Pizza Hat

Today was the last day of school, and I'm feeling a little jealous of Joe Adrian.  He gets all the best end of year teacher presents.  No one ever gave me a cool pizza hat like this.

M & M Math

This is the last week of school.  In an effort to keep everyone engaged and off the ceiling, I am pulling lots of tricks out of my bag.  Our homework for last night was to buy a small individual bag of plain M & M's to use for math today.  There are lots of great activities available on line.  Here is a link to some of the things we did today:  M&M Activities.  

If you buy the big bag, you will have a lot more work to do.  Some of the boys generously offered to help eat the extras.  

The Graduate

Kendrick graduated from Southeast Polk High School last Sunday.  He will be attending Drake this fall.  We all turned out for his graduation at the Knapp Center.  It was beautiful weather.

Cover Photo

I was trying to put together a photo to use as my Cover Page on Facebook.  I started with the one above, because it includes some of my favorite people (and dogs), but when I uploaded it kind of chopped people's heads off.

Instead I went with this photo of yarn that I took at Knitting Next Door.  Not as important to me as my family, but no yarn was offended when it got chopped off.

Decorating Graves

Today is Memorial Day, so Mom and I went out for a breakfast, and then to decorate graves.  Our first stop was to Highland Memory Gardens where Loren and his family are buried.  It really was beautiful with all the flowers and flags.

This city cemetery with it's ground level markers is quite a contrast to our country cemetery outside Altoona.  While I'm sure they have regulations too, people can customize the way they commemorate their loved ones.

Neighborhood Flowers

Tonight I went for a walk without the dogs.  This gave me an opportunity to listen to my iPod and use my camera. These are just some of the flowers I saw along the way.

Roses From Michael

Michael sent me these beautiful roses for Mother's Day.

Slippers for Mom

Today is Mother's Day.  My latest knitting project was to knit these slippers for my Mom.  I like the way they came out, but they are on the roomy side.  They should keep her feet nice and warm while she's sitting down. I'm just hoping she doesn't walk out of them when she tries to go to the kitchen to fill her coffee cup.

25 Years!

I am about to complete my twenty-fifth year of teaching in the Des Moines School District.  During that time I have taught first through fourth grades, and I have spent twenty-two of those years at Phillips.  So what do you get for teaching 25 years?  A glass paper weight!

Flowers From My Fourth Graders

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week. We are very lucky at Phillips, because we have a very active PTA who do a lot for us.  Each day there were treats waiting for us, and our principal provided us with an incredibly delicious lunch on Wednesday.  The PTA gives each teacher a vase and throughout the week kids bring flowers.  By the end of the week I had this beautiful bouquet.

Homespun Yarn

I'm thinking about making a trip to a couple of yarn shops today.  I like buying it and knitting with it, but I don't think I'm ready to spin my own.  I saw this yarn hanging by the stairs in the 1850 farmhouse at Living History Farms.

Farm Field Trip

Last Friday was our annual field trip to Living History Farms.  When I drove to school in the morning, it was raining, but fortunately it turned into a really beautiful day.  We did the usual tour.  We were disappointed when there was not a blacksmith at the blacksmith shop.  My little talk about what goes on there was not very informative.

As we were leaving the 1850 farm the guide let us know that the sheep were free, but not to worry about them.

They were up ahead of us on the trail.  They must have decided to serve as trail guides because they lead up all the way to the footbridge leading to the 1900 hundred farm.  She had to come after them to round them up.  She said they had never gone that far.

It was a great field trip, but I was totally exhausted when that week came to an end.

Medieval Paper Dolls and Foldables

We do lots of writing when we study the middle ages.  This year we made Medieval Paper Dolls representing the people of the middle ages.  We wrote a report in the third person about the life of these people. Then we wrote in the first person from the perspective of a knight, peasant, monk or lady.  We also created foldables to explain the Feudal System.  With twenty-seven castles in the room, it wasn't easy to find a place to work.

Castle Project for 2012

We have been studying Medieval Europe since early April.  Our castles were due last Wednesday, May 2, just in time for Core Knowledge Night.  We had lots of visitors in on Wednesday and Thursday during the day so see our wonderful castles.  Here are the castles for 2012!