Too Many Papers

Bleh, I have a huge pile to correct tonight and so many other things I'd rather be doing. Maybe I will compromise and intermix the homework subjects with the other things. 

The good news is I got everything done after school that I wanted/needed to do, and that was even with the volleyball girls hanging out in my room. 

My voice is tired from class with the 7-8th graders. They were so distracted today. And then we had bell practice, which is always loud. The 5-6th graders had art/Joe toy work time and convinced me to read-aloud while they worked. (It didn't take much convincing). Our book is getting tense! We're about halfway through and I can tell the author is slowly amping up the excitement...we'll be able to make lots of predictions in the next few days. 

Next week we go to Camp Omega. I can't believe that's already here. One more bake sale to go this Sunday!

Clay

We used up the last of the clay today. Very messy desks, but very happy creative minds. Man, they had fun building with that stuff! I couldn't let them have all the fun, so I made something too: a tree paintbrush holder. 

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons has taken the 5-8th graders by storm this past week. I overheard the 7-8th grade boys read (and sing) this book during study hall Monday. This morning a bunch of my kids read to someone and picked this book, including one boy who struggles with reading. I heard him reading with inflection, changing his reading speed/tone to fit the words, and then his partner joined in singing the song chorus that happens whenever Pete loses a button. Oh it made my teacher heart happy!

I forgot to post yesterday since I left school early for a walk/bible study. The big thing was the 5-6th graders presented their powerpoints on the big Native American tribes in the US. Overall they did really well! A few groups had uneven teamwork. One group had great teamwork making the powerpoint, but didn't share the presenting part as well. I forgot that I said I'd present the last tribe that didn't get covered. Oops! Guess I have to make a powerpoint after school!

Monday Monday

I must say, today was one of the best Mondays of the school year to date, and that's not just because I arrived at school with a box full of candy/snacks courtesy of my sister/brother-in-law (I helped them clean out their pantry before the baby comes and they gifted me with their castoffs). 

My kids know the story of the P family's baby gender reveal... "It's a... human baby!" They thought that was hilarious and a few of them took the joke further, "What?! I thought it would be a giraffe!" So now everyone either calls my niece/nephew human baby or giraffe baby. To play a trick on my class, I took a picture of my sister holding a baby giraffe stuffed animal in a baby outfit and I pretended she had the baby while I was there over the weekend. It was great! They totally believed she had the baby. Also, I had them show if they thought it'd be a boy or girl. Four think boy, three think girl. None thought giraffe. 

Other fun things today: surprisingly, 7-8th spelling! Most of the class advanced to the vocabulary books, which are more work, so we came up with a compromise that we do part of their assignment together orally. They LOVE it. They kind of get into it, especially today, which makes spelling fun. Strange I would ever say that. Best spelling lesson of the school year.

While I did spelling with the 5-6th graders, Joe wandered the classroom. He tried to eat the piece of metal on the sideways bulletin board again for about five minutes. It dawned on me he might be playing. That thought inspired the class to look up toys/brain stimulation for tortoises and now we're on a mission to enhance Joe's life with fun things. One kid is making a pool, another is making a Halloween costume for him (Joe-y Shark do-do-do-do, Joe-y Shark do-do-do-do), a few are looking up flowers/plants to grow in his tank that he can eat. This class likes to work on things they're excited about at home, so who knows what they'll come up with tonight!

Fantastic Friday

Mrs. L gave me a secret note today... and it was really good. She showed me the back of her fist that said, "Tap". So I tapped. She flipped her hand up to show me her knuckles, which said "open". And inside her fist was the note, written in a code. Before she left the classroom I figured it out and I will admit I screamed. And screamed again because it was such good news. One of my 6th graders was in the room when I got the note and she thought she figured it out. It drove her nuts that I wouldn't tell her. 

My neck is still not 100%, but it feels the best it's felt all week. My mood is by far improved. I've had much more pep in my step today and feel somewhat normal. This has definitely given me a lot more sympathy/empathy for people with chronic pain.

My class was on fire with predictions and inferences today. So many times they guessed and guessed right! Four of the seven aced their memory work, all handed in handwriting before lunch. The 7-8th graders had a good day too, very productive. 

I'm antsy to leave school today because I'm going to visit my sister/brother-in-law/human baby (as my students like to call him/her...or giraffe baby... don't ask). That's been my high of the day for quite a few days this week. Today it was even one of the 6th grader's highs! And a few kids' lows were that I won't be here to watch the after school soccer game. 

Boats

My kiddos started building their penny boats this afternoon. Their latest STEM project is to build a boat that can hold 25 pennies for 10s without sinking. While they did that, I got the testing tank ready. It's just an old fish tank I have in the closet. The big undertaking was finding space for it! We made room on the lab table, and miraculously, it fit close to the sink so we could swing the faucet around and fill it directly from the sink with minor modifications. We taped a funnel to the tank to direct the water in. It worked great! 

Second Wind

My chiropractor appointment popped me back into place, but it's taking a while for the muscles to catch up (the chiro said that would be the case). So most of the day was tough for me to get through physically. But after school I finally caved and took some pain meds and surprise, surprise, I am feeling better. Not 100%, but enough to actually accomplish the things I need to do after school. I even watched a webinar that's been on my radar since August... going gradeless in the classroom. Hmm, correct fewer papers? I'm all for that! 

One of the 8th graders thinks the alternator is going out in my car, or it just needs an oil change. Good thing I have an oil change tomorrow. He heard me drive away yesterday and said my car sounds weird. I've noticed that sound too, kind of a mild whine, but when I've asked my car fixit people about it, they didn't seem concerned. I'll mention the alternator to them tomorrow. 

One of the 5th graders is positive his plants grew while he was at school. I suggested sticking a ruler next to the plant in the dirt so he can actually tell. He is gungho about plants and started up the mini-hydroponics thing we have. He plucked a germinated pea from his garden and transplanted it to the hydroponic planter. 

Some of the other kids like to pluck their seeds out to see how big the root is. A 6th grader took one out and wrapped it in a wet paper towel, then got excited because the paper towel was sucked close to the root showing that the root was absorbing water. Nice. They're learning so much!

Joe

Joe hasn't had much of an appetite this week, but today we noticed him doing something odd when he was on his walkabout... He tried to eat the metal holder on the bulletin board leaned against the wall. Humongous bite and everything. It didn't work. Just in case he tried to eat anything else, we put him back in his tank and gave him a big pile of lettuce.

A pretty typical day otherwise. In bells, we highlighted parts for the bell songs we'll play from October though January. That's eight songs! Some kids are much faster at highlighting than others and are finished already. I was worried my 6th graders would be overwhelmed, so I had them start this morning during read-aloud time (ps- only 25 pages to go! We'll probably finish tomorrow!). They did really well keeping everything organized.

Neck update: not much better. It hurts to even turn my eyes to the right, so I caved and took some medicine, then made a chiropractor appointment for this afternoon. God was good; there was an opening for 5pm tonight. Perfect timing!