Merry Christmas!

Today was the last school day before Christmas break, and I like to show my love and appreciation for my students by giving each of them a small gift. Usually I secretly keep the gifts hidden away until I’m ready to surprise the students in the last few minutes of school. But I got to thinking that the anticipation of opening a gift is almost as good as the gift itself, so I tried something new this year. I set all 28 presents on a pile in the front of the classroom. I was not disappointed by the anticipatory looks and comments from kids who were pretty sure the presents were for them, but not 100% sure. With wide eyes full of glee, they exclaimed and inquired:
“Presents!”
“What are those?” (while pointing at the pile).
“Why are there so many presents?”
“When are we opening presents? First thing, or in the middle, or at the end?”

Earlier this week I asked students to write about Christmas. These were some of their responses: 

“One of my grandma’s rooms is fool fool of presents.” 

“I know some people who have fake Christmas trees. What’s the point?”

“My favorite part of Christmas is opening gifts and eating candy and sledding.”

“The best gift to my mom was a loving hug.”

“My favorite thing about Christmas is opening gifts. I will relax and wake up late and open gifts.”

“The best thing I ever got was a Leapfrog it’s like a tablet but teaches you stuff (almost).”

“My favorite part of the Christmas season is that it snows.”

“The best gift I ever got was Jesus Christ the Lord.” 

“The best gift I ever gave to someone is my love.”

“The best gift I ever gave was a book I gave to my sister that I wanted to keep for myself.”

Well I don't know about you, but I also will be relaxing, waking up late, opening gifts, giving loving hugs, and eating candy. (No sledding, though.) Merry Christmas! 

Honorable service

The year is flying by, and the students are learning and growing so much! 

In science, they learned the difference between "instinct" and "learned behavior." Examples of learned behavior:

“A dog doing a handstand”
“A frog doing tricks”

Two weeks after our Oregon Dairy field trip we took a service trip to the Global Aid Network warehouse. (One student asked me, "Are we going to have a field trip every two weeks?") The students did a nice job writing about the experience in their journals:

What we did today was we packed boxes of notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, crayons, sharpeners, and toothbrushes. And we prayed over the boxes so that the people who would get them it would be a blessing to them. And the gifts we gave were for school. I liked doing it because I felt like I was doing something that God wanted me to do. And I thought I would bless the kids who got them.  

Gain was not heated but since everyone helped it got a little hot. It felt very good helping people in different countries though I got pretty tired! 

We worked hard all day serving God. We prayed over the boxes so the people would get to know about God. I felt so happy and helpful because we were helping people all over the world! 

It felt awesome to help others! It’s a wonder why I wasn’t tired afterward? 

It felt honorable to help kids my age. When I got upset and tired I thought about what their faces would look like when they got to hold their packages. 

Lots of activity

There was lots of activity this week with the third grade pack of 28.

1. Students used vocabulary words in sentences.

Example: "A carpenter is a person who carps wood."

2. We had picture day.

One girl's flip-flop broke. (I'm ready to buy extra pairs of flip-flops for the whole school!) When it happened in class, I told her it wasn't a good time to deal with it, and then I promptly forgot about it. After I led the class outside, through the parking lot and nature center and grass to get our class picture taken, I saw her standing on the riser with one flip-flop. Oops.

About 10 minutes after we were back inside, one sweet boy raised his hand, and when I went to him, he calmly told me he got stung by a bee on the back while we were out there. Sure enough, there was a big, red bump!

3. One morning a centipede ran over my hand, which, in my opinion, is one of the worst things ever. But thankfully a few students had just arrived, and one brave girl cheerfully volunteered to kill it and remove it from my vicinity.

4. They took a Social Studies test on Ancient Greece. The most interesting answer for "Tell how Ancient Greece and modern life are different:"

“Greeks used horses for war and we use jeeps for war.” 

5. Lastly, and most importantly, we took a field trip to Oregon Dairy yesterday.

In previous years we’ve left behind sweatshirts and jackets on field trips, but yesterday was a first for almost leaving behind socks.

Students wrote what they learned in their journals after we returned to school:
“They put a diaper on the bottom of the meat.” 
“That they make the best chocolate milk.”
“Cows have tots.” 
“I learned what the otter is. I learned that the teess are the things that hang from the otter.” 

Lots of students learned that they use the cow's manure to make electricity. But "electricity" has not been a spelling word in their three years and two months of school so far, so they used some creative spelling: (And in all fairness, I did tell them to just spell words the best they could.)
Elextrisity 
Elekvik 
Elextrisode 
Eletrisudy 
Elkticeity
Lectricity 

We also had the opportunity to complete the corn maze in small groups; I asked them to share with me if it was easy or hard, if they would like to do it again, and how they worked together as a team to figure out where to go.

“We went on a trail and saw where it took us.” (I’m pretty sure her mom would disagree, because I'm pretty sure her mom was actually reading the map.)
“I am never doing that again!” 
“I would not like to do it again because it was hard and muddy.”
“The corn maze was hard because none of us knowed how to read maps.”
“We worked together by working together.”
“The corn maze was hard because we could not find our way out.” 
“We worked together to figure out the maps but well, we took the wrong paths sometimes.” (I find it interesting that this was a member from my group, and he's the one who didn't want to bother with the map. "Let's just walk and see where it takes us.")
“I wanted to do it again and get more ice cream.” 

All in all, a good week, I'd say. :)

Happy birthday messages

This year my students and their families blessed me with a card shower for my birthday. I love my kids and I love cards, so it was the perfect birthday surprise!

"Mrs. Burkholder" is hard to spell.

But they got their messages across, and it makes my heart smile!

Pack of 28

We've been in school for almost a month now, and there are a few highlights from my new pack of 28 bright and bold, pre-sharpened students.

Recent third grade problems:

"My ear is dirty." (Because he hadn't cleaned it since he showered a week earlier.)
"Yogurt splashed into my eye."

From their "Favorite Things" worksheets:

     My favorite food: restaurant food
     My favorite holiday: my birthday

From their "Me in Numbers" worksheets:

     I have 24 pets at home.
     I have 26 pets at home.
     I wake up at 6:04.
     I wake up at 6:54.

From their Bible journals: 

I think having faith means…
     To be confident in everything. 
     The heroes fighted for God.
     Knowing that God is on your side. 

You know it's May when...

During the past 24 days, I have found myself frequently remarking, "It must be May." If you have kids or know kids or are in any way connected to the education field, you know that May is a crazy month. And the sheer volume of activities/field trips/games/parties/programs/recitals/graduations/[insert other activities I am forgetting] may very well make you feel like you are going to lose your mind. Thank you to my friends who added to my list of reasons for how we know it's May... even if we are generally uncertain about what day of the week it is.

You know it must be May when...

• Armloads of paper are being thrown away.
• Your to-do list is longer than your daily lesson plans.
• Students say things like, "You're not going to grade this anyway," and "We don't have any more recesses or lunches this year," implying "Why should I bother trying?" and "I can act however I want." 
• You suddenly become like an absent-minded professor, calling kids the wrong names, regularly losing your train of thought and forgetting what you were going to say, and repeatedly getting confused about what day it is. 
• You have random strips and patches of red skin, thanks to wearing a t-shirt and sneakers on field day (which finally took place the last week of school, despite being rescheduled twice due to rain). 
• You find yourself saying things like, "A screwdriver is not a good toy for the bus," and, "You know you do not climb on top of each other!"
• You allow yourself to have pointless arguments with students about whether you should try to sell items new at a yard sale to get more money or make new items look used because people are looking for cheap deals. 
• You stop making the healthy breakfast smoothies you made for 170 days of the school year because, among other things, you're tired of washing the blender. So instead you grab an over-ripe banana or a stick of cheese on your way out the door. (Not to mention the sparse lunch you packed, because who has motivation for packing decent lunches in May?)
• You contemplate going to bed at 6:30, but you have way too many things to do. And when you do finally fall into bed exhausted, you can’t fall asleep, because there are too many tabs open in the browser that is your brain, and like Windows, your mind refuses to shut down until all programs are properly closed. So you lie awake past midnight thinking about all there is to do in the last few days of school.
• You feel an odd combination of angst and sappiness. While you are ready for summer vacation, you aren't quite ready to say good-bye to the precious ones with whom you've spent 180 days. 

Somehow the last day of school always sneaks up on me. All of a sudden, here we are, and tomorrow will be the last day my third graders enter my room as third graders. June is coming - a mere week away! But in the meantime, let's do our best to be present in each and every moment that is a gift from God.

Louder and faster

On Thursday one student asked me, "Is it me or is everyone faster and louder today?"
My response was not a star teacher moment. I said, "YOU are faster and louder."
However, he was on to something... it is evident that it is the end of May and all of us are beyond ready for summer and sunshine (especially after the past week of rain).

Another conversation this week:
Me, to multiple students: "Please don't slam your math books closed. Close them nicely."
Student: "But that's my favorite part of math class. Closing my math book."

A comment I overheard from one boy to another boy who was crumpling up his crossword puzzle: "That's right, Billy! When it gets too hard, just quit."

And on Friday I almost had a heart attack when I glanced down the hallway and saw my student hanging off the railing above a flight of stairs on his way to art class. After I immediately demanded he get down and come to me, I asked him "Why wasn't that a good idea?"
"I don't know."
It still sends tingles through my fingers.

The students wrote about what makes the best pet:
"It is very e-z to potty train a cat."
"Instead of a loin, a dog or a cat is better."

We have one more week of school, and I'm sure it will be plenty fast and loud.