#8

Whew, lots of energy today. And hot tempers.  One 5th grader broke down bawling during recess because he got out in GaGa Ball and everyone told him so.  Then there was name-calling and comebacks... and it was just not good.

We have a lot of things due tomorrow since Track and Field day is Friday.  I wrote the list of missing things on the board; it's quite extensive! Miss W is coming to collect the 7-8th graders' things tomorrow over the noon hour.  I printed new copies of their missing worksheets so no one can say they don't have them!

I don't think anyone used marker today. Our day was a bit of a whirlwind.  My kiddos had to be crossing guards and offering takers for chapel today since the 7-8th graders were still gone.  After chapel, we stayed at church to practice our talent show skit.  My camera battery almost died, but it had enough juice to film them so they could see how they looked.  It's coming along!  We should be ready for tomorrow night's performance.

Remember the timer the boys set on the iPad last week to see how high the numbers would go? It's still going.  Today it was at 145 hours.  Next year, the 5th graders want to start the timer the first day of school and see how many hours we get at the end of the year.  I wonder if anyone will remember it next August...

Tomorrow's balloon prize: break the pinatas! I still need to put candy in them. I did hang them up this afternoon.  I suppose I should've just waited and put the candy in them and then hung them up.  Oh well.  I should do it today, knowing me, I wouldn't have time to put candy in tomorrow before school.  Mrs. B invited me over for supper tonight since bible study starts at 6 and there's a Guatemala meeting afterwards at 7:30. It will be a long night, but now I don't have to rush home for supper before bible study!  Last night was a productive one after I got home. I took the plastic off my porch, swept floors, took garbage out, did laundry, ran my dishwasher, and read a book.  Who knew I had that much energy left after a field trip?

#9

I smell like sunscreen. Tis the season I suppose!  We had beautiful weather for our field trip today. It was a little windy on the petroglyphs, but overall, nice and sunny and mild.  We had a different tour guide today than in previous years. He was a bit long-winded and didn't seem able to tell when the students got antsy.  Still, I think they all had a good time looking at the carvings. In past years, the guide used a board and a flashlight to make the carvings stand out.  This time, they used a spray bottle of water to darken them up.  It worked pretty well!

Of course bale tag at the farm was the highlight of the trip.  They also enjoyed swinging on the rope up in the haymow and petting the bottle calf.  One girl found a batch of baby kitties up in the haymow! They were super tiny, probably only a few days old (as far as I could tell).  They loved petting the cats as they followed us around the farm.  Surprisingly, the pigs were a huge hit.  There were a few students who would've stood there for a lot longer than I let them.  We didn't see as many peacocks as I thought, though my students were super loud everywhere they went... I'm sure it served as a warning siren.

Tomorrow's balloon activity: use marker all day. One girl asked, "Even on math?"  Sure! I said (we don't have math tomorrow). Someone else caught on to that fact and mentioned it to her.  Then she amended, "But what if I have a math redo or a math assignment to do. Can I still use marker?" Hmm, probably not since Mr. E is very picky when it comes to writing utensils.

I was going to hang up the pinatas after school today, but I helped get props ready for our teacher skit instead. Then I went on a walk with Mrs. B. It would be nice to have the table space again, but it's late enough I think I'll save that for tomorrow.

#10

Today's balloon prize was to make a special mother's day project.  Our mother's day projects are... interesting.  They're making a vase with stick/paper flowers held in place by small rocks at the bottom of the jar.  I kind of turned them loose on the project; I gave them each a mason jar, had ribbons and glitter glue set out, and plugged in the hot glue guns. But first I had to find the glue guns. The box of hot glue sticks was in the office, but none of the glue guns were in the box! We asked other teachers until we scrounged up a few.  Still, I don't know where they went!

Most of them had trouble keeping the glitter glue stuck on the jars. It didn't dry fast enough and slid down the sides. At least three of them wiped off what they had and started over.  One girl asked to use glitter on hers.  Ugh, glitter.  Since she's responsible, I dug it out of the closet.  But one person turned into two people and pretty soon there was a glitter explosion over the table.  Most of it is cleaned up, but of course glitter is never truly 'cleaned up'.  A few stray pieces are always lurking...

Now my school email is acting up.  I tried scanning the track/field day note to myself, but the email didn't go through.  Grr... And now I can't send any emails either...

Well, I think it's time to go home. I've been futzing around school long enough for one day.  Time to run errands and get groceries!  I need to remember to buy sack-lunch-ish type things for the many field trips we have coming up.  Tomorrow is our first (and also the balloon prize of the day): visit the Jeffers Petroglyphs and Heintz Farms. Sounds like good weather and nice temperatures are in the forecast.  The kids are super excited for bale tag and playing with the kitties. But mostly bale tag.

#11

I think my class printer is broken. I tried printing some things front-to-back and the printer groaned and creaked as the spinners tried to grab paper.  Grr... People have been in the office all day with piano lessons or meetings, so I can't just print things to the office.  Guess it'll have to wait until Monday.

I got a second graduation invitation today... it doesn't seem possible that students I've taught are graduating from high school!  Granted, both students were 8th graders my first year teaching, so it hasn't been that long, but still.

Our giant to-do list has been erased!  I now have a mountain of papers to correct... but no school tomorrow.  Looks like I better bring a few red pens home with me. All the pinatas got finished, some look better than others.  I didn't get the chance to hang them up yet.  Another Monday job.

Well, I gotta keep this short. Tonight there's a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser event in Mankato, so I'm meeting up with some college friends.  Then I'm off to Fulda Friday morning so I can see my brother graduate from his one year welding program in Sioux Falls.

Monday's balloon prize: make a special Mother's Day gift (extra art time!).  Oh yeah, today's balloon prize didn't go as planned either.  My computer froze up and then wouldn't open up iTunes, so we were unable to listen to music during Daily 5.  They were testing again, so I suppose it wasn't the worst thing in the world.  I guess we'll do that Monday too!

#12

My kiddos were not happy today.  Mr. E sprung the mile on them.  It was supposed to rain this afternoon (and the 7-8th graders were having Junior Achievement), so he wanted to do it at 11:00am.  One of the 7th graders showed up at 10:55 and asked if we were free... my kids wanted me to say no.  But we were.  Two boys didn't run it today, one because he only had Crocs and the other because he had a bad cough/cold.

We did get the chance to read outside though. After chapel we had snack on the playground.  They had a blast eating snack, working on their pinatas (due tomorrow), putting together the geography puzzle... I got annoyed because no one was listening to the story.

Two 10th graders (past students of our school), visited classrooms today as an assignment for their careers class.  They spent all day here poking in and out of classrooms.  They came into my room about three times, each time for about 5-10 minutes.  They did this in the other classrooms too and spent the majority of the day in Mr. E's room.  All in all, their visit could've been better planned.  But maybe it's a new class and they're still working out the kinks!

Tomorrow's balloon activity: listen to music during Daily 5. (And probably eat lunch outside since the weather is supposed to be nice and we didn't get to do that the other day).

#13

Not much to report today. It was sunny so we went outside for recess. They wanted to eat outside for lunch, but it was too short notice.  We'll try on Thursday.  I was the Mystery Reader for Mrs. E's kindergarten class at lunchtime today. We read the book Grumpy Bird. It's always a fun one to read aloud!  Guaranteed to make you smile (and can push you out of a bad mood).

Our skit went better today too. Some of the 5th graders safety pinned the sheets together, so our caterpillar didn't separate as much.  A few more days of practice and we'll be right as rain!  We were going to practice a second time this morning, but we didn't have enough time.  We're doing standardized tests this week (FAST testing) and I wanted to get through all the read-aloud tests.  Got all but two. And I think everyone improved at least a little since winter.  Tomorrow we're doing the reading test and Thursday will be math.

The book fair is packed up and pick-up is scheduled for tomorrow.  I will be so glad to have this project checked off the list!  I still need to send the overall check to them... Money is always tricky; I want to be sure I'm doing it right.

Today's balloon activity was drink gatorade/juice in class.  No pop. One girl only brought pop because it was all she had.  Oops. I didn't let her drink it.  Tomorrow's activity is: read outside.  If it's nice, maybe we'll do our rounds outside too!  Oh wait, we have FAST testing to do... okay, maybe some of our rounds...

#14

Another rainy day. We didn't get any snow though (well, my students said there were little flakes when they got on the bus this morning, but I didn't see any).  My kiddos were CRAZY today. Not misbehaving-wise, just super hard to focus and settle.  The 7/8th graders were too.

We had math this morning since the 7/8th graders went on a field trip to drug court. They were gone all afternoon and Mr. E and I wanted to have class (since we only have 14 days left!!!), so we switched in the morning.  It was weird.  Still, it opened up the afternoon a lot.

We had the chance to practice our skit for the talent show.  It made vast improvement in the 20 minutes we practiced. Our skit is about a hungry worm. One person is the trainer and her worm will eat anything. She gives it all sorts of stuff!  The rest of the class is covered up by blankets and passes the item down the line, finally chucking it out the back end.  One of the 6th graders can burp on command, so every time he throws something out from under the blanket, he burps.  The skit ends when the trainer runs out of food but the worm is still hungry... and it eats the trainer!  What comes out the end is a spare shirt and her shoes.  We need to safety pin the blankets together so they don't keep coming apart. Once that happens it will go a lot smoother.  I videotaped them doing it (since they're covered up by blankets and can't see how they look) and they thought it was HILARIOUS! We filmed it three times and it kept getting better and better.  Hopefully another week of practice will make it really good.

Two 5th grade girls wrote a 'peace treaty' during writing workshop. They listed bullet points and had spaces for names and a signature line even!  It was very impressive.  I'm not entirely sure why they're signing a treaty... to be friends and always nice to each other??? The other 5th grade girl was offended she wasn't part of the treaty, and she thought that she wasn't best friends anymore with either of the girls.  Sigh, drama drama drama.

Everyone enjoyed chewing gum today.  Tomorrow's balloon activity is drink gatorade/juice in class.