Well, we finally made it to the last day of school!  It's such a bittersweet day for me.  On one hand I'm ready for a break and some family time and on the other hand I miss my kiddos so much.  We had such a great celebratory day together.  There was a lot of laughter, fun, and sharing of food.  It was a perfect way to end our school year.

I am saying goodbye to amazing kiddos and their parents.  Some I will see next year, but most will move on to great adventures.  It is so sad to me to know that I may never see some of these kiddos again.  I truly hope that is not the case, but in our military lifestyle, this is the nature of the beast.  We move around and every now and then return back to a location.  Most times, we move on until retirement comes.  My wish for all of my students is that they move on and leave their mark on everyone they come into contact with.  That they share their love and caring with everyone they meet.  I want them to grow into productive adults who will go on to lead this amazing country that their parents serve.  I want them to always treat others with kindness, love and laugh often, and lead happy lives.  Every single one of my students deserve that.  They are amazing children!! 

Thank you to all of my parents that supported me this year.  Your love and devotion to your children shows and without that my job would be much harder.  Thank you for taking care of me this year.  You have shown me, countless times, how much I am appreciated.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

Have a safe summer and I look forward to seeing some of you in the fall.  If you are moving on, you have my email address.  That address will never change, as long as I work for Department of Defense Schools.   Please stay in touch!

Hugs!!

End of Year Wrapup

3 days left!  We've had so many exciting things going on the last couple of weeks.  Our school-wide Eagles Run was a huge success.  The turnout was amazing.  Heroes does have a wonderful, involved group of parents.  Check out the Photo Gallery for pictures from the Eagles Run. 

We also ended our year with a 3rd grade performance.  I have pictures, but from where I was sitting, they did not turn out good, so I'm not including them in the Photo Gallery.  The performance was fantastic and I'm so proud of each and every one of my students.  Several had solo parts and they did an amazing job of memorizing their lines.  Thank you parents for helping out with everything!!

Murals

Near the end of our Reading Streets-Unit 5, we read the story "Talking Walls".  This is a story of how murals tell a story.  This ends up being the perfect end of the year activity.  For the past two years, I've had my students work in groups to create a mural of their own about our school.  Last year, my class donated their mural to the Principal, where she proudly displays it on the wall behind her desk.  This year, I've decided to keep the murals and display them in my room for next year.  They are so amazing and contain the hearts and souls of my awesome students.  I've included some pictures below.  The writing pieces are difficult to read, but I've included a couple pictures of them.  As I read their feelings about how the mural made them feel, I had tears in my eyes.  Their hard work and dedication showed in their mural and in their writing. 

 

 

 

Happy Memorial Day

On this beautiful, sunny Memorial Day, we should all be thankful for the service and sacrifice of our Armed Forces.  I am especially thankful to my Marine Corps retired husband, Marwan, for his 23 years of service to our amazing country.  He served honorably and faithfully!  I am also thankful for my nephew, Zach, who is also a U.S. Marine.  These two men are just a few who serve and protect us.  I am humbled by their sacrifice and thank God everyday for our military.
 
I also want to thank all of the parents of my students.  Your service makes me proud.  The service of your wives and children make me even prouder.  I am blessed everyday to work with your children and have them in  my life.  You all are my heroes!!  God Bless

MY HERO!! (Marine on the right)

 

Been a while!

Wow!  It has really been a while since I've posted anything.  I was so busy with preparing for our daughter's graduation and family coming in that I completely had to put everything on the back burner.  Now that she's graduated (see pic below) and family has returned to their homes, life is almost back to normal.  With the end of the school year approaching, I'm not going to promise normal for very long :)!

As the year winds down, I'm looking for any suggestions/comments on ideas for the blog for next school year.  My intention is to make it more like a classroom webpage so that parents can access classroom information (policies, procedures, etc.), as well as see all of the exciting learning happening!  I'm open to any suggestions/ideas. 

Have a great week!


 

STEAM Week-Final Pictures

Well, here they are!!  The final pictures of our STEAM Week-Roller Coaster Physics project.  I am so incredibly proud of my students.  They worked hard, all week, to make a coaster that included a loop, camel back, and one other manuever of their choice.  They spent the week working in teams to build, rebuild, and rebuild!!  They worked out all of the kinks and problems together.  They were motivated, dedicated, and patient with each other.  The best part was sharing their coasters with their parents and watching their faces when their parents marble made a successful run through their coaster.  It was amazing!  Have I mentioned how lucky I am?

 

 

STEAM-Day 3

We are rocking roller coasters in our classroom!  I have 18 of the best roller coaster engineers I've ever seen.  You know it's a great assignment when 18 students do not want to stop working and beg to give up recess time to continue working on their coasters!  It's amazing to watch and listen to.  I love standing back and observing their thinking process.  We are not completely done, but as each team adds a new manuever they have to test the coaster to make sure each component works.  Once they've successfully tested it several times, they can add a new manuever.  Each new addition adds added stress to their lives!  They are stressed and I am in awe.

Brainstorming and sketching (A in STEAM)

Building the first loop (E in STEAM)

Building (E in STEAM)

Testing and Correcting (E & M in STEAM)

Building
 

In addition to our awesome building, we were very lucky to have a real-life engineer come in and talk with all 3rd grade students.  Mr. Fulton, active duty Navy, took some time away from his job to spend some time talking with our kiddos about engineering and Newton's Laws of Motion.  Check out the video below of Mr. Fulton explaining centrifugal force. 

 

 

STEAM -Day 1

What a great first day back to teaching!  My student intern completed her full time teaching last Friday, so today was my official first day teaching all subjects with my kiddos.  I have so missed being up and about with my kiddos. 

Today also is the start of STEAM Week.  Third graders are learning about Newtons Laws of Motion and will begin constructing pipe insulation roller coasters on Wednesday.  I cannot wait to watch them brainstorm and work together to create their coasters.  I have such an amazing group of kiddos, so I'm positive my coasters are going to be fabulous and the students will learn so much from this week.  Pictures are definitely coming! 

We are still in the  process of working on Flat Nassar, with STEAM Week we are running a little bit behind, but rest assured, Flat Nassar presentations are coming soon!! 

Twilight Zone Kinda Week!!

It's Friday!!!  It's been a full moon, Twilight Zone, kind of week.  Basically, if it can happen, it did!  So happy it's over and looking forward to next week being better.  Next week is STEAM week and I cannot wait to watch my third graders build pipe insulation roller coasters.  They have no idea they are going to be doing this, so I'm sure they are going to be so thrilled to participate in this.  I love watching them put together things and the thrill on their faces when they see it work.  This is going to be so awesome and I will definitely follow up with pictures.

All of the Flat Nassar pictures are in, but we did not get to start their digital scrapbooks this week as originally planned.  I'm going to make an effort to squeeze that in next week.  The kids are excited about putting it together and I'm excited about sharing it with you all.  The pictures they took with Flat Nassar are absolutely fabulous and are so much fun to look at.  I would like to be able to promise that the Flat Nassar project will be posted here next week, but I'm afraid I'd make a liar out of myself.  Don't fret, the project will be posted as soon as possible.  With STEAM week, I'm predicting very little will get done with the Flat Nassar project. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'm spending it with my daughter for her sororities parents weekend.  It's a fun-filled weekend of hanging out with college students.  Boy, those were some good ole' days!

Back to School :)!

Well, Spring Break is over and back to school we go!  I'm so excited to see my kiddos and hear about all of their weeklong adventures.  I'm also excited to see their pictures and journals for Flat Nassar.  We are creating a digital scrapbook for Flat Nassar and I'm sure they are going to be awesome.  As soon as they are done, I will post here for you all to see.  I hope everyone has a great week back!!