The End of An Era

Today was the last day of the school year for DD & DS. It was an exciting day, yet a touch sad as well. Today was the last day of 5th grade, and thus the last day of elementary school, for DS. He has been at this school for 6 years.....Kindergarten all the way through 5th Grade. It's hard to believe I have a middle-schooler for a child! Surely it was just yesterday that DS was toddling off with his toy tools, mimicing DH as they worked around the house. Now he's old enough to use real tools all on his own to build/fix things. While I am excited for this new phase of his childhood (what little of it is left!), I am also sad to be finished with this phase of it with him. It also marks the last time DS & DD will be in the same school building, ever. By the time she reaches this point in her school career, DS will be a Freshman in high school!! To think of it that way really makes this all sink in even more.

At school, to celebrate the 5th-graders' achievements, they had them all stand up on stage in front of everyone at school (during the awards ceremony) to be applauded. Then at the end of the school day they had all the other students line the main hallway to applaud the 5th-graders as they left the building for the final time as students of this school. So DS has "left the building," moving from elementary into a new stage, middle school.

Watch It Wiggle....

I had an interesting "job" to do this week. On Sunday (Mother's Day no less!) I spent the afternoon making Jell-O brains. Yes, you read that correctly....brains made from Jell-O. Oh, the things we will do for our children! The brains were for DS' class at school. They are studying brains this week. Since today was the day I needed to bring them in to school, I made them on Sunday so I would have time to re-do them in case something went wrong with them. Luckily they turned out correctly on the first try. So for the past two days my fridge has been filled with "brains!"When I took them in to school today, the kids were highly amused. They used the Jell-O brains to be able to see in 3-D what the brain looks like (without having to have a "real" brain to look at.....a few of the kids were having enough problems with the Jell-O ones!).After studying the model brains, they were given the chance to then eat the brains as a snack. Nothing like watermelon-flavored brains to start the day out right!

Musical Performances & Flying Objects

Last night was DS' last musical performance of his elementary school career. The fifth-graders did a lot of musical numbers from the '20s all the way through Elvis. They played selections on the recorders they have been learning to play all year. I was highly impressed with how well they did! Of course, it seems that something unexpected has to happen during these performances. No, it wasn't when the gymnasts were doing their tumbling act.....they all survived without incident. No, no one choked on the strings holding the recorders around their necks. Instead, it was taken from the stage out into the audience (and no, the audience didn't cause the incident, they received it!).

During one of the numbers, a few kids came up to the front of the stage to mention times when they listened to music (while exercising, while at the beach, while doing homework, etc.). Well, one girl came up and said, "While bowling." And these children had props in their hands. So, yes, she had a bowling ball in her hand....which she swung like she was actually bowling. Only she wasn't supposed to let go.....but she did!! Yes, that bowling ball went flying out into the front row of the audience! Stunned looks from the kids on stage, gasps and squeals from the audience (especially the front row!)! Followed by relieved laughter as the bowling ball bounces as it was made of hard rubber & was hollow (it was one they used during gym class, so it was made to be light and rather harmless). The girl leaped off of the stage, chased the bowling ball until she caught up with it, ran back, and climbed back up on the stage. All of this happened very quickly. There was a short pause in the music, and then it started up again.....once all of the kids on stage had stopped laughing.

So, once again an excursion to my children's school has provided us with unexpected amusement. You just never know what's going to happen next over there!

Crisis Averted: Priceless!

I have decided that one just never knows what will happen when spending time at my children's school. I went in today to take some pictures and help out in DS' class. His teacher had divided the class into groups of 4-5 students and each group formed a business. Each business decided on a product to make to sell. On Sunday several kids met at the store with Mrs. B. to purchase the raw materials needed, and today was the beginning of product production. One group is making notepads. Another is making slime. DS' group is making play dough. A fourth group is providing a service instead of a product----they are offering tutoring. The last group is the one that tried to create a school-wide crisis this afternoon.

The last group is making plastic spoons dipped in chocolate. To do this they needed to melt the chocolate for dipping the spoons into. They first dumped an entire bag of chocolate chips into a plastic bowl, then they placed the bowl in the microwave, and lastly they turned on the microwave. Here is where they made their mistake! I am not sure how long they put the chocolate in the microwave for, but it was definitely too long! I was walking around taking some pictures of the kids working diligently on their projects when I hear DS' voice call out, "Mom! The microwave is smoking!" Sure enough, when I look over at the microwave in the corner of the room, there was a ton of smoke pouring out of it. I called out to Mrs. B. She ran to the microwave and pulled out the bowl of chocolate, opened the nearby window, and held the smoking bowl out the window. DS ran to the other window and threw it open. I grabbed the nearest stack of papers and started waving the smoke away from the smoke detector (oh-so-conveniently located close to the microwave of course!) hoping to keep it from setting off the fire alarm. (Most of the kids meanwhile had the looks on their faces reminiscent of deer in the headlights.)

Luckily we were able to keep the fire alarm from going off, so the entire school did not have to empty out (which would have sent over 700 students out into 12 degree weather!) and the fire department did not have to come to the elementary today. So while it was intended for the kids to learn about supply & demand as well as things like profit margins, they also had another lesson today. When melting chocolate in the microwave, only heat it for short (we're talking like 30-second intervals here!) amounts of time and stir it before putting it back in the microwave for longer. Whatever you do, do not try to do all of the melting in one long segment of time. Instead of melted chocolate you will end up with burnt chocolate and melted plastic.

Cost of worksheets for classroom learning: $0.05 each
Cost of pencils for doing worksheets: $0.10 each
Cost of hands-on learning instead of worksheets: Priceless!