Class Potluck

It was an awful morning. Everyone was out of sorts, even my most even-tempered kids. I'm guessing they're all tired, but that doesn't excuse the behavior. I had to call one 6th grader back to the room twice because he didn't do everything I had asked him to do before going to math (wipe the table from lunch, clean off his desk). Thankfully, the class turned it around in the afternoon. 

My last guest speakers of the year presented to the 7-8th graders on living in Ethiopia. They are two girls who attend Bethany to get their nursing degree. They were very polite, good with the students, and talked super fast. I had planned on them being here until 1:30 and told their ride accordingly. They wrapped up their presentation at 12:50. Thankfully, they had a slide on how to write your name in the alphabet of their language, so we took turns writing students' names. Some of the 5-6th graders came down around 1pm, right as everything wrapped up, so the girls just re-presented everything. They were good sports about it, and it was interesting to hear everything a second time! 

Even though our speakers were great, the best part of the day was the 5-6th grade potluck. One of the 5th graders had the idea to do it as a class bonding experience. Everyone would bring an item that was dairy/gluten free to accommodate allergies. I brought extra items thinking some of them would forget. Nope. Everyone followed the instructions! And some brought extras! We had a whole table full! 

Items: Tang, homemade strawberry lemonade, Bubbly (a kind of sparkling water?), cookie dough ice cream, strawberry shortcake with frosting and strawberries, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, two kinds of chocolate, brownies, cakebatter dip and vanilla wafers, animal crackers, pickles, green/black olives... I think that's it. 

One boy forgot to bring something and he refused to eat anything. At first he said he wasn't hungry, but I could tell that wasn't why he wasn't eating. Eventually, he said he felt bad eating because he didn't bring anything. His classmates and I reassured him we wanted to share what we brought with him. He shook his head no. Later, he asked to go to the bathroom. When he didn't come back for a long time, I figured he was 'hiding' in the gym. Yep. He was on the front step of the bleachers. We had a heart to heart talk and in the end he participated in the eating of the potluck.