First Day of School

It's hard to believe the kids are in 7th and 10th grades!!

 My camping themed room is back up and ready for kids!

I successfully kept this planter alive over the summer!

My first time putting the tent up by myself!

First Day of School!

The kids enjoyed a trip with Nana and Grandpa to Massanutten and PA to see the Sight and Sound production of Moses during teacher work week. They always have a great time!!

 The day before school started we did some artwork together to ease some nerves and mixed emotions!

It's a big year with both kids starting at new schools! They both came home smiling off the bus, so we'll call that a win! 

Gramps and Gramma joined us for a "sometimes" tradition of getting giant pizza downtown on the first day of school. 

Camp Read-a-Lot is back up and ready for a new group of students! A few things were added thanks to VBS being camping themed (they let me grab whatever I wanted off the walls at the end of the week!!) and the sweet new Assistant Principal who gave me a sleeping bag!

It's too bad it doesn't just take 30 seconds to put up the tent ;)  And I can't thank Karen enough for walking in at just the right time!

And I have to say that I have the most supportive supervisor in the world! I was super stressed out at the beginning of the year with a meeting conflicting with Owen's middle school orientation, being told that I would be the testing coordinator, AND missing a 2-day training due to a wedding we were attending. I couldn't thank Joe enough for being so supportive!

First Day of School

The kids had a great 1st day of school. We're all thankful to be attending 5 days a week and a full day (last year was 1 hour shorter). Masks are still required at school due to increasing COVID numbers again (the Delta variant) but students are able to sit in groups and share tables (3-6' apart when possible). 

We were excited to find out that Owen has Mrs. Poyner, who Willow had as well! He'll get to switch classes this year and his Science/VA Studies teacher is the same teacher he had in Kindergarten, who we love! 

We celebrating with some HUGE pizza!

Check out these videos I made of this kids this summer:

Willow and Owen "jumping" to different places

Owen walking

Willow walking
 

1st day of school! COVID-style!

This year will start off a bit different than most due to the Corona virus. The kids will be on a "hybrid" schedule. They'll attend in-person on Tues/Fri and have online activities to complete from home the other days. While at school, their desks will be spaced 6' apart and they'll be required to wear masks. There will be LOTS of handwashing and eating lunch in the classroom instead of the cafeteria. Willow will do the Health portion of Health/PE while at school, then log her PE activities online from home. Owen will have Art and Music in his classroom instead of moving to those classrooms. Usually the kids would ride the bus home but due to spacing issues, families who could provide their own transportation were asked to do so since students have to be spaced out on the bus as well, limiting the capacity. I've asked Chris if he's mentally prepared for 4 car rider lines on their in-school days!! 

(Not sure where Owen's glasses were for this picture)

We've already declared Mr. Seth is the 2020-21 Teacher of the Year!

 

Owen has Ms. Lafferty for his 3rd grade teacher. I've heard wonderful things about her use of flexible seating in her room. Unfortunately she can't do that right now, but I'm hoping she'll be able to at some point while Owen is in her class!

Here are a couple of Owen's activities from the first week of school:

Both kids seemed to enjoy being back at school to see people besides their family ;) The first few times at school were a lot of "how to do online activities at home" but now they seem to be getting started on some new learning. :) Praying for a healthy year for us all!!

It's been a while since I've posted Corona memes. Now seems like a great opportunity ;)

All jokes aside, this virus continues to be very tragic worldwide: 

• Global Confirmed

  28,819,579

• Global Deaths

  921,156

• U.S. Confirmed

  6,496,159

• U.S. Deaths

  193,787

This year is bringing a lot of changes for me as well. I accepted a Reading Specialist position in the county where the kids attend. It's a small school (2 classes at each grade level) and has a great reputation for a great school community. Every positive thing I'd heard has been true! Everyone is so positive and happy that you can't help but be as well (even in a pandemic!!). It really is a little piece of heaven on earth and I feel like I've lost 20 pounds of stress already! The school used to regularly have 3 classes at each grade level, so there are a lot of classrooms sitting empty. I jumped at the opportunity to have a full-sized classroom and started dreaming big of a camping-themed room with flexible seating. The principal was supportive so I put a list together and was blessed with many generous friends who wanted to help turn the dream into a reality!! Due to COVID cleaning protocols and spacing needs, I won't be able to fully put it together at this point but I'm excited about what I've been able to do so far!

It's a huge room!!

I keep a live feed of a campfire going throughout the day. I love the calming crackling noise and occasionally you hear a person coming to stoke the fire. The custodian loves to joke about coming in to warm his hands by it :) I have star lights and a camping themed alphabet.

I love this wood bulletin board paper! I found a fun camping banner too:

I used black painters tape to make these fun mountains. A friend with a Cricket helped me make the vinyl letters for the wall. 

Chad cut these wooden stumps for me, then Chris sanded the tops, rounded the edge, then stained and sealed the top. They're so fun and have been a huge hit so far!

"Still to come" are a tent with pillows, picnic table, camping chairs, and woodland animal reading buddies. In the meantime, I'm armed with Virex cleaner!

I've felt super supported by sweet people in my life! Here are some beautiful flowers from the Murrays:

A sweet note and fun mask from the librarian:

and gift card and sweet note from our church staff!

These sweet messages over 50 feet of sidewalk on the first day of school almost made me cry!! I've definitely never been at a school like this!!