Whirlwind

Whew! Another whirlwind day!

We did something different for religion this morning. Last night I went to a Jewish Seder put on by Jews for Jesus. They had food on each table we could try as the speaker explained the traditions and parts of the Passover meal. It was amazing to see all the connections the Seder has to Jesus. I had leftover matzo, so I wrapped it up and stuck it in my purse to share with my students. So we went over the Jewish Passover meal and got to eat the unleavened bread. We even did the part where part of it is hidden and the children find it. Winner gets a prize!

The Landfill Pie activity with the 5th and 6th graders went well. They actually ate it afterwards. Some years, it looks too gross for students to stomach, so we end up tossing it in the trash... kind of ironic. I had them keep a tally of every time they threw something away from yesterday at 1:30 until today at 1:30. Most had between 20-60. I should've kept track of my own, but I forgot.

We watched a video about a guy who wore all the trash he generated for a month. Every time he would've thrown something away, he cleaned it and stuck it in a plastic bag suit he made. He did this for a month!

After the video we made our landfill pie. Each student got something to put in the pie, some type of food to represent the items that go into landfills. Once everything was in, I cut it up and slopped it on plates. A few ate their entire serving, a few declined eating any, and a few took a few bites and tossed it because it was too rich for them.

Tomorrow is the last day of the week before Easter break! Woohoo!

Spring

The spring chair replacement came today, can you believe it? Actually, it was on the table in the office when I came to school. Now that's fast shipping! I also had two packages of books I'd ordered earlier this month. A few of them are books that have been on my to-read list for a long time. All I need now is time to read them! Even though this week is a short week of school, it's still packed with things to do.

In about a half an hour I have another youth group game night event. After that, there's a Jewish Seder presentation in New Ulm my ladies bible study is going to. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a friend for supper and packing for the long weekend, and Wednesday is the last day of school this week!

Today we watched the movie Hidden Figures as a class as our second class prize. It's only rated PG, but since there's swearing in it, I sent a message to parents asking for permission. None of them said we couldn't watch it. Even so, I forgot how much casual swearing there is in that movie. It's still a good movie though, surprisingly funny in places. That took up our whole morning. We didn't even have time to do BINGO prizes! But that can wait until tomorrow.

I got my report cards out, all except two. Two girls haven't finished all their math fixes yet. Grr... we don't want to put incompletes on their report cards, so we wait. I'm fed up with them not doing their work, so I'm in the mood to pass out some Fs, but Mr. E doesn't agree, so we'll do it his way. It's for the best though! I don't actually want them to fail; I want them to take their work seriously.

Over the weekend a snowstorm hit again. Every single time we have a day off school (planned), a snowstorm comes! This time, I was able to get to Fulda before any bad weather came. Fulda got maybe 5ish inches or so (on top of a bunch of mud). Truman got about 8 inches. Courtland got around 3ish as far as I can tell. Today it rained, making lots of slush, but the roads seem decent and the temperature is above freezing. Sounds like the rest of the week will be rainy too. Blech.

Flossing

Ooo, today has been a big day for 5th and 6th grade! 

Most exciting news first... the blue spring seat I bought at the beginning of the year went flat! It is made of heavy plastic and has a hole in the bottom so it can be inflated to the preferred firmness (like what's in a basketball). Yesterday we noticed how flat and squishy it was, this morning my kiddos pumped it up, and before morning devotions it was back to its saggy self. They found the hole though! Right at the top seam of the chair. 

My first plan was to call the company to see if they'd send a replacement. Their first thought was: duct tape. When I nixed that plan, they went with Plan B: hot glue. That actually could work... so during read aloud they glued the whole seam twice so it would be extra good. The moment of truth came at lunch time when they pumped the chair up again. It held!!! Excellent problem-solving skills!

After school I called the company anyway, just in case the hot glue doesn't work. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee policy, so they're sending us a replacement. And guess what... we don't have to send the broken spring back! Two spring seats for us! (At least, as long as the hot glue holds).

There's this dance move called "flossing" where you move your hands back and forth while moving your hips back and forth so it actually looks like you're flossing. My kids have been doing that move on and off for the past few months and I cannot figure out how to do that move! At the wedding this past weekend I tried and tried, but I couldn't get it. Today they taught me how it goes. Success!!! Then, at lunch, they taught the piano teacher and one of our recess watching helpers. Both thought my kids were going to show them how to floss their teeth! 

Our room has been quite fragrant today. Last night I fed Joe the last of his lettuce, which has seen better days. I threw the yucky bits in the garbage in my classroom. Looking back on it, I should've put it in the hallway garbage. When I got to school this morning, our room had the odd aroma of past-its-prime kale. When my students arrived, they thought a rat had died in the coatroom, stinking it up. They said it smelled like dirty diapers. I had them dump our garbage in the dumpster, hoping by removing the lettuce it would remove the smell. That worked pretty well, but my students were taking no chances! They tried the disinfectant spray, but the spray nozzle is broken. One girl had body spray in her backpack she sprayed in all the garbage cans to mask the smell. Whew, I can still smell it! They also turned the Sentsi on, but we had to put a new cube of wax in it since the old one didn't have much scent left. I don't think it smells like bad lettuce any more!

Biome Results

The last two biome presentations were today. That means we voted on which biome we'd like to visit most! It's a bit unfair since everyone has a different opinion about the places they'd like to visit, and some biomes are naturally more fun sounding than others...

Here are the results from the vote:

• Tundra- 4
• Ocean- 7
• Rainforest- 3
• Savanna- 5
• Desert- 2
• Temperate rainforest- 0

Lots of people picked the ocean because the cruise the speaker talked about sounded fun. The savanna got a lot of votes because of the cool animals there. Tundra's draw was the cool houses to stay in (or igloos under the stars). 

It's Wednesday, which usually means I get to see my farmer when he comes up for church, but he has a bad cold and decided to stay home to keep the germs away. That means I don't need to do takeout! He picked a good week to get sick; tonight's meal is homemade soup... chicken noodle or sauerkraut. Not that easy to transport!

Allergies

A few weeks ago we planted an amaryllis bulb. We set it on Joe's tank light so it would be warmer as it grew, which speeded up its blooming progress. It's already in bloom! Monday, the first flower opened. Today two more opened and a third one is popping open.

Then the allergies kicked in. I had moved the pot closer to the front so we could admire the pretty flowers, but kids' eyes got puffy and watery, so bad their classmates thought they were crying! We had to open the windows to air the room out. I ended up cutting the stamens off the flowers, sealing them in a ziplock bag before throwing them in the trash so the pollen wouldn't float around the room even more. Yikes! Who knew this flower could cause such strong reactions!

I don't have allergies, but even my nose/head started feeling stuffy. Unless I'm just getting a cold... I'll have to take it easy tonight and make sure to drink lots of tea!

Wedding

The wedding this weekend was super fun! There was beautiful weather: gorgeous sunshine, not too hot or cold temperatures, no snow falling.  Delicious food, friendly people, and a fun dance. But man, I am still pooped! Good thing this week is short.

My students were captivated by our church year chain... there are less than 50 chains left, which means we have less than two months of school left. Yikes!!! The 8th graders have mixed feelings about this. They're happy to be done with school, but sad to be done with Immanuel. They had confirmation questioning yesterday at church and they all did really well.

Two groups of 5-6th graders presented their biome projects to the 1-2nd graders today. Both groups had been really in-to the project and even dressed up for their presentations! They looked like safari guides (savanna grassland group) and tropical tourists (rain forest group). Mr. E told us today that his class will be touring New Ulm high school tomorrow afternoon, so there won't be math or the 7-8th grade class. That means I have the 5-6th graders an extra hour... what to do, what to do...

I want to do more presentations since we only got through two today, but the next group to go is adamant that they present on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. "We still have three slides to add!!!" I'm pretty confident they'll be able to finish it up tomorrow morning and be ready to present in the afternoon, but I guess we'll see. Maybe we'll only have one presentation.

We'll also do art (something with shading and landscapes) and social studies. And of course recess to end our day.

Blue vs. Gold

I dressed a little nicer for school today since I have my friend's wedding rehearsal dinner after school today. She's getting married tomorrow in Mankato and I'm part of the wedding! I have a nice blue/gold shirt and necklace that look nice enough for school and rehearsal, so that's what I wore. I also brought a change of clothes since I had to play hockey today.

Each team got to play at least once with this hockey tournament. Five games. The bracket winners got to play the teachers... dun, dun, dun! There was one undefeated team this week going into the tournament. They went into overtime with the second place team who only lost once. The undefeated team won!

We teachers had a good match. We kept it tied for quite a while! I even made a goal! Mr. E relieved Miss S as goalie for the second half, and that's when the other team scored three goals. We didn't score any more, although we came close! So we lost, 5-2. We ended our celebration of NLSW with cookies and juice.

Whew! It was a good week, but I'm glad it's over. Now we can get back to our normal routine... just in time for the end of the quarter, confirmation, and Easter!

Islander vs. Mountain Man

I went with mountain man today: jeans, a flannel shirt, hair in a braid, gray boots. Mrs. E went with islander since one of her daughters is in the navy stationed in Hawaii.

We finally passed our bill into a law!!! The legislative branch put enough details in their document for the executive branch to sign it. The judicial branch FINALLY got to meet. They got a copy of the student handbook from Mr. E so they could see if our idea would break any school rules. It doesn't. Any objections were dealt with.

So it looks like we're getting a fish as soon as the donations from people arrive. A grandpa of two of the students is building us a tank stand. That's the first step. Then we need to figure out how to take care of a fish and what other supplies we need/ what type of fish we should get. That one will take more research. My class is enthusiastic though, so they should stick with it!

March Madness basketball brackets started today. Grr... that was all any of the 7-8th graders could talk about in my class. Then the 5-6th graders came back from math... and that was all they could talk about too!!! During bells, someone logged on to the computer to watch the live stream. The game went into overtime and they were so glued to the screen, they wouldn't listen when I told them to come back to their desks. It made me want to pull my hair out. Sigh. So tomorrow we have to have a talk. I don't want to be the grouchy, no fun teacher, but I am really not into this whole March Madness thing. I haven't decided if I'm going to make a rule that we can't watch it in our room, or not. I think it will be only during study hall time, if that. I'll sleep on it.

Stripes vs Polkadots

Today went super well! I was a little leery...

Our cook has been asking me lots of questions about the dinner that I don't know the answer to, so I've had to send her to another teacher or she's had to contact other people to find out. She did a fantastic job and got lots of compliments from our guests about the food. We had to scrounge up more chairs. Yesterday they'd said there were chairs left in the shed that hadn't been pulled out yet; we were short about 15 chairs. This morning one of the 5th graders checked and said there weren't any left! I didn't want to bring any from church, so I went in the shed myself and found that there were a bunch stacked up in a very difficult to reach area. We unearthed them and set them around the table. My class set out the plates/forks/napkins/cups before the dinner too. They rushed all over the place and life was very chaotic for a while. We still got in a few Daily 5 rounds and our Writers Workshop time.

At 10:30, Pastor B did chapel for us in the gym. We ate lunch and then had our entertainment. It was the guy who'd been scheduled for the fall but didn't come. He came today! And he was AWESOME! He brought a bunch of exotic animals, mostly from Australia. He shared their names and where they live in the world and told us interesting facts about them.

He had two pinkish parrots, Floyd and Lloyd, who could talk (when they wanted to). They didn't want to. He left them out while he showed us the other animals hoping they'd eventually say something. At the end of the program, one of them said hello to us.

He had a 2 year old alligator and a baby alligator. He said he'd let one of the 4th graders hold the two year old alligator while he'd hold the baby... they were the same size! It turns out cold blooded animals grow more in the heat. If it's a cooler climate they don't grow as much, or they grow a lot slower. Our speaker joked that if anyone wanted to get their drivers license sooner they should lie under a heat lamp so they'd grow up faster.

He also had a dingo, a cody (Just one, though they usually come in groups. They're a very social animal. If they can't find another cody or two or three to live with, they'll adopt a pet like a cat or dog and live with them for life. They're 'gregarious' he said.), and a red fox that was actually black. It turns out that these foxes that are born and bread higher north than Minnesota (i.e. Canada/Russia) will be born black with white underfur to blend in with the environment. If they're in lower latitudes, the babies will be red again. Neat!

After our speaker we cleaned up and put everything away. The 6th graders had puberty ed while the 5th graders did bells. Then we had hockey and went home! Tonight we play bells and sing at church, so I should head over there and get my takeout before we have to get going!

Athlete vs. Mathlete

I'm in my comfy clothes today. Last night, again, I couldn't decide what to wear for our dress up day. I wanted to go all mathlete and wear a nice button up shirt, but my nice shirts are all cardigans. So I went with my high school speech team sweatpants and a shirt from a past summer reading program that has something to do with books. Both athlete and mathlete!

My kids were still on the fish mindset from yesterday. We made more progress, but didn't successfully pass the bill into a law. Should we stretch it into one more day? Probably. The judicial branch hasn't had a chance to do their thing yet.

We started our hockey matches 10 minutes sooner than usual so we could end early and set up tables for tomorrow's dinner. We invite visitors/family members to have chapel, eat lunch, and watch entertainment with us on the Wednesday of NLSW. Tables are set up, tablecloths laid out, and our lovely volunteer table decorator is in the process of decorating the tables.

The PTL meeting starts in about ten minutes. Beforehand, the Immanuel-ites ladies served a nice supper for us teachers and our regular school helpers. It will be nice not to have a grumbling tummy during the meeting! They served us ham and potatoes, salad, cooked carrots, and ice cream and cake for dessert. Wow! What a spread!

Hero vs. Villain

First day of NLSW for us. Hero vs. Villain dress up day. I didn't know what to wear, but I thought I should try a little, so I wore all black and did my hair in a fancy french ponytail. Not sure if I'm a villain or a super sneaky superhero...

My kids are always super chatty on Mondays and today was no different. They were so talkative during their read to self round, I gave four of them sentences to write! They were very crabby at me afterwards. I should've said, "Hey, I'm a villain today, what do you expect?"

This afternoon we did another checks and balances activity. This time I told them we had $10 to spend as a class. The legislative branch would come up with a proposition of how we should spend it. The executive branch would approve/veto it. The judicial branch would decide on any challenges to the proposal.

First, one girl wanted to buy candles. But since she was the only one, she abandoned that idea and moved on to new curtains. The curtains were only $8! Except that was just for one and we couldn't get enough for the whole room. They brought up food, but they didn't want to spend it on snacks. Then one had the idea to buy another big yoga ball for flexibility seating. That was a huge hit! So they wrote the proposal, looked up how much it cost online and where to buy it, then turned it in to the executive branch... who promptly vetoed it.

One girl from the executive branch had popped an exercise ball a while ago (on accident) and the replacement is another bigger ball that's supposed to arrive today. Also, they pointed out that there are so many flexibility seating options that we don't use very often, do we really want another ball rolling around our room? So they struck it down. The legislative branch was frustrated and wanted to give up on the whole thing. Thankfully, we had to go to the gym and play hockey.

They must've been talking about it during the games, since afterwards they came up to me with a new idea. "Miss H, what if we got a fish?" Huh. It's come up in the past and I'm not opposed to it, but I don't really know what you all have to do to get started/take care of it. They had really good ideas and the rest of the class seems to be on board... We talked about where to put the tank, where to get the tank, what kind of stand to put it on (someone could make it for us?), what supplies we already have, what types of things we'd need...

They all agreed that their homework for tonight was to research and find out how much it would cost, the supplies we would need, what kind of work we'd have to do to take care of it... and we'll reconvene tomorrow!

Man, I'm so proud of them!

Fine Arts Fair

Fine Arts Fair was a success! Bells sounded the best they ever have and we got lots of compliments on their playing. Our song "Goliath" was quite peppy. Every art project earned a blue ribbon! Two science fair projects got blues, two got participation, the rest got reds/whites. One person never brought theirs.

On Friday, two people still had not turned theirs in. At the end of the day, it came to light that one girl hadn't even put her board together. Her excuse was that there weren't any more tri-fold boards at the store and was it okay if she used tag board? (actually, her mom asked that). Thankfully, I had a leftover, previously used board from a past year tucked away so she used that. I said I was only going to be at school until 4:30, so unless they wanted to drop it off at the FAF before 9am on Saturday, they'd have to get it back to school by then. They came at 4:20. And there was no written report. She stared blankly at me when I brought it up. "Oh! I can stay after and work on it!" was her solution. "Oh wait, you're leaving at 4:30..." So she turned it in without a written report.

The other girl had said her grandma would be dropping it off sometime Friday. But when I asked if we could call her, the girl didn't know her number. I asked if she could call her mom to find out, but she stared at me and did nothing. So I sent her mom a text after school and her mom texted me back at about 6pm saying, "I'll call and see what's going on." That was the last I heard. She didn't bring it to the FAF, she didn't even show up! Now what am I supposed to do? Give her a zero on the project??? I need to talk to her mom and see what's up with it.

I Love to Read Month Statistics

We made our final announcement for I Love to Read month... the answers to the last guessing bulletin board were revealed. I called it "Book Face" but the long title was, "Guess Which Teacher is Reading Which Book". There were some surprises! I know I mixed around at least two people, but I think I got the rest right.

Here are our grand totals for the month of February:

• School page goal: 32,000
• Actual number of pages read: 38,382
• Staff member who read the most: Miss H (me) with 1184 pages
• Class that read the most: 5-6th grade with 13,128 pages!
• Class with the most participation: 5-6th grade, each student turned in a reading log

Of the top seven student readers for the month, four were in 5-6th grade. The other three are in 1-2nd. 

• 5th grader- 2304 pages
• 2nd grader- 1831 pages
• 6th grader- 1460 pages
• 6th grader- 1400 pages
• 5th grader- 1380 pages
• 2nd grader- 1300 pages
• 1st grader- 1246 pages

That's a lot of pages!!!

Book Talk

I need to keep this short since I have to book it out of here so I can get to the spring Barnes and Noble Book Talk on time! (See what I did there? wink wink)

All but two kids brought their science fair projects in today. Since they were here and ready to go (all but three of them anyway), Mr. E took them along when he met up with the principal from MLHS to drop off our art projects so they can be judged before Saturday. There are 500 art entries! And science fair projects always take a long time to judge, so if we can get them there sooner, it hopefully won't take too long.

I thought they needed to be in place by 8am (last year's time), but they're not judged until 9am and the principal said I should just get them there by 9am. Perfect! Now I don't have to leave quite so early!

Better

It was a much better day today. No other parents emailed me overnight, upset about something else. The most upset parent from yesterday emailed an apology and she's totally over it now. I think we're good. Whew, glad that's over with.

My students were a bit unsettled this morning still, but once we were back in the swing of things, we're good to go as well.

Not too much out of the ordinary today, just prepping for science fair projects due tomorrow. A few kids didn't realize they needed to put the information from their written report on their board too. They just have pictures and a few other things. It seems like just a few years ago I had the opposite problem; students had everything on their board but forgot to write the written report. It's a bit redundant to have the same thing in two places, but some people only like to look at the board while the judges want more information at their fingertips.

Tonight's another Lenten service which means I get to see my farmer an extra day this week! Supper tonight is grilled mcribs, so it's going to be good!

(Mostly) Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

School was two hours late today, which ended up causing major dilemmas at school. We knew last night already, which is normally a good thing. Today was supposed to be the Young Writers and Artists Conference in Mankato. Their weather plan was to do whatever Mankato Public Schools did. Last night, they were two hours late, so the conference would start at 11:00, with registration and lunch from 10:30-11:00. We sent out messages to parents to have their kids to school by 10 so we'd make it there in time to start.

This morning, snow was still coming down and continued to fall until noon. I kept waiting to hear that Mankato cancelled for the day, or Nicollet so we wouldn't have to go in, but no, we still had school. A parent called me asking if we were still going to the conference. She had been planning to chaperone, but with the slushy roads she wasn't comfortable driving other peoples' children, so she wanted to cancel. I called Mr. E and then a parent coming from far away. He thought if we weren't comfortable driving to call it off. The parent thought if they're sending the buses out, it can't be that bad and we should still go. We decided to wait until other parents got to school at 10 to see what they thought.

Basically, the parent drivers thought we should still go but the teachers didn't want to chance it. Mr. E decided that as a school we weren't going to go. Then a parent asked if she could still take her kid there since she was here, had the day off work, and lunches were packed. Well, we can't really stop a parent from taking their child out of school. So all the parents at school ended up taking their kids.

A few drivers called other parents to see if they had permission to take other students along. In the end, all the 7-8th graders found rides to the conference. There were still a few spaces left in cars, so a few 5-6th graders could squeeze in, but not everyone. The parents who were driving decided that they didn't want some kids to feel left out, so they only took their child to the conference. I had to break the news to seven very disappointed students. There were tears, there were things slammed and kicked around the room. Mr. E and I talked with them about why some people were going but not everyone. Eventually everyone settled down.

We decided to have a mini-conference in our room today. I had them list off some of the sessions they could remember signing up for to see if we could replicate them. Wood pallet painting was the most popular one. Thankfully, Mrs. E had canvases leftover from the 7-8th grade art projects. There was exactly enough for my stuck behind students. Well, we were one short, but we found a wood board that one student got excited about, so everyone had something to paint. Then they had the idea to do crayon art. Mrs. E had hot glue guns/glue sticks and crayons, so we were good to go! We looked up ideas on Pinterest and away we went!

We still ate our sack lunches in the room, went out for recess a little early (since we could eat whenever we wanted to), and did more art in the afternoon. We ended the day with some origami. All in all, we made the best out of a not-good situation and it seemed like most students were in an okay mood when they left for the day.

But then some parents found out, got mad that their child didn't get to go while others did, and sent me angry emails/texts. So that's what I've been dealing with the entire afternoon. What were we supposed to do, tell parents they can't take their child out of school? That they have to stay at school today? Sure, we could've made the decision to not go sooner so they could make alternate arrangements, but I honestly thought school would be cancelled today! I wish Mr. E would've just cancelled school for us too. Sigh. But we can't go back and change the past. We can only go forward.

The three students who went to the conference went because their parents brought them. One kid never made it to school because her mom went in the ditch (the one who was supposed to chaperone). Two kids called their parents to see if their parents could drive them to the conference. Both said no. (One of those parents was one of the ones mad at me about it). Five kids didn't call their parents. Of those five, one is mad at me, two are fine with it, three I haven't heard from. I emailed them about it just in case.

Grr... what a mess. I think one of the upset parents has calmed down now. The other one is still mad and didn't answer when Mr. E called her to talk about it. I hope things calm down overnight. I'm leery though... science fair projects are due on Thursday, always a stressful time (and parents usually get frustrated about those projects too) and the Fine Arts Fair is this weekend, another thing for them to potentially get upset about. But it's their choice to be upset; I can either let it bother me or let it go. Pray that I can let it go!

Popping Party

Our popping party at the end of the day was fun. Mr. E read a Dr. Seuss book to us while wearing antlers (Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose) and the kids ate popcorn, their popsicles, and drank their pop. I'd never heard the story before and it's quite interesting!

We were invited to the New Ulm High School spring play today. One of the girls at youth group told me we should go see it with all the students. She emailed me her theater teacher's email and told me I should contact the teacher to set things up. So I did. I'm not sure what this student all told Mrs. T, but she was under the impression that I was a director and wanted to collaborate on a theater project together.  Not really, but now that you mention it...

When I was younger, the Lutheran high school closest to us (45min away) did a project where they had the 3/4th graders from area Lutheran schools write stories which they then turned into skits. I was in 5/6th grade by this point, but my sister could be in the contest. I was so jealous! Anyway, if I remember right, her story was one of the whatever number they picked to put on, so my family went to the performance. It was so cool! And now that I'm a teacher, I would love to give my students that opportunity. Until now, no opportunities/high school theater teachers have presented themselves to me. I brought it up with Mrs. T and she said sure! Coincidentally, she teaches literature too...

They have an accent project coming up, so her students could take the stories we write and set them in exotic places where the characters would have an accent. How cool is that? I hope we get to go see them.

On another note, I had a funny handwriting paper this week. The rule is that you don't get to eat lunch on Friday until your handwriting is handed in. Otherwise I'd have students who'd never get theirs done. One girl is notorious for going until the last minute to finish hers. She got it in today, but here's what her border sheet looks like:

Normally their border sheet should be beautifully colored... she took the easy way out with paper and pencil. It was that note down in the left corner that saved her from losing points!

Success!

Still at school... this week's leave before 5:30 goal is not doing so well. We had a staff meeting right after school, which lasted about an hour like usual. Then came the massive to-do list.

First I had to uncover my desk of papers. There are still papers all over, but at least they're stacked neatly and there are fewer than right after school!  I also had to count money from two different school projects.

We made our pages read goal! The official tally isn't in yet, but our goal of 32,000 pages has been met. We get a Popping Party tomorrow! Students can bring their own pop and we'll serve popcorn and popsicles to them while Mr. E reads a Dr. Seuss book. Teachers turned in their "I Love to Read" special activities money after school today too. Total, we raised $132.50 for books for our classrooms. Each teacher will get $22 to spend! Yay books!

There were a ton of quarters... mostly from my class when we did the bottle flipping tournament. All in all, my class gave $56 this month towards books. Whew! That's a lot of bottle flipping! Since I have money from the Lenten supper, I exchanged the quarters for dollars since I'll be depositing the Lenten money into the bank. Most teachers probably don't want their $22 in quarters...

My class's egg bake was a success! We served 74 people and made $334.25 for future field trips! Everyone worked well together and we got a lot of compliments on the food. There was plenty of egg bake leftover (we wouldn't have needed to make those two extra pans), but my farmer was very happy to take them off my hands so he can have a nice breakfast for the next two weeks.

Thankfully, my busy week is drawing to a close. I survived! Although next week will be busy too, but not as bad as the second week in March... National Lutheran Schools Week. Next week is kind of a lull before the storm. No school Monday, field trip on Tuesday, and regular Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. Then comes the Fine Arts Fair on Saturday, and life is crazy again for the next week!