Today was one of those days where there was so much learning going on, we didn't have time to squeeze it all in!
For once religion didn't go over time... but then I let some of my students say their memory work afterwards before read-aloud (this week's is the Old Testament books of the Bible which they already know). And then we did some interesting words back in the reading corner... and then it was time for English.
And the 5th graders learned about direct objects and objects of prepositions. Yeah. Not something easily grasped. (By the way Dad, my students were really impressed you corrected their English papers.) So we spent a little extra time on that... leaving less time for Daily 5. We could've extended Daily 5 into our normal Spanish time... however yesterday we learned to play the Spanish Tap Game (learning names for school supplies) and I wanted to have a good chunk of time for that.
Lunch. Recess. (One of the 6th graders helped me drag the prairie garden bench over to the soccer field so we could sit on it and watch the game.) 8th grade science. Bells.
Bells actually went better today. I still got some attitude from the 8th grade girls, but our song is sounding better. I spent a bunch of time working with groups of students (top four players, middle three players... didn't have time to work with the bottom note players). We're still having trouble with syncopation and I miss hearing the highest notes. No one was assigned those notes; I think I'll need to play them. I decided we'll play this song for the Fine Arts Festival in March; that way we actually get to play it. We'll do some easier songs for church in November. There's so much extra foam floating around; I want to get rid of it. I picked out two of the worst pieces we never use, but I want to check with Mr. E that it's okay for me to dump them. Slowly but surely we're settling in.
Even though we ended bells right at 1:30, we didn't get started on MN history right away. Our topic today was life in a Dakota camp and we only got through Spring and Summer. I suppose we'll do Autumn and Winter tomorrow (or Friday). And now my students are outside for PE. There's volleyball practice after school. I only have one lesson to prepare for tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can get home a little earlier than I have the past two nights.
Oh! Report on the volleyball games yesterday: after the soccer game, the girls played two games against the other team's B squad and won. Then they played three games against the A squad and lost one (by two points), won one, and lost the last one (they were just too tired out). So all in all, we won three out of five games... with no subs. We were supposed to have one sub, but her mom called me while I was on the way there saying she didn't have her homework done and wasn't even trying to do it. So I told her to keep the student home; homework comes first. I hadn't known the other team had a B squad, so at practice the other day I told the moms there wasn't a B squad game. Oops.
Which reminds me: I need to get updated schedules printed off before practice... and my students are coming in from PE.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Frustrations
Yesterday morning the watch my youngest brother gave me when I started teaching quit working. Thankfully I have a spare... but it's not as comfortable as the other one.
This weekend I spent a lot of time putting together a powerpoint for today's Minnesota history lesson on the Dakota. I got to school this morning, plugged the drive in... and nothing. Couldn't find the powerpoint anywhere on my external hard drive. I'm hoping I saved it on my laptop. I don't know where else it could be!!!
So today I gave my students the choice; instead of doing history, we could do art or science. We're going to do both art and science this week, so I didn't care which they picked, we'll just shuffle the schedule around a bit. They picked art. We made some good progress. We also made a lot of noise. For some reason, my students have been picking on each other a ton. I'm talking more than the normal run-ins they have with each other. The worst part is, the rest of the class kept gossiping about what people were saying to each other and added fuel to the fire, "Hey, did you hear that guy say this?" Ugh. One student talked about wishing a branch would hit his neighbor on the head or something about a stick hitting that person... as a class, they decided the consequence should be that a marble be taken out of the jar (marbles we're collecting to earn a class prize). Seemed fair to me. Now we're down to 11 marbles (we need 65).
At recess, (after a lecture on being nice to our neighbors...treat them well...you're family...etc.) we went out for kickball. One student crouched to examine a bee resting on the pavement. Another 5th grader zoomed up next to him and pretended to stomp on the bee. The first 5th grader lost it and nearly lit into the kid! I had to pry them apart, telling the first 5th grader to take a break inside and then chewed the second 5th grader out. The second guy knew it would bug the first one if he pretended to hurt the insect which was why he did it in the first place. Sigh. So I made them both write apology letters to each other. They eventually made it out to kickball and had a good time out there.
It was kind of funny, during kickball my students were being overly nice to each other, encouraging each other and saying "good try" to the other team. Of course there were still some, "Oh come on! Why'd you throw the ball?" but overall they were better about being teammates.
Hopefully they'll burn themselves out playing soccer/volleyball tonight and won't be at each other's throats as much tomorrow.
This weekend I spent a lot of time putting together a powerpoint for today's Minnesota history lesson on the Dakota. I got to school this morning, plugged the drive in... and nothing. Couldn't find the powerpoint anywhere on my external hard drive. I'm hoping I saved it on my laptop. I don't know where else it could be!!!
So today I gave my students the choice; instead of doing history, we could do art or science. We're going to do both art and science this week, so I didn't care which they picked, we'll just shuffle the schedule around a bit. They picked art. We made some good progress. We also made a lot of noise. For some reason, my students have been picking on each other a ton. I'm talking more than the normal run-ins they have with each other. The worst part is, the rest of the class kept gossiping about what people were saying to each other and added fuel to the fire, "Hey, did you hear that guy say this?" Ugh. One student talked about wishing a branch would hit his neighbor on the head or something about a stick hitting that person... as a class, they decided the consequence should be that a marble be taken out of the jar (marbles we're collecting to earn a class prize). Seemed fair to me. Now we're down to 11 marbles (we need 65).
At recess, (after a lecture on being nice to our neighbors...treat them well...you're family...etc.) we went out for kickball. One student crouched to examine a bee resting on the pavement. Another 5th grader zoomed up next to him and pretended to stomp on the bee. The first 5th grader lost it and nearly lit into the kid! I had to pry them apart, telling the first 5th grader to take a break inside and then chewed the second 5th grader out. The second guy knew it would bug the first one if he pretended to hurt the insect which was why he did it in the first place. Sigh. So I made them both write apology letters to each other. They eventually made it out to kickball and had a good time out there.
It was kind of funny, during kickball my students were being overly nice to each other, encouraging each other and saying "good try" to the other team. Of course there were still some, "Oh come on! Why'd you throw the ball?" but overall they were better about being teammates.
Hopefully they'll burn themselves out playing soccer/volleyball tonight and won't be at each other's throats as much tomorrow.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Yellow Bears
Two of my 5th grade boys spent recess puttsing around in the prairie garden. They found a bunch of fuzzy caterpillars that looked like wooly bears, but without any black. Hmm... I told the boys about the old wives' tale of the harshness of winter being predicted by the amount of black on a wooly bear. They were excited, "So maybe we won't have that bad a winter!" But then one of them noticed the caterpillar had little white hairs sticking out past the orange fuzz. Wooly bears don't have those. So we looked it up once we were back inside from recess. It turns out, they are a different specie of caterpillar commonly called yellow bears. Cool!
One of my students stayed home today because he has a bad cough. His mom thought it would be too disruptive during school (and I actually agree with that). It took a little bit of juggling to get all his assignments ready for his mom to take home. At 11:00, she showed up to pick up her preschooler and brought all his homework back! "He wanted to watch a movie." was her explanation. Hey, as long as the work is done correctly!
Bells went a little better today. The 8th graders are annoyed with me that I'm making them use the actual books with tape over the staff lines. Sigh. And they are just raring to go while the 6th graders are feeling left behind... I wanted to work on some of the tricky measures with the bass lines and then later on with the treble clef players. One particular girl just didn't understand why I wasn't having them all play. Then they were complaining that the song was too hard. And they were making fun of the way I was counting the measures... I finally told them that I'm not Mrs. M and it's going to take a while to get used to the new arrangement... so we all need to be patient with each other. I don't know if it did much good. Part of the problem is that we don't have enough room in our classroom to have both tables up with enough space for everyone to fit. Maybe bells would go more smoothly if we had more room. Food for thought.
Mr. D seemed in a better mood today. He explained once again why he didn't go out to the garden. Then I asked him why he didn't send one of his students out to check. Silence. "Oh. Yeah, that would've been a good idea. Wow I'm dumb!" Later he emailed me and said that must be proof of how little he trusts his class, that he wouldn't even send someone on an errand outside.
Volleyball practice went well today. We practiced blocking and tipping and the younger girls improved their aim in bumping. Then we scrimmaged and practiced serving. I think we'll do okay at our game tomorrow. Lori isn't going to be there since her oldest daughter has a high school volleyball game, so I'll be coaching solo. We checked with the girls and there is only one that doesn't have a ride. I hope she gets one figured out before tomorrow!
One of my students stayed home today because he has a bad cough. His mom thought it would be too disruptive during school (and I actually agree with that). It took a little bit of juggling to get all his assignments ready for his mom to take home. At 11:00, she showed up to pick up her preschooler and brought all his homework back! "He wanted to watch a movie." was her explanation. Hey, as long as the work is done correctly!
Bells went a little better today. The 8th graders are annoyed with me that I'm making them use the actual books with tape over the staff lines. Sigh. And they are just raring to go while the 6th graders are feeling left behind... I wanted to work on some of the tricky measures with the bass lines and then later on with the treble clef players. One particular girl just didn't understand why I wasn't having them all play. Then they were complaining that the song was too hard. And they were making fun of the way I was counting the measures... I finally told them that I'm not Mrs. M and it's going to take a while to get used to the new arrangement... so we all need to be patient with each other. I don't know if it did much good. Part of the problem is that we don't have enough room in our classroom to have both tables up with enough space for everyone to fit. Maybe bells would go more smoothly if we had more room. Food for thought.
Mr. D seemed in a better mood today. He explained once again why he didn't go out to the garden. Then I asked him why he didn't send one of his students out to check. Silence. "Oh. Yeah, that would've been a good idea. Wow I'm dumb!" Later he emailed me and said that must be proof of how little he trusts his class, that he wouldn't even send someone on an errand outside.
Volleyball practice went well today. We practiced blocking and tipping and the younger girls improved their aim in bumping. Then we scrimmaged and practiced serving. I think we'll do okay at our game tomorrow. Lori isn't going to be there since her oldest daughter has a high school volleyball game, so I'll be coaching solo. We checked with the girls and there is only one that doesn't have a ride. I hope she gets one figured out before tomorrow!
Friday, September 12, 2014
Bears in the garden
I like Fridays. And not just because there's no school the next day. Fridays are our "Fun" days (though still educational, of course). Reading Buddies with 1st and 2nd grade. Circular Stories instead of English out of the textbook. Art! STEM with the 8th graders.
This afternoon, we worked in the prairie planting. Jeff, one of the adults heading up this project, came around noon to supervise the work, helping to identify weeds/plants that should stay in the ground, telling us where to plant the plants, and showing us the insects living in the garden. We found woolly bears, bumble bees (and other bees), night crawlers, other kinds of worms, and even a monarch caterpillar. Everyone had a good time. Everyone except the 3rd and 4th graders.
Earlier in the week I had painstakingly made a schedule for each class to have a slot outside in the garden. The original plan was for Jeff to do a little presentation inside for each class, and then go out and work in the garden. The weather was so nice, Jeff decided he could do his talk outside. And I forgot to tell the other teachers about that change in plans. It was okay for 1st and 2nd grade since they were the first group and Jeff let them know he was ready to start. It was okay for my class because I was the contact person and had talked to him about it. It was okay for the kindergarten class because the 8th graders stayed out a little later than originally planned so they could work with the kindergartners (and I ran an errand that went directly past the kindergartners, so I let them know it was their turn). But after that, my class went inside and went about our business, and no one let Mr. D's class know it was their turn to go out. So he waited and waited and waited. And there were still kids in the garden at 2:00 (maybe Mrs. E stayed out a little extra?), so he thought it wasn't his turn yet. And then it was 2:30, time to go home and his class still hadn't gone out. So he was pretty bummed.
I emailed Jeff to see if he could come back next week sometime. The 5th graders only had 15 minutes outside in the garden, and they definitely want more. Sigh. If it's not one thing, it's another.
For some reason, all four sixth graders forgot to do a page in their spelling. They either started it and didn't finish, or they completely skipped over it! And then it took them forever to get it fixed (and they needed help doing it). All day I felt like I was the wrist slapping teacher. You know, the one that shakes her finger and frowns and says, "No, no, mustn't, mustn't."? All day. Stop picking on each other. Be nicer to your classmates. Stop making fun of each other. Ignore them. Leave her alone. I didn't know what else to say to get them to stop.
But today is Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. And we will (hopefully) come back to school on Monday rested and ready to learn.
This afternoon, we worked in the prairie planting. Jeff, one of the adults heading up this project, came around noon to supervise the work, helping to identify weeds/plants that should stay in the ground, telling us where to plant the plants, and showing us the insects living in the garden. We found woolly bears, bumble bees (and other bees), night crawlers, other kinds of worms, and even a monarch caterpillar. Everyone had a good time. Everyone except the 3rd and 4th graders.
Earlier in the week I had painstakingly made a schedule for each class to have a slot outside in the garden. The original plan was for Jeff to do a little presentation inside for each class, and then go out and work in the garden. The weather was so nice, Jeff decided he could do his talk outside. And I forgot to tell the other teachers about that change in plans. It was okay for 1st and 2nd grade since they were the first group and Jeff let them know he was ready to start. It was okay for my class because I was the contact person and had talked to him about it. It was okay for the kindergarten class because the 8th graders stayed out a little later than originally planned so they could work with the kindergartners (and I ran an errand that went directly past the kindergartners, so I let them know it was their turn). But after that, my class went inside and went about our business, and no one let Mr. D's class know it was their turn to go out. So he waited and waited and waited. And there were still kids in the garden at 2:00 (maybe Mrs. E stayed out a little extra?), so he thought it wasn't his turn yet. And then it was 2:30, time to go home and his class still hadn't gone out. So he was pretty bummed.
I emailed Jeff to see if he could come back next week sometime. The 5th graders only had 15 minutes outside in the garden, and they definitely want more. Sigh. If it's not one thing, it's another.
For some reason, all four sixth graders forgot to do a page in their spelling. They either started it and didn't finish, or they completely skipped over it! And then it took them forever to get it fixed (and they needed help doing it). All day I felt like I was the wrist slapping teacher. You know, the one that shakes her finger and frowns and says, "No, no, mustn't, mustn't."? All day. Stop picking on each other. Be nicer to your classmates. Stop making fun of each other. Ignore them. Leave her alone. I didn't know what else to say to get them to stop.
But today is Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. And we will (hopefully) come back to school on Monday rested and ready to learn.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Strange Vehicles
Survived another day of school. It still amazes me that my students don't realize it's the end of the day. Again, there were two students today who would've happily stayed at school another hour or two.
I did send a kid home sick today. He looked pasty white (according to his classmates), and he just looked droopy. He worked on his handwriting a bit, and it just looked awful (normally he has the best handwriting in the class). So we called his parents and they came to pick him up at 1:30. Around lunch time he perked up a little. And he went outside for recess (and sat there most of the time). Instead of going on the computer, he rested his head on his desk in our classroom and listened to me teach the 8th graders. I'm pretty sure he'll be back tomorrow. Though there is that nasty respiratory thing going around...
Bookmobile came today. I picked up the latest I Survived book (my students were arguing over who gets it first) and another copy of the first Whatever After book in the series. We now have three copies of that book in our classroom. I hope the next ones come in soon!
Originally after school I had planned to do my lesson plans and get stuff done in the classroom, leaving in enough time to head straight to our volleyball game in Mankato. A half an hour before school got out, the other coach called me. She wanted to know if I would ride with her to Mankato and then drive one of their vehicles home because her van was in the shop. So with a little scrambling (and a little squeezing), we crammed everyone into her car, drove to the soccer game, dropped kids off, and went to pick up her van. I drove the car back to the soccer game/volleyball game/to Immanuel and she's going to stop and pick it up later. So that was interesting.
Soccer game: ILS dominated. We got about five or six goals in that I saw and the other team had none. Volleyball went a lot better than I expected. We won the first two and lost the third one. Not bad for our first game of the season! Monday we're going to work on blocking and hitting backwards.
And now it's time for me to finish mapping out next week so I can get home and correct my class's spelling books.
I did send a kid home sick today. He looked pasty white (according to his classmates), and he just looked droopy. He worked on his handwriting a bit, and it just looked awful (normally he has the best handwriting in the class). So we called his parents and they came to pick him up at 1:30. Around lunch time he perked up a little. And he went outside for recess (and sat there most of the time). Instead of going on the computer, he rested his head on his desk in our classroom and listened to me teach the 8th graders. I'm pretty sure he'll be back tomorrow. Though there is that nasty respiratory thing going around...
Bookmobile came today. I picked up the latest I Survived book (my students were arguing over who gets it first) and another copy of the first Whatever After book in the series. We now have three copies of that book in our classroom. I hope the next ones come in soon!
Originally after school I had planned to do my lesson plans and get stuff done in the classroom, leaving in enough time to head straight to our volleyball game in Mankato. A half an hour before school got out, the other coach called me. She wanted to know if I would ride with her to Mankato and then drive one of their vehicles home because her van was in the shop. So with a little scrambling (and a little squeezing), we crammed everyone into her car, drove to the soccer game, dropped kids off, and went to pick up her van. I drove the car back to the soccer game/volleyball game/to Immanuel and she's going to stop and pick it up later. So that was interesting.
Soccer game: ILS dominated. We got about five or six goals in that I saw and the other team had none. Volleyball went a lot better than I expected. We won the first two and lost the third one. Not bad for our first game of the season! Monday we're going to work on blocking and hitting backwards.
And now it's time for me to finish mapping out next week so I can get home and correct my class's spelling books.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Pencil Problems
Another late night for me at school. Volleyball practice 'til 4:00. Then putting up the new volleyball net. Followed by the Ice Cream Social at church for supper. And by that time it was 6:00; time for the PTL meeting. No time for lesson plans in between. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The last hour of the day was pretty discouraging. The hand bells arrived on Monday, so I picked out a song to do with the 6-8th graders. And we highlighted notes. And the 6th graders didn't know what they were doing. And they couldn't figure out which note was theirs. And they didn't know when they were supposed to play. And I didn't know what/how to teach them. And you could kind of tell what song we were playing (it's a patriotic song that I can't remember the name of right now...). But it took the 6th graders FOREVER to put the bell stuff away. They didn't know where it went and I didn't know where it went either... It took 10 minutes to put away the bell stuff. Which cut 10 minutes into our science lab time. Which cut 10 minutes into PE. (Mr. E was actually happy about that because it was in the low 50s today and PE was outside to practice soccer. So some good came of our lateness.) Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The lab... well. Not my shining moment as a teacher. The students didn't read the lab through all the way, so they didn't know what they were doing (even though we took class time to look it over). I was going to make groups using a fancy-schmancy website, but it wasn't working. So I drew sticks. And two students who don't normally get along were put in a group together. But I put them together anyway. And there were students who didn't get along with their partners and didn't take turns and ran around and didn't follow the rules. And then there were groups that did everything super fast and were done right away and needed some guidance in writing down stuff on their lab sheets. And it was PE time, so we didn't have time to do any of that. And we didn't have enough time to discuss what they discovered. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The "funniest" incident of the day had to do with pencil ownership. First of all, if I find a pencil lying somewhere in the classroom, I put it in the Sharp/Not-Sharp jars for anyone to use. How am I to know whose pencil it is? This morning I found one. Later on, one of the 6th graders suddenly yelled, "Hey! You stole my pencil!" The boy looked at her, puzzled, "I just got it from the Sharp container." "No, it's mine! You must've taken it from my desk." I explained I had found it on the table and stuck it there. Still, she was adamant she had put it away in her desk. Well, the student using it didn't want to give it back. She wanted to trade him for it, but he said no. So she argued and tried to convince him for about 10 minutes until I finally confiscated the pencil.
Lunchtime comes. The boy's pencil rolled off his desk and landed on the ground, clearly next to his desk. The girl whose pencil was "stolen" picked it up, put it in the Sharp jar, and took it back out to use. When the boy said, "Hey, that's my pencil!" She looked at him innocently and said, "I got it from the Sharp jar." (Later, she told me she had picked it off the floor and put it in there herself). AUGH! So I confiscated that pencil too. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that. Good thing tomorrow is another day.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The last hour of the day was pretty discouraging. The hand bells arrived on Monday, so I picked out a song to do with the 6-8th graders. And we highlighted notes. And the 6th graders didn't know what they were doing. And they couldn't figure out which note was theirs. And they didn't know when they were supposed to play. And I didn't know what/how to teach them. And you could kind of tell what song we were playing (it's a patriotic song that I can't remember the name of right now...). But it took the 6th graders FOREVER to put the bell stuff away. They didn't know where it went and I didn't know where it went either... It took 10 minutes to put away the bell stuff. Which cut 10 minutes into our science lab time. Which cut 10 minutes into PE. (Mr. E was actually happy about that because it was in the low 50s today and PE was outside to practice soccer. So some good came of our lateness.) Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The lab... well. Not my shining moment as a teacher. The students didn't read the lab through all the way, so they didn't know what they were doing (even though we took class time to look it over). I was going to make groups using a fancy-schmancy website, but it wasn't working. So I drew sticks. And two students who don't normally get along were put in a group together. But I put them together anyway. And there were students who didn't get along with their partners and didn't take turns and ran around and didn't follow the rules. And then there were groups that did everything super fast and were done right away and needed some guidance in writing down stuff on their lab sheets. And it was PE time, so we didn't have time to do any of that. And we didn't have enough time to discuss what they discovered. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The "funniest" incident of the day had to do with pencil ownership. First of all, if I find a pencil lying somewhere in the classroom, I put it in the Sharp/Not-Sharp jars for anyone to use. How am I to know whose pencil it is? This morning I found one. Later on, one of the 6th graders suddenly yelled, "Hey! You stole my pencil!" The boy looked at her, puzzled, "I just got it from the Sharp container." "No, it's mine! You must've taken it from my desk." I explained I had found it on the table and stuck it there. Still, she was adamant she had put it away in her desk. Well, the student using it didn't want to give it back. She wanted to trade him for it, but he said no. So she argued and tried to convince him for about 10 minutes until I finally confiscated the pencil.
Lunchtime comes. The boy's pencil rolled off his desk and landed on the ground, clearly next to his desk. The girl whose pencil was "stolen" picked it up, put it in the Sharp jar, and took it back out to use. When the boy said, "Hey, that's my pencil!" She looked at him innocently and said, "I got it from the Sharp jar." (Later, she told me she had picked it off the floor and put it in there herself). AUGH! So I confiscated that pencil too. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that. Good thing tomorrow is another day.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Hospital Tag
Don't worry! None of my students went to the hospital today. We played a game at recess by that name. If you get tagged, you put a hand over the "injury" as a Band-Aid. If you get tagged again, use your other hand. And if you get tagged a third time, you lie on the ground and yell "Doctor, Doctor!" and the doctor comes and "heals" you. The girls had a good time playing. The boys thought it was okay.
We got off topic a bunch today... and yet we still covered the things that needed to be covered. The tower of Babel was our religion topic for today. Which lead to a discussion of Pangaea and whether the continents moved during the flood or when God spread people around after Babel. In the afternoon, we studied migration and the Native Americans in Minnesota, which somehow reminded me we never talked about why the dinosaurs died out after the flood. So we went into science. And somehow we got on the topic of cloning and DNA and Dolly the sheep and sheep giving spider silk proteins in their milk... good stuff.
Once I let my students know I would be visiting the library after school today, I had a lot of requests to check for the "I Survived" books and then the "Whatever After" books. I emailed the Bookmobile librarian to hold some for us on Thursday, but I don't think she has all that many. Hopefully the New Ulm library has a bunch! One of the 5th graders told me today that she likes reading way more now that she's in my class. Woohoo! :) And then a 5th grade mom said that her son has been reading up a storm now that he's been in my class. She'd get him books at the beginning of summer and he wouldn't touch them; now he's read all of them and is looking for more. Sweet!
Tomorrow is our first physics lab of the year, involving tennis balls, string, and marbles. We'll see how it goes... Tomorrow is also the last volleyball practice before our first game (on Thursday) and there's the church ice cream social and our first PTL meeting. Whew! I'm thinking I better head home early and take it easy while I still can because the rest of this week is going to fly by!
We got off topic a bunch today... and yet we still covered the things that needed to be covered. The tower of Babel was our religion topic for today. Which lead to a discussion of Pangaea and whether the continents moved during the flood or when God spread people around after Babel. In the afternoon, we studied migration and the Native Americans in Minnesota, which somehow reminded me we never talked about why the dinosaurs died out after the flood. So we went into science. And somehow we got on the topic of cloning and DNA and Dolly the sheep and sheep giving spider silk proteins in their milk... good stuff.
Once I let my students know I would be visiting the library after school today, I had a lot of requests to check for the "I Survived" books and then the "Whatever After" books. I emailed the Bookmobile librarian to hold some for us on Thursday, but I don't think she has all that many. Hopefully the New Ulm library has a bunch! One of the 5th graders told me today that she likes reading way more now that she's in my class. Woohoo! :) And then a 5th grade mom said that her son has been reading up a storm now that he's been in my class. She'd get him books at the beginning of summer and he wouldn't touch them; now he's read all of them and is looking for more. Sweet!
Tomorrow is our first physics lab of the year, involving tennis balls, string, and marbles. We'll see how it goes... Tomorrow is also the last volleyball practice before our first game (on Thursday) and there's the church ice cream social and our first PTL meeting. Whew! I'm thinking I better head home early and take it easy while I still can because the rest of this week is going to fly by!
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