Fall Carnival

Today was such a fun day at school. My kiddos hosted the Fall Carnival and I think this year is the best year we've ever done it. The kids were laid back and confident, they had their booths set up and ran them well. They had not only candy as prizes, but stickers and some slinkys/fans/fake glasses/fingers to pass out. And, they made guessing jars. This one is "guess the calories." Answer: about 900. 

We had our book pumpkins on display:

(this 6th grader sewed her mouse herself)

The two 5th grade girls teamed up to make this book. In the gym they had them arranged so they looked like the book cover. 

(my new favorite book of the year)

Here's an update on my class jungle--I mean, plant experiments... We're hoping the succulents will be big enough for Christmas or Mother's Day presents.

My hydroponics boy ate his first pea pod this week! He could've let them grow longer, but he said they still tasted good. He also brought in the growlight in the bottom picture. He shares it with his classmates, switching it from shelf to shelf during and after school. There is so much teamwork and kindness in my classroom this year. I love it!

CPR

Got a refresher on CPR tonight after school. Planned, of course. We also got a refresher on how to use the AED and do first aid. Hopefully I'll never have to use it.

Afterwards, I worked on prepping lessons for next week. Normally on Thursdays I just make an outline of the next week. Then over the weekend I prep the lessons and make sure everything is up to date and ready. Buuuut, this weekend I'm going on an impromptu trip to Wisconsin to help a friend wedding dress shop, so no time to plan. (I get to be the maid of honor!) Everything is ready for next week except one science Kahoot for the 7-8th graders to review for their Friday test. I should be able to get that done next Monday or Tuesday though. All I need to do now is pack!

Pumpkins

Pastor and Mrs. B have a ton of pumpkins and gourds. After chapel each of my students picked out one to turn into a pumpkin "book report". It's an optional family project that I'm making mandatory. They fussed at first, but stopped when they realized I wasn't going to make them write an actual report. We're doing it for art. They get to decorate their pumpkin with stuff so it resembles a character from a book. So far, they're looking good!

We've been doing collages as our other art project, and one 5th grader made a frog out of her pumpkin using green paper as a collage. She partnered up with the other 5th grade girl to do the book Dog on a Frog? by Kes Gray. The other one is doing a dog. I'll share pictures when they're finished.

Swingin'

My class loves to swing. Every time we have recess outside, they play a game they made up. One person is the judge who gives the swingers a word and the first letter of the second secret word. The swingers have to jump off the swing in a way that the words describe their jumps. The judge then ranks them based on how well they matched the known word and the secret word. They come up with some crazy words. Sassy (teacher). Long (lion). Fancy (bird). 

We delved deeper into DNA and cell replication today. Man, science is just clicking with these guys! It's awesome! We talked about how cells know when to divide, how cells die, how DNA gets fixed if the bases get messed up, why sugar seems to give you energy, and vacuoles (the one thing from my lesson I actually planned to teach them about haha). But as always, I'd rather have them learn this stuff when they're interested in it. Plus, they'll be ahead of the game in science class in two years. We'll see how much of this they remember... 😁

Christmas Crazies

Ugh, the Christmas program is driving me nuts... but right now it's all speculation, so I should quit worrying about it prematurely. 

Results from Sunday's meetings: The church constitution doesn't specifically say who picks the church services/times, but the elders traditionally do it with the congregation's input. The elders really, really want the kids to perform on Christmas Eve. And it has to be the school kids, not just the Sunday school kids. They were willing to let us go down to one service, but it had to be on Christmas Eve. Except only 40% of families want to do it Christmas Eve. So after making our case for having just one service the Sunday before Christmas (as 60% of families want), the elders decided that school should still have two Christmas services, but families and teachers don't have to participate in both.

Sigh. So that means potentially more work for us planners... If families can only come to one service, we have to find substitutes for speaking parts, make sure their bell parts are covered (or record the bell song ahead of time), assign seating with more/fewer bodies in mind... 

As far as teachers only attending one, Mr. D runs the sound system, so he can't skip. Mr. E as principal feels like he has to be at both (and Mrs. E too). Mrs. L directs music and can't just skip. I'm directing bells and the rest of the program, so it could work for me to be gone, if I did a lot of prep work/filmed the bells (which we might need to do anyway if kids aren't going to be at both services), but I would feel so guilty being the only regular teacher gone from a service. (The preschool teachers are taking turns being at the services.)

But again, I'm borrowing trouble. We're sending a program signup home tomorrow, due back November 1st, and then we'll know more of what we're working with.

So nothing different was announced at the church meeting. Just that school will have two services in conjunction with the bible school kids, just like usual. The cast of players might be different, but it will be the same service and it will be amazing. 

The rest of the church meeting went surprisingly well. The vocal parishioner didn't say anything when school rolled around (he was going to suggest we cut a teacher because of low student numbers). He raised his hand, but others raised their hands first and were called on, and their questions/the answers calmed the vocal guy down. We got our lp locked in before the prices went up. Mr. E ran through the numbers of students in each grade, talked about how the free kindergarten has helped retain students. There were ten kindergarteners last year and there are ten 1st graders this year. Pastor went through how many baptisms there have been in church the past few years, and the numbers line up with how many kids are in grades at school. So all those things (plus the fact our church is doing okay moneywise) let us squeak by without any negative talk about the school. 

Downpour

I thought we might escape the rain, but no. This morning was clear and sunny, but as we walked to chapel a bank of dark clouds hovered in the distance. An hour before lunch the skies broke and a torrent of rain whooshed around us. This is the first big rain my students have experienced in my room; it's loud! Especially in the entryway to my room (tin, not much insulation). So they enjoyed that. They loved seeing the parking lot flood and a river of water rushing down into the kickball field too. 

We ended our half day of school with reading buddies. My kiddos LOVE reading buddies. As per usual, they squirreled away books earlier in the week to share today. Sometimes I think 15min isn't long enough!

During reading buddies, I got my continuing education paperwork ready to turn in at our teacher's conference tomorrow. I usually see the committee lady there and then I don't have to mail my gigantic packet of papers. Last year I never turned any in, so I have 14 things to turn in for hours. Some of them are for one hour webinars, but a few are for 10-25 hour workshops. My license needs to be renewed this summer, so it's a good thing I have so many hours!

Rapping Christmas

Bells today actually went really well! We practiced our two November songs (both sound decent just sight reading) and one Christmas song. That one could use a little work. While I focused on one half of them, the other half (ahem, the boy half) came up with a rap version of the song we were playing: Away in a Manger/Still, Still, Still. 

The end of bells was chaotic since no one wanted to pack up. The 6th graders and I brainstormed a solution and came up with the idea that everyone has one job they do. At the end of the day the 7-8th graders joined us and we picked sticks for who is doing what. One job for everyone! Now I'm going to type it and have it posted on the back of the door/on my music stand so everyone remembers what they have to do. 

Now I'm off to church for a Christmas program meeting with Pastor, our bible school superintendent, and Mrs. L. We're going to share survey results with them and hopefully come up with a decision about the service...

Silent Auction Success

Well, this weekend's fundraiser was a great success! I don't know how the pork chop side of things went, but the silent auction brought in over $2300! To compare, the last two times we did it brought in $1800 and $1300. The most sought after item was a stained glass cross piece made from glass leftover from refurbishing the church's stained glass window years ago. It went for $130! The man who made the piece has more leftovers, so he and another church lady cooked up a deal: anyone who didn't get the piece and is willing to pay the final bid will get one. He'll make more and donate the proceeds to ILS minus the cost of labor. After tallying up his stained glass, he has enough to make four more. Three are already spoken for. So we'll add that to the grand total of silent auction income. Awesome!

My kids sang, chimed, and rang well too. There were a few minor mess-ups, and people maybe wouldn't have noticed except my kids show everything on their faces... oops. Sunday was a busy day because there was a baptism during the service AND communion. We got everything on Sunday. The only lowlight was they played a Luke Bryan music video during the church service during communion. It's called "Harvest Time" and I suppose they picked it because it's harvest time, but it has nothing to do with God and church. One of my students and I bonded over our dislike of that video used during church, so there's that at least.

My favorite part of today was actually English class. We've been prepping for NaNo and today's topic was on Plot. I've used the same outline to plot student stories for years and years, but this time the NaNo workbook gives other options if you don't want to use the basic plot rollercoaster method. Of course, after mentioning it to the 5-6th graders, they immediately wanted to hear the other ways. The first one we clicked on is the Jot, Bin, Pants method, which is surprisingly how I like to plot my novels. Huh. Who knew? 

Basically, after figuring out characters and their conflict, you jot down all the ideas you have about what could happen to them, or scene ideas, or pictures or whatever. Then you sort them into beginning, middle, and end bins. When NaNo comes, you write by the seat of your pants, picking out what you want to use when. See where your characters take you. 

Silent Auction

It's go time. My car is loaded up with silent auction items. I'm bringing them over to church after I wrap things up at school. Two parents are helping with set up tomorrow evening and I have nothing going on then, so I'll probably save most of the set up for Saturday. 

The bell song is sounding good. Two kids were missing, so of course it could've sounded better today, but both of them plan to be here Sunday. The song we're singing sounds good too. Classes sing different verses, and we had a 'contest' to see which groups could be the loudest. The 3-5th graders won. 

This afternoon we had STEM time (more fort building), the 7-8th graders too. I love watching them work together to problem solve and design their forts. A 7th grader wanted a blanket to go over the top, but I only have two and the other group wasn't sharing, so he asked to use the fabric that covers the foam during bell practice. Great idea! The only sad time was putting it away.

My kiddos were on the radio after school promoting the pork chop dinner.  I listened from school. Three volunteered to talk; even so, they were a bit shy. They did good though.

Forts

We explored with our STEM gadgets today and my 5-6th graders had a blast. They built forts with sticks and balls. The kit came with suggestions on what to build. It was so fun to watch them be creative and work together.

We had a two and a half hour staff meeting after school. The main talking points were Blood Borne Pathogen training by our school nurse and the Christmas program. We're trying to get it down to just one service. A point was made, who is in charge of deciding when the programs are done? If the school is doing the work, shouldn't the school make the decisions about when/how often to have it? We're taking a survey of parents to find out what they think about when/how often we should do it. So far 19/35 have responded. 79% want just one service. They have until Tuesday to fill it out. That gives me a few days to talk to Pastor and the Bible School leader about it before the church meeting on the 24th. We'll see what happens!

Wind

Holy buckets it was windy today! It was so windy, it knocked the little outdoor kitchen against my classroom sounding like someone was knocking until it finally tipped over. It was so windy, the wind pressed the doorbell button on the school's main door! Someone taped a cup over the button so the wind couldn't press it anymore. I really hope my plants at home survived... they are all resting in the rocks to soak up the rain, and some of them are in small pots. 

Yesterday I spent an hour after school trying to find a picture book I remembered reading about a girl who spies her teacher "loose" and tries to "rescue" her. Man, it drove me nuts! Today I called the library to see if they could look in my circulation history. Oh, they don't keep track of that in this system. Thankfully, the librarian knew which book I was talking about. Unfortunately, she couldn't remember the name of it off the top of her head. So she said she'd call back. And she did: Rescuing Mrs. Birdley by Aaron Reynolds.

NaNos and Noses

Today we sparked ideas for our NaNos. It was so fun; my kids got really into it. A few already have ideas they fleshed out, some had nothing. I pulled up the pinterest board of writing prompts I've curated over the years. That really got them going! Some are dialogue ideas, some are strange pictures, some are questions or situations they can use to start stories. We each created a word document to gather pictures and ideas for our stories. I rediscovered my brainstorming from last year and chose my NaNo idea! It was one I almost wrote last year, but my kids wanted me to write the other idea. Funny, I completely forgot about it until now. I had just as much fun as my students gathering ideas for my story.

One not fun thing my class is sharing this week is a cold. At least half the class (and myself) were a bit drippy today. Bleh. Hopefully it's a short-lived one. 

Picture Day

I almost forgot about picture day... thankfully the outfit I put on this morning is picture day acceptable. It's not as critical for teachers to look good on picture day as it is for students. ;) We were the first class to go, probably because I happened to be passing through the gym when the photographer was ready. Mr. E's class went next, sneaking in before they had Pastor's class. 

The rest of our school day was pretty typical. Nothing too out of the ordinary. The 7-8th graders worked on a powerpoint on renewable energy sources and some of them almost finished. The 5-6th graders learned about parts of a plant cell. Until we got sidetracked into talking about human body systems. No surprise there! So many things are connected in the world of science!

After school, I'm running errands in Mankato before the soccer game (away, in Mankato). Then I have a Habitat meeting (I'll meet the new Habitat lady) followed by supper with G and correcting papers. Not too bad a night! (Except for the paper correcting, haha).

Camp Day 2

Such perfect weather today! Great for canoeing and archery, our two main tasks for the day. 

Update from yesterday: Pop bottle rockets was fantastic. Our leader didn't give too many instructions, but my kids came up with interesting ideas to make their rockets fly differently. We broke two records shooting them off... one girl got hers the highest I've ever seen (it didn't go that far) and we broke the distance record too! It was the first one we shot off. The rocket took off like a missile. It went so far we couldn't find it in the woods! The builder kept saying, "It musta gone in the lake!" over and over. I was a bit skeptical. Mine shot a similar distance (furthest distance mine has ever gone!) and we found mine close to the path down at the bottom of the hill past the trees. Very far. This morning while paddling back to the canoe landing, we spotted something gray and green and plastic-y bobbing up and down along the shore. It was the lost rocket!!! That definitely broke the record for distance and the 6th grader couldn't keep the smile off his face.

Last night the kids slept pretty well in the cabins. We sang a bit extra at the campfire, made smores, played a bit of gaga ball, then got ready for bed and did a half an hour of read-aloud time on the boys' side of the cabin. The girls didn't want the boys on our side, and I'm kind of glad it worked out that way because there were a lot of stinky feet polluting the air! They boys were so kind and set up a mattress on the floor for me to sit on so everyone could hear me and I could still be comfortable. 

After read-aloud we had a bit of free time in the cabins, then lights out and talking for a while. Man, the two chatty girls kept whispering and whispering. At 10:15 I finally shut them down. 6:00am one of the chatty's alarms went off and she couldn't find her device to shut it off. Sigh. They laid in bed for a half an hour whispering on and off. They tried to get our male chaperone to go outside and supervise gaga ball, but he wasn't budging until 7am anyway. The girls were kind of annoyed they got up so early for nothing. But they did get to play from 7:15-7:50.

After a delicious spaghetti lunch, we read to self for 20min and did read-aloud for 20min. Ugh, we are two chapters from the end! Not enough time to finish at Camp. I could tell they were restless and ready to head home. On the way back, we swung by my house-in-progress since it's on the way. People were working on it! We got to see guys pouring the basement concrete and we got to climb up onto the main level. It was so cool to see the progress they've made and hear what's going to happen next. They'll need volunteers to build soon, so I need to find out what the process is for getting volunteers signed up to work...

Camp Omega Day 1

So far camp is off to a grand start. We've done a nature hike, fire and shelter building, team building, and had a fantastic lunch. And had nap/quiet time (at my students' request). After snack we'll build our pop bottle rockets!

My packing list said to leave electronics at home. A mom told me her sons were discussing this last night while packing. The 5th grader thought about sneaking it along, but decided not to even though his brother suggested ways to sneak screen time. "Put it in your toiletry bag and then you can play on it in the bathroom." But my 5th grader said, "No, I don't want to disappoint Miss H."

 I'm so glad our science unit has been on plants. We've spotted a ton of thigmatropism, noticed geotropism and veins in leaves, identified vascular and nonvascular plants... Collected pretty leaves for pressing in books. 

Team building was fun. We had a few different challenges to do. I needed to remind myself not to talk too much and let the kids figure things out. Our guide said my class worked so well together, we were operating on the same level as some high school groups he's worked with. Now, if only they'll be quiet and go to sleep at bedtime...I have a feeling I'll have a lot of chatty Cathy's on my hands...

Fire Prevention Week

The fire drill today didn't scare us as much as the one yesterday did. I had more trouble getting a few of the kids out of the classroom though... one girl wanted to finish drawing some lines before leaving. She's also the one who yesterday wanted to know if there were a real fire, could she go in the coatroom and grab her backpack? 

By 5th and 6th grade, all the fire stuff is review, so we mostly asked questions about how fires around here typically start (kitchen, smoking, and electrical) or what kind of training do fire fighters need to do. Then we toured the trucks in the parking lot, tried on some of the gear, honked the horns, sprayed the hose, and took a group photo. Then back to class! They were bummed they didn't get as much read-aloud today, so we cut out one round so we could read before lunch. I think we'll finish our book at Camp Omega. 

That was everyone's high for the day (pretty much), that we're going to Camp Omega tomorrow. The low is that a lot of them need to pack and it's going to take FOREVER. My low was that everyone suddenly said they're not bringing duct tape because their parents won't let them take any from home. We kind of need that to make our pop bottle rockets. Sigh. Good news: I dug through my desk after school and found a few rolls, so that should help the tape shortage. And this class is really good at sharing supplies, so I think we'll actually be okay. 

Another high for today was that the firefighters gave us root beer float supplies! A great end of the day treat. 

The 7-8th graders had a good class too. We mimicked the rock cycle with starbursts... cut up bits of starburst to make sedimentary rocks, warmed them with our hands (or armpits as one group of boys tried), melted them on tin foil over a burner (I have a few portable burners/heating things). I think they actually grasp the concept! Next week we're going to do the lab again, but use crayons just to make sure it really sunk in. 

One more high: I had pretty flowers to look at on my desk today. When I got home last night, there was a bouquet resting on a porch chair along with two little bottles of prosecco and a homemade card saying, "Congrats on being aunts!" A certain someone made a special trip from Mankato to leave the surprise for my other sister and me so we could celebrate before/after bible study. Since I'm going to be at camp the next two days, I figured I'd bring the flowers to school so I could admire them at least one day!

Science Stuff + Human Baby= Fantastic Day

All sorts of cool science stuff arrived today, stuff I requested about a month ago. The 7-8th graders helped deliver the packages to my room and their jaws hit the floor at the cool stuff they carried: legos, magnetic tiles, wooden blocks, fort building kits, science models, potting soil, grow lights, and circuit kits. I went through my original wish list and checked almost everything off! There are probably a few more things coming. Once everything has been delivered, we're going to order more stuff with leftover money (or new money from this year). The lady who placed the orders didn't order all the stuff on the list, particularly the items I marked "low priority." So I already have a list going for round two. 

The other exciting news is that my sister had her baby! She went into labor late last night and had the baby (a girl!) at about 9am this morning. I specifically wore my Auntourage shirt to school for the occasion. My class was just about as excited as I was... I left my phone unsilenced so I could listen for the official announcement. Every time it went off, my class perked up. "Are you going to check Miss H?" We had a few false alarms (my other sister), but finally what we'd all been waiting for arrived! And I screamed. And my class screamed. And they wanted to see a picture, so I showed them. At the end of the day, three kids said Baby P was their high of the day. (Actually, one misspoke and said "Little Ill" was her high... I made a joke we'll only call her that if she gets sick...). 

Great day overall. 😁

Not Good

Disclaimer, brace yourself Grandma, you're not going to like this story...

I had a strange experience at school today. It beats out the time I almost fainted (my first year teaching) for scariest school memory. The short version: my throat closed up and I couldn't breath for a minute or two. Disclaimer: I'm fine now!

The long version: During read-aloud, the back of my throat irritated all of a sudden. Maybe a bug flew in while I read? (All the plants means we have some annoying tiny flies buzzing around). I took a drink of water, felt better, and continued reading, thinking nothing of it. I taught English and turned my students loose to work. A few minutes into worktime, my throat got awful scratchy and when I tried to breathe, my airway instantly shrunk. Thinking a drink of water might help, I walked to my desk, the struggle to breathe getting worse and worse those few steps. Now I was gasping for air and couldn't talk. It felt like my throat was completely closed. "I can't breathe," I wheezed to my class. They stared at me not sure what to do.

The whole time this was going on, my brain cruised 100mph: Okay, stay calm, you've been through things like this before. Not this bad, but still. It'll get better. Sit down. Take a sip of water. Okay that didn't help. Try holding your breath. Okay, that didn't help. Stay calm, stay calm, freaking out is going to make it worse. Okay, what else can I do? Hey! One of the kids has an inhaler in the first aid drawer, that would open my airways probably. I only got the drawer open when the 6th grade boy asked, "Want me to get Mr. E?" Since I couldn't talk, I nodded. 

Back to full throttle brain: I hope I don't pass out... What are they going to do then? Call an ambulance? Oh geez, what a disaster. Who's going to watch my kids? It's going to wreck the whole day! Suddenly another thought popped in my head: You could try breathing through your nose, just like that book you read this summer. Take a deep nose breath all the way to the bottom of your lungs so you go past whatever junk is going on in your throat. And guess what. By the grace of God it worked. I could breathe totally fine, a full lungful of air no problem. A bunch more deep inhales through the nose and the swelling in my throat went down. By the time Mr. E arrived, I could talk and my throat was a bit scratchy, but otherwise back to normal. The whole incident lasted maybe five minutes.

Best guess is, I had an allergic reaction to the bug 30min later. My throat stayed fine the rest of the day, no other flareups. It's a little tender now, but I'm drinking some soothing tea and resting my voice. 

My kids handled it fine and I think most of them forgot about the incident until I mentioned it as my low of the day. Mr. E didn't forget. He stopped by to check on me at least twice more during the day. I was fine every time! Eesh, that is not an experience I want to have again.

To end on a positive note, spelling with the 7-8th graders was again, almost fun today! The orange group had a list of words using the prefix "semi" and they had to make sentences of their list words. One boy had so much fun, he came up with more semi words. "Hey Noah, want to play basketball on a semibasketball court of the gym?" Later, I caught him flexing his abs and pounding on them. He noticed me observing and explained, "I have semi-abs. They're pretty good, but they're going to get better." 

On another positive note, God blessed us again at our Sunday bake sale! We made exactly what we needed to cover the cost for everyone. We needed to make $120 this time, and people donated $133. Thank you Lord!

Good News Bad News

The good news is I corrected all my papers last night! The bad news is my kids gave me more to correct today... but at least there aren't too many to correct this weekend. 

Other bad news: our main janitor resigned. She drives here from Gibbon and it's too far to justify coming all this way. We have a part-time janitor, so we're not in completely dire straits. 

Other good news is that even though it's been rainy, they've still been working on my house! From the picture I saw today, fames are up on the main floor and it looks like the space around the basement has been filled in.

Bad news: My car has been running funny lately. Just little things here and there acting up. The place I get my maintenance done doesn't have loaner vehicles, so they came out to school and picked it up. Around lunch they called with an update that it needs a lot of fixing plus new tires. The strange thing is, the one thing I wanted them to fix, they forgot to look at! At my last oil change they said one of the wheels is sitting crooked and the tire is rubbing against the side of the car wearing out. They thought the metal itself was bent, so I made this appointment to get it checked out. I guess they forgot they were going to check that. After a reminder at lunch, they did check and, good news, the 'bent metal' is the design of the car. So they adjusted the angle of the wheel as best they can until I get new tires (or replace the tie rods...I can't remember what's going to fix it further). Overall, it's time to replace a lot of parts on my vehicle, which is going to be expensive.