End of school year odds and ends

Great news.

Middle Man’s team won the kickball championships!!

Before the game, they are READY!

And they’re off!!!!!

The Chef and Dogos came to cheer our team on.

The McAttacks won with a 7-2 victory.

I’m sure it had everything to do with Dogos’ enthusiastic cheers, don’t you?

A week or so ago we had our AR bowling field trip reward.

I was the teacher in charge and we took 68 students that had earned between 100-149 AR points to the bowling alley for a few hours of fun bowling.

I was particularly excited that Middle Man earned his points in order to go. 

In fact, his point level was 147 and he waited to test on another book because he didn’t want to go over 150 points and have to go on a different field trip since I was going on the bowling one.
Wasn’t that sweet?

Here is Middle Man with 4 of my own students.

Aren’t those some handsome faces?

Here is another one of my students and one of my favorite people ever.

She looks like she’s really upset but she isn’t.

She had just had her first bowling turn and was shocked to have knocked down every pin but 2.

Victory!!!

She was so excited.

Love, love, love this girl.

It was a great morning of bowling!!

In other end-of-the-school-year news, take a look at what Dogos brought home on her last day of preschool.

This is a personal “Memory Book” that Dogos’ teacher made for each of her students.

Yes, that’s right.  

A personal memory book for each.   and.  every.  student.

Y’all.  I can’t begin to tell you how much this book means to The Chef and me.  It is full of picture after picture and page after page of Dogos participating in various activities related to each unit of study.  It has pictures of her with her daddy, grandmother, and me from her various programs.  It is just the most dear thing!

And even better?

I found out that not only did her teacher do this for each student, but every teacher did it and she’ll get one next year, too!

In other news, we recently celebrated The Chef’s birthday.

The celebration didn’t occur on his actual birthday, and because of that fact, Middle Man decided to make him a gift.  According to him, “Dad can’t just have a birthday and not get something!  That would be terrible!”

Soooooo, he decided to make him......

.........a cardboard guitar!!!

I had no idea he was doing this.  He was at The Pastor’s house for a while and when I walked over there he said, “Mom, Mom, Mom, for Dad’s birthday, I made him a guitar out of 2 cardboard rectangular prisms, also known as boxes.  I’m gonna play him a song for his birthday.”

I’m so serious he said that.

Now, I know I’m his Mama, so I’m supposed to think he’s smart and creative and all of that.

But folks?  He really is smart and creative!

He surprises me all the time.

Now if only I could get him to keep up with his lunchbox and shoes......

And because I’m still in love with my chickens, of course I have to include a picture of them, as well as mention the fact that they are learning to eat other stuff besides just chicken feed. 

They are 10 1/2 weeks old and will soon be old enough to be able to free range some on their own without my watchful eye.  In the meantime, we go outside for “chicken time” for an hour or so every evening.  They absolutely love it.  When they hear us coming, they run to the coop door and wait to be let out.  They love sunflower seeds and thought this watermelon rind was, well, interesting.  I’ll keep offering little healthy treats to them throughout the summer to ensure that we get some beautiful, healthy eggs once they are old enough to lay!

Our summer is off to a GREAT start!!

I hope yours is, too!

Family, fun, and a few surprises

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day weekend!

I sure did! 

Friday morning, I went to Dogos’ school for Muffins with Mom.

She made a card and bookmark for me and also gave me a beautiful flower.

Oh, how I love this girl!

We enjoyed eating muffins and fresh fruit and visiting with other Moms and her classmates.

This is a sweet card that her teacher made for each Mom.

She took this photo of Dogos’ feet for the front of the card and wrote a personal note to me on the inside, thanking me for sharing my child with her.  I love the prayer on the front, too.  It states perfectly what I pray for each of my children.  Before they were even conceived or born, I have prayed for each of my children.  I have prayed that each would come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, that they would each share an intimate, personal relationship with Him, and that the “growing up” wouldn’t be too painful or difficult.

As I type this, I am reminded of my grandmother, Grammy Clinton, who kept prayer journals for years.  When she died, the many journals were given to my mother.  Years ago, I spent some time reading through some of them.  Every year on my birthday, without fail, my Grammy wrote words of prayer for me.  Of course, she prayed for each member of our family....all of my aunts, uncles, and each of her 15 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren (now 30 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great grands!) throughout the year, but without fail, she covered me in prayer every year on my birthday.  I never even knew it at the time.  It’s been a long time since I read through any of her journals....probably since Guitar Boy was a baby.  The next time I go back home to The Lake, I will be sure to read through some of those precious books again.  Grammy was a true prayer warrior in every sense of the word and her relationship with Jesus was the most important thing to her in the world.

After Muffins with Mom, I drove back to our tiny town, dropped Dogos off at home with The Chef, and headed back to school.

As I mentioned earlier, MCT2 testing was last week.  After testing was done each day, we had a kickball tournament each afternoon.  In the words of my principal, “We’re gonna wear their brains out in the morning, and their bodies in the afternoon.  Hopefully, then, they’ll all go home and be so exhausted they’ll get a good nights’ sleep!"

I knew we were having a kickball tournament but I was in no way prepared for how serious the students and teachers take it!  Teachers bring lawn chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, and ice chests full of popsicles and bottled water.  My class won our first game but lost the 2nd so we didn’t get to the play-offs.  Our loss may or may not have had something to do with Grandma Sandy’s lack of kickball coaching skills, but that is a point on which I’ll choose not to dwell!

Middle Man’s class made it to the play-offs which were Friday afternoon, and his class would be playing the team that beat us.  Therefore, not only was I cheering his class on, but all of my students were, too!

Here he is in action!

I think it’s safe to say that Middle Man has found a new passion in life.

The child has lived and breathed kickball for the past week, and that’s no exaggeration.

He even had all the kids at church playing kickball on the front lawn of the church last Wednesday night in an effort to improve his own kickball skills before the play-off game.

Here is his cutie teacher, coaching their team from the sidelines.

She was a star athlete, herself, in high school.

Luckily for their class, she had stellar coaching skills, unlike Grandma Sandy!

Middle Man’s class won!!!!

This afternoon is the 4th grade championship game.

Wish us luck!  

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Saturday night we had a real treat.

The Pastor got the biggest, most beautiful strawberries so she and Peanut dipped them in chocolate and other goodies as a surprise treat.

YUM.

Strawberries weren’t the only surprise that The Pastor had for us.

Meet Smokey!
When the children and I got home from school on Thursday afternoon, The Pastor surprised us with Smokey, a six-week old kitten that she and Dogos got from the local animal shelter.
She is the sweetest thing, and beautiful, too.
In this picture she looks like she has super-huge ears and a big head but it’s only the angle of the camera.  I took a million pictures of her and she simply would not look up.  Her chin is tipped down.  Hopefully I’ll get a better picture of her soon!
The Pastor has been wanting a cat to keep mice out of her house.  
Living where we do, it’s just a fact of life, unfortunately.
Spook has failed miserably in his appointed job of keeping mice away from both houses.  Therefore, Smokey has a new home with The Pastor and we couldn’t be happier.  
Judging from the amount of purring she’s been doing, I think she’s pretty happy, too.


We ended the weekend with a wonderful meal last night of grilled red snapper and a crawfish cream sauce, with risotto, green salad, and a chocolate chess pie.  Thanks to The Chef!
The Chef and the kids gave me a beautiful Pandora bracelet and y’all....I was SO surprised.  Shocked, even!  I’ve wanted one for a long time but just never gotten one for myself.
And now?  I don’t have to!


We had such a great weekend and yesterday was such a nice day.
Most years, it seems, the kids fight and fuss more than ever on Mother’s Day and I end up thinking to myself, “One of these years I’m gonna wise up and go out of town all by myself for Mother’s Day.”
Of course I’d never really do that, but the thought HAS crossed my mind!  Being a Mom is wonderful, but it sure isn’t easy.
However, yesterday was really a treat.
The thing that made me the happiest about the whole day?  Was seeing how excited the children were.  The youngest 3 couldn’t wait to come give me a big hug as soon as they woke up.  
Feeling their arms wrapped around me and seeing their bright smiles and still sleepy eyes was humbling and left me feeling beyond blessed.


It also left me thinking of those women whose empty arms long to hold a baby of their own.
And of my friend Jennifer, a teacher at my school who lost twins at 18 week’s gestation after struggling with infertility.
And of my friend, Ruth, who lost her 30 year old son suddenly just a week or so ago.
And of whymommy’s boys who spent their first Mother’s Day without their Mommy and of her own mother who spent the day without her daughter.


I am a lucky, lucky woman.  I know that.  And because I know how blessed I am, it’s so very important to me to remember the pain that some other women have endured.  I know it doesn’t help lessen their burden, and in the grand scheme of things it may not matter at all, but I feel like in an attempt to not take my blessings for granted, if I can share someone else’s grief whether they know about it or not, then that’s what I should do.


Does that even make sense?!?
Probably not!


At any rate, we all enjoyed a weekend of family and great food.


Next up?


KICKBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I thinkI learned more than I taught!

Once again, it’s the end of the school year.  Every year I find myself a little surprised that it’s already May. 

This week my students will take the MCT2 test, which is the state standardized test.  My students are well prepared and I’m confident they will do well.  

Especially since half of them are gifted and way smarter than me!  I’mnotevenkidding.

 The week of state testing is always a nerve-wracking one for both students and teachers.  The stakes are high for each student, teacher, school, and school district.  Test scores will go a long way in determining what standing the school and school district has.

I’ll be glad when this week is over!

I cannot, cannot, cannot believe that I’m finishing up a year of teaching 4th grade Language Arts and Social Studies.  I also cannot, cannot, cannot believe that I pulled it off!!  At least I think I did.

At the very least, I faked my way through pretty good!

When I first started this gig, I was petrified.  

Absolutely petrified.

Although I had 20 years teaching experience, I felt no more prepared to teach 4th grade than if I’d been asked to do brain surgery.  

Or mix concrete.

Or fix a car engine.

Or juggle.

Or pretty much anything.

Thanks to my wonderful group of fellow Language Arts teachers, our lesson study groups, and google, I had what I needed to get through the year.  Over the past few weeks, while looking through what my students and I would need to review before the testing this week, I was struck but how much I actually learned this year!  

Here is some of what I had to either learn or refresh my memory on, this year.

Text structure:  simple procedure, sequential order, cause/effect, compare/contrast, descriptive

Present perfect verb tense

Appositives

Narrative, Informative, and Persuasive writing processes

Tools of persuasion:  endorsement, name-calling, air and rebut, repetition

Figurative language

Reflexive and demonstrative pronouns

Function of a linking verb

Rules for commas and colons

Compound, complex sentences, coordinating, subordinating conjunctions

Poetry:  concrete, color, diamante, cinquain, haiku, limericks, and acrostic poems

I love my school, love the teachers, adore my principal and assistant principal, and have thoroughly enjoyed the students.

However, 4th grade curriculum is just not.  my.  thing.

I’m thankful that next year I’ll be going back to the primary school.  This time as a certified teacher with her own classroom, not as a certified teacher working as a teacher’s assistant.

I don’t know yet what grade I’ll be teaching but it’ll be either K or 1st.  Most likely 1st, I’m told.  

I’d actually love to do a K-1st loop.

We shall see!

The thing I loved most about this past year was all of the reading. 

For every fictional piece we read, we also read a non-fiction piece.  Of course, the fiction was way more fun!  We read books like Where the Red Fern Grows, Matilda, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

We did a unit on slavery and read a biography on Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  We did research on famous Mississippians.  The students wrote reports and made presentations to the class.  We did a sports unit on baseball which included a biography on Jackie Robinson.  We studied Mississippi Government and took a field trip to the state capital in Jackson.  

Before MCT review, we finished a unit on poetry.  We studied different types of poems and “tore them apart” to see how figurative language was used to convey meaning and feeling.  Each student made a poetry book with different types of their own poems and the students loved, loved, loved it.  Even the boys!  I couldn’t believe it.  I have one particular low-performing student who is also a behavior problem.  Would you believe that he could not wait to find out what kind of poem we were going to work on each day?   

I have to admit that I cracked up at myself every time I said something like this to him, “If you even THINK about calling another girl in here a fat-headed troll again, you will not, WILL NOT get to write any extra poems today.  Do you understand me?!?”

One of the poems we included in our poetry books was a Color Poem.

The students chose whatever color they wanted and followed a basic pattern to write their poem.

Here are two examples.  I thought these two students did a particularly great job.

Aren’t they great?

Of course, the very best part of teaching 4th grade this year was getting to see this guy every day.....

                                 

....Middle Man, my absolute favorite 4th grader!

Seeing him at lunch, at recess, and throughout the day has made me a happy Mom.  It’s been great fun to watch him make friends and get settled in at his new school.

I’ve learned a lot this year.  I still can’t believe I taught 4th grade!  Its an experience that I never would’ve chosen but one I’m glad to have had.  And while I’ve enjoyed my time in 4th grade, I sure am looking forward to next year!

But first?

We must tackle and conquer the MCT2.

Wish us luck!!!!

  

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

Look who lost a tooth!!