Space Camp 2014

Last night, I returned from a 3-day, 2-night field trip to Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  I took 30 fifth grade students and 11 other adults on this annual trip.  I've gone the past six years, but this trip is probably my most memorable.  You'll see why in a bit!

We left at 6:00 EST on Wednesday morning, drove seven and a half hours, and arrived safely around 12:30 p.m. CST.  There was a last minute change of plans when we registered, and we were placed in the dorms of Habitat 2 instead of Habitat 1 (which we stayed in last year).  You can read about last year's experience HERE.  It turned out to be great!  All the girls stayed in one large dorm room, and all the boys stayed in one large room.  We each had our own bathroom.  Therefore, we didn't have to walk down the hall to go to the restroom, nor did we have to share with another school group!  Yay!  The girls' room was huge (we had 54 bunks)!  For those who are interested, here's what our accommodations were like:

As you can see, it's no 5-star hotel, but that's okay.  This is camp!  We had plenty of hot water, space, and privacy.  It was all good.  For any teachers out there considering a trip to Space Camp, please know that you must bring everything you need--towels, rags, sheets, etc.  I always suggest that my students bring a sleeping bag and pillow--it's much easier to just roll it out on the bunk and not have to worry about sheets. 

Anyway, after we arrived and settled into our Habitat, we had orientation and soon jumped into activities.  Our school participated in the same program as last year, Pathfinder, and we were even split up into three groups with the same names as last year--Armstrong, Aldrin, and Bean.  I was on Team Armstrong again and our camp counselor was named "Karl with a K."  No, we didn't just call him Karl; we had to say, "Karl with a K."  He was awesome!  Before our trip, we prayed specifically for a counselor/crew trainer who was loud, energetic, and enjoyed being with us.  Karl with a K was all that and more!  He taught us a chant that we shouted out randomly at Space Camp.  When he yelled "Armstrong!"  We would yell back, "Stays strong....ALL...DAY...LONG!"

On Day 1, Team Armstrong visited the Rocket Park and learned about early rocket history, trained for our space mission, rode G-Force, visited the Davidson Museum (and learned about the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs), rode the MAT (Multi-Axis Trainer) simulator, and assembled rockets.

Karl with a K, telling a story about Alan Shepard's first flight.

On Day 2, we awoke bright and early at 7 a.m.  Breakfast was around 7:30 a.m.  After breakfast, we launched our rockets.  We made them too well, apparently, because all of them shot so far away--and even landed in trees--that we couldn't retrieve them.  After the rocket launch, we designed a mission patch for our team (see below).  We learned more about the Apollo program in the Davidson Museum, and we were able to ride G-Force (again) and Space Shot.  We completed our mission, but didn't find out until the next day at graduation that Team Armstrong won the Most Successful Mission!!  Yay--that's two years in a row for my team!!  We were able to visit the gift shop, as well as Mrs. Baker's grave.  She was the first monkeynaut to go to space and return successfully, so we placed a banana on her grave.  We learned about the Shuttle Program and saw an IMAX movie on the Hubble space telescope.  After that, things got quite interesting...

My team's mission patch, with the explanation below.

Team Aldrin's mission patch

Team Bean's mission patch

We had the opportunity to ride Space Shot a second time and I jumped on it!  I love that ride!  You are shot 140 feet in the air and experience a moment of free fall.  This ride simulates what a launch is like, as well as a brief period of microgravity.  Here's what the ride is like: 

I love roller coasters and rides like this (that drop you suddenly), and I'm not afraid of heights.  So, I took a new group of kids and we rode a second time.  I sat on the end, like in the video, with a little boy next to me, and a girl on the end.  In all, I had 6 students on the ride, as well as a mom chaperone.  We got buckled in, and with little notice, we shot up!  I knew, after the first drop, that something wasn't right.  The ride didn't feel like it normally does--and I've ridden Space Shot enough times to know what it's like!  Pretty soon, we slowly lifted to the very top of the ride and stopped.  We were suspended 140 feet in the air.  The children started to get a little nervous after a minute or two, and began to question me about why we'd stopped.  I said, "I'm not sure, but look at this wonderful view!  This is a view of Space Camp we don't normally get to see!?!  Check out the hills in the background, and..."  The little girl interrupted me and said, "Mrs. Bowman, I know you're trying to distract us, but IT'S NOT WORKING!"  She went on, "Ugh!  I knew I should have gone to the bathroom instead of getting on this ride!"  We chuckled, but then I started to hear the heartbreaking sounds of my students on the other side of the ride crying and wailing.  I couldn't call out to them, so I yelled to the little girl on the end, "Try to shout to those girls and tell them it's okay!  We are going to get down soon!"  The little girl tried, but the wind was blowing, air was releasing from the valves behind our heads, and it was difficult to communicate over all the noise.  I could clearly hear the hysteria, however, and it was awful.  I immediately started praying out loud.  The longer we were up there, the more nervous the little girl on the end seemed to get.  To be honest, I was getting nervous as well. 

My nervous face!

The little boy next to me said, "Well, I'm not nervous because we've got Mrs. Bowman right here, so we're okay!"  I thought, "Child, if you knew what was going through my brain right now, you wouldn't have as much confidence in me!"  His comment, however, gave me resolve.  I knew I had to act as strong and brave as he thought I was.  It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do as a teacher. 

After a while, our feet and legs began tingling and growing numb.  We had been up there for a while and we had no idea what was going on.  There was no way for anyone on the ground to give us info or talk to us.  We just had to wait.  My kids and I kept praying and praying out loud.  I said, "Guys, I know we are surprised by this and it's unexpected, but the Lord knew we would be stuck up here in this moment.  This is not a surprise to Him.  There is some reason we are up here.  This may be the opportunity you need for your faith to grow...for you to put your trust in Him...for you to learn dependence on Him...I don't know...but I'm pretty sure we will never be the same!" 

We continued to pray and talk and soon the wind started to blow as hard as ever.  We were so cold and the gusts were rocking our seats.  That was nerve-wracking!  I had my camera with me and was able to record this brief prayer (you can hear how badly the wind was blowing...and, yes, my teeth were chattering):



We had been dangling in the air for around 30 minutes or so.  You can see the time-lapse with these pictures (notice the position of the sun/shadows):

We were thanking God for the awesome view...the fact that we were upright and not in a super uncomfortable position (or stuck upside down!).  We prayed practically the entire time.  We could see "official Space Camp people" gathering down below, so we knew help was on the way.  Eventually, we heard our teammates from the ground yell up to us, "ARMSTRONG!"  To which we cried back, "STAYS STRONG...ALL...DAY...LONG!"  We did the chant a total of three times, and that seemed to calm everyone a little. 

At one point, I looked at the little boy next to me and said, "What do you think your dad is thinking right now?"  He said, "I don't know, but I can tell he's nervous!  See him pacing, with his hands in his pocket?  Yep; he's nervous!"  His dad was one of the chaperones on the ground.  A moment later, I couldn't spot the dad, so I said, "I wonder where your dad went."  The child responded, "He probably went to call my mom, and I'll tell you what...if they don't get me down within 9 hours, I guarantee you, she'll be at the bottom of this Space Shot!"  Haha!  I just died laughing!

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we felt like we were being slowly lowered.  We looked up...and, YES...we were moving!  Hallelujah!  Once we got to the bottom, we prayed again!  I'll tell you, I don't know if I've ever prayed so hard in my life!  We were handed bottles of water and shook hands with several Space Camp officials.  They apologized profusely and let us know that this has never happened before.  One man told us, "In my 25 years here, this has never happened." 

Apparently, the ride operates on an air compression system.  When it launches, it is supposed to reach 26 PSI; instead, for whatever reason (possibly high winds impacted the machine?), it reached 30 PSI and immediately went into maintenance mode.  We couldn't be lowered until the air pressure bled off.  Unfortunately, this took a while.  Thankfully, we were lowered slowly.  I had been wondering how we would drop...


Us at the top (picture taken from a distance)

By the time we got off the ride, I was the only one who hadn't cried.  I felt so bad for my students.  Most of the girls had red faces and puffy eyes.  We all hugged each other once we were safe and sound.  One of the officials came up to me and we spoke for a bit.  He told me he was a part-time pastor who actually had a speaking engagement at a church in Tennessee this Sunday.  He asked if he could tell this story in his sermon.  I said, "Okay.."  I was half-listening, honestly; I was just trying to get feeling back in my legs.  He gave me his card, but it took over an hour before the numbness went away from our fingers, legs, and feet.  Crazy!

So happy to have our feet on the ground!

Another amazing thing happened...Space Camp felt terrible about our ordeal, so to make it up to us, Team Armstrong was immediately escorted to a private room behind the gift shop where every one of us was custom-fitted for flight suits.  Space Camp gave these to us for free (and they are $90.00 each!?).  They also let us order leather badges with our names on them to go on our suits! 

I already have a flight suit, but what was I going to say, "Oh, well, I'd rather have $90 worth of books for my classroom, thank you."  ?!?  It was a HUGE gift to us, and we were all very appreciative!  I reminded my students that we didn't do anything to earn these suits...and that we shouldn't strut around in front of the other students like, "Check out our awesome space suits!"  The kids handled it very well. 

What I love about this experience is that my students saw God.  After we landed safely on the ground, a little girl came up to me and said, "Mrs. Bowman, I've never felt closer to God than right now!"  We talked about the whole situation!  They were able to see God answer prayers, and for some of them, their walk with the Lord will never be the same again.

For me, that experience taught me several things.  I realized that I really like control.  If you know me as a teacher, you know that I expect my classroom to run like a well-oiled machine.  I like structure, order, and for things to be done a certain way.  When I was at the top of Space Shot, I had absolutely no control.  Things were not working out the way I thought they should.  How did I handle that?  How do I normally respond when something unexpected happens?  I handled the situation by turning immediately to prayer.  Honestly, if the children hadn't been there, I would have cried and thrown a fit and been a hysterical mess!  I was reminded by this situation that I'm really not in control of anything.  None of us are.  We are at the mercy and under the authority of a sovereign God.  Another thing that stuck out to me was something I already mentioned--I immediately turned to prayer.  I prayed more passionately and fervently at the top of Space Shot than I have in a while.  But I don't want to do that only when I'm in a bad spot or when something terrible happens!  I want to "pray without ceasing" and talk that passionately with God on a daily basis.  So many people (myself included) get into the habit of crying out to God only when things go wrong.  I want to wake up daily and submit everything to Jesus Christ...turn to Him in every situation, good or bad.  I do try to live my life for Christ every day, but this situation was a great reminder to me of how important it is.              

One last "God-moment"...after one of my many prayers at the top of Space Shot, the little girl on the end turned to me and asked, "Mrs. Bowman, did you feel that?!" 
"What??" I said.
"We just prayed that the wind would stop...and it's stopped!!" she gasped.

Even though this experience wasn't pleasant, I'm thankful for it.  I'm extremely glad that I was on the ride with the kids instead of being on the ground, looking up helplessly.  Granted, I was helpless ON the ride, but it made my students feel better that I was experiencing this with them. 

Side note:  Earlier today, I actually called that part-time pastor/U.S. Space & Rocket Center official who gave me his card, and we had an incredible phone conversation.  We talked for almost half an hour and he shared with me what his sermon was going to be about, among other things.  Explaining our conversation would be another blog post, so all I'll say about it is this--I'm in awe of how God moved on this trip!

Once the excitement was over and our nerves had settled, my group ended Day 2 with dinner, a Museum Scavenger Hunt, and a simulator. 

This child lost his shoe on the simulator, and Karl with a K said, "What's left on the moon stays on the moon!"  Ha!  He got it back after everyone had a turn. 

On Day 3, we woke up super early and loaded our stuff on the bus at 7:00 a.m.  We walked to the Davidson Museum where I led our entire group in a devotion.  Our counselor, Karl with a K, actually kicked off our devotion time with an a cappella version of "Amazing Grace."  That was a first for me!  Karl with a K actually sings opera and has a beautiful, resounding voice.

After our devotion time, we played Space Bowl--and Team Aldrin won! 

Breakfast was next, followed by graduation...

As I said earlier, Team Armstrong won Best Mission; here we are, receiving our special pins:

Before we left, my group enjoyed Space Dots ice cream:

I had several kids come up to me and ask, "Do we have to leave?"  We all loved Space Camp and had a memorable trip!  I'll close with a few more pictures:

Grandparent's Day 2013

Last Friday was Grandparent's Day--not the national holiday (that was in September), but a huge annual event that's held at our school to honor the grandparents of our students.  Grandparent's Day is one of the biggest events we have and we go all out for it!  The campus gets decorated beautifully and everything is "spiffed up" a bit.

Each year, the grandparents arrive at 9 a.m. and are greeted with a delicious breakfast and beautiful corsages (for the grandmothers).  At 10 a.m. they are seated in the sanctuary and the students perform songs, skits, and dances for their entertainment.  During this assembly, we have an awards ceremony for accomplishments like "The Grandparents Who've Been Married the Longest," "The Grandparents with the Most Grandchildren," etc. and these particular grandparents are given prizes.  After the program, the grandparents get to visit the classrooms and meet their grandchild's teacher.  On this day, school dismisses at 12 p.m. and the children get to spend the rest of the day with their families. 

This is such a special day, and 5th grade was asked to do something extra-special for this year's event.  For the past few years, my students have simply sung with the elementary chapel group on Grandparent's Day.  This year, however, we were asked to perform an original comedy skit.  This had been common practice years ago from a former 5th grade teacher who was extremely talented and creative.  I am not nearly as creative as Jeanne Thon, but I agreed to take on the challenge.

I called all 5th grade students together for a meeting and asked them to share with me what they enjoyed doing with their grandparents and what made their grandparents so special.  They shared ideas with me and I typed them up.  Over one weekend, I used these ideas to write a script.  I have never in my life written and directed a skit!  Without further ado, here's our comedy skit from Grandparent's Day 2013:

A few things to note:

• We discovered the day before the program that only ONE cordless mic was available, so we had to make do (we had planned on having two microphones).
• We put baby powder in the students' hair to make them look gray.
• There is a child in the skit who recites his lines incredibly fast.  We tried to slow him down during our practices. 

"Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God.  The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.  Young people take pride in their strength, but the gray hairs of wisdom are even more beautiful."
Leviticus 19:32; Proverbs 20:29 (NIV and Contemporary English Version)

Making Crystals

This week, I introduced our geology unit.  We began by learning about the differences between rocks, minerals, and crystals.  We also made our own crystals. 

Here's how:

Materials Needed:

• wide-mouthed jar (we used empty pickle jars and mason jars)
• Borax (can be found in the laundry section at your local store)
• pipe cleaners (any color; we used white.  I also cut them in half because our jars were short.)
• string
• hot water
• popsicle sticks (you could also use pencils)

Procedure:

1. Twist the pipe cleaner into a shape of your choice (heart, star, letter of the alphabet, etc.).  We simply made spirals by wrapping the pipe cleaner around our index finger and then slipping our finger out.
2. Tie a piece of string to the top of the pipe cleaner shape.
3. Tie the other end of the string to a popsicle stick (or pencil).  This will be used to hang over the jar.
4. Boil water and pour the heated water into a jar.
5. Stir in a tablespoon of borax.  Keep adding more borax and stirring until you can no longer get it all to dissolve.  (Some of the borax powder may start to settle at the bottom of the jar.)  It usually takes about three tablespoons of borax for each cup of water.
6. Lower the pipe cleaner shape into the jar of water.  Make sure that the popsicle stick (or pencil) lays securely across the jar's top.  Be sure that the pipe cleaner is completely submerged but not touching the sides or bottom of the jar. 
7. Leave the jar in a safe place over night where it won't be bumped.
8. The next day, you should see crystals!

Interesting Facts:

• If the water cools quickly, you will get small crystals.  If the water cools slowly, you will get large crystals.  (We will discuss this more when we talk about intrusive igneous rocks and extrusive igneous rock.)   
• In the past, I've used this experiment to create Christmas tree ornaments. 

Heritage Presentations

To introduce our reading unit on heritage, I assigned a project in which the students had to research their family's heritage and present their findings to the class.  They tried to find answers to the following questions:

• What countries are your ancestors from?
• Does your family have any customs or traditions from those countries that you still practice today?
• Do you have any foods that you eat from those countries?

If the students didn't know much about their ancestors who moved to the United States from another country, they were to simply go back a generation or two and tell about some traditions and foods/recipes that have been passed down. 

 

They were encouraged to bring in items, pictures, and food samples to share with the class.  They gave a 2 minute presentation on their heritage.  We learned so many neat things about each others' families and the students did a fantastic job!  

This is only a portion of the food that was brought in!

We enjoyed Georgia cornbread, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, cannolis, bratwurst, rice and beans, Hawaiian rice, sugar cane, and biscuits with maple syrup.  We had a feast!  Seriously, most of the kids didn't eat their lunch because they were stuffed!

The heritage projects were a success!  Now we are ready to dive in to some stories that have the theme of heritage.  I'm sure the children will be able to make great connections now as they read.

October--National Bullying Prevention Month

I recently found out (through Scholastic) that October is National Bullying Prevention Month.  To spread a little kindness, I posted this "Take a Compliment" flier on my classroom door.

The compliments were gone in about 10 minutes!  The students loved them!  If you'd like to print one of these compliment posters, click HERE for the pdf.

Finally, click HERE to access the article from which the poster came. 

Think Pink

Last week, we kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a School Spirit Day on which we all wore pink.  The campus was decorated with signs and balloons, and my students came dressed in pink from head to toe.  Five of my kiddos walked in with pink hair!  We had pink shirts, shoes, socks, bracelets, laces, etc.  We didn't know there would be a contest to see which class had the most pink...but we were one of the top three winners!

The school also set up a prayer garden for those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Names were submitted of those who are currently battling the disease, have overcome the disease, or have lost their battle.  The names will be kept up during the month of October.  I submitted my Aunt Donna's name--she is a two-time breast cancer survivor!

Punctuatiónas Restaurant Grammar Activity (Week 7)

This week, in grammar, we focused a great deal on how to punctuate dialogue.  I ended the week by transforming my classroom into an Italian restaurant called "Punctuationas" (be sure to say that six-syllable word with an Italian accent!) where my students were served individualized menus stuffed with grammatically incorrect sentences.  They had to fix the errors with elbow macaroni, penne pasta, and small shells.  This hands-on culminating activity was a hit with my students!  Let me share some pictures with you and then explain in more detail how I created this activity.

My classroom door:

Look at that awesome flag a parent donated for the activity:



Décor from Dollar Tree:

For more decoration, donated empty pizza boxes from a local pizza place:

 I love that the community is always willing to help out my classroom.  All I have to do is ask!

A parent helped me set up the room while my students were at P.E. 

I dressed the part as Chef Bowman and my accessories came from Party City:   

 FYI, it's very difficult to smile with a stick-on mustache! 

Me and my "waitresses"

My parent volunteers were a huge help!  This activity would not have gone as smoothly without them!  They circulated the room while the students worked and were able to answer any questions the children had.

 

Okay, so you've seen some fun pictures...now let's move on to talking about how I planned this 40 minute grammar activity.   

 

I decided that I would give each student five unique sentences to correct.  They sit in groups and I didn't want anyone to cheat!  At first, I thought I would just write these on sentence strips but soon realized that there wouldn't be enough room.  I typed up various sentences, making sure to space twice between each word so the students would have plenty of room to glue pieces of pasta in the correct places.

I only had the students add commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, periods, and exclamation marks.  I included the correct capitalization and made sure that I didn't have any interrogative sentences.  What kind of pasta would be used for a question mark, anyway?

 

My students worked independently to punctuate their sentences, but I did offer clues in case they got stuck.  On the back of each page, in the bottom right corner, I wrote a number that indicated how many errors there were on that page.  Also, the students could refer to our "special menu" for help:

I just pulled information from a few references in our Shurley Grammar textbook, typed them up, printed them out, and stuck them in a plastic frame from Dollar Tree.  They made great table tents!

 

Using manila folders, I created menus for the sentences to be placed in.  To keep things in order, I carefully numbered the menus and sentences:

My entrée numbers corresponded with my menu numbers. 

Each student got the exact number/type of pasta pieces they needed to complete their sentences:  

Once they finished their hands-on editing, they had to transfer their answers to a sheet of paper that I could grade:

To begin the activity, I picked my students up from P.E., dressed as a chef, and they were shocked!  I spoke in my best Italian accent and told them that they were about to have a unique dining experience.  I explained the grammar activity and made sure they understood what their task was.  As an incentive, I told them that I would award a special prize to the boy and girl who finished first with a perfect score.  I made the prize something I knew they would enjoy. 

When we got to the classroom, the waitresses seated the children and they quickly got to work.  One child tried to call out to another one across the room and I quickly walked over to him and quietly said, "Excuse me, Sir.  This is a nice establishment and I can't have you yelling across our dining room to other patrons.  Thank you."  From then on, the students took their job seriously and you could hear a pin drop in that classroom!  They were focused and engaged and I was thoroughly impressed.  I had Italian music playing in the background and a slideshow rolling with scenes from Italy. 

 

For those of you who are interested, here's the majority of my playlist:

Bella Notte--Lou Monte

O Sole Mio--Lou Monte

Papa Loves Mambo--Perry Como

Mambo Italiano--Renato Carosone

Tu Vuo Fa L'Americano--Renato Carosone

Tarantella Napolitana--The Godfather

That's Amore--Rocco Granata

 

I gave the students 30 minutes to complete the gluing and then they had to transfer their answers.  Of course, the students finished at different times, so I just had my early finishers read at their desks.  I wrote everyone's finish time down on their papers so I'll know which two students to award a prize to. 

For a surprise ending, our waitresses brought out pizza slices for us to enjoy for lunch!

I'd say Punctuationas was a success!

 

 

*My classroom transformations were inspired by my visit last year to the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.  You can read about my first classroom transformation HERE.  You could transform your classroom for any subject area, but I plan to focus on transforming my room for grammar lessons because grammar is my students' least favorite subject.  My hope is to get them more excited and engaged.*