End of the Year, and the Start of a Big Adventure!

We finished school a week ago, but so much has happened since then! I'm going to cheat on Five for Friday and show you 5 photos from our last week of school.

It's simple, but my kids loved getting to read in our nature center for 20 minutes. I let them each enjoy a freeze pop, and popped around to get an individual photo of each kid for their end of the year gift.

The next day, the kids used adjectives to describe each other in a game of Scoot. Since my kids mostly thought of different ones, I had them do an extra round where they voted for 2 others, and then I put the results into a Tagul word cloud to finish up their end of the year class gift, just like last year.

Once I got the basic Tagul settings set up, I just retyped things for each student and I probably had these printed and ready in about an hour. They would look great framed!

Our grade level took the kids to a bowling alley for our end-of-the-year party. For $3, each kid got to play two games, and they LOVED it! (This little guy had never gone bowling before. Check out that form!)

My kids got a chance to give their teacher a report card, which they just loved. If you're still in school, you can grab a copy of the teacher's report card here.

You can link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching here!

It was a very busy end of the year, but this past week has been REALLY huge for my family.

Last weekend, I threw a party for my husband to celebrate his birthday and graduation, and yesterday, on his official birthday, he accepted a job in the Cincinnati area (where he's from, and we both have family).

So... I'M OFFICIALLY MOVING!

We are both excited, but I am really sad to leave my current school and job. If anyone has job searching tips, classroom moving tips, or any connections that might help in the Cincy area, I would be forever grateful!

Weekend ~ Currently

This has been an interesting start to the school year. I've done 2nd grade for the past 3.5 years, and this year switched to 3rd. People keep asking how I like it, and honestly... I'm still on the fence.
It's hard to tell what's a difference between 2nd and 3rd, and what's just a difference in the personalities of this class and last year's class. I'm also still very much getting used to this curriculum, while still scrounging up enough books for my class.

I've also switched grade level teams, which has been interesting... they are pretty different than the 2nd grade team, and I am more grateful than ever for some of the wonderful coworkers at my school.

I was ready for a long weekend, to be sure, even though I was feeling pretty sick by the end of last week.

Weekend plans included a trip to Cincinnati, to see fireworks from a riverboat and watch a Reds baseball game with family, but... my car battery has died. And when a car breaks down on a Sunday of a holiday weekend, it's a liiiittle tough to get it worked on.
So, instead of a trip... the husband and I hunkered down on the couch, ordered cheese sticks from the local pizza place, ate fresh-baked Funfetti cookies, and watched Indiana Jones movies. Got to make the most of it, right?

On the plus side, I'm feeling almost all better! Are the germs catching up with anyone else, now that some of us are a few weeks in to the school year?

Link up with Farley's Currently if you haven't already :) And come back later this week for a place value freebie!

Brainstorm... and a winner!

I talked to my principal today, basically just to tell her up front that I was open to considering 3rd grade. (I know, open to considering- I'm so committed.) I told her my reservations.

She said she might also consider having me do one more year in 2nd, and then move to 3rd the year after that, since there would be openings. (If, of course, I don't move away.) She said she definitely thinks I could do third, and I get the feeling that she might like to try me there- but, just like me, she thinks having another year in the same grade level to really "lock it down" might be good for me as a new teacher, too.

Things are still very up in the air, but I'm glad I talked to her and it's nice to hear that she believes I could do it. It's just hard to know if I want to, though!

Thanks for the advice, too! A couple of you left such thoughtful responses. Chrissy- the testing is part of what I'm worried about. That's a lot more pressure! But looping and starting right from the get go could be fantastic. Tammy- if I do end up in 3rd, you and I will dive in together! I completely know what you mean about making resources that match the reading stories, though! I would be in the same boat- recreating homework, newsletters, and some activities.

Anyway. I'm sure all 11 of you have probably been dying for me to stop jabbering on and tell you who the WINNER is already!

Since there were so few entries, I counted the number of people who entered to randomize, and the last one who commented is Liz Langhoff, who hates horizontal plan books as much as I do!


Yay Liz! I'll be emailing you soon (even though I know you may not need your template just yet!).

In other news, my school has been raising money this week to donate books to those affected by the tornadoes in Henryville, Indiana. I showed them a slideshow of pictures not long after it happened, and ever since, my kids have been all about wanting to help. The third grade has raised money through their popcorn sales, and the book fair committee started a "One for Books" change drive, but my class still wants to do something more.

Two of the kids got together over a weekend and went door-to-door selling Dum-Dums for donations. They made almost $30. How sweet is that!

One of them mentioned a lemonade stand as something our class could do together to raise money, and I think we are actually going to do it. There's even a day where our whole school walks or runs a mile, and the principal suggested we do it that day. I have a great group of parents who would happy to help me set it up and supervise it, but otherwise I want to get the kids involved as much as possible.

This will be in the last few weeks of school, when the kids are a little stir-crazy and it's hard to feel like a lot of learning is really happening, so I'm excited to use this as an opportunity to sneak in lots of learning. Plus, we're helping others and having a great time. Win-win-win!

My brainstormed ideas for learning so far:
- List and estimate the cost needed for our supplies.
- Talk about capital, and decide where we will get our capital. (Most likely, it will be the classroom fund that I haven't dipped into yet just because I always forget to turn in receipts. Could also ask the PTA to be an "investor.")
- Write a business letter to local businesses asking them to donate necessary supplies.
- Write a friendly letter to parents, asking them to help.
- Set up a Google Doc form or online sign-up (together) that parents will use to volunteer.
- Create a schedule for the volunteers and assign jobs to them.
- Create advertisements for throughout the school- including video (that I can send through email), written (to send parents in an email), posters, and audio for over the announcements.
- Write a press release to send to the local TV, radio, and newspapers. (How amazing would it be to get this covered?)
- Follow recipe directions to make lemonade (practicing measurement!)
- Do a science experiment concerning the basics of concentration - and "taste test" our lemonade!
- Multiply the recipe to see how much we will need by way of supplies.
- Make change.
- Count the money we make.
- Subtract the cost of our capital to find our profit.
- Write thank you notes to anyone who helps.
- Write letters to Henryville students and teachers to send along with our donations!

Any other ideas for ways to maximize our learning with a lemonade stand? I'm checking out a program called Lemonade Day to see how that works...

Also, if I end up doing this from my own materials, is this something other people would be interested in me sharing? I could actually see this being a really useful unit...