Day 2....Technically

Our first two days of the trip really blended together (due to a sleepless flight through the night) but both contained a lot of activities.

Once we arrived in Wahpeton, we headed straight for the Circle of Nations school.  They are AWESOME and allow us to stay in their dorms for free.  RJ Rabbithead is the man with the plan and my go-to person for setting up our arrangements at the school.  They had games out for us and rooms ready; we are always so grateful to them.  

I let the kiddos run around the dorm, and outside on the playground, for a bit - it helped to get the blood flowing for the rest of the day.  

Our next stop was my dad's house.  He and Judy were nice enough to put a little breakfast together for us :)  We love them.  Fun tidbit - all the students call my Dad 'Appa' - which is Yupik for 'Grandpa' 

We had a little time before we needed to head out to the Bagg Bonanza Farm, so I took the students down to Kidder Recreation Area to meet 'Whopper' the worlds largest catfish.

'Whopper' Selfie :)

After taking pics with 'Whopper' Raymond decided we needed to take a walk and explore the area down by the river.  It was a nice cool morning so we all agreed and welcomed the fresh air.  We meandered around the Kidder Recreation Area and they had fun looking at the trees (and climbing a few ;) 

Two monkeys in a tree!

After exploring Kidder for a bit we walked back to our van and headed out to the Bagg Bonanza Farm, right outside of Wahpeton.

Now, a few people have given me a 'weird' look and said, 'Why are you taking them to the Bagg Farm?!'  

Well to those people I usually say, 'Why NOT?!'  The Bagg Farm is such a cool location, it's close to Wahpeton, and I think it's a great educational opportunity for the students to compare/contrast what farms were like earlier in history to what they are now.  Since none of my student have ever been close to a farm, this is a huge learning opportunity!  Seriously, 'Of Mice and Men' made 10x more sense to my students after being on a farm.  Teaching opportunities all around :)

We got there and immediately the students were shocked at how BIG the farm was.  My Dad joined us and we had a lovely tour.  There was a lot of picture taking and open mouths.  They even found a robin's nest! (full of BLUE eggs - woah) 

This is the dinning table in the bunk house!  The students thought it might be a great addition to our school!

Wagon + robin's nest = adorable picture :)

After exploring the Bagg Farm, Dad took us over to Kendall and Sue Prochnow's cow/pig farm.  They are the nicest people, and we are so grateful that they allow the students to come and explore their farm.  Chris Prochnow (family member) always gets roped into giving us the grand tour - he's a great sport about it and full of information for the students.

Chris and Dad showing them the cows 

 Up close and personal with the animals!

Every year, the favorite activity from the farm is holding a pig.  This year was no different :) 

Group shot!  By the tractor of course 

After petting pigs, riding tractors, exploring soy bean fields, and discussing cows....it was time to head back to Wahpeton.  Chris gave all of the students hats, and let me tell you....they didn't stop wearing them after they got them!  So nice!   

Modeling their new hats

While loading everyone up, handing out hats, etc, Chris mentioned that this is the quietest group I've brought down.  While this is partially true, due to their size (only 5 compared to 11/14 students from the last trips) a lot of it had to do with the fact that at this point, we had all been up for at least 36 hrs!!  They were holding in there though!  

Our last activity for the day (can't believe we could actually squeeze anything else in!) was bowling!!  This is another favorite activity, mainly due to the fact that they have never done it before!  There are no bowling alleys in the area, and if they go to Anchorage...it's usually doesn't make the Top 10 Things to do in Anchorage list.  


Now the reason I included the picture below is because they lied to me.  Somehow these little sneaks must have been practicing their bowling skills because they were rocking it!  LOTS of strikes and spares.  I couldn't believe it!!

They are super tired but had a lot of fun bowling and showing off their amazing skills.  

We survived this very long day!!  Needless to say they were really quiet as soon as we made it back to Circle of Nations.  Not a peep throughout the night.  

Onward to Day 3 and Medora, ND!!

And We're Off...for the Third Time!

Alright Ladies and Gents....we are off on another adventure to the Lower 48!

This year is bringing a lot of changes, and I'm sure surprises, but I am so excited to bring this small (but mighty) group down to the Lower 48.  This year I am only bringing 4 students; three girls and a boy.  My male chaperone is a student from the first original trip, that graduated this year!  Something new and exciting.  He's really pumped to be able to experience this trip again; now older and wiser than before.

I have to say that with only six of us, things have been going a lot smoother.  We actually got out of the village on time, no worries - to calls telling me the plane is going to be there in 15 min and nobody is awake.  It was fantastic!

The whole gang..ready to fly away :)

First Group Selfie

We chartered an Air Van from Grant.....SO COOL!  None of us had flown in one before (Sheila even came inside to get a peek)  

Future Pilot

Flying away 

We only had an hour and a half layover in Bethel, so naturally we played around on dubsmash and other fun apps on our phones.  

Our next flight took us to Anchorage.  I have to say, I was SO proud of my students! They behaved so well on all the flights and not a single freak out either.  Brave little people, let me tell you!

Our next layover was a tad rougher but we survived.  We had to sit around, outside of the terminal, for a couple of hours.  Eating and napping were the main activities that kept us occupied.  When we finally were able to check in everything, we found our terminal and our plane!  They were so excited to actually see it.  I don't think it felt 'real' to them until that moment.

Our PLANE!

Miles Selfie #adventurestudenttravels

Flying selfie

These two...I swear 

Our flight left at 8:50 pm and landed in Minneapolis at 5 am.  Between the six of us we probably slept a total of three hours.  It was a very uncomfortable flight.  We departed the flight bleary eyed and slightly loopy...but we made it!  

Jewel took a pic of Minneapolis in flight

We picked up our rental car, grabbed some munchies and very large cups of coffee, and started the long drive toward Wahpeton.  Again, I cannot believe how easy it is to travel with just six of us instead of 13!  

Stay tuned for the rest of the trip.  I have three girls that need sleep and laundry :) 

Attempting the Hunger Games

Fun Post!  

This semester my LA II class read "The Hunger Games" as the class book to read.  Naturally, it was a hit with everyone.  I love being an English teacher for many reasons, but my favorite reason (by far!) is introducing students to literature. My absolute favorite line is 'the book was way better...'  YES!!  That is what I live for.

This class was especially challenged by the book and the 'deeper' thinking that went into it.  I was so proud of their success that I wanted to come up with a capstone activity for them.  The fact that we finished at the end of the school year was an added bonus for everyone.  

I first through the idea out to the students, asking what they would want to do for a 'finishing' activity.  They all immediately said, 'Let's have a Hunger Games!!'  Followed by a blood thirsty look and scan of who they could take out in the games.  While this is a fun idea, no way.  The whole point of the Hunger Games is to kill.  There was no way I could set up a game, on such a short amount of time, where students could 'kill' each other and I could keep track of it all.

I did A LOT of searching on the internet, Pinterest, and talking with colleagues on how I could pull something off.  In the end Pinterest and my buddies helped me out a lot.

I found a link on Pinterest where someone had a paint Hunger Games.  This idea had merit! Some of the other teachers helped pitch in ideas, paint, glitter, and a few other essentials to have the games.

The next step was getting permission and actually seeing if the students liked the idea.  I'm blessed with an awesome principal that really keeps an open mind.  My students also liked the idea of getting to throw paint at each other, without someone yelling at them.  

We set it up for the last day of school, May 18, and proceeded to plan.  I got glitter to represent the 'fire balls' being thrown at Katniss.  Then I asked random students, and community members to be 'muttations' and hit them randomly with paint.  All the students brought tshirts to school for the last two days of school and they decorated them according to the district they wanted to represent.

Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of people around for the last day of school.  Can I blame them?  No.  Was I disappointed?  Yes.  The Tundra and other villages were calling and I respect that.  A large portion of the class did not show up....but the ones that did had an REALLY fun time :)

I started off by taking a bunch of finger paint (thank you Megan Cowles for donating it all) and putting it into different containers to put around our cornucopia.  It was watered down a bit to help with consistency and I also thought it would also be a fun challenge for the students. 

Next Megan and I put orange cones around a large area out on the tundra - to stand for the arena.  I wanted to make sure I didn't have anyone running away to town and saying that they were still in the arena.  We took the largest cone and set it on a side of the arena - the cornucopia.  

In all I had six students - and they had a BLAST!  

In the end, the muttations and myself all joined in and it became a free for all. There was mud wrestling, glitter bombs, and a lot of laughing.  

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the Games.  Overall, I think this was such a great way to end the school year.  I asked our secretary if she thought having a 'Staff Hunger Games' at the end of the year would be fun - she opted to be sick that day.  So for now I'll stick with having fun with my students.  Until the next class reads it :)

Preparing for the Hunger Games

Glitter Bomb!  aka Fire Bomb

He LOVED it 

Mutiny...everyone joined in

Enough paint?

We are beasts 

Sneak attack....that ended in the mud

Thanks Ms Megan for helping out!!

The final results were:  Dallas (the only boy) died first....for obvious reasons
                                  Kendall and I died in the deadliest battle in the arena
                                  Mariam won the games, due to the least amount of paint                                             on her - literally she hid on the tundra and                                                       watched

Hope you enjoyed the update.  It literally took over an hour to remove all the paint.  So.....there is a slight downside.