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. 

Akula Meet

So yeah....super delayed post but what else is new? 

Our second meet in Akula was very, very rainy.  The positive note was we had a girl travel this time! 

My HS team was made up of two boys and my JH team was two boys and a girl!  Finally, someone to talk to.

The trail for the meet in Akula was very difficult, a lot of sand, but there were no major hills that they had to climb.  Overall, they had a lot of fun.  The only downside was the rain.  The skies opened up right at the beginning of the HS race.  Not a whole lot of fun to run in it, even worse just standing there...waiting.

The only other downside was that they didn't have the best plan for figuring out who came in when...add the rain into the mix and there was a whole lot of frustrated people.

My team did very well, the girl got 5th place!! The boys pushed themselves and did their best.  I was so proud of them.  It was another great experience.

Another girl!  YAY :)

Team heading to Akula!  LET'S RUN!

Walking the trail

 

 

We all felt like we were inside the 'Lion King' at one point

Getting ready to run!

JH are off!

HS taking off!

                                                         

Austen heading in

Desirae coming about

The boys were racing each other

Kyle coming in

5th place!!

Waiting for the plane....

Success!! Another meet down

The Joys of X Country

Hello All!

So the 2014/2015 school year has begun and it started with a BANG!   We spent a solid two days on scheduling and I spent another two days moving from my classroom (where I've been for 4 years) to the Library.  Some may say, "YAY the library!  How wonderful"  Nay I say to you that speak that.  It was A LOT of work, we had to empty all of the bookshelves in order to move them.  That in itself was just sucky.

BUT....in the end it all worked out and I'm very happy in my new space....and let's face it.....I LOVE books so living in the library now is not that big of a sacrifice.

One of my many duties in Kong is the X Country coach, and I love it.  This year, one of the new teachers has graciously stepped in as my assistant coach, Mr Brummert, or Mr B for short.  It's been so nice having two adults in practice.  Mr B runs with them and I time them.  Good times had by all.

We've gone to two meets this season, one in Tooksook Bay and one to Akula.

The first meet was crazy/awesome.  The crazy part was the route.  Oh the JH had a pretty easy time of it, up a hill and down but the HS....yeah...totally different story.  The awesome part was that the four runners who went did an amazing job of running and representing our school.

JH excited to go

The HS boys getting ready to fly

View from the Plane

Austen's point of view

So, let's begin with the first meet shall we?  Well the only student that had actually been to Tooksook was Kyle, the rest of us had never been up there before.  It's gorgeous!  Tooksook is right on the ocean and they have the most magnificent views.  The hills were alive with blackberries, and the weather was perfect: sunny with bits of clouds.  Of course the first order of business when we got there was checking out the store.  So we went on an adventure and found a store...with slush puppies....everyone was happy.

Coming back from the store

 







The next item on our agenda was walking the course.  This is where all the athletes and coaches walk where they will be running the next day.  It lets the runners know what to expect AND helps to avoid people getting lost.

The JH portion....no problem.  The HS portion.....totally different  experience.

So here we are on our way up the beginning hill.....no worries

This is the crazy GIANT hill we got to trek up....AFTER we crossed a ravine that was super awesome to climb down into.

I'm not joking when I say I felt like Frodo walking towards Mt Doom....it was intense



We finally made it to the top of the hill....and took a mini break....because we were ALL sucking air.  The boys admired the view for a bit and we even saw a few musk ox....BONUS

 

 Going down was just as much fun as going up.  It was uber steep and again there was another awesome ravine we got to climb down into and then out again.  Needless to say there were a few people that biffed it once or twice.

Walking back to the school

By the time the 'walk' was over, we were all good and tired.  Dinner was pretty quiet and then it was 'free time.'  The Blackberry Festival was happening that weekend so Tooksook was the place to be.  Tons of people where there.  We didn't go to the festival due to a $25 cover charge, but we heard it all night long.  Fun times.

Austen died the minute we turned on the movie

THE DAY OF THE RACE:

After a very short nights sleep we all got up and got ready for the races.  JH went first and HS right after.

Theodore and William were ready to race!

Ready....set....GO!

Well done boys!!

Both of the JH boys did very well.  They finished strong and showed great sportsmanship throughout the meet.  YAY!  

Up next was the HS race.  I was a tad nervous, purely from a medical standpoint.  I really didn't want to be the coach that called up the parents and said, "so...they broke their ankle....but they are still breathing"  That conversation is never fun to have.  So I made a deal with my HS runners: they don't get injured and I'll buy them this GIANT container of cheese balls.  I know, it's lame but I REALLY didn't want them to get hurt.

They SURVIVED! 

 Both Austen and Kyle survived!  Kyle came in 6th and Austen 8th.  We were SO proud of them.  They ran smart and really ended the meet well.

So, as promised, they got their container of cheeseballs!

Cheese Ball Heaven :)

Yeah...they are happy campers

 We decided that this would be the trophy for the Tooksook meet every year.  I think it's a solid idea.

There were tons of flights coming in and out of the village.  Our flight was delayed by about an hour. Weirdly this worked for us.  The boys were told by everyone in the village to go berry picking and get some black berries (we were lacking here in Kong)  So the boys put on their boots and went berry picking for a solid hour.

Needless to say, the entire flight was spent eating cheese balls or napping.  It was a great meet, with a lot of laughs, crazy courses and cheese balls.  Good Times.

Cheesy Fingers!

Stay tuned for the 2nd meet in Akula :)