5th Grade Rocks

I can't say enough about my 5th Grade helper's.

Over the past few weeks they have visited my classroom and have proved to be a great help. One especially trying day Ms. Steele sent several of her students down to work with my students. As it turned out, on that particular day the computer lab was shut down about the time that my class would have gone. I was able to take the 5th grade helpers and pair them with my students. The 5th grade helpers read to them and/or assisted them on the computers. My students have been on the computers enough to log in on their own, but they still need help when a program freezes or unexpectedly shuts down. It must be a hiccup in Java or some other wonder of the technology age. Thanks go out to Jonathan the assistant, Lorenzo, Mary Alice, Karina, Kathya, Raquel, Orabelle, and the others who came to help me out on that day.

On Monday, May4 our class went on a field trip to the zoo. Ms. Steele said if she had known that we were going on that day she could have tried to get their trip to the zoo on the same day. The kindergarten would have really enjoyed going with the 5th grade. They really like it when the bigger kids come down to work with them.

On Friday, some of the 5th graders came to my class to help out again. They assembled some more readers for the class to use. Later they helped out in math. We were doing a data collection activity where we counted the number of times a student could hop on one leg. Mary Alice was especially helpful during this activity. By the way, Mary Alice jumped 350 times on one leg. Kathya recorded Mary Alice as she "smoked" Karina who jumped 288 times.

Later, Mary Alice, Karina, and Kathya helped my students with centers and handwriting before they called it a day and headed back to their class.

On Tuesday of last week Ms. Steele invited me to watch her class as they made their baking soda and vinegar "volcanoes". I went outside with them during my lunch time and they were having a great time. Unfortunately, they were having technical difficulties and the "volcanoes" did not work. They postponed them until Wednesday or Thursday. On the day that they did the "volcanoes" again they worked great. They also inflated some balloons using the trued and true vinegar and baking soda method. Afterwards, we went to my classroom and I did the famous "Instant Snow" experiment. Instant Snow is really sodium polyacrylate, a polymer used for various purposes from diapers to magic tricks. Mary Alice and Jonathon especially like the "snow".

Next week I plan on I plan on letting 5th grade add some hooks to some molecules and see what happens. Maybe we can make some polymer of some sort.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Moths Go To School

Yesterday afternoon a few 5th graders came to my classroom to see if the could help work with a few of my kids. I said sure and passed out their assignments. I had one of them helping the little ones with the computers and the other two were helping with Sight Words and coloring. I had a small group and we were also working on Sight Words. After a while, Mr. Clayton came in with a moth. Here it is just below. he is holding it in his hand.

As you can tell, I snapped a picture and then the 5th graders suggested that he take it upstairs to Ms. Steele. Later I got to thinking and I remembered that one of my students had found a Giant Leopard Moth on the playground last week. Unfortunately for the moth,the little ones really enjoyed looking at it. I hope he survived long enough to do whatever it is that moths do.

After I came home and looked at the picture I remembered one that I found here at the house a few years ago. For some unknown reason at the time I decided to take a picture of it. Now I know why I did. I needed the picture of it to include with this post today. I think it is a Polyphemus moth but am not quite sure.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Pine Cove - Will It Never End?

Yes it will.

In fact it did.

We all had strict instructions for cleaning the cabins and packing up BEFORE breakfast. We had to have all of our earthly possessions, at least those we had at that point in time, at the camp office ready to go on the bus before breakfast. So that is what we did, down to a man....errr...camper. After completing that little requirement we waited for breakfast.

And waited.....and waited.....and waited. We all made good use of this wait time. Some of us played tether ball. Some of us kept the picnic tables from floating far off into intergalactic space. Others talked and visited with fellow campers. After all, it had been some time since we had all seen each other.

Finally, the wait was over.

Was it worth it?

I should say so. Breakfast on the last day was scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, butter, gravy, juice, and oatmeal.

After breakfast it was time for "Airborne" and the falcon and hawk. The falcon is in the picture above. And just below here is the hawk.

The camp counselors showed the kids the birds and explained many things about them. In fact they explained so much and I was so involved with the pictures that I don't remember all of the facts. I suppose that I will need to get with my 5th graders and let them explain it all to me again.

The camp counselor/bird trainer selected a couple of students to let the hawk fly to and land on their arm. You can see that this one lucky participant was a little overly excited when the hawk flew to her.

Above the kids were able to pet the falcon on the back. You can see the radio locater on the falcon's back. That is just in case the bird decides to take a leisurely trip around the countryside instead of returning back to the trainers arm.

Alas, as they say, all good things must come to an end. And so did our trip to Pine Cove. We all lined up on the bridge for a farewell snap. Then we all headed to the buses.

See!! I told you we headed to the buses. We loaded up and began our trip back to Waco. Wait just one little minute here! Now I know why breakfast was so good. The camp was getting rid of us just before lunch time and we were heading straight to Waco....No stops scheduled, no lunch. BUMMER!!! As luck...or fate...or something would have it, the return trip would take us through Corsicana; home to the Collin Street Bakery and a Russell Stover Candy Outlet. Now if only we could stop off at the candy outlet! On second thought, can you imagine what it would be like to turn loose 40+ 5th graders in a candy outlet after a 3 day camping trip "sans" candy? I guess not!

Maybe the bakery perhaps???

Close! We pulled into the HEB across the street from the bakery and bought a few snacks for the little tykes to enjoy on their way home.

After arriving at school it was time to call parents. It was soon learned that when all the students were picked up the teachers could go. So.....being the resourceful teacher that I am...."Does anyone need to use my cell phone to call their parents?"

PS,

Remember me mentioning in Pine Cove Trip: Installment #2 about the less than stellar trip for the "other" bus. Well, that was our bus on the way back; no DVD player, just the radio for the ride back.

PSS,

During this entire time I never mentioned the other 5th grade teacher, who is also a great teacher in her own right. Mrs. Mayberry, whom I understand is beloved by her students just as much as Ms. Steele, if not more, was the other able and intrepid 5th grade teacher. It was through her kind heart and limitless bank account that her bus was treated to honey buns for the trip up. And as an act of generosity she discreetly misplaced the receipt for the honey buns so as not to appear that she cared more for the large dent made in her finances than her students welfare.

Way to go Mrs. Mayberry. That was a true act of selflessness and I commend you for it.

3rd Post Script:

Also in attendance were the indispensable Mr. Clayton, Ms. Love, and Coach Renfro. Mr. Clayton is our campus PCL. Mr. Clayton can always be depended upon to help out on a field trip or whenever needed. Our Assistant Principal, Ms. Love, helped out with the girls. She also shot some mean basketball during the free time. I personally saw her sink one 3 pointer from mid-court. And finally, Coach Renfro from University High helped with the final group of boys. Without all of these people the trip would not have been possible.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Still More Pine Cove

Just about time for supper. Just one more Instructional Period, and for our group it is Forest. Sounds kinda plain, Forest. Actually it was quite interesting. We learned about the layers of the forest, how they are different, and types of animals and plants may inhabit each layer.

One of the activities had the kids using all of their senses (except sight) to learn about the forest and their surroundings. Specifically, the campers paired off in groups. One partner closed their eyes and kept them shut. The other partner spun the 'eyes closed partner' in circles and then took them to a tree. The "spinee" then hugged the tree and otherwise tried to become familiar with "their" tree. Then the "spinner" took their partner away from the tree and then spun them around again. After the spinning, they opened their eyes and tried to locate their tree.One happy camper found her tree and struggled to contain her enthusiasm.

After Forest we had supper. And this time I think they broke the bank; Chicken Parmigiana, pasta and sauce, salad, bread sticks, and cake.

It is after supper and more free time. The camp counselors had games prepared for the campers to play in the gym after supper. The first game was a variation on Rock, Paper, Scissors. This one was called "Tarzan, Jane, Gorilla" or something close to that. It took a while to get 40+ 5th graders on the same page with that game. It took considerably less time to get everyone on the same page with "War Ball".

Our strategy with "War Ball" was the same as the night before. Tire the campers out as much as possible.

It worked!

Lights out was 11:00 PM. The cabin was quiet by 11:15 PM.

Tomorrow, Airborne and the trip home.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
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The Pine Cove Saga Continues

After the Critter Habitat we headed to the camp store and then to lunch. Lunch today was hamburgers/cheeseburgers served family style. Family style means they put all the fixin's out and you have to prepare your burger the way you like it.

Works for me!

After lunch it was back on the dusty trail for us. It seems like every time we had an activity it was in the complete opposite direction from which we came. This time we had to hike from the dining hall to near the horse stables where we were earlier. We stopped briefly for the counselor to begin Instructional Period #6 for our group, which was Nature's Niche. It was about...well, certain animals niche in nature.

After the introduction we,.....yes. Hiked some more. Up the trail to a location where the counselor set up a small telescope. The kids started looking through the scope. What were they looking at? Were we going to learn about voyeurism? I guess so, sort of!

Oh!!! That's what it was all about. An eagle's nest. It turns out that there is a nesting pair of American Bald Eagle's near the camp property. The nest is in the top of a pine tree about 200 hundred yards from the location of the telescope. The nest is approximately 7 feet wide and is said to weigh close to one ton.

After Nature's Niche, yes....more hiking. This time to the lake for canoeing and Instructional Period #7.

After the safety speech and canoeing technique lecture it was time to saddle up.

No, wait! We saddled up earlier.

It was time to paddle up.

No, that should be load up and paddle; the canoes, not the kids.

At one point while on the lake a canoe tipped over. I'm still not quite sure how it tipped over other than the kids involved probably wanted it to tip over. It was warm and the kids were wanting to get wet and go swimming. While the counselor and Ms. Steele were on their way to "rescue" the "unlucky" pair, another crew took the dunk. While the "rescue" was mounted, I worked on getting the others ashore. When one of the girls canoe came in I noticed that it had a lot of water in the bottom. The girl said their canoe got stuck under the water spout during the excitement and started to fill. It just so happens I had caught a shot of this at the time. I enlarged it and put it above.

Now the explanation for the water spout. It turns out that the lake is man-made, as all lakes in Texas are with the exception of one (Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in Texas). The camp dug the lake last year and it filled in one week during the rainy season; then it started to gradually recede. It was then decided to drill down to the aquifer to provide water for the lake. the water spout is the water from the aquifer that fills the lake and the canoe in this case.

Instructional Period #8 and it is time for Aquatics. Not the Olympics sort. This is more of the life that you find in and near the waters edge. This gave our already soaked campers another opportunity to slosh in the mud. After the lesson we were armed with nets and attacked the water. Look out lake life. Here we come.

After our foray into the mick and mire our haul consisted of 3 frogs, 3-4 spiders, 6 fish(the baby variety), some mayfly nymphs, and it seems like a couple of other creatures that have since slipped my mind. After the collection procedure we sat and created a graph of our results; which is good for visualizing your information as well as preparing for the TAKS Science test.

After Aquatics today, Forest tomorrow.

PS-After completing this post I ran spell check. Spell check says that "canoeing" is not a word.

What in the world am I supposed to write?

Paddling a canoe??

Should I have written, "After Nature's Niche, yes....more hiking. This time to the lake for paddling a canoe and Instructional Period #7.' or "After the safety speech and paddling a canoe technique lecture it was time to saddle up."?

Somehow it just doesn't sound quite right.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Time For More Pine Cove

In today's post Day 1 at Pine Cove slowly fades into the sunset (after Fireside and more basketball at the gym of course) and re-emerges as Day 2.

After the evening meal all groups met and hiked up the trail to the "Fireside" and we told stories and sang songs and clapped a lot and did a short play and sang some more and I took some blurry pictures because I forgot to change the settings on the camera and casually walked around snapping to my heart's content. You can see a few of the results of this carefree evening above.

After "Fireside" we headed to the gym in hopes that we could get the kids really tired before retiring to the cabins for lights out. I'm not quite sure that it worked though. It was shortly after midnight and I was still working on getting my guys quiet. However, as always happens the guys eventually wound down and went to beddy-bye land.

GOOD, I mean REALLY GOOD! I was tired. I was GOOD and tired and I needed my beauty sleep.

Day 2 dawns anew and all is right and wonderful with the world. The guys get up and get ready for the new day and we all head to the dining hall for breakfast. We arrive and shortly find that breakfast will be French Toast, sausage, oatmeal, and the obligatory side items for the French Toast and oatmeal. I had hoped for more because the day was destined to be long and tiring. But then I remembered that kindly old Quaker gent advising us all, "Nothing is better for Thee than me!"

First stop for us, the horses and Instructional Period #4 ....after a short hike to another camp of course.

The camp wranglers were very good. They introduced all the safety equipment to the kids and and explained it to them. After getting the kids into the riding helmets, one of the wranglers began to explain how to handle and direct the horses. As you can see above, the kids were in rapt attention to the presentation....except when the horse began to make deposits of recycled grass. (No, I didn't take a picture of that; after all this is a family blog.)

The kids are getting ready to hit the trail.

After a long day on the hot and dusty trail it feels good to get back to the barn. OK, so it wasn't a long day on the trail; it was only about 30 minutes on the trail. And it wasn't really hot and dusty. It was quite comfortable under the pine trees. But, it was still good to see the kids arrive back at the barn.

What's this? One of the girls has one 'ornery critter. It doesn't want to go the proper stall. That horse has a mind of it's own and it is up to this newly trained "horse trainer" to coax it into the stall. She was successful after several attempts. The girl told me later that her arms were sore because of this one 'ornery critter.

And speaking of critters, that was our next Instructional Period. The students made their way to the habitat room where the counselor took a few moments to talk about some of the animals within the habitat room and, of course, her expectations of the kids while in the room.

The big star in the room was the sloth; and not just any sloth but a two-toed sloth. That's the sloth on the rope in the left picture.

While I was scurrying around the room snapping pictures I was focusing on two tortoises on the floor. After a few moments I looked up and turned around and was face to face with the sloth. I jumped and gasped. The kids giggled. I moved away. the kids giggled some more and pointed at Mr. Horst.

The Ball Python in the picture on the right had not quite learned about the Law of Gravity. During our time in the room we would occasionally hear a "THUMP!!!" It was the python making it's way up the side and trying to move along the top edge of the display window. And then, THUMP... old man Gravity reached up and pulled the python down. Thank you Sir Isaac Newton for keep this critter under control.

There were also tortoises, a tarantula, parakeets, snakes, snapping turtles, gold fish and other critters in the room that I can't remember at this point in time. Ask me some time next week when I'm not thinking about it and I might recall them.

Yesterday at school one of the kids from the trip was outside my classroom looking at my pictures on the bulletin board. She was looking at the picture of the sloth. She couldn't remember it's name.

I couldn't either.

While she was looking at other pictures she suddenly remember the name and shouted it out.

"Yeah, that's it," said I excitedly.

But now I've forgotten the name again.

I'm going to have to go to school on Monday and ask the girl the name so I can bring some fame to this poor old sloth of the two-toed variety, as opposed to the three-toed variety.

Tomorrow, Nature's Niche and Canoes. Maybe more, but not less!

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Pine Cove Trip: Installment #3

Day 1 continues.

Our group makes their way to Instructional Period #3, the last period for the day. For us it was Orienteering, or better known in my world as "Learning The Parts of the Compass and Then How To Use It To Find Your Way In The Forest ".

And It just so happens that this is exactly what our group did.

The 1st picture above shows the group getting the lowdown on compasses and how to read them. Sort of like being let in on the inside secrets that only a Boy Scout or the Special Forces might know. The group is getting their directions on how they will navigate through the forest and then how "pass" their test in the 2nd picture.

And yes, they all passed. I know this because they all made it to supper that evening.

Proof positive that your intrepid blogger was in fact a part of this enjoyable trip.

After the forest navigation and other Instructional Periods all of the kids made it back to the gym for some hard earned down time. Many played basketball, soccer, or just hung out until supper.

Supper, by the way, was pizza. Pizza from CiCi's. Pizza To Go from CiCi's, not the buffet. The buffet would have been nice. Can you imaging 40+ 5th graders at a pizza buffet at one time?

What's this?

Leap frog??

Could it be that today's youth have forsaken the more modern forms of entertainment for a throwback to yesteryear?

Nah!!! It was all staged. Ms. Steele and I thought the picture would be good. This was all part of the "Camp Games" period. In this activity the cabin groups went on a sort of scavenger hunt where they had to look for things and do different activities for varying points.

Fun was had by one and all.

Stay tuned for more adventures from your intrepid blogger and his cast of 5th graders soon.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.