Wrapping up year six

It is hard to believe that my sixth year in the classroom is over. 

My 10 year high school reunion is this year. Yeesh.

I am married. (click the pictures to see more from our amazing photographer)

2013 is awesome!

Our Mother's Day gifts! I LOOOOVE wishes!! One of our amazingly artistic para educators came to me with this adorable idea! She pulled each student individually and traced the outline of their heads as they blew out from their lips like they were blowing something. Then we cut the tracings out together and glued them to the dark paper. It was very hard to draw proportionate "wishes" for my students, so we helped with that too. On the back, each student wrote a letter to their mom that said:

Dear Mom, 

You are my "wish" come true!

Love,

_______ 

We went on our 2nd grade community field trip! Our school is lucky to be nestled into a growing community Tehaleh in Bonney Lake, Washington. This area is unique in that the community strives to keep nature and exploring at the center of it all! There are amazing ponds, trails, and organisms for us to explore. I created a booklet for my students to car around with them. If you look carefully they have "exploring bags" wrapped around their bodies like cross body bags. In the bag they had their booklet, two pencils, crayons, and a magnifying class. Our parent volunteers also had a long measuring tape so they could measure things, too! 

Even though we did not get on a bus (we walked from our school to the trails), all of our students had such a great time! The parents enjoyed it too! I was exhausted afterwards!!!

We had a Marshmallow Challenge.

This is the winning group's design. 22 inches tall with the marshmallow on top!

We decorated rocks and made photo holders for our Father's Day gifts.

I didn't get a picture but our card to Dad said "You ROCK, Dad!"

We made SCRAPPY MONSTERS using leftover scraps from projects throughout the year. Monster's University was quite the influence with my students :)

...and on Friday June 17th @ 12 o'clock... the teachers celebrated!!!!

Next year is already on my mind:

* I moved classrooms, yay! I have WAAAAAY more natural light now :)

* I am doing my National Boards next year... I am ready for the challenge and welcome any and all advice.

* I want to be a better "stations teacher" next year... managing stations is so hard for me. I kind of gave up on it last year...

* I am excited to start the new Lucy Caulkins curriculum in my classroom (district-wide implementation)

* I am SUUUUPER excited to have iPads in my classroom next year. I get to be part of a iPad Pilot Program :)

But for now... I need to change my last name. What a task!!! Everyone told me to start with the Social Security Office, so I did that last week. Now I just need to get my new license, change my banking, insurance, district info.... eh, I have a list... it's long. 

Two things I am looking forward to this summer:

1. Lincoln City, Oregon for the 4th of July (my FAVORITE holiday)

2. Bristol... yep!!! NASCAR race :) My 1st one! YIPPEE!!!

What are you looking forward to this summer???