up as African safari guides with binoculars and khaki and panama hats... but the two boys also wanted the savanna. Today, right before we picked, I heard the girls saying, "Lord, please let us get the savanna... if it is your will!!!" I commented that it was great they were praying to God about it. Their reply, "Oh, Miss H, we've been praying since yesterday!"

Guess when they got to pick. Second. They were so excited!!! After everyone else picked, the boys were lamenting the fact they didn't get savanna biome. The girls said, "Well, that's cuz you didn't pray!"

After school, Mr. E and I went over to church to check out what more supplies we need to buy for our Lenten supper tomorrow. Then at 4:30, Angie and I had our first youth group meeting. I had no idea how many kids were going to come. I knew one was coming for sure and I thought that's probably all we would have. We had three! A brother and sister came right away. Pastor and Angie were also there. Angie had great snacks and games, Pastor had a great bible study, we all had great conversation. Right as we were finishing up at 5:30, one more kid showed up. His mom thought it started at 5:30 instead of 4:30. Oops... We had him do some of the games we'd done earlier and he got in on the snacks and bible study, so it wasn't a total waste. I actually had a fun time!

Pastor's bible study was based on the verse in Timothy that says, "don't let anyone look down on you because you are young" and then stuff about being good examples in speech, love, faith, purity, and life. Then Pastor challenged us to think of youth in the bible that fit those characteristics.

Ooo, okay, first to think of youth in the bible. Then to put them in categories. All I could think of were young men... but once Pastor gave us a few hints, young ladies came to mind too. Here are some names we thought of; see if you can put them in the categories: Joseph, Isaac, Mary, Jesus, Esther, Miriam, Daniel, David, Jonathon. Are there any we missed?