i've never felt so popular.

MONDAY
planning day. lots of planning. we're putting together a skit for one of the other school's "earth day" celebrations next week. the skit so far involves evil twins of the corps members who teach there teaching kids the wrong things about how to care for the earth...and then the real corps members (who have special powers including the ability to speak with animals, the skill to separate recycling faster than a speeding bullet, and the power to see litter from 3 miles away) come back and save the day. it should be great.

TUESDAY
it felt so nice to be back at school. i was really full of energy (one of the first times i've taught without feeling under the weather in about a month!). our 6th grade lesson on transportation went well. we taped pieces of a timeline to their back and had them come up one by one to read their fact and place it on the time line (a piece of yarn) where they thought it would go. the students did fairly well on the relative timing...but it was funny to see that after almost every response they would say "the 60s" or "the 70s".

we then had a bit of a break before introducing the rain gauge to our 4th graders. we first took them outside (kids love going outside) to look at the rain gauge and take a picture. we then gave them each a cup to collect snow (this would be melted, filtered and looked at with a hand scope). when we got back inside, half of the group went with caleb to practice writing directions. the other half came with me to learn how to take a measurement on the rain gauge. i learned the way NOT to teach it...but we still ended up alright.


lunch...

caleb helped with recess while i went up to 1st grade for art class. the kids drew weather patterns to submit to the local newspaper (the day had a weather theme). those kids are crazy...the imagination of a 1st grader is amazing.

then came the part of the day i had been looking forward to ever since we thought of the lesson: "who wants to be a meterologist?" (played with the same rules as who wants to be a millionaire...but reviewing weather). it was great. one of the best lessons we've taught. the students were so engaged, and in addition to learning about weather, they learned strategies to answering multiple choice questions. we told the students in the beginning of class that they were selected to be on a new TV show (a lie, but it was fun). about 5 minutes into the game, one of the students raised his hands and asked "are we going to be on tv?". i had to try really hard not to laugh. episode 2 of who wants to be a meterologist will air next week!

WEDNESDAY
i didn't really feel like i had everything together the whole day, but it was a great day. in the morning, we hung out with preschool doing some fun water activities. we essentially played a follow the leader game about ice, liquid water and clouds. it was fun. they are adorable.

then we went back to 4th grade to have them take a look at their melted snow samples. some of them didn't want to drink water after looking at what was in them...we had to tell them that water was okay to drink. they might want to rethink whether they eat snow again (i still do), but it was great to see them so curious.

we rushed down to kindergarten for our puppet show on properties of matter. scene: jello's first day of school...where will he fit in? the gases (balloons)? no. the liquids (mason jars with water)? no. the solids (wood blocks)? yes. all of the puppets had ridiculous faces drawn on them. the kids were so cute! we played the same follow the leader game from preschool with them...it went so well!

i then enjoyed gym class with william. halfway through the class he decided he didn't like me, but by the end of class he liked me again. he's so great.

lunch...(i feel so popular at lunch. i get asked to sit at so many tables now!). recess.

after a bit of a break, we headed down to 2nd grade. not the greatest lesson on the planet. we read them a book they read last year (whoops) and then struggled through the selection of animals for their next project. they were so talkative today...

the last installment of nature club was alright. i stayed inside doing some animal tracking stamps and origami frogs. the students really had fun using the stamps and identifying what they were : ) and not too many of them ended up with ink all over their faces. waahoo!

THURSDAY
what a day! we began with the 3rd grade morning meeting. what a goofy bunch. william decided he liked me today and sat near or on me for the entire meeting. i even helped wipe a booger off his finger.

our lesson with 1st grade on pollination...was...okay. they are such a talkative group with so much energy! they sort of retained some of the knowledge from our lessons on bees...which is good : )

5th grade art class. lunch (fun times!). i really feel popular now. kids keep asking if i'm going to go to recess. wow! i was never that cool in elementary school.

kindergarten art class. i helped a kid draw a castle. it was the sweetest castle ever. he drew a trampoline to jump on and we drew windows of all different shapes (his favorite shape is an octagon by far. he asked me how to draw a shape with 88 sides. hahaha.).

then...we made watersheds with 3rd grade! there is something about kids and color and water that makes them go crazy! they just loved seeing the water flow down and change colors. then we introduced some puppets to them and got them going on puppet shows of the water cycle. it's going to be awesome.

: )

FRIDAY
i worked at red gate farm! i did some shoveling around a gate, shoveling outside the sheep barn so a door could open, and shoveling along the goat path because it was covered in poo. we also moved (mooved, haha farm pun) a bunch of hay and rescued some eggs from the chicken coop. it was SO much fun : ) the weather was gorgeous so i enjoyed being outside all day. i hope i get to work on the farm again!