A New Total!

Well, here we are on the first day of the fourth week of the school year. As previously stated, the bread tabs have been flowing in from all directions. (Another little fellow, from grade 3, also brought in a huge amount of tabs for us.) With the help of kids who are willing to make stacks of ten and bags of 100 during read alouds, a very dedicated TA and a wonderful Oral Interpreter we finished counting the bookbags of bread tabs. That one little darling brought in 16 916 bread tabs. I was amazed that one group in my class had estimated the amount to be 16 242, and another group had estimated about 18 000. I have some pretty bright little kiddies in my room. I am also thrilled with the improvement I am noting in some of their abilities to add and subtract mentally. Math, math everywhere!

Our present total is...69 142! That is over twice what we collected throughout all of last year. Inconceivable! (My little homage to The Princess Bride) There is still my 2-litre ice cream container and four sandwich bags of bread tabs sitting on my desk awaiting tabulation.

I have to admit that I brought some home this weekend and counted out 4 000 between watching The Princess and the Frog and The Amazing Race.

This weekend, I went to the local farmers' market to stock up on some fresh fruit and veggies, and samosas, of course, and I ran into a high school friend. She recently moved back to the area. While living in Ontario, she sent me bread tabs via Canada Post. After exchanging a few words, she reached into her purse and pulled out a bag of bread tabs. I can only assume that she was carrying them around in case she ran into me. I love that gal!

This weekend, I'm going shopping for a see-through container that is big enough to hold 100 000. I think we're going to need it soon.

The New Year Begins With a Bang

As I said in my last entry, the road to one million does not take a summer vacation. However, I had no idea how true that was until these past two weeks, and especially today!

On the first day of school, my brand new batch of little darlings sat in front of me and I announced that we would continue what last year's class had started, and that we would attempt to save one million bread tabs. Once again, a few of them thought that this was a reasonable goal for this year. Others, however, perhaps a bit more savvy after watching the adventure from afar last year, said that it just wasn't possible but that they would give it the old Elementary School try.

We hauled out the ever-so-trusty 2-litre ice cream bucket, filled with tabs saved over the summer, and had our first count. Luckily, I still have the same understanding and marvelous Teacher's Assistant from last year. She dug in and began to help in instructing her table in the tens, then hundreds, then thousands procedure. 1 670 bread tabs later, the kids had caught the bug and I could see little pieces of plastic dancing in their eyes. Then someone announced that a girl, who was out of the room at the time of the count, had said that she had some tabs in her bookbag. I thought, "Oh good! We'll be able to start filling up the bucket again. Maybe we can have another count in a couple of weeks." The girl returned, went to her backpack and hauled out a bread bag practically full of bag closing devices. The kids jaws dropped and then raised again in the form of a smile.

The next day, was bread tab count #2. This was the first experience, of its kind, for a very dear sweet oral interpreter who is working with me this year. Up until this point, I believe she thought I was quite loopy, but was much too thoughtful to say anything of the kind. As she watched some children, who are not particularly enamored of mathematics, figure out that if they had 8 bags of 100 they needed 2 more bags to make 1000, and that that meant 800 + 200=1000, she turned to me and said something like, "Now, I get it." Our total went up by over 3 000 that class.

The plastic stream did not stop there however. A very enthusiastic boy from the grade 2 class arrived at my door this week with 4 or 5 sandwich bags full. His mother informed me that everywhere he went this summer, he asked if he could heave their bread tabs because a teacher at his school needs them. The coffee shop our staff stops at on Friday morning agreed to start saving them for us. I went to my mailbox in the office to find another sandwich bag just about full, a gift from a lovely lady in Headstart. A child came in with another large amount from her mother and "all these orange ladies in Harvey (that) are saving them for us." (I am assuming that The 2-litre container was once again filled.

Before we had a chance to count again, a substitute teacher, whose mother works at the hospital cafeteria, came in with another bread bag full. The children's eyes gleamed as they predicted that it held anywheres from 1 702 to 3550 bread tabs. A count confirmed that the upper estimate was close, 3265 to be exact. However, before this tally occurred something even more amazing took place.

This morning, a little blonde haired cutie from my class came up to me as she arrived in class and said, "My bookbags are really heavy Madame!"

"Bookbags? Why do you have two with you?" I really don't assign that much homework.

"They are filled with something you will really like!"

"Oh, what did you bring?" Yes, folks, that's right! TWO backpacks filled with bread tabs. (See picture above) Did I mention that we hadn't even got around to counting my trusty ice cream container again? "Where on earth did you get all those bread tabs?"

"My Aunt Shirley. Oh, and some people from the French Lake Baptist Church" I am not sure who Aunt Shirley is, but she is certainly going to be receiving a thank you card from a happy class of grade 5 students. I am sure there are over 15 000 precious petroleum based wonders sitting in a Sterilite container awaiting sorting and quantifying as I type. Unbelievable!!!

Our school is situated in the most amazing and thoughtful community in the world. As this project takes on a life of its own, I am becoming more and more convinced that I will see one million before I retire.

I'll update the blog when I know how many we have in total.