Last Week of School

When I started this blog, it was my intention to post daily, or at least every other day. However, this past week has been so busy EVERY day that all I could manage to do when I got home was sit on the couch and try not to drool. This is the last week of school, which of course means I have been packing up EVERYTHING in my classroom. I don't have a list of "Things I Most Dislike," but if I did, packing would be in the top three. It's not just the packing, it's the loading it in the car. I live in Texas and it has been 90-100 degrees every day as I have made trip after trip after trip after trip to my car. I have one last load to put in Britton's truck tomorrow morning and then he and I will get to take ALL the boxes out of TWO very large vehicles and put it all in my new classroom tomorrow afternoon. The UNpacking of the boxes will not take place until MUCH later in the summer as they will not be thought of again until at LEAST August.

In addition to packing (loading, hauling, sweating, tripping once and skinning my knee) my teaching team and I also took all of our 5th graders to the park on Tuesday.  We lined up like ducks and walked to the park carrying coolers full of water, basketballs, frisbees, and a wide assortment of "fun stuff." We all had such a good time and were exhausted when we returned to school in time to sit in the air conditioning for a few minutes before dismissing.

 Lined Up and Ready to GO!

A Little B-Ball

 

 Swinging (talking, giggling, fixing each other's hair)

 Time Out For Some Cold Water...

And a Snack!

It was hard to top our super fun Tuesday at the park, but we managed to do it with a trip to our local amusement park on Wednesday!

 Waiting for Pizza!

 SO FUN!!!

Sweet Girls

 Hang On!

 Splish Splash!

My Teaching Team and Me...

It would be impossible to describe how much fun I have had with these two!!

Nicole





Beautiful

My children. So sweet. I'm a very lucky Mama.

 My Angel Charlie

My Sweet Gracie

Beautiful

Nicole

Playday

Today was outdoor playday at school. The students and teachers look forward to this all year long. I know after the volleyball pictures yesterday and playday today, it might seem like we never really teach! We actually teach and work hard all year long so we can have a little fun the last few days of school. We have a walk to the park planned for next week as well as a trip to our local amusement park! It's a hard job, but someone's got to do it.

Playday consists of several bouncy, jumpy, slidy, slick with water, things. I know there has to be a name for these "things" but I don't know what it is. Playday also has snow cones, pickle pops, candy, Gatorade and an assortment of other playday essentials. One of my teaching partners brought an e n o r m o u s water gun and walloped with great force delicately sprayed some of our students. My other teaching partner and I conquered the wet, jumpy, maze-like, slide. Our students cheered us on and even helped us get up at the end...not that we needed it or anything! Playday was a success and fun was had by all!

Gracefully conquering THE SLIDE...yes, that's me on the left

My sweet buddies

The 2nd picture was NOT suppose to be a movie, but that's what you get when a 5th grader is handling the camera!

Off to start a three day weekend!
Nicole

Boxes and Volleyball

I successfully got quite a lot of my classroom packed up today after school. Pack box, label box, tape box, pack box, label box, tape box. After a few hours I was surprised how much I got done. The plan is to move everything to my new school next Friday. We only have a half day of school that day (THE LAST DAY OF THIS SCHOOL YEAR!!!) so I am planning to move all my things to my new school Friday afternoon.

Here's the progress so far!

Before all the packing fun began, the REAL fun took place with the Staff vs 5th Grade volleyball game in the gym today. We play with this HUGE hot pink ball and a good time is had by all. The staff completely showed the students who was boss both teams played really well but the staff came out just a few points ahead.

It's not about who wins or loses...BUT LOOK WHO WON!

Nicole

A Highly Recommended Book

Last night I finished reading a book which was excellent. It is called The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman. I can't recall ever reading a book that actually made me cry, but this one did. It is the first book by this author and in my opinion it was beautifully written. As a member (is it called a "member" if all you have to do is sign up?) of Goodreads, I saw this book mentioned as a great read by other readers many times. The teachers who I teach with and I do not have an official book club, but we are always recommending books to each other and end up reading alot of the same books.  We do discuss them briefly as we pop our heads into each other's classrooms...I guess you could say we are on the fringes of a book club! Another teacher at my school is going to start The Light Between Oceans today. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did!

Nicole

Goodbye and A New Beginning

I have a biiiiig change in my very near future. My school that has been home to me for the past eight years is closing its doors at the end of this school year. On May 31, I will leave my school for the very last time. I will leave behind eight years of memories and head into a new adventure. I am both sad and excited. The thing I will miss most is spending all day, every day, with my dear friends. We are all headed to different places. I have been so lucky to have made the best of friends during the last eight years. We have truly been like a family. We have had soooo many times where we have laughed so hard...the kind of laugh where no sound is coming out and tears are running down our faces. These girls and boy (shout out Chad!) and I have celebrated engagements, weddings, babies, and graduations as well as some very dark and sad events. Each of the happy events was made more special because of our friendships. Each sad day was made more bearable and manageable because of our friendships. I know these friendships will continue to be strong, but I think it has been the best thing ever to spend every day with my favorite people and I will miss seeing them every day so so much.

I am also excited to be starting a whole new chapter in a brand new school. I am thrilled that I will still be teaching 5th grade science (the best grade and subject!) and am looking forward to settling into my new classroom. I have a lot of packing, moving, unpacking, organizing and on and on and on ahead of me in the next few months, but I am going into it with excitement. Wellllllll, it really is hard to get excited about the packing part, THERE IS SO MUCH STUFF! But the rest of it will be an adventure. This blog will be a place to share that adventure as well as some tidbits of my everyday life.

Until then, if you have some free time on your hands, come by room 110 and grab a box and some packing tape :)

Nicole