"WE NEED A VACATION"

The title says it all and every future educator, current and past know this end of the school year feeling or should be warned. "We Need a Vacation" is the title to the PTO program our second graders are performing next week. This theme is so true for teachers and students alike. I really did not understand what teachers meant when they were tired and burnout at the end of the year. I am there completely, but I wake up each morning praying for God to give me the desire and patience to continue to stretch the my student's learning. We teachers and administrators jam in teaching, testing, and fun into the last month of school. Man have we been busier than ever at school getting all that done...testing done, teaching (well were trying), and the fun has begun and continues! Field Trips, Carnival, Field Days, Dances...what more could you ask for!!

FIELD TRIPS

Our first grade students were able to go on a field trip despite all these treacherous budget cuts. Our field trip was to Two Tails Ranch which tied into our animal unit and circus field day (we will get to that a bit later). The ranch houses retired circus elephants, zebras, a tiger, an ostrich, donkeys, and horses. Oh the students had a such a great time learning about all these awesome animals. The elephants did tricks, and even painted a picture that one of my students won after submitting a drawing from his favorite part of the day. A cool fact I learned is that an elephant has more muscles in their trunks than we have in our whole body. Too cool right? The students asked great questions, that they re asked later, but the attempt was there. My students curiosity created an environment of in depth learning that could not be recreated. It was great and a day I will remember for years to come!

SPRING INTO SUMMER

Our school had planned three Family fun Nights this year with the last one being May 8th. In the past we had gotten into the same routine with doing ""make it and take it" activities by grade level and we were not getting the turn out we wanted. Due to the economic times a second grade teacher and I teamed up to change the set up of this final event. We wanted this night to be fun for parents to come out and enjoy learning wit their children. We came up with the idea of an academic carnival with booths, and a cook out, with popcorn and snow cones. It took everything out of S.L. and I but it was worth every drop of sweat. On May 8th our first Spring into Summer was a sucess with over 465 people attending. The teachers did an exceptional job coming up with ideas for thier booths. We had math fact baseball, comprehension volleyball, rocket launching, human bubble experiment, a fluency obstacle course, and I could go on and on. The amount of help that was graciously given was what made this all such an amazing night for our students. I can't go on with out saying what a truly selfless husband I have. He came and grilled over 400 hamburgers, many hot dogs, and even a veggie burger or two. He did say he can't believe people eat those veggie burgers, because it looks grilled cardboard.

FIELD DAY

Last Wednesday our first and second graders took part in field day which was circus themed. There were nine stations for students to go to. There was a peanut bucket race (which I raced in), tug of war, a tricycle race, a clown dress up race, etc. The tug of war and the clown race had to be my favorite and guess what I forgot my camera in the classroom. I could kick myself because this day brought so much joy for our class. We had been working so hard on all our curriculum and tests, that to slow down the pace and let them be children was remarkable to see. Even thought I do not have the tangible memories, I will never forget the girls beating the boys in tug of war or each kid running in those clown shoes. What a precious day it was!

DANCES

Next Friday my students and I (yes, me too) are looking forward to our school dance. Now I did not have a blog back in February when the school hosted a Valentine's Day dance (oh my was it a blast)! The picture on the left is from that day! The boys want to break dance and the girls want to dance in circles together. What great memories all our students will have. We plan on dancing until we are all out of breath and all the refreshments are gone. Now if the Cha-Cha slide comes on more than once we will just have to dance it every time. It is one of our favorites! What fun it is to be a elementary student! Summer Vacation here we come!

*LRW*