October happenings

The last day of the first quarter is on Friday, and the year has been moving so quickly, I've had a hard time keeping up with my blogging. But no worries, I've been storing up the stories to share with all of you!

We had a field trip to Oregon Dairy this month, and the students learned some very interesting things. Although the students may have gotten a little mixed up with some of their facts:

The mother cows have 1 calf a month.
A cow gives 90 gallons of milk every day.
Miss Weaver works at the delly at Oregon Dairy. 

And perhaps the most interesting "fact" learned on a field trip:

The students also wrote "How-to" paragraphs this month. They each chose something they enjoy doing and explained how to do it in a paragraph. Well, in most cases... One boy couldn't think of anything he likes to do to write about. So I told him he could write about a chore he does. He wrote about washing the car and ended by saying, "Finally, you're done, and now you can go relax and maybe you'll get paid."

One of the categories on the rubric I use to grade these paragraphs says, "Steps could easily be followed." I'm thinking I may have to change that when I read sentences like these from How to Make an Elevator: "First, screw the piece of 8 feet of wood to a high tree. Screw is strong."

You also may enjoy their pictures they created to go along with the paragraphs. (Art class this was not, and I believe some students interpreted, "Your picture should be colorful" as "I need a rainbow.")

Doesn't this make you want to play the game? 

How to Build a Tree House

How to Make a Volcano

How to Wake-board

How to Wash a Horse

How to Make Scrambled Eggs

How to Drive a Four-Wheeler

How to Take Care of a Pet
("Last, if you want to, you can have lots of fun with it.")

We like to take brain breaks in third grade, especially in the afternoons between Reading and Math. (They're sure to let me know when we've gone days without a brain break.) Many of them have a favorite brain break - going to the beach.  I stole this one from one of my high school gym teachers. The students lie on the floor and imagine they are at the beach. I've even started putting up a video of a beach with waves and other beach sounds. One day they asked me, "Why didn't you go to the beach?" I wish I could.

In Science, we've been learning about warm-blooded animals, and how although humans have some of the same characteristics, we are not animals because we are created in God's image. One question on their worksheet asked "Are humans animals? Why?" One student answered, "No. Because God made us in the U.S.A."

Lastly, it's very evident that we are in election season. (If you don't think kids are listening to the adults around them, think again!) One day I overheard this conversation between two girls:
"The United States is not the world."
"I know, but if she wins, she'll rule the world!"

This week I asked students to write a spelling word that rhymes with "sense." One student wrote, "Trump/Pence." (Rhyming word, yes. Spelling word, no.)

Today we learned about Rome and how one of the founders of Rome built a wall around it. I heard some students discussing how he was like Donald Trump, building a wall.

Horse funerals and instincts

I was feeling a little stressed out today, and it's like God knows when I need to relax and smile. I was reading to the students about Alexander the Great, and I got to the part where his horse died and they had a funeral for it. As I was showing the picture of the dead horse being paraded through the streets, one of the boys started humming the tune to "Here comes the bride..." Wrong ceremony, buddy.

I also found an informative note on my desk today saying, "Annie got a crush on Bobby." (Don't worry; the names have been changed to protect little Annie's identity!)

Last week I was in the bathroom, unbeknownst to two of my girls who were also using the bathroom. The rest of the class was in art class, and I overheard one of them say, "I don't want to miss art, so I'm not going to wash my hands!" But I feel very strongly about hand-washing, so I piped up, "Oh, no, you need to wash your hands!" (Surprise! The teacher's in the bathroom!)

Another day I was having a conversation with one of the boys about how he shouldn't be talking during class. He said, "I hate to bring him into this sentence, but..." and went on to explain that he was talking because another boy had asked him a question. I told him it's still his responsibility to not talk, and he doesn't have to answer a question. "But I have an instinct to answer when someone asks me a question."

Some days it's just impossible to stay too serious.

Mennonite Lions

We are an eighth of the way through the school year!  It feels like I'm really getting to know my students and that (maybe) we're starting to settle into some routines. As busy as they keep me, I enjoy many little moments throughout our days together.

I rearranged the students' desks into groups and let them choose group names. One group chose Mountain Lions, but another student thought they were the Mennonite Lions.

Many of these little boats have been popping up all over the place. I'm trying not to let my control-freak tendencies make them disappear.

One day I waited outside the bathroom for some boys who were taking incredibly long. When they finally emerged and I asked what was going on, they excitedly described the new lights and the way they looked in the mirror.

One girl had to stay in from recess to finish some work, and eventually the other students in the room went out to recess and she was the only one left. She told me, "I feel like I'm stuck in here, like a prisoner."

On a reading worksheet, the students were supposed to explain whistling and how to whistle. This always gets interesting responses.
     "It's fun, is it not?"
     "First make your mouth look like a fish blowing bubbles."
     "Humans have been trying to do it for years. The first person to discover this was Albert Einstein." (When he read that aloud to the class, I couldn't stop from laughing and asked him how he knew that.
"Maybe it was the caveman or George Washington.")

Another student's sentence answering a question about pets: "I have 2 cats, guppies, and dog nabers [neighbors]. I mean my nabers have dogs."

These days there are so many reasons why I find myself pausing in the middle of a lesson to redirect a student. Today was the first time I had to give a kid "the look" because he had a pencil taped to his chin.

And to sum it all up, the weather we've been having lately is perfect. One of my students agrees. As we walked outside this morning, he exclaimed, "It's so nice out here! It's cold and it's warm."

Entertainment & encouragement

I believe this year is going to be entertaining, at the very least.  There are a few snapshots from the past week that I managed to remember:

• One girl gave me a bookmark that came with her book cover. She spent some time explaining why she was giving it to me and ended by saying, "I didn't think it looked very nice, so I decided to give it to you." 
• I overheard one student coming into the classroom muttering, "I'm a thirsty centipede robot." 
• At the end of the day on Tuesday (after coming back from Labor Day weekend), I was having the students write their homework assignment on their calendars, and one boy asked, "Is it Friday?" 
• During a Language lesson, a few students kept giggling, but I couldn't figure out why. Turns out they find the word "caret" amusing. 
• And this: 

I spent a lot of the week trying to make my expectations clear and enforce them, and it felt like I wasn't being a very nice teacher. So these little notes I found along the way were so special and encouraging. 

To top off a long week, I was so happy to find these two sweet notes in my mailbox on Friday afternoon. 

Miss Weaver, I like having you for a teacher. But I do not like math. Can you make math funner. and I do not like science. Can you make science more interesting.

Dear Miss Weaver, Thanks for being a kind and loving teacher to me. I like spelling it is fun we should do it more often. I'm glad your birthday is soon coming up. You are a very funny teacher that's what I like about you. 

A few favorite things

Last week I had my students fill out a sheet of their favorite things. These are a few that made me smile.

book:  Anne from Green Gables

       dictionary

holiday: Christmas Eve

         Black Friday

sports team: USA  

(Obviously this is a summer Olympics year.)

season: Math 

(Rejoice, math teachers! Math is apparently a season. And a favorite one at that.)

food: clams

      shrimp 

(When I was in third grade, I don't think I even knew you could eat clams or shrimp. Which is probably why I don't like them now.)

hobby: the beach 

(I never thought of counting the beach as my hobby, but I think I will!)

set the table, clean the dish washer, feed the cats 

(Her mom must love this!)

sitting around 

(I never thought I'd see a third grade boy whose favorite hobby is sitting around.)

And now for two of my favorite things from the week so far: 

Folded up and handed to me this morning 

Piles

If my word for the beginning of the week was checklists (Checklists and Pinterest projects), my word for the end of the week is piles. After school yesterday I stared at my piles for awhile, not knowing where to start.

So I took a big pile home with me.

Despite the piles and exhaustion, it's been a good first week with the kids! They have so much energy and so many words to say (well, at least some of them). As I was thinking about my seating chart, this image came to mind:

I'm pretty sure that's what some of my kids are thinking.

I'm so blessed to work with such supportive families and parents. I already received a couple of gift cards for food, many encouraging notes, and a few handmade treasures. :)

Yesterday at lunch time, one boy said to me, "You're supposed to say, 'Who needs milk?' and then they raise their hands." It's good to know someone is here to help me if I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Checklists and Pinterest projects

There's no denying it; school begins tomorrow! I've told people that since this is my seventh year teaching, I'm pretty much good to go with my checklist of to-do items for the beginning of the year. Essentially, I'm a pro at this by now. Or so I thought. I forgot just how long that checklist is, and then on top of that, I always find new Pinterest projects that I decide my classroom has to have in order for it to function properly. (Case in point:)

Today I couldn't stand the messiness of my haggard-looking list any longer, so I made a new one. When I looked at my clean, neat, newly-typed, but, once again, long list, I remembered what my summer self forgets - a teacher's work is never done, and there's always a to-do list somewhere.

But even though all my items are not checked off, my classroom is beautiful, and I am excited to meet my 26 new third graders tomorrow morning!