Power, Flooding and a Garage Sale

Wow, what a week!

This Thurs, Fri, Sat I had my annual garage sale with my friend Jeff.  Thursday at the sale went great.  Great people watching, relaxing in the sun, warm and humid, got rid of a lot of stuff.
Then, it stormed Thursday night.  I lost power, and so did the majority of my city.  But, the sale must go on!

Friday night, some even more serious storms came through.  60+ mph winds, almost 3 inches of rain in about an hour, I couldn't even see my grass because the water was piling up so quick.

I have never seen damage in my neighborhood like this!  Trees are down everywhere, my neighbors tree was struck by lightning, our basement flooded, a giant tree branch fell on our roof and water is leaking into my kitchen cupboards, stop lights are out, so roads are backed up.  It is crazy!

Today we cancelled the garage sale, since no one had power, and there were so many trees down people probably couldn't get to us if they wanted to.  We were just about to bring 6 huge bags of clothes to the thrift store to donate when some neighbors came over and took them all to send to a charity in Africa.  We didn't have to haul the bags of clothes, and other people will benefit from it.  Good news for everyone.

Now that we finally have power again, I need to start making so fun items for Teachers Pay Teachers.  I am trying to build up my store before the Back-to-School rush!

I think I have had enough rain for a while...........

Dawn

New Header

Yahoo!
I figured out how to make a header for my blog!  A quick Google search brought me to several tutorials, and then I used Power Point and PicMonkey to make the new header. I like how it looks so far. (much better than the boring grey letters!)
I would like to fill some more of the white space below the "Hello Learning" graphic, but I am not sure how to add something more......  time for another Google search!

Summertime!

Hello summer!

The weather has finally warmed up, and the rain has finally stopped (for now) and I could not be happier that summer is finally here!
This week is our 7th annual garage sale- always a fun time!  It is always good people watching!
Of course, I have some school projects I hope to get done over the summer, including:

• work on finishing my Greek and Latin word study and spelling lists
• create some fun math projects for my accelerated math class
• read some of the books my students are always talking about, but I have not had the time to read yet
• think of a way to better decorate my room so it is more colorful, but not too cutesy (I teach 5th)

Happy Summer!

4 More Days!

We are down to the last 4 days of school!  The next four days will be full of wrapping up projects, reflecting on the school year, sharing memories, returning textbooks, signing yearbooks and cleaning the classroom.
  
On Thursday my 5th graders will graduate from elementary school.  Some of them are excited to start a new adventure in learning, but some are a little scared!  Being the youngest in the school isn't something they have experienced for 5 years!  

I am REALLY excited for summer break to officially start!

Summer Reading

I love to send my students off with a great list of books for summer reading.  

Here are some fun "summery" book list forms for the students to use.  

Each sheet has spots for 10 books recommended by their teacher and 10 books recommended by their peers.

Inventions

For the past few weeks my 5th graders have been working on an inventions unit. They read about famous inventors, created a timeline of important inventions (the wheel, printing press, compass etc...), did many creative thinking exercises, and learned the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. method.   Then, they  brainstormed problems and things in their lives that could be improved, learned about patents and trademarks, and learned how to do research to see if their idea has already been created.  They have all chosen an invention to create and are working hard to make a prototype and a display board for our big "Invention Convention" next week.  This is always such an exciting unit for the kids that keeps them motivated during the last few weeks of school.  It really gives them a chance to incorporate so many of the skills they have learned into one fun project.  I can't wait to see all of their final products!

Blog Set Up

While I should be correcting a stack of essays, or making my Smart Board slides for tomorrows math lesson, I am instead messing around with all the settings and configurations for this blog.  It is so fun! So many choices- colors, patterns, designs, fonts....I don't even want to look and see how much time has elapsed since I first logged on!  

23 days left until summer break!