Short and Sweet

 We had another early out today, planned by the public school. It sure is nice to get out a few hours early! I mapped out my lessons for next week and tidied a few things around my desk area. I had hoped to get more done, but I need to run errands and I'm making baked alaska with a student at 4:30, so I need to wrap things up here.

It was another great day. We've only been reading our latest read-aloud book Restart, by Gordon Korman, for two days and we're already 1/3 through it. They are hooked!!! I love it. The basic premise is a big-time bully falls off the roof of his house and ends up with amnesia. Now he's actually nice and doesn't remember all the bad things he did. Is this nice person who he actually is? Or will he go back to bullying? They are making sooo many predictions; it's amazing. They're also putting themselves into the story, trying to decide if they would act/feel the same way if they were the characters telling the story (it's told from a few points of view, sometimes the former bully, sometimes the kids bullied by him, sometimes his friends).

I let my class talk me into reading 'extra' today; really, we accomplished everything I wanted to in the morning. I'm just so sneaky they think they're getting away with not doing their work! Man, they must think I'm a complete pushover! They tried to convince me to read the whole morning but I put my foot down so we could do our Daily 5 rounds.

They made a goal to beat the record of fastest finishing of a read-aloud book. So far, my record is reading Prisoner B-3087 in two weeks with a class about six years ago. I think their goal is to finish this book next week sometime. We have the date we started the book on the board so we know for sure how many days it takes us. 

These kids! I wish I could read aloud to them all day every day. It's so fun when their eyes light up and they start spinning what they think will happen in the pages ahead... I'm already trying to think ahead to the next book I can read with them.

Badminton and Boxes

 For PE today we played badminton. Well, we paired up and hit birdies back and forth. Thursday we'll probably try a game. They did all right for their first time! A few kids struggled to hit the birdie, but overall, they were able to get a few volleys going. We didn't have as much time for PE as we normally do because... my box from Australia arrived!!!

For those of you who don't remember (or need a refresher), last year I stumbled upon a TED talk about teaching atomic theory to 5-6th graders. The man speaking invented teaching tools to help them visualize it better, but when I looked into ordering them, they didn't ship to the US. This fall I re-found my note about StickyAtoms and poked around the internet again. This time I found the inventor's website and he said he just got a patent in the US. He could ship them to us! So I ordered six sets. He didn't have an official invoice, just told me to send the money through PayPal. Then he said he was going on vacation for two weeks to the Outback and if I sent him my address he'd ship them before he left. I was a little skeptical, but I sent him my address and he sent me a number of emails with pictures of the box of science supplies, videos to use with my class, and a tracking number.

I checked the tracking number that day, but it only showed the number had been created. A few days ago I checked again and the box was in the US! Then today it arrived! The postman gave it to Mrs. L, who brought it down to my room while Mr. E was in there teaching math, so I got it when I came back from class with the 7-8th graders. I was so excited I decided to do an unboxing right then and there... art projects could wait! 

The kids were super excited when I showed them what the atoms could do. They wanted to have science instead of social studies so they could test them out, but we're still down one student and I knew he'd want to play around with them, so we're waiting until Thursday. Yay science!!!

Back at It

One student was home sick with cold symptoms. Another student had an afternoon appointment, so we were down to just four students this afternoon. Even so, today felt much more like a typical school day than our days last week. 

We had religion, went over spelling for the week, started our new read-aloud book, did writers' workshop and Daily 5 minilessons, and had recess. Recess was in the gym since it rained on and off all day. I made a tape four-square area so we could play. I made the squares smaller since the ones outside are so huge. This size is much more like the usual four-square 'court.' 

The smaller size squares threw them off a little, but they had so much fun! I love hearing their giggles when they get a good volley going. Two of them had a contest to see who could get the other out more times. It ended in a tie. Rematch tomorrow! 

When we did science class, the student who was out sick tuned in to have class live with us using his Microsoft Teams account, just like we did last year during virtual learning. It was nice to have that as an option! Not quite the same as being in person, but he could at least be part of the class for part of the day. We made plans that if he's home sick again tomorrow, he'll tune in sooner for religion class.

Friday! (I mean, Thursday)

Guess what, no school tomorrow! I'm so excited! My sister and I are going to visit our other sister/brother-in-law for the weekend. The weather is going to be GORGEOUS. 

Today was beautiful too. The day started with a thunderstorm, but by 10am the sun was back and the day was cooler than it's been the rest of the week. We took advantage with some extra recess; four square was the game of the day. 

We ended up finishing our read-aloud today. I only cried a little! The kids guessed what was going to happen before I read it (we've been working on predictions this week). Next week we'll start Restart by Gordon Korman. 

All right, that's about all I can concentrate on. I'm too excited! Talk to you next week!

Cliff-hanger

 Oh how I love the cliff-hanger! (Not when I'm reading, but when I read aloud to my kids. Unfair, I know.)

My kids 'convinced' me to read aloud all morning, so we made a lot of progress on our read-aloud book Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. An awesome book, I've read it many times. I bet we'll finish the book tomorrow. 

We got to a super good part in the book; the big climax (or the first big climax, there are actually two). On the first day of school I told them this book always makes me cry, so they know that part has GOT to be coming up soon because we only have 30ish pages left. They're not sure if it's happy tears or sad tears... 

I stopped right before lunch, right after a major plot point happened. They were like, "NO. MISS H! You CAN'T STOP THERE! It's too much of a cliff-hanger!!!" But, little do they know, if we were to read just a little further, there would be an EVEN BIGGER cliffhanger! So, for their own good, I stopped. And I told them there would be a bad one coming if we read more. But they didn't care, "We read all morning just for this? That's not why we read all morning! We have to find out what happened! Bring it on! We'll take a bigger cliff-hanger!"  But I was mean and wouldn't read any more today. Wahahaha!

Outside

 We had MN history outside this afternoon. Everyone was too hot and sweaty from playing kickball at PE to be inside. They were huffing and puffing so much they couldn't breathe with their masks on, so someone suggested we have class in the shade outside. The only downside was the bugs! The asian beetles were out in full force today, along with mosquitoes and gnats. 

It's so hard to make fair teams for, well, anything with only six students. There is an uneven number of athletic kids, so no matter the arrangement, it's unfair. I made the mistake of not confirming the rules before we played... This class takes kickball seriously and there were a few rules they play by that were not the same as I played by in grade school. Then one kid stubbed her toe kicking the ball, another one on the same team had an asthma flare up, so that left only one kid to finish the inning (we had three minutes of recess left). It seemed like most of them were frustrated by the end of PE. Sigh. We're doing kickball again on Thursday; I hope it will go better.

Class with the 7-8th graders was also frustrating. The IT guys came last night and fixed the projector, except it only worked for me for 15 minutes before turning from my powerpoint to a black screen. So I tried the tricks that I knew. Nothing worked. Great. Time to call the IT guys. Thankfully they answered and gave me a few more things to try. Fifteen minutes later, we were still facing a black screen. The IT guy was stumped, so I did one of the earlier tricks (windows key + P, then change the projection option) and it worked! It brought the screen back! So I was able to finish class as intended. Tomorrow is the scheduled day for the IT guys to come out to school. I really hope they follow through! I have a long post-it list of things for them to check into...

Tired

We were all a little droopy today.  Everyone was tired from the weekend. One good thing about the masks is that no one can see your yawns! 

Another thing adding to the droopiness was the FAST standardized tests. We do them on the computer three times a year to see where the students are (and if they're learning). Last spring we skipped them due to covid. My poor kids get so worked about about these things. I kept stressing that it's just a snapshot of one day; it doesn't go in the gradebook. The test is more for me than it is for them... But it doesn't sink in for some of them. 

We did one test today and will do one tomorrow (it's only reading and math; I let them pick which one they did today). Afterwards I let them take a brain break: run laps, color, stretch. They seemed pretty zonked, even with the brain break. 

Afternoon recess was GaGa Ball today. We did 4-square at noon recess. Non-PE days seem to have this rotation. I still can't believe how well these kiddos get along. They were taking turns winning at GaGa Ball, some of them specifically getting themselves out so the less athletic kids could win. And giving them pointers to play better too! 

I've been playing the games with them since we have so few people (and the games are fun), but by the afternoon I've been standing all day and my feet are tired, so I'm more likely to sit out for a while before playing. I sat on the edge of the GaGa Ball pit doing just that when one of the 5th graders asked me, "Are you going to play with us Miss H? I mean, your feet must be tired from standing all day, so maybe you can play after you take a break." Such a sweet kid! 

The weather was gorgeous today and should be all week. Even better, we don't have school Friday as a teacher 'work' day. And by 'work' day, it means the teachers choose if they go in to work at school at all. As for me, I'm going to take a mental health day and go visit my sisters!

Adjective Game

Today, the 5-6th graders had the most rousing match of the Adjective Game I can ever remember. 

In case you don't remember the rules... Each team gets an object they have to describe in as many words as possible in three minutes. A person from one team reads their adjectives. If the other team has the same word, both teams cross off the word and neither team gets the point. You earn a point for each unique word. 

We did boys vs. girls. One of the boys was not pleased with those teams since the girls know a lot of good words, but they were more evenly matched than he thought. We hadn't played the game much last year, so the first round was kind of a trial run (we still counted points though). The boys caught up more the second round, but the girls had such a big lead that they pulled out a win in the third round. The boys wanted a rematch, so we started points over for the fourth round and did a fifth one to end it. The boys won that match.

Here are the objects they had to describe: a tube from the thing used to blow up an exercise ball, a square piece of cling wrap, corn starch in a cup, a penny, and a twisty tie. They had some awesome words!!! I was super impressed. There was also quite a bit of strategy going on and GREAT discussion about whether the words they suggested actually described the object. For example, is the twisty tie big or little? It depends on what you compare it to! Can an object be loud AND quiet? Strong and flexible? Is it sparkly, reflective, or just glossy? We covered all these things and more! 

I can't wait to play it again. :)

Off on a Tangent

 Man, we covered a lot of topics today! We didn't get through as much material as I thought we would, but our discussions were fantastic! They have questions (and opinions) about so many things; they truly are a joy to teach. And I'm always up for a sidetrack as long as it's educational and somewhat related to the topic. 😄

We had art today and our project of the week is to make cards for our marine and the nursing home residents. A few have picked out microwave recipes to send along. One wanted to know if hot cocoa mix was okay to send. I looked it up and found a whole list of restricted items (or items that might be restricted). Did you know shipping a washer or dryer to Japan might be restricted? There were a bunch of other strange things on the list too. There was a side note to the website that said 'your package might not be shipped if it contains...', so maybe there's a chance it could still be shipped? I need to do more research.

Joe was pretty restless today, so we let him loose for his 'daily walk'. One of the fifth graders has decided to adopt Joe as his personal responsibility and makes sure we give him exercise every day. He's so small it's easy to lose track of him. For a while, Joe hid under my desk. We wrote a note on the board as a reminder that he was loose and told everyone to keep the door closed. 

At lunchtime, one of the girls found him in the coatroom! He must've crawled under the printer and somehow wedged himself past the garbage can and out the door. The sneaky sneaker. Thankfully we realized he was out there before he made it to the gym (although everyone went outside for recess today, so at least he wouldn't have to worry about stomping feet).

Early Out

 Since Nicollet gets out at 1:00pm every Wednesday (and half our students ride the Nicollet bus), our school is taking every other Wednesday off (that way it's fair to the New Ulm bus riders). It certainly made for a short day! We went home after noon recess. Still, our day was good and full of learning. 

I couldn't ask for a better class. These kids are so willing to help and be of service to me and their classmates. They are curious and have great ideas. They are kind and remember the things I tell them to! 

Earlier in the school year we did an experiment: how many drops of water can a penny hold. They each got a pipette and dropped as many drops as they could on the surface. Coins hold more than you think! One boy took it a step further yesterday and left a dime out with water on it. He wanted to see how long it would stay. This morning it was completely dry when he checked it! We couldn't figure out if it had evaporated that fast or just spilled. So we tried the experiment again, this time he recorded when he put the drops on and we checked it throughout the day. At 3:00pm it looks like there is half the water on top that there had been. I'm guessing it will be dry by morning. Our air conditioner is very good at sucking water out of the air, so that's probably our culprit of the fast evaporation. I want to challenge him to see if we can get it to evaporate before the end of the school day (probably need to adjust the number of drops put on). We'll see what other ideas for experiments he has!

Ship and Sink

I have a friend in the marines stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Last year when he was in training, my class 'adopted' him and sent cards for holidays and such. It was a hit! This year we're doing the same thing except our mail has to travel further.

Yesterday I brainstormed with my kiddos to see what we should put in our care package to him. One girl suggested jam. 

"Like, in a jar?" 

"Yep! Or wait... that might be kind of heavy."

Another boy chimed in, "How about cupcakes?!"

His classmate shot that down right away, "No way, it'd be rotten by the time it got there!"

"Ooo! We could send him the recipe and he could make them himself!" another girl put in.

"What if he doesn't have the ingredients?" 

"I know, we can send him the ingredients! It's just like, flour and sugar and..." 

"Well, they probably have those things there."

"Oh, yeah, you're right.

Meanwhile, I'm trying not to laugh picturing marines in a barracks trying to bake cupcakes. Also, I'm pretty sure they don't have a kitchen. 

We decided we should sleep on it, but for sure we could send him some cards or pictures or bible verses. After school, I messaged my friend to see if he had any requests (and to tell him about their big recipe idea 😆). He said the closest thing to a kitchen he has is a microwave that works only some of the time and his main requests were things that won't spoil and messages/jokes from the kiddos. So, now we're going to send him those things, along with some microwave cooking recipes! 😏

The other big thing from today was that I FINALLY got a sink in my classroom after waiting nine years! Our school purchased small, portable ones for each classroom with money from a covid grant. They arrived today, were put together (thanks Mr. E!), and I got the first one in my room! It has enough water in a container for about 40 hand washes, an automatic sensor to release the water, and is plugged in for hot/cold water. The best part is that the cord is long enough so it can be at the end of the lab table, right where I always pictured a sink! Hooray! 

Insect Fun

 My dad found another class pet for us. Last week he discovered a huge green caterpillar crawling around on a 5-gal pail looking for a place to make its cocoon. He put it in a jar with some leaves and a stick and a few days later it made this cocoon! 

It's huge! About three and a half inches long and an inch and a half tall. It looks like it's made of coconut husk. The leaves stuck right to the cocoon. The kids were suitably impressed when I showed it to them today. Dad said to leave it on my porch over the winter so it won't accidentally hatch too soon. It will turn into a Cecropia moth, one of the largest moths in North America. The adults can't eat, so their whole purpose while in moth form is to mate, then die. This process takes about two weeks. Hopefully when it hatches in the spring there will be other moths around!

Other insect news... wasps have been getting in my classroom. We killed another two today! Last week we killed at least two or three. Our lovely new janitor gave me some wasp spray (basically dish soap and water). It works! At noon recess, my kiddos and I poked around the classroom to see where they might be getting in... We discovered another wasp nest on the back side of my classroom way up high by the roof. Also, I noticed wasps hovering around the air conditioning drain. It's a pipe that leads up into the wall/into the classroom, so it might be possible for them to crawl up there? I need to call the school trustee.