We FINALLY started our E11 lab we were supposed to do back in January. It's the first physics lab of the year and requires throwing a ball. If it were nice out, we could do the lab outside. But since it's frigid, we need to do it in the gym. No one else is going outside for recess, so they're using the gym too. I couldn't put it off any longer. The kindergarten class was in the gym during our science time, but Mrs. E graciously let us take over part of it.
Today was also a PE day, so we had a half an hour to get as much done as we could (on non-PE days I can cut into recess time a little). We got the first half done and will try to finish it up tomorrow. Thankfully the second half doesn't have to be done in the gym; we can do it in our room.
This morning Writers Workshop focused on typing the science fair project lab report. I met with the last two students to make sure their projects are figured out. As a class we talked about what to include in the written report and the graph that needs to be included. Whew, that threw some of them for a loop. I had to dig out a past science fair board and project (they don't go together, but at least it gives a basic idea of what they should look like) to explain because one girl was so lost. I left it up and it came in handy when meeting with other students. It seems like everyone is on track! Which is really good considering how much school we've missed. I am definitely not sticking to the due dates I sent home back in January. We decided as a class that the one due date we're keeping is the final due date the Thursday before the Fine Arts Fair.
In non-school news, I got an email from a 4H coordinator asking if I'd be interested in judging at their county fair. Uh, yes! That inspired me to send off a few emails to other 4H coordinators in the counties I'll be close to this summer. We'll see if anyone needs a judge!
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Post-Blizzard
Well, we didn't have school yesterday. I think that brings us up to 9 full days of school missed due to weather, not counting the two early outs and however many 2h late starts we've had. Over the weekend there was another blizzard with 50mph winds that wrecked havoc on southern Minnesota. So yesterday's cancellation was due to road cleanup, not inclement weather. My farmer said he drove the township grader/snowplow for 11 hours yesterday. Yikes.
It was good to be back in school today. We actually accomplished quite a lot. I met with all three of my spelling groups and the four normal Tuesday read-to-selfers. I had enough time to meet with the 7th and 8th graders separately on their spelling assignments for the week, do geography, and have bell practice, all in one hour.
Still, I'm tired of cramming everything into such a short amount of time. I want a full week of school for once! Oh well, spring will come soon enough.
Midterms are supposed to get sent out this week. I almost forgot to put my grades in my online gradebook, but I remembered in time to do them yesterday and sent the 7-8th graders' grades to Mr. E. He got me my 5-6th graders' math grades this morning, so I wasn't able to send them out today. My goal is tomorrow. A few kids haven't turned everything in, so I marked it as missing, and their grades are not great because of it. Hopefully that will give them the push they need to catch up on stuff!
It was good to be back in school today. We actually accomplished quite a lot. I met with all three of my spelling groups and the four normal Tuesday read-to-selfers. I had enough time to meet with the 7th and 8th graders separately on their spelling assignments for the week, do geography, and have bell practice, all in one hour.
Still, I'm tired of cramming everything into such a short amount of time. I want a full week of school for once! Oh well, spring will come soon enough.
Midterms are supposed to get sent out this week. I almost forgot to put my grades in my online gradebook, but I remembered in time to do them yesterday and sent the 7-8th graders' grades to Mr. E. He got me my 5-6th graders' math grades this morning, so I wasn't able to send them out today. My goal is tomorrow. A few kids haven't turned everything in, so I marked it as missing, and their grades are not great because of it. Hopefully that will give them the push they need to catch up on stuff!
Friday, February 22, 2019
Teacher Swap Storytime
We're still plugging away at I Love to Read Month! Today was teacher classroom swap to read a story or two for 15min at the end of the day. At our meeting last night, we drew classrooms out of a hat to see who we'd read with. I got the kindergartners! They were so fun.
In the morning, my students asked which class I would read to. When I told them, some of the girls said, "Oh Miss H, they are going to love the voices you do!" So when I read to the kindergartners I made sure to do some of my silly voices. I picked three books so they'd have a choice: The Day Dinosaurs Came With Everything, This is a Moose, and Grumpy Bird. They voted which one to read first and unanimously picked the dinosaur one.
I set the others down to begin the story and one of them looked shocked. "But Miss H, you didn't let us finish voting!" Yes, but you all picked this one. "But we want to finish voting!"
So I held up the second book. No hands went up. I held up the third book. Three of the four hands went up. I said, "But you already voted once!" They replied, "Yes, but you can read that one second." So we did. We read the dinosaur one (they loved it). They wanted me to read the moose book second, but I didn't think we'd have enough time, so we read Grumpy Bird instead. Afterwards, they wanted me to read it again right away. But it was time to go home, so I left the books with Mrs. E in case she wants to read them with her class another time.
Mr. D read to my students. He'd asked for some recommendations yesterday and I set aside a few I hadn't read with them yet. He read one of his own choosing and one of mine. I think it went well.
More storms this weekend. The youth group tubing event Sunday has been postponed already. We're having a different event tonight at church, make your own pizza and game night. I have no clue how many kids we're going to get. Probably not that many the way it sounds. Sigh. Oh well. It is what it is. I better wrap up my school things and head over so I'm there ahead of any kids that show up.
In the morning, my students asked which class I would read to. When I told them, some of the girls said, "Oh Miss H, they are going to love the voices you do!" So when I read to the kindergartners I made sure to do some of my silly voices. I picked three books so they'd have a choice: The Day Dinosaurs Came With Everything, This is a Moose, and Grumpy Bird. They voted which one to read first and unanimously picked the dinosaur one.
I set the others down to begin the story and one of them looked shocked. "But Miss H, you didn't let us finish voting!" Yes, but you all picked this one. "But we want to finish voting!"
So I held up the second book. No hands went up. I held up the third book. Three of the four hands went up. I said, "But you already voted once!" They replied, "Yes, but you can read that one second." So we did. We read the dinosaur one (they loved it). They wanted me to read the moose book second, but I didn't think we'd have enough time, so we read Grumpy Bird instead. Afterwards, they wanted me to read it again right away. But it was time to go home, so I left the books with Mrs. E in case she wants to read them with her class another time.
Mr. D read to my students. He'd asked for some recommendations yesterday and I set aside a few I hadn't read with them yet. He read one of his own choosing and one of mine. I think it went well.
More storms this weekend. The youth group tubing event Sunday has been postponed already. We're having a different event tonight at church, make your own pizza and game night. I have no clue how many kids we're going to get. Probably not that many the way it sounds. Sigh. Oh well. It is what it is. I better wrap up my school things and head over so I'm there ahead of any kids that show up.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Chemistry of a Perfect Pancake
Whew! A day packed with things. It felt good after ANOTHER snow day yesterday.
We had chapel for the first time in three weeks (rescheduled from yesterday) and singing practice. The Fine Arts Fair is coming up soon!
I finally got the chance to do a how-to revising lesson. Robot Miss H made an appearance... basically, I pretended to be a robot following their instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some groups had written their instructions better than others, but they all needed a revision. I purposely took the instructions literally, so when a group told me to put the pb on the bread, I set the jar of peanut butter on the bag of bread. Then spread it. So I moved the jar back and forth over the bag. Yeah, that got a lot of laughs. It was super fun to play devil's advocate with their writing. Each group got two tries and each group was successful in the end! And of course they got to eat their final product. (Most didn't eat their first attempt... they didn't turn into very good sandwiches).
In the afternoon, the 5-6th graders walked over to church (it was sunny and nice for a change!) where a lovely lady who used to work in the Betty Crocker test kitchens taught us the chemistry of baking, specifically in making pancakes. It was super fun! But everyone wished we'd had more time. They only had the chance to make two different recipes of pancakes: one with whole milk, the other with buttermilk. There was supposed to be a third kind where we changed the amount of leavening agent, but we ran out of time and had to literally run back to school to make it in time for the buses (don't worry, we made it!). Mary was a peach and completely cleaned up everything for us!
After school we had our February staff meeting that was supposed to be three weeks ago. We have our next meeting in two weeks, kind of short turn around time, but oh well. I got caught up talking to people after school, then had to rush home to eat before bible study. Now I'm settled in to get caught up on some schoolwork before I head off to bed.
Tomorrow will be busy too... we have teacher swap storytime for I Love to Read Month and after school I have a youth group event at church until 7:30. Hopefully the weather cooperates for us! I heard Friday night will have snow later on and possibly some freezing rain. Gross.
We had chapel for the first time in three weeks (rescheduled from yesterday) and singing practice. The Fine Arts Fair is coming up soon!
I finally got the chance to do a how-to revising lesson. Robot Miss H made an appearance... basically, I pretended to be a robot following their instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some groups had written their instructions better than others, but they all needed a revision. I purposely took the instructions literally, so when a group told me to put the pb on the bread, I set the jar of peanut butter on the bag of bread. Then spread it. So I moved the jar back and forth over the bag. Yeah, that got a lot of laughs. It was super fun to play devil's advocate with their writing. Each group got two tries and each group was successful in the end! And of course they got to eat their final product. (Most didn't eat their first attempt... they didn't turn into very good sandwiches).
In the afternoon, the 5-6th graders walked over to church (it was sunny and nice for a change!) where a lovely lady who used to work in the Betty Crocker test kitchens taught us the chemistry of baking, specifically in making pancakes. It was super fun! But everyone wished we'd had more time. They only had the chance to make two different recipes of pancakes: one with whole milk, the other with buttermilk. There was supposed to be a third kind where we changed the amount of leavening agent, but we ran out of time and had to literally run back to school to make it in time for the buses (don't worry, we made it!). Mary was a peach and completely cleaned up everything for us!
After school we had our February staff meeting that was supposed to be three weeks ago. We have our next meeting in two weeks, kind of short turn around time, but oh well. I got caught up talking to people after school, then had to rush home to eat before bible study. Now I'm settled in to get caught up on some schoolwork before I head off to bed.
Tomorrow will be busy too... we have teacher swap storytime for I Love to Read Month and after school I have a youth group event at church until 7:30. Hopefully the weather cooperates for us! I heard Friday night will have snow later on and possibly some freezing rain. Gross.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Play= A Bust
We were supposed to go to Nicollet this morning for a play put on by MSU. We did make it to Nicollet, but we didn't watch a play. The actors never showed up! We sat there for ten minutes past the start time and still no one came out. Finally they sent everyone home/back to their classrooms. Bummer! This was already rescheduled once from a snow day, so they're not going to schedule it again.
So, we got more done this morning than I anticipated. It was a welcome change, especially with tomorrow's forecast of 6-9 inches of snow. Everyone is guessing we're not having school tomorrow. And I just realized I forgot to remind people to bring their stuff home to work on...
On the bus to the play this morning some third grade girls sat next to me. One of them had a giant colorful rubber band thing she was twiddling around her fingers. It looked like she was using it to play cat's cradle, so I asked her about it. Yes, she was! But she didn't know how to do the next step. Lucky for her I remembered it! So we played for a while and we taught her two friends what to do. Unfortunately, the first and second steps are all I know, so we got stuck after that. Still, it kept us occupied all the way to Nicollet!
So, we got more done this morning than I anticipated. It was a welcome change, especially with tomorrow's forecast of 6-9 inches of snow. Everyone is guessing we're not having school tomorrow. And I just realized I forgot to remind people to bring their stuff home to work on...
On the bus to the play this morning some third grade girls sat next to me. One of them had a giant colorful rubber band thing she was twiddling around her fingers. It looked like she was using it to play cat's cradle, so I asked her about it. Yes, she was! But she didn't know how to do the next step. Lucky for her I remembered it! So we played for a while and we taught her two friends what to do. Unfortunately, the first and second steps are all I know, so we got stuck after that. Still, it kept us occupied all the way to Nicollet!
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Stuck
Guess what... school let out early today: blowing snow and low wind chill. Great. We ate lunch and sent everyone home.
Two staff got stuck trying to get out of the school driveway. A neighbor is coming over to plow the snow and get them out. So, I'm packing up and heading out of here!
Two staff got stuck trying to get out of the school driveway. A neighbor is coming over to plow the snow and get them out. So, I'm packing up and heading out of here!
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Buried
Joe has totally buried himself. You can't see even a little bit of him in the tank! They cleaned the tank and fluffed his dirt this morning. When that happens, Joe gets to wander the classroom. So when they didn't see Joe this afternoon, my kids thought someone had forgotten to put him back. They were about to arouse a search party! Sometimes after his tank is freshly fluffed, he likes to hunker down, but it can also mean a storm coming (or a change in the barometer) and there is supposed to be a lot of wind followed by frigid temperatures again tomorrow, so maybe he's being a meteorologist.
This morning one school had a two hour late start. Thankfully it was New Ulm, so I could get to school a half an hour later than normal and still be here on time for their bus. But that meant I had to entertain five kids for two hours before the rest of the class showed up. We did okay, but they were pretty crazy! With such a short week they all had spelling, handwriting, and memory to work on. The other kids slowly trickled in and I was able to meet with one spelling group before school officially started for the day. We did a reading lesson too (only one kid was missing by that point).
Wednesdays are chapel days, but with the two hour delay we skipped it today. We did do music practice though! And afterwards I had my last day of Junior Achievement. Then it was lunchtime. Short morning!
Tomorrow is our last day of school this week. There's been talk of having to go to school Friday and Monday (days we didn't have school on the schedule), but it's a little short notice now. I know at least one family that's going out of town for the weekend. I have plans to go to Fulda, so I'm hoping we still get those days off. We're probably going to make up a day over Easter break though, and another one after the 3rd quarter ends (speaking of which, next week is already midterms...I am finally sending out my last two quarter two report cards for the pokey puppies. They're not caught up in math, but enough time has passed they're getting incompletes. Bleah.). The school board meets tomorrow after school, so I guess we'll find out then.
This morning one school had a two hour late start. Thankfully it was New Ulm, so I could get to school a half an hour later than normal and still be here on time for their bus. But that meant I had to entertain five kids for two hours before the rest of the class showed up. We did okay, but they were pretty crazy! With such a short week they all had spelling, handwriting, and memory to work on. The other kids slowly trickled in and I was able to meet with one spelling group before school officially started for the day. We did a reading lesson too (only one kid was missing by that point).
Wednesdays are chapel days, but with the two hour delay we skipped it today. We did do music practice though! And afterwards I had my last day of Junior Achievement. Then it was lunchtime. Short morning!
Tomorrow is our last day of school this week. There's been talk of having to go to school Friday and Monday (days we didn't have school on the schedule), but it's a little short notice now. I know at least one family that's going out of town for the weekend. I have plans to go to Fulda, so I'm hoping we still get those days off. We're probably going to make up a day over Easter break though, and another one after the 3rd quarter ends (speaking of which, next week is already midterms...I am finally sending out my last two quarter two report cards for the pokey puppies. They're not caught up in math, but enough time has passed they're getting incompletes. Bleah.). The school board meets tomorrow after school, so I guess we'll find out then.
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