"The coolest thing I have done in high school!"

...Was heard in my classroom this week. As a class, we are examining the cardiovascular system; which just so happens to concide with butchering and hunting seasons here in the midwest.
I decided to take FULL advatage of this, knowing that my students all live on farms or hunt, I offered extra credit for bringing in organs. First up was a set of heart and lungs from a slaughtered pig. The students LOVED (well for the most part) holding the heart and putting their fingers down the vessels to feel around the ventricles.
We also got 2 Deer hearts from the weekend, both had arrow punctures in the heart where the fatal blow was delivered. Again, the students could not believe that I let them dig around in the organs and hold the hearts. I love the real life application as a teacher. Helping students make personal applications is critical to my subject matter. I kept remembering to take pictures AFTER I put gloves on and was holding the hearts, so it did me no good, until I remembered that my students all had phones! Big thanks to them for pictures.

Halloween FUN

With a little help from T., I bring you our Halloween pictures!! T.made a painted pumpkin for Activity Days (at church), which unfortunately rotted pretty quickly. She did her own carving this year of "I'm A Happy Pumpkin", with a carving kit that Daddy picked up. I was pretty excited that she took the initiative to design the pumpkin on paper, she even did a design for her brother and I. After I cut the top off and helped her scoop it, she did the rest of the work!
The Boy also did his own carving, and just required a little help around the teeth. He really wanted to showcase the mouth design, but it had TONS of teeth. He also helped dad out with our outside decorating this year, and placed this gravestone as a backdrop for photos.
The morning of Halloween, I made our traditional Breakfast, Egg in the Hole (Pioneer Woman), but I cut out a pumpkin for the middle. The kids told me that they were impressed! After school, we rushed home to accomplish homework and piano, and then started getting dressed for the big kickoff. Following our traditional "Spooky Joes" meal, we headed out!

One of our Halloween traditions has been to trick or treat with our friends from the neighborhood. We started this tradition in 2006 when the boys were in Kindergarten together, and it has become "our thing" every year. It has been really fun to look back at the pictures of the kids from the time the boys were 5 and the girls were 3 and 2. J. is on the far left here. We had Cleopatra, a Ghoul, and Turtle.

Ah yes, even Bailey got her treats on. 3 neighbors provided her with her own treats, especially Grandma Meikka and Grandpa George. They were so excited they even took her picture!!!