The week of contagious children

This week we had adorable fourth and fifth graders with us. However, they also brought with them a cold and flu virus. Within my field group of 12 students, 5 of them were sick, and 2 of those children had fevers. We sent 4 children home over the week that had fevers of 103.2, all of whom had one point taken my afternoon class! So needless to say I ended up with a cold by the end of the week. Other than thier germs, the children were very cute and well behaved. On the first day the teachers were worried about one of my children, Andrew. He is unmedicated for his ADHD and makes weird noises. He ended up ring totally awesome! He was super smart and remembered everything he learned in classes. He really liked learning about shelter building, so I had him teach field group one day. He taught us about BLISS, which is an acronym used to teach kids about what a good shelter needs. It stands for blend in with surroundings, low silhouette, insulation, small and secluded. The kids really enjoyed him sharing that with us.

This come week we have 35 5th graders coming. I, thankfully, will be teaching. It's our first 5 day too! I am going to be teaching camoflauge, which is about how animals disguise themselves in the wild, inside out kid, jelly belly ology, shark dissection, and soccer ball digestion. There are only four of the staff tht will be teaching too, so I might play ukulele for the kids each night for quiet sing :)

I hope everyone had a great Easter. I had the joint all to myself this weekend. This morning I even made some pannukakku!

Here are some pics from the week:

To the capital

What a week! It's been both crazy and exciting. Also, very busy, hence the late post. Last week we were supposed to have kids Tuesday through Friday. However, a large snow storm was predicted to hit on Monday night so the school cancelled and decided to come on Wednesday instead. It turned out the weather prediction was wrong and, we only ended up with 4 inches of snow. The kids finally arrived on Wednesday morning and they were all excited to be here. My fellow teachers and I realized quickly the group was going to be a handful! Half of them were loud and crazy, and the other quiet and barley spoke. All of us struggled with our kids and weren't really sure if they were even having a good time. When Friday arrived we were all emotionally drained from the kids. There evaluations were okay, nothing very funny or cute on them.

This week we have 130 adorable 4th and 5th graders! I'm teaching jelly belly ology, shark dissection, soccer ball digestion, and cultural fair. Cultural Fair is a class where you talk about what is culture and teach the kids games from around the world.

As most of you know I had an amazing trip this weekend in Washington DC. We went to the Smithsonian museum of air and space, natural history, and American history. We went to the White House, Washington monument, Vietnam memorial, WW2 memorial, and the Lincoln memorial. We also went to the Holocaust museum and explored the city art sculptures as well. I'm going to be posting pictures throughout the week on Facebook. Finally, as most of you also know, I saw President Barrack Obama fly over my head and land in the backyard of the White House. It was an awesome thing to see. I'm already planning my next trip back!

I hope everyone is doing well! Happy early Easter!

Back in the Habit

It feels good to back in the swing of teaching again. Overall I had a good week! My field group was a little chatty but, mostly awesome. They loved building fires and playing silly little games. ( I was glad that we had so much fun together, the group as a whole were very needy. We had to send a few kids home for fighting. We also had some very clicky girls.) My field group loved building fires so much we did it twice on field group. The second time I had the tell me how to do it and then they got to roast marshmellows and put it between two Oreos. I like to call them smoreos. My group also discovered some large fisher cat prints one day. Hopefully I never run into the animal. They are apparently very vicious if they feel threatened. Thankfully they are independent and don't like humans so they stay away.

This weekend I had a great time celebrating St. Patrick's Day with the staff. We all got together for a  corned beef and cabbage dinner. We spent the evening listening to Irish music and hanging out around the fire. 

This coming week we are being joined by 165 6th graders. I'm going to be teaching jelly-belly-ology, inside out kid, soccer ball digestion, and just plane fun. Soccer ball digestion is a class about the digestive system. I'll simulate digestion by putting a veggie burger and cola inside a zip lock bag, and then kicking that around in a soccer ball. I think it'll be a good week! 

Here are some pictures from this week: 

First Week!

The first week with kid here went great! The kids were a good group to start our season with, they were smart, kind, and funny. This week I was a sleep in, along with Retha. Our job was to be there at night in case the girls needed anything and to plan evening activities. We planned a pj fashion show, natures classroom trivia night, and a crazy hair contest. The girls and teachers loved it. On the last night the girls were very sad they were leaving. We had to spend 45 minutes trying to get more then half of them to stop crying. We ended up just having to let a few of them cry themselves to sleep. That final morning we woke up to a foot of snow! The kids were delayed from leaving. The superintendent of thier district wouldn't let them leave because of the liability of driving in bad weather. We entertained them for an extra two hours with random skits and stories.

This weekend I have spent recuperating. I caught someone's cold last weekend at the Girl Scouts lock in. I've also been preparing for the week to come. I'll be teaching! We have 80 5th graders coming. I'm going to teach grossology, megastructures, shark dissection, and new class. My new class is called just plane fun, it's about the physics of airplanes. In the end the students get to make paper airplanes!

Here are some pictures from the week:

The Adventure Continues...

The adventure begin again on Saturday February 23, at 8 am. I had my friend Liz joining me for the ride to Massachusetts. The first day of driving went very smooth. We went to a great resturaunt in Clevend, Ohio. It was called Melts Bar and Grill. It was a resturaunt that made various grilled cheese sandwiches. I got a grilled chicken and sharp cheddar sandwich. Liz got a perogie grilled cheese sandwich. The food was delicious and the homemade fries were amazing. We stopped for the night in Williamsport, PA. We stayed with friends and Liz, and they were lovely people. We spent the evening just hanging out and checking out the local hot spots. We were back on the road the next morning. The drive was surprisingly smooth. We hit some winter weather in Hartford, CT, but nothing to terrible. We made it to Charlton and parted ways.

It was a good feeling to be back at Natures Classroom, as well as being at an awesome new site. I'm living in a small house with Retha and our roommate Paul. Once we were all moved in we spent the evening hanging out as a new staff. Everyone is pretty cool and have a lot of experience working here at natures classroom.

Our first week here we had staff training. We learned some new classes and brainstormed on how to improve programming for our season. The site is looking beautiful all covered in snow and we all excited for the children to arrive. Our first group comes on Tuesday of this week. I will be sleeping in for the week. ( I will live with the kids and be a chaperone to them.)

This past weekend I started my part time job for the Girl Scouts. I worked a glow in the dark lock in. We started the evening at 6pm Saturday and worked until 6 am on Sunday. I did team building workshops for the evening. It was a lot of fun, despite the lack of sleep I revived. I'm looking forward to the coming week and am ready to get back in the swing of things.