Last Week of School

This is my last week of school with the kiddos.  I have so much to do...report cards, end of the year gifts for the kids and volunteers, clean up the mess that my room has become, etc.

I have serious fuzzy brain syndrome people.

I'm going to print this and hang it around my neck as a warning to those around me.

The keep calm part is for me and the leave me alone part is for everyone else!  =)

What makes this week even worse is that I seriously have the best class I've had in 20 years.  (Has it really been that long?  Yikes, I'm old!)  I hate to see them go.

And the group coming up next year...the.WORST.ever!

This summer won't last long enough for them to mature as much as they need to folks...

Asked a Funny Question

A few weeks ago our school held it's annual Grandparent's Day celebration.

Yes, I know Grandparent's Day is officially in the fall, but our school has it in the spring.
Don't ask me why, I don't really know.
And if you ask anyone of importance why, you'll probably get the go-to answer...
"That's how it's always been done."

I bet you've never heard that one before.  We hear it a lot!

Although next year we'll have a new principal so maybe we won't hear it anymore unless of course they hire someone who has been around long enough to know that's how it's always been done.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

So after the big hoopla we do as a whole school, everyone goes back to their respective classrooms. The kids give the nanas and pop-pops a tour of their room, read them a book, have a cookie and introduce them to their teachers.

It's a time for chit chat, small talk, lots of smiling and the like.  Generally, a time to pretend you are a politician.  Shake hands.  Kiss a few babies.

And hope you don't have a kid who stands up on a chair and acts like a goober while the grandparents laugh, clap, and videotape the whole thing.

Anyway, I'm chatting with this one grandfather who looks me in the eye and says, "You've got a really nice classroom.  Did you decorate it yourself?"

I know my jaw dropped slightly...and my eyes blinked a number of times before I responded in true politician form, "Why yes, yes, I did as a matter of fact."

"Really?" he replies, "You did a nice job.  I really like it.  Do you do it every year?"

"Yep, I sure do, although every year I change a few things, rearrange a few things."  I smile and say.

Then I walk away to shake someone else's baby hand and kiss someone else's hand baby because I'm quite frankly dumbfounded.

Are there schools out there where they have decorators on staff and/or don't have to tear the whole room down at the end of the year and resurrect it again a couple of months later?  Do parents/grandparents think we teachers show up on the first day of school to a perfect ready room?

I don't know about you but I spend at least two three weeks decorating, preparing things, etc. before school starts.

Does anyone else out there think this was a bizarre question?  Have you been asked an equally odd question by a parent/grandparent?

Hope Springs

With all the tragedy that seems to be surrounding us lately I decided to make a freebie to share some hope.

Without hope we truly have nothing.
Without faith we have nothing.

You can grab it by clicking on it.  The link will take you to Honey Bunch Blog Design where you can find the freebie on the sidebar.

Kickin' the Stinky Sharpeners to the Curb

Hello?
Anyone out there reading this??

Look at that perfect point!  LOVE!

I know everyone's heard of these amazing sharpeners...so I am preaching to the choir.  I've read a gazillion posts raving about them...watched the videos...drooled some more.

However, I haven't been able to bring myself to purchase one with my own hard-earned cash.  It's not that I'm cheap mind you.  I spend more than a person in their right mind should spend on their classroom...again preaching to the choir, I know.  But our school buys us sharpeners so why should I?

But let's face it -- the sharpeners they buy for us S.T.I.N.K!

They jam at least once a day.  Sharpen a pencil crooked...if that is possible.

The best sharpener I have in my room is one I picked up at the Rescue Mission Bargain shop that is industrial strength and probably 50+ years old.  It's true...they don't make 'em like they used to.  If this bad boy wasn't attached to the wall I could probably seriously maim an intruder with it.

Oh, and did I happen to mention that we can't sharpen colored pencils in our cheesy sharpeners because they gum them up so much that they just refuse to work?  So I bought little sharpeners for the kids to use for those at the Dollar Store.

(smiles) Problem solved!

(shakes head) Uh huh, no!

Yep, those are breaking, being used as weapons (they do have a mini-razor inside ya know), and still don't sharpen a pencil perfectly.  That and some kids will twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen...twist.and.sharpen.until.there.is.nothing.left!

Then I had to requisition more paper clips because we had used them all to poke out the tips of the colored pencils that got broken off and stuck in the junky Dollar Store sharpeners.  And later those same paper clips were used as weapons too.

GRRRR!

So I'm hoping to put myself out of my pencil misery and either win one of these PERFECT sharpeners or I'm biting the bullet and buying one.

So there!  Take that stinky sharpeners around the world!
You are officially going to be kicked to the curb!

Booking Across the USA ~ Montana

I'm hooking up with a group of amazing bloggers to take you on a virtual trip around the USA ~ book by book.  The project is the brainchild of Jodie at Growing Book by Book.

Where is Montana?  (Seems like a silly question, but I've been asked what it's like living in Canada while visiting other states.)

Did you know that Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Hudson Bay?  You can learn this and other Fast Facts and Trivia about Montana by clicking here.

You can also visit Montana Kids and learn facts, play games, follow the dino trail, learn about Montana plants and animals, and read cool Montana ghost stories among other things!

As usual, it was hard for me to choose one book...so I didn't!

My first book is an oldie but a goodie called M is for Montana.

I first came across this book when I was a beginning teacher and have loved it ever since.  The illustrations are truly works of art and the book will appeal to children of all ages.

After reading this book, I have my students write acrostic poems with illustrations to match.  Although their poems don't usually have any historical or factual information like the book, they are very personal and creative.  Use watercolor for our illustrations, which is what I believe is used in the book.

I also like to use this book as a springboard before we create chalk mountain art work.  Here is a simple video that explains it much better than I could.

The second book I chose is B is for Big Sky Country.

This is another beautiful book with rich illustrations.  This book has a kind of "double" format.  For smaller kids you could just read the small rhyming portion (as highlighted below in yellow) and for bigger kids (and adults) you could read the larger more in-depth portion.

Here is a link for an idea book I have not used but it looks worth checking out.

I was amazed at how many other books related to Montana came up on Amazon.  (You gotta love the section "Customers Who Bought This Also Bought"...it gets me everytime!)

Third is a class favorite called Who Pooped in the Park? which is about identifying animal scat and tracks in Glacier National Park.

This fun book has kids hooked as soon as they see or hear the title!  I have made photocopies of illustrations in the book and "hidden" them around the room.  Then the kids play detective to try and identify them.  Some even decide they have to use magnifying lenses to look closer at the details.  It's a blast!  I use the song "Scit Scat Diddily Doo" by Foster Brown with this lesson.  It's a hit too.  You can find it on this CD.

I hope you have fun visiting Montana through one or all of these books.  And better yet, that you get a chance to visit in real life sometime in the future!

Click on the button below to go to a post showing all the contributing blogs.