My Halloween Weekend

My classroom was haunted last week. Not haunted like my first classroom, number 102. It was inhabited by dead-kid-in-the-floor and the ghosts of the chickens that my history kids mummified.

And it wasn't haunted like the classroom upstairs by the faculty room. The one with the door that opens and closes by itself after the custodians have gone home.

Those rooms are really haunted.

My classroom was haunted for the purpose of the junior high book club Día de los Muertos themed meeting/party. The creative writing kids helped me turn the room into a haunted-house-trivia-treasure-hunt playground.

There were bats and cobwebs and strobe lights and scary music.
And there were skulls. 70 skulls. Each with a mouthful of Día de los Muertos trivia.

Oh, and there were also eager, passive-aggressive volunteer kidlets who lurked in dark corners and scared the snot out of their peers.

After the kids were empty of snot and full of trivia, they went back to the library to eat the cool skull rice krispy treats Valerie made, and I turned my attention to something even more frightening than haunted classrooms.... last minute grading for the end of the quarter report cards.

Then it was off to IF (a trip made possible by a complete and total lack of weather) to visit my beautiful Idaho niblets ... and the rest of my IF family.

The fall weather inspired my mom, Kenna, and I to make some delicious cinnamon rolls.

While that same fall weather inspired Kylie-Monchichi to store up gummies in her cheeks for the long winter ahead.

We watched videos on my laptop while the cinnamon rolls baked.

And we finished off our Halloween Saturday handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. The kids who knocked on my parents' door hit the jackpot Saturday: both Kenna and Kylie insisted upon putting a fist full of candy in each bag.
But all of that cuteness had to be abandoned Sunday morning. I needed to be back in my cute little cowtown in time to be charmed by the ward primary program (Nicely Done, Elizabeth!). And then, bright and early Monday morning, my classroom decor had to be changed.

The ghosts, pumpkins and parts of speech had to go.

Goodbye boo-tiful October bulletin board with all of the helpful information that so many of the kids needed to peak at in order to get a passing grade on any and all adverb/adjective assignments. I will miss you. But not as much as the modifier-challenged-kidlets will.

Hello, fallish November room decorations.
I'm looking forward to our time together.

Now I get to bask in the warm, orange glow of the November decorations for exactly one week. That's when I get to start thinking about how to trick my teacher's aides into spending their time working on my December decorations instead of doing their Algebra.

One of these days I am going to find myself the holy grail of teacher's aides: an eighth grader who would rather use class time to make piles of die cut letters than do their homework. But until then, I will have to use the leftover Halloween candy to bribe the good-grade-obsessed aides I have now to work in the die cut salt mines for me. It's a good thing they like peanut butter cups. Next months board is going to be a doosie!