Painting Fools

The kids and I have just been painting fools lately. Last week we painted watercolor designs for this bulletin board. Then, we cut out flower and raindrop shapes. That was fun.

This week we're working on Mother's Day gifts.

Each year, a local home improvement store donates enough pots, dirt, and flowers for each kid in my class. I was telling a fourth grade teacher about our annual project, and they ended up getting their supplies donated too. How awesome is that! All you gotta do is ask, right?

I let the kids paint their pots. Then, the next day, we add the dirt and plants and make a shape or pop up card for that special lady in our lives.

This is one of my favorite projects in fifth grade that I'll be taking with me when I move down next year. The kids enjoy it too. I'm so thankful that this local business is so willing to help. We definitely wouldn't be doing this project without their charitable donation.

Monday Ramblings: A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

I wonder if there's a limit on number of words in a blog title...

Anyway...

Today was different.

First, the kids spent half the day at the middle school. The fifth graders get to visit every year in May. This is one of the many signals that the school year is coming to an end.

So, it was a good day for getting things done... except that I really didn't have time to do anything productive like clean my desk, filing papers, accomplish general cleaning tasks. Instead, the other fifth grade teacher and I took $300, high-tailed it to the local Wally World, and spent like crazy on a little of this and a lot of that for the SOAR store this week. Our cart was heaping full when we were done. How amazing it is to spend a ton of money that isn't yours on a whole bunch of junk that you won't be keeping.

My other time-filling task was cutting out bulletin board letters for a bulletin board far, far away from my classroom. Who knows how my name was chosen for that bulletin board, but I'll be putting it up tomorrow after school. [I'll be sure to post a picture of our lovely watercolor art.] Fortunately, I got to use this nifty little device.

It's a Cricut. How cool it is!

Then, the kids came back. Oh, here we go. There's a couple of kids that I feel I am already done with their behavior and/or attitude. I am ready to say, "See ya!"
The part I don't like about the end of the fifth grade year is that, somehow, something clicks inside of them. All of a sudden, they start acting as though they are no longer in elementary school, no longer fifth graders.

Line? What's that?

Be quiet in the hallway? What?

Do work? What? It's not summer yet?

Ai-yi-yi. Preteens.

After school, I had a dentist appointment. Am I the only one who finds watching, in the somewhat-mirror, in the center of the light, fascinating? Because I do. In fact, I'm disappointed when I have to turn my head just so or when the dentist's hand is in the way and I can't see what's going on anymore. Is that strange? I also like looking at the pictures they take inside your mouth. Very fascinating.

I was very serious when I told my mom a year or so ago that I think it would be very interesting to have x-rays taken of my whole body and to create a life-size skeleton of me. Now that would be cool! You have to admit it.

This random Monday is ending on a high note... lasagna... blog-reading... relaxing. I like it!