March 3, 2013

So many things have passed, I don't even know where to begin.  Let's go a few weeks back when we took our field trip to Clark Planetarium.  I will not deny I was all kinds of stressed.  We were the first elementary group at our school to take the train for a field trip.  I tried to make sure I covered every base twice, but with so many things that could happen, it was hard to be certain.  However, it went off without a hitch!  I would have to say that it was one of my favorite field trips I had ever been on!  Thanks to all of the parent volunteers who made it possible to have it be so successful!  Below are a couple of pictures from the trip:

Another large project that we've brought to a close was the mask making.  It's such an intricate process beginning with laying the plaster bandages on their faces, and ending with the beautiful finished products pictured below.  I'd bet at least some of you could figure out which is your student's without having it pointed out to you:

The other big thing we wrapped up this week were the rewards for the reading contest.  If we reached our goal of 72,000 minutes, I told them I would bring in donuts.  Well, they read a combined total of just over 78,000 minutes, so as promised,  I brought them Madbrook donuts for their success!  Our school read a total of 1.3 million minutes, so for seven years running now, we also had a Jazz player visit.  This year was Earl Watson, who I am told is fairly big deal.  I'm not a big follower of basketball, but it was fun regardless.  Below are the final two pictures I'll post for this week.  One is of Kourtney, our class's number 1 reader who received a signed basketball.  The other is of Devon, who got to ask Mr. Watson a question.

Earl surprised me.  He's quite a deep character.  Devon's question for him was, "If you could be any animal, what animal would you be and why?" His response was an eagle.  His reasons were intense. First off, eagles are able to fly higher than any other bird, so they always soar above the rest.  He didn't stop there, though.  He continued saying that eagles are also able to fly higher than the clouds, so when a storm moves in , they just fly above it.  He ended it by saying, "Think about that for a while and relate it to life."  Deep stuff...

I've have been keeping to the standards I laid out at the start of the term as for missing assignments.  I have given the students a new missing assignment list each week, and with the and of that week the assignments become zeroes, and are unable to be made up.  This last week, I was a little late in getting it to them, so I will be giving them a new one on Monday, but I will not discount any of the assignments until next week.  Most of the students are doing really well at helping me by staying on top of things.  I have given out a few zeroes though, so hopefully, they're learning.

Don't forget that book reports are just two weeks away, but more importantly, that science fair is this week.  The projects should be completed and it should just be a matter of making sure the boards are put together and ready for judging.  It's just a one day event for us.  They'll bring the boards in on Thursday morning and set them up, and they will take them home at the end of the day. It'll be neat and clean and over before we know it.

"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud."  ~ Carl Sandburg