Buttering Me Up

The 5th graders were glad to have me back today. Somehow we got on the topic of how long I would be teaching them. Hard to believe I've been with them almost a complete quarter of the school year! 

They had mixed emotions when they found out it's only about a week. Some responses: 

"Yay! Mrs. M will be back! We won't miss her anymore. But, aww, then we'll miss you!"

"We're used to you teaching; it's going to be hard to go back to how Mrs. M does things!"

"Since our class is so big, we'll need another 6th grade teacher next year. You should come back and be our teacher!"

"If Mrs. M is gone again, will you teach for her again?" 

"My birthday is next week. I'm going to bring treats and you can have all the extras! Whatever you like! Whatever you want! Donuts, cookies..."

Today was another mixed up schedule day. Normally I only switch to the other 5th grade class in the morning, but we needed one more Junior Achievement day, so Mr. N graciously agreed to skip his art class so we could wrap up. Normally Mrs. M's class goes first, but library time fell during JA time. So our guest speaker wouldn't have to deal with the disruption of kids going in and out, we swapped that time with Mr. N too; his class would have JA first, then mine. 

I heard from Mrs. L that my kids had been BAD yesterday for our guest. Wednesday, the kids had asked if they could go outside for Junior Achievement and the guest speaker said maybe Thursday. Either it was the weather or being outside, but one of those things made them go crazy Thursday. Mrs. L said it was impossible to keep them focused. Thankfully, they were much better today. Maybe it was the lecture Mrs. L gave them yesterday... or the one I gave them today...

Because school was cancelled last Thursday and Friday for influenza, Mrs. L hadn't finished the art project she had started with the 5th grader when I was gone. She did that this afternoon (so we skipped our normal Scholastic News time). This was a multistep project involving: drawing an easter basket on a grassy landscape in pencil, tracing those with permanent marker, painting said items, stamping easter eggs with potato stamps, cutting out the eggs, gluing them on the landscape. Today, the kids made potato stamps by cutting designs in potatoes with plastic knives. They painted paint on the stamps, then stamped them on a piece of cardstock. Once that's dry, they will trace the eggs/the pattern on the eggs with a permanent marker, then do the last two steps. It was a bit chaotic, but not as bad as it could've been. Paint only ended up on the floor just a little bit.

I got all my correcting done during JA and the art class. Woo! No homework! Or, limited homework. I need to look over social studies for next week. It's a unit on early Russia, which I never studied in all my years of history class, so I need to brush up!

This weekend will be a busy one: G's men's church volleyball team plays in a tournament this Saturday, Sunday after church we are going to a confirmation party of a former student of mine followed by a puzzle contest with my small group bible study ladies followed by volleyball practice for my church ladies' volleyball team. Whew!