Great News For Me and a Trip to the Zoo

I got some fantastic news yesterday! The projector for my Smartboard is getting replaced on Tuesday!!! I have been living without my Smartboard and document camera for a couple of months and it has not been fun! I didn't have an overhead projector to write use, so I have been having to write everything on the board and my dry erase board is really a piece of shower board that is getting worn out . It's almost impossible to erase anything that has been there any amount of time.

We are moving into the new wing of our building during Winter break. I thought I wasn't going to get my Smartboard back until then, so I'm really excited that I won't have to wait that long.

Speaking of the new building, it is so pretty! The color scheme is a little different than what you usually think of for a grade school. The walls are light gray in the classrooms and darker gray in the halls. There is off-white tile and the accent tiles are orange, dark purple, lime green and berry red. The shelving and cabinets will be the accent colors with dark gray counter tops. I hope my turquoise and hot pink doesn't clash too much. Once we have moved out of our current building, they are going to go in and update it, eventually I'll be moving back into that part of the building.

Our zoo trip before fall break got cancelled due to rain. We rescheduled it for Oct. 31. They are always so crazy that day, that is seemed like a good idea. The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

How do you do field trips? In the past, parents would come and I would split the kids up between the adults. Then our district started having the parents do background checks if they wanted to volunteer in the school or go on field trips. They could go on the field trip, but they couldn't take any extra students. Now they are supposed to take some sort of class too. I had two parents that were qualified as volunteers, but they weren't able to go. Three students didn't go on the trip (parent choice). Of the 19 left, one parent took her child and wandered the zoo by themselves. The other 4 adults chose to stay with the rest of the class. I also had my daughter and one of her friends with us since her class was at the zoo the same day.

This was the first time I have had to take all of the kids with me. My kids were so wild, you would have thought they had been locked in chains for the past month.  They were yelling and screaming. They were starving by 10:00, I did make them wait until 11 to eat. Now when I say wild, they weren't knocking people down or running away from the group, they were just....overly excited.  It was an exhausting day! I do think I may have an idea for next time, if I have them all with me, go to the playground and wear them out for 20 minutes, then start through the zoo.

Earlier in the month we had participated in the International Walk to School Day. The county health department gave each class something different for participating. First grade was given those little nylon backpacks. I wrote the kids' names on the back and then saved them for the trip. Each child carried his own lunch so we could stop when we wanted to and not have to go back to the front to get them. It worked out perfect! The empty backpacks fit in their pocket so I didn't have to carry anything. Here's a couple of pictures from the walk. 

 

 

It was nice, there were students, teachers, parents and members of the community. We also participate in a "Walking School Bus" once a month

 

Last night, Delaney and I went to Target. she had a little of money to spend. She was trying to decide between Taylor Swift's Red cd or Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz (Halloween clearance). I'm glad my nine year old still acts young enough to choose the ruby slippers. ; D

 

Kelly