The Last Day of School

Whenever I tell people that we're near the end of another school year, their response is usually something like, "Oh you must be so happy!" Although I sometimes pretend to be, just to seem normal, the truth is that I am a mess this time of year. Many of us are. We work in such a strange field, where every year we have to say goodbye to all of our students (who are essentially our co-workers, children, friends, and family all rolled into one) and start fresh in the fall. This is far from easy.

I cry every year on the last day of school. It's usually the moment when the last photo from our class slideshow fades, when I look at the clock and realize it's about to be all over. Sometimes kids are already crying by that point, which just sets me off worse. We have a tradition where all of the teachers line up in front of the school to wave the buses off with colorful scarves. I'm one of the ones waving a Kleenex and bawling.

This year my class made me a beautiful book full of letters and sweet drawings. They've been working on it in secret, during recesses, lunches, or when they could get permission to go into the hallway during silent reading. They presented it to me this morning as school started, and I completely lost it. It's clear that they had minimal (if any) parent help on the book, which makes it all the sweeter. Getting 24 third graders on the same page about anything takes a lot of work, so what really touched me was that they organized themselves and cooperated on this incredible gift for me.

So if you know a teacher, give him or her a hug this time of year. As Mr. Rogers once said,

"Transitions are almost always signs of growth, but they can bring feelings of loss. To get somewhere new, we may have to leave somewhere else behind."

Happy summer. :)

Last Day of Staff Room Duty: Camping Theme

In keeping with our summer theme, for our last big day of staff room duty, Chelsea and I did a camping subtheme. We started with these delicious s'more pops:



These were a huge hit. They're just marshmallows on wooden skewers. Then we melted a couple of giant bars of Hershey's chocolate in the microwave to dip them in, then rolled them in crushed graham crackers. They taste just like s'mores! I think it's pretty key to use Hershey's chocolate though... just any old chocolate wouldn't have that same effect.

We also made these little campfire cupcakes. They're just frosted with green "grass," then we broke pretzel sticks to make the logs and added a squirt of orange frosting with a star tip. Easy peasy!

Day One of Staff Room Duty: Rainbows!

For the last week of school, Chelsea and I signed up for Staff Room Duty. This usually entails loading the dishwasher, wiping down the countertops, and maybe bringing in a treat one day. Most teachers might do chips and salsa on one of their days.

Well, naturally Chelsea and I always go way overboard. For Halloween week we decked out the lounge in orange and black, made a different creepy treat for each day of the week, and hid plastic hearts in the refrigerator.

So for this week we knew we had set a bar for ourselves. We decided to go with a summer theme. Here's what we did for Monday (subtheme: rainbows):


1. Make a batch of cake batter. Divide into 6 bowls, and use food coloring to dye each bowl a different color.


2. Pour batter into 6 separate cake pans and bake.


3. Layer the cakes, frosting between layers.


4. Make Dr. Seuss proud with a wonky, wobbly, colorful rainbow cake.

5. Frost the whole thing white, so that when it's cut into it's a surprise! I'll post an update picture when this sucker gets cut into. :)

6. Decide that a rainbow cake isn't quite enough. Make rainbow cupcakes too.

7. Admire their beauty. High five each other.

8. Frost and sprinkle. I just love how the white cupcake cups turned semi-transparent, so that you can see the color swirls!

Come back tomorrow for Day Two: Beach Theme!

UPDATE:
Here's a picture of the rainbow cake, when cut into. It turned out even better than we thought!

Ye Olde Pioneer Craft: Clothespin Dolls

In third grade we are studying pioneers right now. One fun thing I love to do with the kids is to make old-fashioned clothespin dolls.



I explain that on the frontier, bored kids had to make their own fun out of whatever was at hand. Old-fashioned clothespins (which I find at Dollar Tree, btw) look so similar to little armless people that they were a natural choice for making toys!



I think my favorite thing about making these every year is watching kids who are used to their Xboxes and Wiis have a fantastic time with such low-tech materials. It's always kind of an "aha" moment for the parents who come in to help too... give kids some time to imagine, explore, and create, and some friends to do it with, and that's really all they need.



Some of the dolls reflect what students have learned about pioneer clothing:


...and some are less than traditional:

Who is that Man of Steel, and why is he so angry?

These are great for scrap-busting too!

From My Classroom: Mother's Day Gifts

Last week my class made our Mother's Day gifts - little personalized paperclips. I thought I'd share with you, because they were easy, inexpensive, and they turned out darn cute!



All you need is polymer clay (Fimo) and large paperclips. Start by rolling out two small balls of clay, then squish them flat to make two little fat coins. Sandwich the top of your paperclip between these coins. This makes your base.

Then, decorate and personalize to your heart's content! Here are a few ideas my students came up with:



For the mom who loves frying eggs.



Can you guess what this mom does for a living?

If you guessed works for a pharmaceutical company, you were right! ...Yes, that is a little blue pill.

This mom is a dentist. Look at all those bleeding cavities! (Yes, they are supposed to be bleeding cavities, I was assured by the artist)

For the mom who loves to travel the world.

This family has pet rabbits.

Apparently this child's mom is Donnie Darko.

I asked this boy what the little fellow on the right was supposed to be. He just giggled and said, "I have no clue!" Fair enough.

To package our creations, we used cardstock with slits cut in it to create little cards to slip our clips into.

Quick, easy and absolutely adorable. This is a project I highly recommend!!

An Earth Week Project (Sort Of)

In my classroom we play a lot of math games. One of the current favorites is a probability game called the Block-Drawing Game. The kids just love it - they play it every day, and they could play for hours. The only problem is that the Block-Drawing Game calls for a bag, and the paper bags we've been using are getting pretty trashed:

Since this week is Earth Week, I decided to make up some cloth bags to replace our sad, worn-out bags. They're a lot more durable, and will last a lot longer before needing replacement!

These are just simple bags, sewn from two 11" by 9" rectangles. Then I added quarter-inch-wide elastic in the mouths, to hold the bags closed and keep the kids from peeking in.

Do you want to play the Block-Drawing Game? Here are the rules!

You will need:

-Your beautiful new bag

-Small objects that are the same size and shape, but different colors. In my room we use Unifix cubes, but you could use superballs, beans, slips of paper, or whatever you've got laying around.

This is a 2-person game.

Person 1 chooses 5 objects, and notes their colors. For example, I picked 3 blues, 1 green, and 1 yellow.

Without looking into the bag, Person 2 draws one cube out of the bag, records the color on a piece of paper, puts a tally mark next to it, and replaces the cube. Person 2 continues drawing blocks and tallying the colors drawn, until he or she is ready to guess the contents of the bag. If the guess is right, then Person 2's score is the number of draws (so if she drew 6 times before guessing right, her score is 6).

Then switch jobs! Lowest score wins.

Have fun!

Sweet Encouragement

Okay, I'm a major dork... I'm aware. In so many ways I geek out daily - from the pun-based jokes that I insist are still funny the 18th time, to the ham I am when I get in front of my students. However, stress brings out a whole new level of dork in me.

This week I'm going through a certification to become a trainer of other educators in a method of teaching I strongly believe in (GLAD). Without going into specifics, this is the culmination of a year -or, if you look at it another way, 4 years- of an intense process. So naturally, the puns are flying like fish at Pike Place. My certification partner, Jenny, doesn't read this blog, so I'm comfortable showing the little daily encouragements I have planned for her.

First, I spent way too long in the candy aisle at QFC, searching for candy bars with names that could be turned into notes of support. When I got home I got out my beautiful new wool felt and some scrap craft paper and sewed 5 little tags, with rick-rack ties. On each one I composed a little note of encouragement, and I've started leaving these in places where she'll find them throughout our certification.

I found that I really liked making the labels. I've never tried sewing paper and fabric together before (aside from sewing the labels onto my mail sorter), and it was oddly satisfying.

Here's something else I discovered. All felt is not created equal. Those of you out there more experienced than me are thinking, "duh" right now, but for me this was a revelation. I've only ever used eco-felt before, and while it has its charms, it can't beat wool felt. This stuff is soft, easy to cut, easy to sew, and has such a rich, luxurious look to it that it barely fits in the same category. If you've never indulged before, I highly recommend it.

A Lovely Lunch Sack

Monday Chelsea and I got together and had a crafty-sewing day at her house. One project we finished was one I had been wanting to work on for a long time - a reusable lunch bag. My Lean Cuisines will be so much more appealing coming out of this sweet, springy little sack.

The wonderful tutorial came from Tumbling Blocks, and you can find it here. I picked up this fun oilcloth at the Pacific Fabrics outlet in SoDo, and I skipped the batting and inner lining called for in the tutorial.



I can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

To see Chelsea's version, check out the photos on her fabulous blog.