How Many Brain Cells Died Today?

I have a splitting headache and my stomach keeps turning. But, I guess that's to be expected since I spent the day surrounded by paint fumes. You see, we're having an addition to our school built on right down the hall from me, and today they decided to lacquer the new cabinets. Apparently the workers had the windows open and fans running, but the fumes still permeated our part of the building - stinging eyes and noses and turning stomachs. My students commented that it smelled like markers and at one point during breakfast I found several of them standing by the wall closest to the construction, just sniffing away!

You know, it's hard enough getting all of this curriculum into them without killing off all their brain cells with paint fumes! I'm pretty sure that they lost all of their brain capacity for procedures because they were nuts today! We ended up having to practice line procedure during recess today because they were so out of control (of course, it could have been me, because I know those fumes were affecting me!). By about 1:00 my butt was dragging and I had to make a new pot of coffee to stay awake, not to mention I started getting the munchies...

I also got another new student - this makes 4 new ones since we came back from break! It's a bit hard to deal with all that change all at once - we're constantly having to reteach procedures and adjust to new personalities. It's amazing how one student can change the whole dynamic of the classroom.

One of the interesting things we did today was to explore the states of matter through our snowman.Yesterday we filled 3 balloons with water and stuck them in the freezer. Today they were frozen solid and I peeled them out of the balloon (that was fascinating for the kids, they were so excited that the balloon didn't stick to the ice!) Then we stuck our little Frosty together and decorated him with felt and pompoms. About 1/2 of my class had never made a snowman before, so this was a new experience for them.

Here's what he looked like:

 Then we went to the computer lab for 1/2 hour. When we came back we could tell he had started melting. Within an hour he had fall apart and this is what he looked like at the end of the day:

So he's gone from a solid to a liquid and tomorrow we will boil the water on a hot plate to turn him into a vapor!

Alright, I'm going to go lay down and try to sleep off my paint-fume-induced high. I have almost finished putting the finishing touches on my giveaway prizes - hopefully I can finish them tonight while I watch American Idol!