Insect Fun

 My dad found another class pet for us. Last week he discovered a huge green caterpillar crawling around on a 5-gal pail looking for a place to make its cocoon. He put it in a jar with some leaves and a stick and a few days later it made this cocoon! 

It's huge! About three and a half inches long and an inch and a half tall. It looks like it's made of coconut husk. The leaves stuck right to the cocoon. The kids were suitably impressed when I showed it to them today. Dad said to leave it on my porch over the winter so it won't accidentally hatch too soon. It will turn into a Cecropia moth, one of the largest moths in North America. The adults can't eat, so their whole purpose while in moth form is to mate, then die. This process takes about two weeks. Hopefully when it hatches in the spring there will be other moths around!

Other insect news... wasps have been getting in my classroom. We killed another two today! Last week we killed at least two or three. Our lovely new janitor gave me some wasp spray (basically dish soap and water). It works! At noon recess, my kiddos and I poked around the classroom to see where they might be getting in... We discovered another wasp nest on the back side of my classroom way up high by the roof. Also, I noticed wasps hovering around the air conditioning drain. It's a pipe that leads up into the wall/into the classroom, so it might be possible for them to crawl up there? I need to call the school trustee.

Candy

It's kind of strange only seeing my kids all day. In a typical year, I'd see kids from other classes in the hallway or in the lunch line. This year we're all self-contained. However, today I did see a few. I zipped to the bathroom before school started and passed a 3rd grader on his way to do the same thing. He is so chipper and always waves at me whenever I see him. Today, he let me go first out of the gym AND as we passed each other he said, "Oh! Miss H! I brought you something!" It was a grape Jolly Rancher. So sweet! 

My class has been doing awesome with social distancing and wearing masks all day. The weather was beautiful out, so I took advantage and gave them some extra recess. We still accomplished everything I wanted to today! We played GaGa Ball and 4-square. No one argued, everyone had a good time. Lovely.

In social studies, we shared our family artifact stories. I forgot mine at home, but then I remembered I had something that would work tucked in a cupboard at school. My grandma gave me some gas ration stamps from the 1940s after she found out I teach my class about WWII. Technically a hand-me-down! Other kids brought a family watch, a bracelet, a photo of the family homestead from the 1800s, a card from German immigrant grandparents, coins from a great-grandma who came to the US via Ellis Island, and one student forgot hers so she'll bring it tomorrow. Super neat stories!

Computer Troubles

 Don't worry, my computer troubles today weren't nearly as bad as they've been in the past. And, better news, they all got fixed rather quickly! 

The IT guys came to school last night and gave me a new desktop computer. Hooray! Though, I'm not actually sold on it yet. It's a nice big screen, but it's so big it blocks my view of the window. And I have to rearrange a few things on my desk now... Change can be hard! It's not that bad though. The part that was driving me crazy was the two inches of black space on both sides of the screen. The monitor is so large, all the space should be used! Thankfully our IT guy got back to me before the end of the day and gave me the info on how to make it fill the screen. Now it stretches from edge to edge! It's a lot brighter than my other computer, so that's an adjustment. I hope it won't give me a headache. I adjusted the dimness just now; we'll see if that helps.

Since the kids aren't supposed to change classrooms, today was my second day teaching in Mr. E's room. Boy that is strange. He doesn't have an interactive board, so everything is projected on the wall and I have to go back and forth between the podium and his computer to click links. Then, I couldn't figure out how to make the sound work. Thankfully, the videos didn't need sound I wanted to show didn't need sound and I was able to teach the lesson without it. Mr. E showed me how to get the sound to work after he came back from math... it was muted on his desktop! Ugh. I should've checked there first. Easy fix!

The weather was drippy today, but it stopped long enough for my class to have afternoon recess outside. We played four square and had a blast. Perfect game for six people! (One was absent today for appointments, but I played). I'm guessing we'll be playing a lot of that this year. Good thing it's a fun game!

Back after Six Months!

 Wow, it's good to be back. I had no idea how much I missed my kiddos until I watched them playing at afternoon recess, laughing and talking as they hit a volleyball around a socially distanced circle. 

The days/weeks leading up to the first day of school were not fun. It's always an adjustment going from summer freedom to school structure, but with all the restrictions and regulations we have to follow this year with covid, it was even worse. 

But school went really well today! My six students are peachy and do what they're supposed to when they're supposed to. One boy had a little trouble staying in his area, but overall they did good. They wore their masks, used their hand sanitizer, raised their hands, asked good questions... It was great. We didn't finish everything I wanted to today, but I always overplan just in case. We can always do it tomorrow. 

Lunch was interesting. Our cook brought us our lunch in takeout containers on a cart. Milks were separate, plus there was disposable silverware. We all ate at our desks and got a break from wearing the masks. It takes some getting used to, wearing them all day. I've had to wear them at my summer jobs, but you can take the mask off when you're the only one around, so I haven't had to wear them for hours at a time. And I haven't had to constantly talk while wearing one. This morning we discussed building stamina in reading for Daily 5. At lunch when we could all take our masks off, one boy said, "Wow, I'm glad I can take my mask off. It's not that bad for a little while, but... Miss H! We need to build stamina with our masks too!" 😊 Proud teacher moment!

Since I was putting off school stuff for as long as possible, I only prepped my lessons for the first day. I always do a lesson plan outline for a week at a time the week prior to teaching it, then go through the plan over the weekend in detail to make sure all the pieces are ready to go. So I have my week plan, but I need to polish W-F's lessons. That's my priority for after school. Tonight I have a Homeownership Counseling webinar starting at 5:30, so I need to use my time at school wisely! I was good last night and went to bed on time. Let's see how long I can keep that up! I'm feeling positive.