Welcome to Room 217!

Entering my room from the third grade house area. 

I have 22 students this year, so far. 

Found this idea on Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. 

My Cat in the Hat in the doll chair Gary's Dad made for my Mom.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are ready to spring into action. 

We are off to a good start this year!

Adeline LOVES Lemonade Shakeups!

Sharing

After school one day last week, Gary came over to the car to see if I needed any help getting stuff in from my car. Abby came running up to us, grabbed his hand and said, "Papa come with me." So of course, he went with her. She had walked home from the bus stop by herself - a very exciting part of being in first grade this year.  On her way home she had spotted some interesting sights, including a squashed frog and she knew Papa would enjoy sharing in her discovery. Love this special little times with our granddaughters.

First Day of School

                             

It is important to surround yourself with people who inspire and support you!

Izzy's first day of 5th grade

Abby's first day of 1st grade

My classroom after the first day of school. 

I even got my smart board, laptop, and document camera all set up and running by myself!

I'm going with my Dr. Seuss theme this year.  My Cat in the Hat is sitting in a little chair that Gary's dad, Jack Mitchell, made for my mom, Barbara Winslow.  I found the chair when we were going through my parents home last month.  Liz and Sarah each had a chair from their Grandpa Mitchell, but I never asked him to make one for me.  So this chair has special memories of two special people and I think of them when I look at the chair.  

I'm trying my desk by the front door this year.  Not sure how I'm going to like it yet.  I don't sit at the desk very much so it probably won't really matter much.  The lab table in the front of the room is where I do most, but not all, of my whole class instruction. 

The students were assigned a cubby today for their belongings during the school day.  These first three days, they are allowed to pick their seat daily.  It gives me a chance to watch them work.  I tell them it is ok to sit with your friends, but you have to get your work done.  If you can't get your work done, you won't be sitting with that friend for quite some time.  On Monday when they walk in they will have assigned seats.  I like to keep table groups together for about a month and then switch the groups around.  We always switch on a Monday. So on the Friday before we switch seating assignments, I have the students put all of the contents of their desk in their cubby.  When they come in on Monday, there will be a map of the classroom on the board and they will need to find their new desk.  This is actually a challenge for 8 year olds.  The first table with everyone in the correct seat gets a reward, usually a fun pencil, erasers, or bookmark.  Sometimes it is only the first table, sometimes it is all the tables.  Random rewards are fun!

The horseshoe table is where I have small group reading instruction and small group math reteaching, and any other small group activities.  I now have some floor space in front of my white board and I have carpet squares that they students can pull out and and use while they sit on the floor.  

This is true.  Meetings, setting up the classroom, meetings, trainings, meetings, planning beginning of the year activities, meetings, making copies, meetings, and did I mention meetings? Lots of long hours are put in by the teachers before the students even show up. 

This is how I felt today.  My family is so good to me.  I don't even have to worry about dinner for the first couple of weeks.  I arrived home a little after 6 tonight.  Gary and I had baked potatoes for dinner, caught up on our days, and played on the computer and iPad for awhile.  Now it is time to make my lunch for tomorrow and then get some rest.  Day two of the school year will be here soon and there is a 7:45 staff meeting before the students arrive in the morning too.  

I love teaching.  My new class is so excited to learn to read harder books, learn multiplication, practice cursive writing, write stories, and just about everything else that I told them we were going to do.  It is going to be a good year.

Youth Team-building Activities

We had a combined Lexington Park and Patuxent Ward YM/YW activity. 

Our Laurels were in charge.  They had several fun team building activities for the youth. 

For the first activity, each group was given straws and a strip of tape.  They had to construct a raft.  The raft had to hold pennies and float. 

This was a fun relay where they had to run through their line and keep the bridge going 

back and forth across the cultural hall. 

It was fun! 

I enjoyed watching the youth work together. 

Next was a scripture chase activity.  Each person had a set of scriptures.  

The teams sat back to back.  A scripture mastery scripture was read and each youth had to find the scripture, raise their hand, and get it checked by one of the Laurels. 

You could help a teammate, but you had to do it quietly, because you didn't want the other team to hear.  

After each scripture, the winning team had three people go and try to make a basket to earn points. 

There was lots of fun and the kids encouraged one another. 

There was another relay that involved paper plates, but I had to go and help with snow cone preparation.  

It was a fun evening.  The youth seemed to have a good time and so did the leaders.  

It is fun working with the youth.  We have some awesome and amazing youth in this area.  

Girls Outside

Abby was excited that the butterfly was staying on her finger.

Adeline was thrilled that Papa was pushing her around in the car!

The girls love it when Papa plays outside with them. 

You will just have to imagine all the little girl squeals and giggles.  

The butterfly is still on her finger. 

We are enjoying these nice summer evenings with the girls. 

Strong-willed Daughters

 Yes it is going to be okay!

Saturday

Abby collected two praying mantis before she headed out to Lily's birthday party. 

Sarah and Ellie made a paper and yarn jellyfish. 

Adeline tried out her new trike. 

In North Carolina, Clay baptized Liz and Katie's friend, Anji. Liz and Katie met Anji at a K-Pop concert a couple of years ago. 

Adeline has found a new tasty treat, Jelly Bellys. 

Gary put this bench together for extra seating in the kitchen. He also put together two more park benches, one for the basement patio, and one for the garden patio. 

He moved the two new antigravity chairs to the screened porch.

Gary bought a new smoker. 

I'm planning to spend some relaxing evenings out here. We are still waiting on the garage door for the new shed. 

Gary moved the rest of the rocking chairs to the front porch and I wiped them all down. Now the porch, deck, screened porch, and both patios have plenty of seating for reading, relaxing, chatting, watching the granddaughters play, listen to night sounds, watching birds and butterflies. Life is good!

Setting Up My Classroom

Here are photos from the first day of pulling the classroom together. 

I pull everything out of the student cubbies where it is stored during the summer. 

Day Two and it is getting better. 

Figuring out where I want to put the furniture this time. 

Lots to do. We officially have one day to work in our classrooms. 

The other 3 teacher work days are for meetings, trainings, and open house. 

It will get done, it always does, but it requires some really long days. My family knows for the first two weeks I will be late getting home, exhausted, and still have work to do at home. They help by coming in to help me move furniture and hang things on the walls, fixing dinner and keeping palate of food for me to eat whenever I get home, and just loving me and supporting me. I couldn't do this without them.