For some reason, my computer decided to shut off the sound. And the only way to turn it back on again is with a password... which I don't have... which the IT guys hoard and never give out to anyone. So now I have to wait for them to get back to me... which may be a while.
No sound on the computer meant I couldn't have the class listen to the audio book we started on Wednesday. Thankfully, I have a hard copy I borrowed from the Bookmobile, just in case. It also meant we couldn't do a "listen to the song and write the story that goes with it" writing activity I wanted to do. So we played Charades instead. Mrs. E had gone through her game cabinet at home and gave my class a box of games to look through. We got a bunch of good ones!
Charades was one of those games. A lot of the slips were hard to act out. The toughest one was "Mind your Ps and Qs" and "Toy Story". The easiest ones were "YMCA" and "Rock-a-bye Baby".
This afternoon, we only had an hour of class since the girls play basketball in Lakefield at 3:00. I had the 7th graders for the hour. We were supposed to take a science test, but we did Mystery Class instead. This project goes from February to March. Students record sunrise and sunset times of 10 mystery locations around the globe plus our local sunrise/sunset and find each photoperiod. After tracking this data for a few weeks, we can predict which longitude line the locations are depending on whether the amount of sunlight increases or decreases. For today, we just recorded data in our charts and on our graphs. The 5th graders have never done MC before, so I had them stay in my room for their computer time so the 7th graders and I could teach them how to do it. I think they grasped the instructions fairly well! None of them complained that it was super hard or confusing... always a good sign.
Now, all my students are gone, most of my papers are corrected, and I can pack up and head down to the basketball games! Woohoo! Go Braves!
Friday, January 29, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
19,872
This poor kid, the one who got sick earlier this week, is not having a very good week. He had brought his spelling home yesterday to finish it since it was due today... it was on his bed, somehow fell on the floor, and... the cat peed on it. Lovely. So he a) didn't get his spelling done and b) has to buy a new workbook. Bummer!
Our Jesus Food field trip went very well today. Right away this morning we got on a bus (paid for by a kind soul at Good Shepherd... the same kind soul who paid for all the food we bagged up today) and drove to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church/School to package food for starving children. The food we bagged today will go in a shipment to Iraq for refugees escaping from ISIS. Each bag contains six servings. We bagged 3,312 packages for a grand total of 19,872 starving children fed. Woo!
Our Jesus Food field trip went very well today. Right away this morning we got on a bus (paid for by a kind soul at Good Shepherd... the same kind soul who paid for all the food we bagged up today) and drove to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church/School to package food for starving children. The food we bagged today will go in a shipment to Iraq for refugees escaping from ISIS. Each bag contains six servings. We bagged 3,312 packages for a grand total of 19,872 starving children fed. Woo!
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
24 hours
So the kid who threw-up yesterday? He was in school this morning. Our school policy is that sick kids (with a fever or who have thrown up, etc.) stay home for at least 24 hours. So. After chapel, I called his mom and asked what the scoop was. She had forgotten about the rule and found someone to come pick him up from school. Well, it would be 24 hours in two more hours, and he'd already exposed everyone at school to his germs, so did it really make sense for him to leave? Eh, not a good situation either way. I told her he could come back at 12:30, but she didn't want to be a bother to the lady she had coming to pick him up. So he left school.
Apparently purple is my color. My outfit today is a purple sweater, purple/silver scarf, and gray pants. People have been complimenting me all day! The school nurse stopped by to ask a question and she asked the 7th graders, "Is your teacher human? All humans like to be appreciated. So you should tell her when she looks nice. Miss H, you look stunning today." Guess I'll file this outfit away for when I need to look really good!
Apparently purple is my color. My outfit today is a purple sweater, purple/silver scarf, and gray pants. People have been complimenting me all day! The school nurse stopped by to ask a question and she asked the 7th graders, "Is your teacher human? All humans like to be appreciated. So you should tell her when she looks nice. Miss H, you look stunning today." Guess I'll file this outfit away for when I need to look really good!
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Fur Trade and Blankets
This week's first field trip was to MLHS for Arn Kind's talk on the Fur Trade. He dressed as a voyageur and spoke in a French accent for the whole two hour spiel! My kids thought it was his real accent. He taught them to count to three in French. He also dressed up a kid from a different school as a voyageur and explained why voyageurs wear the things they wear. Belts- to look good and prevent hernias, belts just under the knees- to look good and provide extra strength when lifting the 90lb bundles. Each guy would carry two or more of the 90lb bundles at a time! Each guy was in charge of six. The canoes were about 35-40ft long and could carry up to 8,000lbs. And they were very tippy, but none of the voyageurs could swim! They were hired that way so they would take extra care in not tipping the canoe! He also had audience participants bartering, one "Native American" to trade furs to the "voyageur" for trade goods. He actually had goods for them to exchange so we could see what it was really like. And the last thing he did was have 14 audience members come down to be voyageurs in the canoe. One person pushed them away from rocks, one person was the steerer in the back, and the rest paddled. Oh, and one guy was the singer to keep them paddling in rhythm. They sang in French (he had a CD of the song). My 6th graders thought it was better this year than last year (last year was on the Civil War).
One of my 6th graders threw up not ten minutes into the presentation. No one was sitting in front of him, which was good, because it spewed a good two rows in front of him. Poor guy. His parents work in Redwood Falls, so the presentation was over by the time someone came to pick him up. And he threw up three more times in the bathroom. Yeah, not fun. One of the MLHS people cleaned up the mess, so neither Mr. E nor I had to do it. We contemplated driving him back partway so he could get home sooner, but there wouldn't be enough drivers for the other kids if one of us left. So he just had to wait.
After all that, we went to Fairmont for lunch at Pizza Ranch. More drama. A bunch of kids only brought $10 for lunch, but lunch was $9.55 plus tax, bringing the total to $10.21, so a bunch were short 21 cents. Some kids who brought extra loaned their friends some; others, I just covered their odd cents. So we all got to eat lunch. Except another kid who had a headache and said he didn't feel well. His friends tried to get him to eat pizza, but I said that was a no go if he hadn't paid, plus pizza isn't good for sick people. Another chaperone gave him some Sprite and not long afterwards this kid was in the game room yelling his head off with his friends. But later he said he still had a headache. No wonder!
We got back to school in time to do American History and have recess. Then it was the end of the day! Mrs. B, Angie, Miss N, and I went fabric shopping for Project Linus blankets. There is a mega-sale on fleece until tomorrow, so we spent all the money we had saved for fabrics. We ended up with fabric for about 30 blankets or so and saved over $1000 on the fabric we bought!!! Plenty of blankets for the students to make during NLSW in March.
One of my 6th graders threw up not ten minutes into the presentation. No one was sitting in front of him, which was good, because it spewed a good two rows in front of him. Poor guy. His parents work in Redwood Falls, so the presentation was over by the time someone came to pick him up. And he threw up three more times in the bathroom. Yeah, not fun. One of the MLHS people cleaned up the mess, so neither Mr. E nor I had to do it. We contemplated driving him back partway so he could get home sooner, but there wouldn't be enough drivers for the other kids if one of us left. So he just had to wait.
After all that, we went to Fairmont for lunch at Pizza Ranch. More drama. A bunch of kids only brought $10 for lunch, but lunch was $9.55 plus tax, bringing the total to $10.21, so a bunch were short 21 cents. Some kids who brought extra loaned their friends some; others, I just covered their odd cents. So we all got to eat lunch. Except another kid who had a headache and said he didn't feel well. His friends tried to get him to eat pizza, but I said that was a no go if he hadn't paid, plus pizza isn't good for sick people. Another chaperone gave him some Sprite and not long afterwards this kid was in the game room yelling his head off with his friends. But later he said he still had a headache. No wonder!
We got back to school in time to do American History and have recess. Then it was the end of the day! Mrs. B, Angie, Miss N, and I went fabric shopping for Project Linus blankets. There is a mega-sale on fleece until tomorrow, so we spent all the money we had saved for fabrics. We ended up with fabric for about 30 blankets or so and saved over $1000 on the fabric we bought!!! Plenty of blankets for the students to make during NLSW in March.
Friday, January 22, 2016
Relays
Our all-school activity for this quarter was supposed to be doing a snowman building contest outside, but since the weather didn't cooperate, we did relay races in the gym.
My favorite race was the Balloon-Head Race. Teams made pairs of students about equal in height and they raced to the other end of the gym squeezing a balloon between their two heads. Some students grabbed each other's heads so the balloon wouldn't fall out. Others who weren't quite the same height squatted down or picked the other person up and carried him/her to the end (all while keeping a balloon stuck between the two heads).
I could tell Mrs. E wasn't a fan of the last race. The smallest person on the team sat on a blanket carried by the rest of the team to the other end of the gym. But the worst part wasn't the saggy blanket or the slippery fabric, it was the fact the students holding the blanket were supposed to close their eyes while the blanket-sitter gave directions. Some of the kindergartners still don't know left from right! And they're supposed to be heard giving directions in a gym full of screaming kids? Not likely. We teachers made some adaptations to that relay (relays were planned by the student council).
Other relays included: Banana Relay (teams pass a banana to the end and the end person has to eat the whole thing before the other team), Cracker-Whistle Relay (eat two crackers and then whistle... many crumbs were sprayed in the making of this relay), and Basketball Spin Relay (spin around a baseball bat three times, then dribble down the court and make a layup).
My favorite race was the Balloon-Head Race. Teams made pairs of students about equal in height and they raced to the other end of the gym squeezing a balloon between their two heads. Some students grabbed each other's heads so the balloon wouldn't fall out. Others who weren't quite the same height squatted down or picked the other person up and carried him/her to the end (all while keeping a balloon stuck between the two heads).
I could tell Mrs. E wasn't a fan of the last race. The smallest person on the team sat on a blanket carried by the rest of the team to the other end of the gym. But the worst part wasn't the saggy blanket or the slippery fabric, it was the fact the students holding the blanket were supposed to close their eyes while the blanket-sitter gave directions. Some of the kindergartners still don't know left from right! And they're supposed to be heard giving directions in a gym full of screaming kids? Not likely. We teachers made some adaptations to that relay (relays were planned by the student council).
Other relays included: Banana Relay (teams pass a banana to the end and the end person has to eat the whole thing before the other team), Cracker-Whistle Relay (eat two crackers and then whistle... many crumbs were sprayed in the making of this relay), and Basketball Spin Relay (spin around a baseball bat three times, then dribble down the court and make a layup).
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Medieval Life
The 7th graders started a history unit on the Middle Ages. Their current assignment is to do research about a particular class of people in the feudal system and present it to the class in some way/shape/form. Most immediately jumped to powerpoint, but I'm sick of them doing powerpoints only, so I said I'd give extra credit if they picked something besides a powerpoint to present their findings. So far, one girl is writing a skit and two boys are making a comic strip. The third group is sticking with powerpoint.
My 5th and 6th graders ate hardtack in history today. I had baked it last week and let it sit on my counter to "cure." It's nice and hard. All day they were asking, "When do we get to eat that hardtack?" It was in a container on my desk so all day it tantalized them. I passed out the hard biscuit and we discussed life in Valley Forge in the middle of winter as they ate. Then we watched a video about the Revolutionary War (it was pieced together video game footage with captions). They thought it was pretty neat and asked lots of questions while we watched. A lot wanted to know the name of the game so they could play it!
Tomorrow's the end of the quarter. The two boys with the most late work have turned in all their assignments! Woohoo! One boy stayed after school today to get his spelling done, but he finished pretty quickly. Now all I need is to enter grades in the gradebook!
My 5th and 6th graders ate hardtack in history today. I had baked it last week and let it sit on my counter to "cure." It's nice and hard. All day they were asking, "When do we get to eat that hardtack?" It was in a container on my desk so all day it tantalized them. I passed out the hard biscuit and we discussed life in Valley Forge in the middle of winter as they ate. Then we watched a video about the Revolutionary War (it was pieced together video game footage with captions). They thought it was pretty neat and asked lots of questions while we watched. A lot wanted to know the name of the game so they could play it!
Tomorrow's the end of the quarter. The two boys with the most late work have turned in all their assignments! Woohoo! One boy stayed after school today to get his spelling done, but he finished pretty quickly. Now all I need is to enter grades in the gradebook!
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Not Much
Not much to report today. Pretty standard.
The 7th graders got a lecture about being nice to each other... I had to break up a massive argument over noon recess because 50% of the 7th grade class were trying to stake claims on certain desks in my room for their class at 12:30. Two girls ended up in tears. So I kicked everybody out and when it was actually time for class, we drew sticks for first pick. Maybe I should make a seating chart.
The end of the second quarter is Friday, so I've been pushing everyone to turn their late work in. One 7th grader was missing six assignments for me as of this morning (and has been for a week or two... the numbers keep rising). But he buckled down and handed everything in today! Pretty sure his motivation was not wanting to stay after school on Thursday... Mr. E is having late-work people stay after on Friday, but I'm headed down to Fulda and don't want to be stuck at school for an unforeseeable amount of time.
This weekend is going to be a little helter-skelter. Fulda-bound on Friday, then Saturday is my great-aunt's funeral. No school on Monday as a teacher work day, but I don't get to stay in Fulda the whole weekend; Sunday I direct hand bells and have to be back in Courtland. Which leaves me in Courtland for the rest of Sunday and all of Monday. Hmm... drive down to Fulda again? work all day at school? hang out in my apartment? find other people to bum around with? Time will tell I guess!
The 7th graders got a lecture about being nice to each other... I had to break up a massive argument over noon recess because 50% of the 7th grade class were trying to stake claims on certain desks in my room for their class at 12:30. Two girls ended up in tears. So I kicked everybody out and when it was actually time for class, we drew sticks for first pick. Maybe I should make a seating chart.
The end of the second quarter is Friday, so I've been pushing everyone to turn their late work in. One 7th grader was missing six assignments for me as of this morning (and has been for a week or two... the numbers keep rising). But he buckled down and handed everything in today! Pretty sure his motivation was not wanting to stay after school on Thursday... Mr. E is having late-work people stay after on Friday, but I'm headed down to Fulda and don't want to be stuck at school for an unforeseeable amount of time.
This weekend is going to be a little helter-skelter. Fulda-bound on Friday, then Saturday is my great-aunt's funeral. No school on Monday as a teacher work day, but I don't get to stay in Fulda the whole weekend; Sunday I direct hand bells and have to be back in Courtland. Which leaves me in Courtland for the rest of Sunday and all of Monday. Hmm... drive down to Fulda again? work all day at school? hang out in my apartment? find other people to bum around with? Time will tell I guess!
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