Bells

Pastor is in Guatemala this week, so we didn't have chapel today. We did have music practice and pass out Student of the Month awards. I am kicking myself because one of my students got the award (which I knew about), but I was in the office fixing the copier while they gathered (I forgot about passing out the award today). By the time I was done, they had wrapped up singing.

After singing, the 5-8th graders practiced bells with me. The song we play at next week's Ash Wednesday service involves bells AND tone chimes. The 5th graders are playing tone chimes and have been practicing with Mrs. L only. Today was the first time putting them together. It went all right. The 6-8th graders who play the treble clef part for those measures with the tone chimes are pretty rough still. We're going to have practice again tomorrow and maybe on Friday too, depending how it goes.

The rest of the day went pretty well. A bunch of my kids are now hooked on Duolingo, a language learning site that teaches you with games/quizzes. I do it every day to practice my Spanish and I've learned quite a bit. Now, I'm attempting to learn Swahili (just in case I ever decide to go to Africa). ;) So far, my kids are learning: Dutch, German, Russian, and Greek. They even convinced me we should add a Duolingo round option to our choices for Daily 5. Not a bad idea... it's better to capitalize on their enthusiasm while they still have it! A few of them were even fired up about practicing at home!