"i wish today was tuesday".

that was a quote from a 4th grader today (thursday). we see that class on tuesday...that made me feel great! this week has just been great for kid quotes. here are some of the highlights in kid quotes...

"thanks for teaching us all of this cool stuff because before i didn't know what a water cycle was, but now i do" (3rd grader).

"i wish you could come over to my house" (whispered by a 1st grader).

"thermometer!" (shouted by a kindergartner).

"can you come over to my house on my birthday?" (preschooler).

so wonderful!

MONDAY
a planning day. i recall being rather tired...and it rained all day.

TUESDAY
a GORGEOUS day outside...6th grade lesson analyzing their transportation logs went well. 6th graders don't know percents very well...at least that's what i learned. i think they enjoyed it. then we work on the rain gauge guidebook with 4th grade. that went much more smoothly. some of the kids are making some great progress! the others are doing a very focused job.

after lunch we headed over to 3rd grade to work on their water cycle puppet shows since we didn't have much time last week. we gave them a graphic organizer so they could organize the plot, the characters and the types of puppets they would make. i don't know if it was that or just a better facilitation of the lesson, but every group wrote their show and completed their puppets in that time!

we rounded out the day with 5th grade science jeopardy! they loved it! i think they were almost too engaged. we had to remind them a few times to sit down in their seats. i was surprised at how much they retained over the past few months. very refreshing!

WEDNESDAY
another beautiful day. we started off in preschool. we had a slightly hectic activity where we traced their bodies on big paper and had them color in 7 of 10 spaces we put on them (to show that our body is 70% water). i forgot to explain the whole 70% thing when i was introducing the activity, whoops! live and learn...we also made a tornado maker from some plastic bottles and a tornado sleeve. one of the kids kept putting it in his cubby. it was hilarious. we then made our way to kindergarten...where we had to try to figure out why the sugar crystals didn't work...and then had them draw on a puzzle piece their favorite activity. some of them just drew squares. some of them drew bees (we didn't teach them about bees). but they seemed to have fun...

gym class with william (kids always cry in the class...), lunch, recess.

we finished the day with our 2nd grade river habitat projects. they just worked on decorating their river pieces with all of the things their animals need to survive. they are looking great! i'm so excited to see them completed.




THURSDAY
we spent the morning trying to boil water (the hot plate was NOT getting hot enough) to remake sugar crystals...then we helped the 3rd graders practice their water cycle puppet shows. they were adorable. then we scoped out the field for taking our 1st graders outside...actually taking them outside didn't work as we planned. we started late because they needed snack and we ended early because they needed to be at lunch early due to the half day, so we only had about 10 minutes outside. photosynthesis tag, in theory, sounds like a super fun game. however, it was chilly, the headbands we made were a bit to small and tore, and the kids just wanted to run around...i don't blame them, but it just made the lesson not go terribly smoothly...

after 5th grade art we went back to 3rd grade for the puppet show. the teacher had set up a little stage and arranged the chairs like they were in a theater. it was AWESOME! just awesome. i loved seeing the students share what they learned with each other in a thoughtful and creative way. here are some of the great puppets:


super bunny
lots of fun clouds (even a cloud monster)
rain drops made from balloons
a raccoon, an owl, 2 beavers, a weasel, a bear, a fox
a rainbow, a few suns...

there was an arm wrestle, a piggy back ride, some song and dance, and even a bit of mystery. i love it!

it was a half day, that was our last adventure for the week.

i've been spending a bit of time lately looking for jobs after this one is finished. i'm loving environmental education and there are oodles of opportunities. hooray!