My observation was canceled :(

Actually, I can't decide whether to use a frowny or smiley face for that one. Today we were supposed to have a big walking day - the Commanding General of Fort Sill does this big Walk every Quarter or so and all the schools get involved too. While the soldiers on post are walking all the school students are walking too. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and it was too cold to go out. Thus I did not get my planning time AT ALL today. Well, wait, I did get a 10 minute break to run to the bathroom. Yep, a 10 minute break at 10am and that was it for the day! Of course, I had to use that 10 minutes running copies trying to fill the extra 30 minutes I suddenly had since we didn't have PE and Music.

The good thing is that we had lots of extra practice on our doubles addition, the bad news is that we also didn't get recess! The jury is out on whether it really was too cold at that point - it all depends on which channel you were watching the weather on and whether you stick to the district guidelines or not. I am praying that we do start sticking to the guidelines though, otherwise there will be no recess until Spring because we finally got our cold snap! Of course, that didn't stop several students from showing up in shorts and flip flops!

One of my young men also peeled off his coat today and found it was sticking to his shirt - literally. Like a wad of nougat or pudding or something had dried between the back of his shirt and the fuzzy lining of his coat. Luckily we have a washer/dryer for just this type of situation, plus a closet full of clothes, so I was able to launder both items and give him a hoodie to wear in the meantime.

Another darling has a beautiful brand new coat and fancy winter boots - awesome! Except, she refused to take off those pretty boots to put on her sneakers for PE - because it was "too hard" to take them on and off. Of course she didn't bother to ask for help with those snazzy boots and I knew exactly why she  was refusing - she was just too darned proud of those boots! So I told her those boots must be a weekend only choice and that for school she needs to continue wearing sneakers. (Since we won't get snow for at least a month or two yet!) She's not too happy with me at the moment, but I'd rather she get her PE time in than be fashionable!

We are finishing up out bat unit (it was supposed to include monsters and spiders as well, but my goodness these firsties love bats so much I just had to run with it!) and we are adopting a bat tomorrow! For $25 you get to help conserve bats, plus get an official adoption certificate, a stuffed animal and a species profile of the breed you choose to adopt. Today we made bat headbands that represented the breed of bat we want to adopt. I was really hoping that the Honduran White Bat was going to win - they make tents out of leaves! I mean, how can you beat that?! A tent making bat!

Look at that cute little face! 

But, unfortunately, vampire bats won out because, as one of my boys put it "They suck your blood and then pee on you!" I have tried to dissuade him of this idea, but he insists his father read it to him at a museum and he is convinced that legions of vampire bats roam the night, sucking blood and peeing on people.

He was also the little darling that wanted to know, during my Practicum student's presentation on the layers of the earth, whether the devil lives in the core of the earth or the mantle. She's a darling and tried to gloss over it, but he can be quite vocal when he gets an idea in his head, so whenever she said the word "core" he'd pipe up with "the part where the devil is!" She used an apple to illustrate the crust, mantle and core (corresponding to the peel, flesh and core of the apple). Coincidentally our snack today was apples and soon they were all crowing about how they were eating "molten lava" and "Look, I'm eating the crust!" or "I made it all through the mantle!" Tomorrow she's having them make models of the earth with Styrofoam balls - I will be sure to take pictures!

Tomorrow we are also wearing our bat headbands and singing the "Bat Hymm"  from "Bats at The Beach" which was a totally cute book! So far we're doing really great on the chorus, but still a bit shaky on the 3rd verse but luckily our assembly isn't until the afternoon so we have a bit more time to practice. Here are some of the other books we enjoyed during our bat unit:


Well, I am off to try to catch up on some paperwork/grading. Ugh, I really, really wish I could just give anecdotal grades lol! Anyone have any ideas for keeping up with grading? I find I am always swimming in papers - most of which I don't even give an "official" gradebook grade! I've tried grading right after school each day but I lack discipline plus I have 4 children clamoring to go home, so that doesn't always work out so well! I'm open to suggestions!