Fridays.....

Wow, so yesterday was DEFINITELY a Friday. The kids were.......energetic yesterday. I suppose that's a good way to put it. The afternoon was definitely worse than the morning.

We had flag football intramurals over lunch, so I don't know if that got them all crazy or what it was. Perhaps it was the mushy chicken alfredo at lunch?

Anyways, so our afternoon always starts with DOL (Daily Oral Language), which the kids ALWAYS complain about and ALWAYS ask if they actually have to do it. I tell them that it's called Daily Oral Language for a reason - we do it DAILY. So they had four sentences to copy down and correct. Four. Then they went up to the Smart Board to make the corrections. This usually takes about ten minutes. Well, yesterday it ended up taking about 25 minutes. I think they now view DOL time as "Ask Miss Van Egdom questions" time. I'm starting to wonder if they are trying to make it last as long as possible.....hmmmm....

So after DOL we started science. I had a few demonstrations focusing on states of matter and phase changes. I was going to take two beakers of water - one hot, one cold - and put food coloring in them to see how quickly or slowly they diffuse. Well, I took one of the beakers and put it in the fridge in the morning so it would be cold enough for our experiment. Well, I go to get the beaker, and I realize that I accidentally put it in the freezer. So I have a beaker full of ice which is now cracked. Perfect. I then grabbed another beaker and got cold water from the sink. I am such a fast thinker.

Then we had a little fun with balloons. Our science book says if you take a balloon outside on a cold day, it will shrink. So I gave every 7th and 8th grader their own balloon (bad idea #2). We headed outside and pretty much nothing happened. The balloons were maybe a little more squishy than they were before. I let the kids play with the balloons for about 5 minutes, which they were pretty excited about. But it didn't help that they started playing with their balloons in front of the 1st/2nd grade room window. Oh, their poor teacher.

We headed back to the room and I made all the students put their balloons in their lockers. I threw my balloon behind my desk and ran to the teachers' lounge to make copies while the kids were working on their art project. I come back to a noisy room and everyone looks at me when I enter.

"What happened?"

"Well, we popped your balloon."

"And how exactly did that happen?"

"Well, it was like going through the air and Devin's pencil hit it."

"Hmmm, but as I recall, I put the balloon behind my desk before I left the room. How did it get all the way over here?"

"Ummm......well, my eraser flew across the room, so I had to go get it."

"That is the lamest excuse I have ever heard!"

Laughter ensues.

So yeah, that's my class on Friday afternoons. Needless to say, I'm glad it's the weekend.