Cranky Cream, Scarecrows and Volcanoes

With only 2 days of school this week I was anticipating a great week. Guess that will teach me to be overly optimistic.

By 9:25 I was pulling out a special bottle from my school bag. Yep, I created the "cranky cream" right in front of the kiddos.

I very slowly and with a quietish voice explained that cranky cream is for a person who being a star or breathing is just not working. I put some cream on my hands, rubbed it in, and immediately started feeing better. (I used a bottle of Vaseline lotion with a sticky note on it that says "cranky cream". Nothing spectacular, but the result was spectacular.)

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The students created scarecrow glyphs during one station in math time. I hung them by the hayride graph and a poem.

Later in the day we (and when I say we, I really mean I) created a volcano and watched it erupt. We did this to go along with a story in our National Geographic Young Explorers.

Empty water bottle, baking soda and vinegar. It was fun.

First the students drew the volcano pre-vinegar. Then the eruption. Then talking about it using our science vocabulary. Finally, drawing the erupting volcano.

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As the students were lining up to leave for music and library (the last part of the day before heading to the bus), a sweet little friend came to me with a somber, sad face. He said, "Mrs. Bartel, I need some cranky cream." We went together to the cream, I put some on his hands, and rubbed it in. He didn't really seem cranky to me, but maybe he needed to have a connection with me.

The thing about this student is that we have not really clicked this year. I am so happy that he initiated this interaction with me. Here's to hoping that there will be more.