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!