West Virginia in my bones

My grandfather is from West Virginia and his was a great man. Something in me is connected to that place. There are a lot of jokes about West Virginia in regards to teeth or the lack thereof. There are jokes about OJ Simpson moving there because everyone has the same DNA, but what is undeniable is how beautiful of a state West Virginia is. We met some friends from Virginia half way for a week of vacation at Babcock State Park. It was built by the CCC boys in the post great depression era and some of it's original works are still in place. Just wanted to share a couple of shots from our week.

On a rainy hike through the woods.

Our kids are 10, 8, 6, & 4. They are best friends. Always good spending time with them.

Ollie's face in this one is great. Nothing like a healthy fear of fire.

We broke out some sparklers and got some cute shots of the kids.

Melissa even did a couple.

We always try to get family shots whenever we can. So cool to see how the kids grow and change year after year.

Here are all of the kiddos lined up in order.

This one part of the river was dammed up a long time ago to make a pool area for army solders. Still intact today. A fun place to swim and explore for all ages.

Out on another hike.

Probably our favorite part was our time on the lake. Canoes, kayaks and fishing for all.

Charlotte was so proud of herself when she captained her own kayak. I have a feeling we are going to be kayak owners pretty soon.

Maybe Charlotte can teach me some tricks to stay in the kayak for next time...haha!

first week of school

Have you seen this on pinterest or at a craft show yet? That is what I have been telling Jay lately.  This happened to me when I was pregnant with Charlotte.  I normally can not fall asleep at night due to my creative juices flowing about what project I can jump into next.  When I am pregnant all my creative juices dry up.  It is like all of my creativity goes into making a little person.  Sounds weird, but totally true.  I have many projects that I should probably start and one that I must start (antwi family your beautiful little family's quilt is coming, just slowly), but I have no passion or umph to me at all these days.  Add on top of that the first week of school and I have been doing a lot of dead beat mommy-ing and going to be at seven-ish every night this week.  Add together my lack of creativity and my complete exhaustion from those fifth graders and you have  someone that can barely have enough self control to peck out a blog post to show our moms back home my classroom this year.  I have finally done it though, I have:

1. remembered the camera

2. taken pictures that were not fuzzy

3. opened my laptop with the intention of writing a blog post

It looks like I am well on my way, one blog post down!  Anyways, here is my new classroom this year.  It is way bigger than last years and I am loving it!  I have a lot of the same stuff as last year and some new additions.  Take a look!

I think above is my favorite part of the room.  I got cute lanterns that were pennies marked down at michael's and then took photos of the kids on the first day of school.  Matted them on paper and put them up.  I like the look of it, and the kids like to gaze admiringly at them selves! 

Writing Station

Library Station

Front of the room.

Maps and my desk.

So, these weren't the best pics and of course I had the 50mm lens on so I could not zoom in or out at all, but you get the general idea.  I am also working on a classroom blog that I will share when it is up and running and on its feet.  Hope all my midwest teacher friends are loving their classes and my east coast friends are recovering from their long first week!

-melissa

yellow snow=no. colorful snow=yes!

We are from an area of the U.S. that gets snow, some years a good amount.  I need snow, I look forward to it, and being a teacher I really need it as built in personal health day.  Here in Richmond, I think it may never snow this year.  At first the warm weather was nice, I heard of friends who even had to have the a/c on over Christmas break.  But now really, enough is enough.  January is quickly escaping us and we have had no ice, no snow, no nothing! Every year I create tie-dye snowflakes with my class.  Everyone seems to get into it, who doesn't like to tie-dye, right?  This year I even added a writing assignment to go with it.  The fifth graders wrote how-to essays about the process.   Well here you go, it may not be as detailed as some of my ten year olds, but a quick how to anyway!

Here are two finished projects that I did at school with my class awhile back, I attached both the flake and their how-to paper to a piece of black paper that I sprayed with snow in a can.

Maybe if we all made some beautiful tie-dye snowflakes we could convince some icy, snowy precipitation to head our way a bit!  If we finally do get a snow day, what better way to spend the day than filling your house with tie-dye snowflakes!  Enjoy!

-melissa

mlk writing project

This MLK day I really wanted to get the kids thinking.  I did not want to do a classic lesson about the great person that he was, I did not want to give them another history lesson on the civil rights movement.  I teach ten year olds, they are actually well versed in this time in history thanks to past social studies classes that they have received. This year I did something a little different...

About a week ago I gave them the assignment to interview someone that they truly respect and admire.  I wanted them to choose someone that had a story to tell, someone that had wisdom and some years under their belt.  I wanted to cause a purposeful conversation.  In the interview they needed to discover a little information about this person's past.  I wanted them to see how someone else's life could be much different than their own.  I also wanted them to talk about what dreams the person had when they were younger and what their dreams were like now.  Lastly, I wanted them to know what dreams this person had for my students.  Today they presented what they discovered.

I had a great time seeing them speak easily in front of their peers, sharing all of the fun and odd things that was learned about those that they respected most in life.  Even the students that do not speak easily in public seemed to be at ease talking about someone that is special to them.

If you are interested in this project here is the assignment sheet with rubric that I gave my students.  The students seemed to really enjoy it and it was nice to get them writing about something that they care about.  The plus side is that all of the materials and supplies for the project are free!  This assignment is designed to be a paper bag project.  All portions of the interview are attached to a brown paper grocery bag.  The handles of the bag make it easy for students to hold their project while presenting it to the class.

I really think at the end of the day my students had a different respect of their elders and it maybe even started some family conversation at a dinner table or two.

"The group consisting of mother, father and child is the main educational agency of mankind." Martin Luther King Jr.

-melissa