The home stretch!

All the papers are checked. The grades are in. The room looks bare. SCHOOL IS ALMOST OUT!

Today was the last Monday of the school year, and the first day of the last week of school. I didn't really have a last week of school last year. We went on our class trip and then we had musical practice all week, then graduation and done! Today I had my kids turn in their science books. We are studying smoking and the affects it has on a person. It's been pretty cool to see their responses. A lot of kids have relatives that smoke and they are now really worried about them. I'm doing my best to gross them out to keep them away from it.

You know, the good ol' healthy lung/smoker lung comparison and the x ray of someone smoking and how it shows up on the picture. I also showed them pictures of mouth cancer and lung cancer and heart disease...all the things that you are at risk for. It was really interesting to listen to the questions of some of the kids. They were asking questions without saying, "I'm afraid my dad's going to die. What do I do". They were getting good at asking questions in third person.

Do any of you remember the 30 min after school special with all of the cartoon characters (Daffy, Bugs, Alf, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Teenage mutant ninja turtles, the chipmunks, etc) together, telling us not to do drugs? Well.....I found it on google video!!!! Its called Cartoon All stars http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-940551580328756105&hl=en. I warned them that it might be a little funny (seeing that the cartoon people were wearing 80s cartoon clothes) but that the subject was very serious and they needed to be mature and learn. I showed half of it to my kids today and they really want to see the rest. They are so curious about drugs and what things are that their attention is focused. I need to use that to teach them things they need to know. I think that Christian schools and churches in general do a bad job of informing kids with a biblical view of issues. They just hide from them. Kids brought up in strict Christian households grow up believing that sex is a BAD thing and that it is a sin to talk about it. Drugs are not to be talked about, but completely avoided. Forbiddence breeds curiosity and experimentation! (climbing down off of my soap box)


All that to say....just 3 and 1/2 more days of school with my favorite 5th graders. I keep looking forward to a break and a change, but I forget this is my last time with them as my class. It's my last time as a 5th grade teacher (for now!). Wow.