Springing into Break!

We've finally made it! Spring has sprung (sort of) and the weather is starting to reflect how we've all been feelings in Room 702.
As we prepared ourselves for a week's vacation -- we enjoyed ourselves a little week of spirited activities.
Our countdown had begun -- we wrapped up units, pushed through our Math topics and even had a celebratory Spring assembly to kick off vacation.

 We began our week with a Social Studies -- Gallery Walk!  I divvied up the kids and gave each group a different poster, as well as a different colored marker. They were each given 2 minutes to write anything they could remember on the topic we'd been discussing for the past month. All of our colonial knowledge, slavery, economics, and government came together through this summarizing activity. The groups then rotated through, so every group had a chance to work at every station. The results were really cool -- this is a great way for them to demonstrate what they know and review with the ENTIRE class! :)

The end of the week proved to be a bit crazy, but not any less exciting. Our amazing 6th grade Math teacher took on the task of doing the St. Jude's Math-a-thon. 23 of her students rose to the challenge of raising money for this amazing cause. The challenge: Raise $1,000 and their science teacher would shave his head. As the money poured in and these kids worked hard to complete their math activity books -- it became clear they were going to meet and surpass that goal. When they passed $1,000 -- they wanted another victim - they asked one of the Title Aides if he'd join in as well (at $1,500 would he shave his head?). He agreed and the donations continued. As a final tally -- the kids raised $1,800 for St. Jude and at our Spring Assembly -- two male staff members (the only two who weren't already bald) had their heads shaved in front of everyone.

The science teacher prepped himself for this endeavor by dying his hair school colors on Thursday morning. 

With all of that excitement the kids were sent on their way -- with hopes of happy and relaxing weeks off. As we teachers take a few minutes to relax ourselves!
Although I have lots of ideas circulating and some things to look forward to when we return!

Book clubs:

and beginning our fun and exciting unit of poetry!

Have great Spring Breaks and hopefully you all return refreshed and ready for the end of the year!

Appropriate Appreciation

This past weekend I took quite a risk and agreed to go fishing. Relying heavily on friends to supply me with necessary things (waders, fishing poles, bait, a boat...ya know common items), I rode 2.5 hours up to Baldwin late Friday night to a friend's cabin. Slept a few hours into the morning and then began to pile on layer...upon layer... upon layer of clothing. Pants, long-johns, waders, underarmour, patagonia layers, sweatshirts.... hats, gloves. The list could extend the length of this post.
I was sure to document -- since I knew nobody would believe me that I actually wore waders...and actually went fishing.

We arrived on the PM (Pere Marquette -- for those of you who don't fish .... me) and began the adventure.

I managed to land myself a wee little rainbow trout -- which I proudly boasted to anyone who would listen. 

After 8 long hours of floating the river -- I'd lost feeling in my finger and we'd all gone a little bit Castaway -- If there'd been a volleyball around -- we may have befriended it.

Overall, it's a new experience that offers up many new stories to share and laugh over -- which is worthwhile for me!








To wrap up this post -- and stick to the title theme -- I wanted to showcase and highlight that today was Joe/Willie Appreciation Day! We showed our gratitude for CMS's favorite custodians by making banners, cards and treats for our favorite guys!
Rm. 702 made a whole stack of cards that were scattered throughout Joe's day and I made a class card to post on his door.  Just a little thanks for keeping our school looking snazzy!

-T

Words of Wisdom

I'm intrigued and interested to have come across this today. I love public education.

A little Tuesday pick-me-up.

Q: "What is a nebula?"
A: "Nebula is a women's name."













Taught the kids about writing vignettes and was eagerly approached by one of my girls:
"Miss Brown, I finished my vinaigrette... will you look it over?"



These are a few of the many reasons I love and will always love my job.

Skiing across the country.

Since West Michigan (and now the rest of the state) has been blanketed in a bouncy layer of snow, 5th grade decided to take advantage and introduce the kids to Cross Country Skiing at the local nature center. On Wednesday, 3 of the 5th grade classes piled onto big yellow buses and made our way to Sarett. Bundled in snow clothes and wearing big warm boots -- the kids filed in for their crash course on the history of skiing. After learning the basics about the "babbish" on a snowshoe and how we don't want to be "high sticker-nose pickers..." but rather "low sticker - thigh flickers" with our ski poles -- we got our boots and separated into groups of 10. 

 We met our naturalist in the parking lot, skis in hand as we all fumbled putting on the (very) slippery skis. Once our boots were locked in, she taught us how to get up if we fell. The entire time I was thinking, "It's fine...I just need to avoid falling so I don't have to do that much scooting and rolling in the snow." (I wasn't that lucky).  The groups wobbled on their skis toward the "practice circles" so we could test out our skills gliding, walking, and pushing ourselves through the snow.

 Each group, like ducklings to their mother, disappeared into the woods. My skis were awesome! A nice pair of Crown skis and pretty blue poles. I know nothing about skiing and had never been on a pair of skis -- but I enjoyed my pair and really liked gliding around.






 We ended up with a perfect day, quite warm and sunny with beautiful, snow-covered trails to glide through. Eventually we made our way to one of the "baby hills" as our instructor assured us. By this time I'd fallen twice -- once landing my head right into the side of a tree. I was a little apprehensive of this hill -- so I played "photographer" at the bottom.                 

 We had some wipeouts on this hill -- as I watched it be quite difficult for some kids to stay in the track. Those that did fall, 
became experts at popping back up after wiping out! I had a dad from my class attend the field trip! Mr. Tavolacci was our seasoned expert on the skis -- and he raced his son down the hill a few times, which was fun to watch!

 After a tiring day of skiing -- the kids were quiet on the bus ride back to school. Most were chilled and had bright rosy cheeks, but had nothing but great things to say. One of mine came up to me while turning in his skis and said, "Miss Brown -- I can snowboard and not fall...but I fell 8 times on these things!" I asked, "Did you have fun?" "Well, yeah..." "Then it was worth the falling.." I replied. :)
I felt the same -- the kids were overly interested in how many times I fell on my skis -- I kept my number at 3 .. but one of them was because I crashed into one of my students.

It was a phenomenal day and a great field trip. I love getting out of my comfort zone -- and watching kids get to try something they might not have tried on their own -- or have never done before. I thank Sarett and the parent volunteer for giving us a great day in the snow!


To end this post -- I'd like to share a picture from yesterday. Yesterday was "Team Day" at school. Students were told to wear a shirt/jersey representing their favorite team. Our principal pushed for increased MSU gear...heavily biased in his favoritism :). I wore an old school hockey jersey -- representing the San Jose Sharks. Now, I'm a Wings fan all the way -- but I couldn't pass up wearing one of the old jersey to school -- plus it's TEAL! The kids had no idea it was one of the old jerseys..but they liked it anyways. A handful of staff members had a similar idea representing, MSU, Boston Bruins, and Chicago Blackhawks for hockey!

A FANtastic Friday!

Running Circles around Lit Circles.

 
Today is the exciting and long awaited day!
5th grade begins Blood on the River today! I've decided to take on the task of launching my group into self directed book clubs to work through this book. Coming off of our study of the establishment of Jamestown in Social Studies, I picked this book to dovetail what we've been studying.

I've spent the last 3 weeks preparing all of the materials, folders, comprehension questions, vocabulary, and projects that will accompany this book over the next 5-6 weeks. We got off to a delay with days off these past two weeks -- but we're off to a bang!
The kids like it... they're actually all participating and discussing what they read. I love peeking in and listening to them talk and work through the book on their own.

Each day begins with a task page that outlines what they need to accomplish in the circle for that day. The kids have already read, so they're ready to discuss --
I give them some possible discussion topics for the chapters assigned, and off they go.

Walking by hearing, "I think that word is an insult because in the book it says he whispered it."  or "How would you feel if you were stuck on a boat with people you barely knew?"
AMAZING.

I love literature and love watching students love literature. 

Wait... I'm a teacher?

It officially became winter here in the southwest corner of the mitten! That may be the understatement of the year, actually. We got hit with a LOT of snow and ice. Let's take it back a quick jog ... I was living life gloriously as a teacher with MLK Jr. day off. Spending the day just relaxing and mentally preparing to go back to work. Little did I know, Mother Nature had other plans.
    Tuesday morning I awoke with a jolt to the sound of my phone ringing, alerting me that "Coloma Community Schools would be closed" ... HALLELUJAH -- the first snow day of the season, in a district where I was assured, "we don't get snow days." Totally unexpected and totally awesome. I frolicked, yes frolicked in the snow that day  --- in the -20 degree weather -- I excitedly jaunted through the snow.

This is where I live -- and what it looked like on Wednesday by the lake. :)

Got myself all rested and prepared to go back on Wednesday --- psyche! Not happening -- Wednesday was called off too and then Thursday! It became sort of funny that we had all of these days off, but the snow kept coming and the wind chill kept dropping, so to keep the kiddos fingers and toes on their bodies - we gave them day after day off.

     It got to the point that we were joking about our jobs, "I think I'm a teacher... but I'm not sure anymore."
Friday was the day we, teachers, had all waited for -- back to school for a Monday sort of Friday. We reviewed, we played Math and Science games and we said farewell to our classes for the weekend (already). The weekend was odd, I felt like I was getting so much time off and that it was like Christmas break all over again!
       I spent the weekend, just as I had the past 4 days off of school -- lessons done, grading done... just enjoying time off. Monday came with a surprise -- 5:42am -- another day off. Sleeping in until 8 was becoming a bad habit -- but I was amazingly productive... cooked a delicious dinner and relaxed yet again.
Back to school today -- tough to get back into the grind, but I was SO ready. The kids love the days off .. but I know the consequences of too much time off and I was ready to see them again!

We spent today launching back into our units -- Dividing Decimals, Studying the Southern Colonies and Saturn. Oh, beautiful.. glorious .. ringed Saturn. We read from our textbooks as a class and then I showed this video:

I'm a BIG fan of Charlie -- but I had NO idea that he had a series on the Solar System! What a diamond to find -- the kids LOVE him because he's hilarious -- and he talks to them, just like I do. Like someone who is BEYOND fascinated by space and just oozes with excitement to share all of the crazy weird things that happen in space.

AMAZING.

Happy Happy Tuesday, teachers.

Welcome back.