Monday, May 27, 2013

Surviving Survivor Day



Oh my goodness...

I am finally sitting down to post about last week's adventures. Let me just say that no one is counting down or anything, but the kiddos only have 3 days left. Whoo hoo.....I am excited for them and their own summer time fun!

I will start with saying how glad I am that this year's Survivor Day ended on the beginning of a three day weekend! It has taken me all three days to feel myself again. LOL....this old teacher just can't handle those fun-filled days like I used to! Really...it was such a beautiful, breezy day; I don't think I realized just how much sun I was getting, and I have paid for that all weekend!

Any~who....on to the fun pictures! Oh how I LOVE our fourth grade sendoff!

 

Our kiddos worked hard on our banner...
my favorite so far!


We started outside, almost immediately, and we went from station to station competing against other teams for points.






We had this down in 6 seconds flat! :)

 





 



 



There was a lot of friendly rivalry...


...but it was all in good fun and we are all still best friends! :)


I was very glad that Katie Byrd was able to come again this year...the kiddos sure loved it!



My two red-heads

Oh no....someone brought a puppy
that Katie was desperate to adopt...
maybe next time!

The Jungle Walk sure was tough 


I love my sweet team!

Let me tell you that all the teams worked hard for that Survivor Idol...we had tons of fun and laughs doing it, but if I am 100% honest...my kiddos cringed a bit when we came up against the yellow teams...LOL...they were a hard group to beat! In the end it was Ms. Shemaker's team that walked away with the idol (again! ;)..by just 1 point! Oh well....there's always next year. ;)


Even though my kiddos were disappointed to not hold that trophy...it all went away the minute our local fire truck pulled up!

This is such an amazing thing for the fire station to do for these kiddos, and they NEVER forget it!




They all love giving wet hugs when they are finished LOL


This is one of my favorite days of the year...even if it wears me out! :) This is the last year of elementary for these sweet kiddos, and our parents work so hard at this amazing sendoff! 

When I see students from previous years, they always remind me of this day!

This has been such a fun and loving group of kiddos, and I don't know who is going to miss the other the most!

Well...I know with all the pics, it is not really a short post, but I am going to leave it at this for now.

I will try to jump on in the next few days to add some books...we've still been having fun with books!

Happy Reading!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Survivor Shenanigans, Graduation and Books, Books, Books!


Hello there, my blogger friends! Well....our Survivor Idol is at it again...our idol-nappers have been in contact this week....

You are all on top of it this morning!  Congratulations to Tribe Barnhill!  They beat Tribe Dunn by 1 minute!!!  All of you found me at Lord Howe Island in Australia!  

I am hoping to take in some of the culture later, do some fun activities and see what kind of trouble I can get into!!!

Standings so far are as follows:

Tribe Barnhill 20 points
Tribe Dunn 10 points
Tribe Hitchcock 10 points
Tribe Whitt 0 points :( (I know you guys will catch up though.....I have faith in you)

Only 1 week until Survivor Day and I hope to be home by then!  Keep checking your emails to see where I might go next!  Keep up the great work!!!!

Mr. Tiki

I will be keeping an eye out for more messages! That Tribe Barnhill sure is fast! :)

We have lots of fun leading up to Friday....I can't wait to see how it all turns out...

The competition has even got Mrs. Whitt, the least competitive of us all, stirred up... 

 


That is Mrs. Whitt leaving a message in Mrs. Hitchcock's room....haha


It's that time of year and the kiddos are READDDYYYYY for summer! You know how hard it is to hold them together right about now...whew...

It has been a crazy week, and we have one more full and CRAZY week to go!

Friday was a wonderful celebration as Cabot seniors graduated!

 

 

Our fourth graders made signs to show off as the graduating class passed by our school on their way to graduation practice...









My kiddos have really gotten used to checking out our blog, and most things in my classroom have turned into..."take a picture for the blog!" :)

So...Friday during our recess our sweet kiddos happened upon an injured bird...and well, pretty much begged that I get a pic of it...

sweet little injured bird...

We were lucky enough to get in touch with a wildlife rehabilitation group, and they came and picked her up right away...the kiddos were so relieved!


After a long day, some good friends and I had a "Front-Porch Friday Night"....tons of fun with great friends practicing what we called...Verbal Release Therapy...hahahaha


Best place ever to relax with friends :)

Vicki decided to take us for a ride in her new toy....

This is us riding around her place....
can't remember the last time we laughed so hard :)
Mrs. Hitchcock screams like a girl, hehehehe



Greek Food Festival bound..

My daughter Katie performs with a group called "I Can Dance." This is a dance troop that helps children with disabilities perform and dance with other children...I am such a proud mom, and with our crazy schedules, I was so blessed to get to watch her Saturday!
We attended the Greek Food Festival in Little Rock...SO FUN! 

Beautiful dancing girls!

While I waited to see Katie Byrd dance, I was lucky enough to see one of my very sweet girlies...she was preparing to dance with another troop from the "I Can Dance" program. :)


Precious girl :)

So happy to have taught her beautiful, older sister as well!

So glad that we were able to drag Joshua along with us :)



Whoo hoo....now for some books :)

Lots of new books....used up the last of this year's points



The first picture book I want to share is A Balloon for Isabel by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Laura Rankin. I picked this little cutie up in our last book order...well all the lovelies I am sharing tonight are new additions to our library...but this little cutie, in particular, is just so stickin' cute ~ I can't stand it. I love Rankin's illustrations, but even more I love the message....I really wanted to share the last page because that is my favorite, but I just couldn't give away the ending.

There are lots of great problem solving and overcoming challenges in this sweet story, so theme is a great discussion point! And as always...great inferring and predicting!


The next beauty is another great study of common themes in literature....

This silly, little read is full of hyperbole and all around goofiness,  but it is an amazing discussion starter about problem solving; something that I think many of my fourth graders need practice with! (Well, maybe even their teacher, sometimes too!)  I LOVE it, even in all of its silly glory! Stuck by Oliver Jeffers is one that I CANNOT wait to share and discuss!



This next beauty I bought in anticipation of one of the units I will be doing again next year. This nonfiction book is so well done and so beautifully written...the kiddos will have no problems following it! Moonshot The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca is a perfect addition to our nonfiction library....you know the library I have desperately been trying to grow...


One last nonfiction addition...I know my boys are going to love this one as much as I do! The illustrations by Dan Andreasen are amazing in Peter Golenbock's ABCs of Baseball. You know I have never been the biggest fan of ABC books, but in the world of nonfiction, I am certainly seeing their power. I love that this one has an introduction by the author...just love notes by the author! After checking out his website and bio, I love him even more, with his basset named Fred.


Well....as always...with that I will say good-night and HAPPY READING! Thanks for indulging me with these posts that seem to grow each week... :)