Summer bucket list

 Last year, we started a summer 'bucket' list.

We tried to repeat this year...

Ben wanted to check out USA kilts near Collegeville PA and check out the races near us.  Hoping to do this next weekend?

Bella wanted to camp and re-visit Letchworth.

TJ wanted to have a summer birthday party and visit Letchworth.

Lucas wanted to have his friend over to play and just chill.

Cadia wanted to go McDonald's play place and have an over night with grandparents.

Mom wanted to go out 1 time per month with adults (dinner in June, breakfast in July, breakfast in August) and read at least 3 books.  I read 4!

Well yesterday we finished most of the bucket list.  12 hours...no cell service...no camping but still a fun day :)

Here a few summer highlight pictures

They are already plotting for summer 24!

Ready to go

 As a public school educator, I struggle with late August.  

I LOVE teaching...really!  

I LOVE seeing colleagues!

I LOVE planning new lessons!

I struggle/grapple with the end of summer feelings.

This week was no different.  Our end of summer camping trip has to changed to a day trip.

Difficult but meaningful back to school presentations.  Google Rachel's Challenge.

Mini stressors like delays in information.

But a few things are helping remind me to keep going forward. 

1. Attending a high school football game...seeing students past and present.  I have touched their lives in some way.  I have more lives to touch.

2. This quote at inservice...

3. Seeing the excitement of new teachers.  I am loving mentoring a new teacher.  So ready to make a difference.

Onto a new year...new lessons...new outlook!

One day at a time!

Summer Learning Fun

 I tried to post links on Facebook and hyper links were not working.

Here is the same info in a blog post.

Happy Summer...buried in your child's bookbag is a neon yellow summer reading letter! 

Everything is 100% optional  :)

https://erielibrary.org/ (starts on Monday) 

Erie Library

https://www.wqln.org/q-kids-readers#q-kids-readers-for-home

WQLN 

https://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/our-stores-communities/summer-reading-program/

Barnes and Noble

https://www.chuckecheese.com/activities-and-downloads/

Chuck E Cheese

https://www.bookitprogram.com/programs/camp-book-it

Camp Book It

Other cool links:

Scholastic Home Base

Summer choice boards

Little Free Library map

More to follow :)

Playground fun

Two of my children are working on a fitness merit badge for Boy Scouts.

In addition, last summer we started a family bucket list.

Put those together...I have a 10 year old and 5 year old who want to visit as many playgrounds in our county.

As we visit playgrounds, I will add to this post.

Let us start with new finds...

6/7 Nature Play Space at TREC

It was quiet...like private experience!

Pros: New equipment like a tunnel, gravel pit, wooden seesaw, climber, and more.

Cons: No public restrooms after hours and might not be toddler fun.

6/5 was a re-discovery of Lake Cliff Park in Lawrence Park.  We were in search of a zipline.

Pros: Zipline, fun climbers, 3 different play structures, short trail to the lake.

Cons: Port a Potties and flying softballs, and super high swings.

On Sunday, Cadia had a birthday party at Greenefield Township Park.

Pros: Pavilions, bathrooms, walking/exercise trail, 2 play structures, lots of space to explore

Cons: A bit out of the way and limited shade.

Saturday 6/3 we tried the McClelland Dog Park

This spawned the search for new parks.

Pros: Nature trail, new pavilion, dog parks, 1 play area

Cons: Port a potty, rough crowd of unmonitored children, and a broken zipline.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we visited our favorite Greene Township and updated Wattsburg Community Park.  No pictures of those yet!

Look for updates and inspiration throughout the summer...off to another playground -  Scott Park.

Update and wrap up

 March - May - it is a bit of blur mixed with lots of highs and a few lows.

In mid - March, I got a wicked case of Covid.  Nothing life threatening - but not fun.  2.5 months later, I am slowly feeling like a human again.  The tired feeling has been the worst part (think the day after a stomach bug feeling - where your energy is zapped by a shower feeling)...but all day every day for 2 months.

I kept all the plates but barely - evidence by my son's Mother's Day project.  Yes - the TV is my new favorite activity - but I am still teaching and volunteering!

However,  I am will celebrate the wins and the future.

WINS:
Tech take apart lessons, piloting Carnegie Museum course, trying AASL lesson plans, teaching, visiting Akron Zoo, Shrine of St. Dymphna, and Mother Angelica Museum, finishing up cub scouts this year, lots of end of the year celebrations, training for church (EDGE), and more.

My favorite lesson is the end of the year memory power points by the fourth graders.  Here are a few slides that touched me.

    

       

       

Plus I was crazy enough to add on a very part time.  I am learning about content creation with User Generated Content.  It is cool to make $12 and get a free product just to take a picture with a product.  Today, I am going to try my first video.  Thank goodness my teen daughter is on board as the script writer, picture taker, and idea generator.  JoinBrands  You can check out Join Brands too!

  

10 more days of school!  I can do it :)

Off to celebrate a 4 day week, graduation for my oldest from pharmacy school, and Memorial Day.

STEAM update

It has been two weeks.  Exhausting, rewarding, educational!

Dominoes are done...we calculated data and made our chain in the hallway.  It was a fun event and pre/post lessons.

We collected 109 boxes of cereal.

Then we worked on some classic favorite lessons and started some new units.

K-4 (except 3rd grade) worked on Copyright and Creativity.  Copyright and creativity

Great topic.

2nd and 3rd are doing an airplane unit.  

We are modifying a lesson plan from AASL.

The current highlights are the slow motion birds and making paper airplanes.

Bird videos

1st grade did a yearly favorite called The Perfect Square.

Most of K and 1 did some Dr. Seuss inspired centers and a creative drawing prompt.  Making Truffaut trees, 10 Apples Up on Top, and Lego patterns.

So much creativity!

4th grade is starting some tech take apart.  Keyboards are fun to disassemble! 

Then we will build structures out of the pieces...more pictures in a week or two.  

At home, 2 of my children are preparing for a musical.

Lucas is on book 11 of BabyMouse.

Cadia reads multiple books each night with Tim.

TJ and I just finished this book.  It made us think and discuss vocabulary.   It was nice to escape the chaos and read for 20 minutes one on one every night. 

He enjoyed the story in a story but did not pick up on the alternative life styles.

I also have gotten some recent book donations for the Little Free Library too.

From Hindi's library

Onward...lots of fun and learning at home and school. 

Dominoes!

Ok...we will try this a second time...I tried to add mini videos and Blogger was not working.

Problem solved - I would have to download them to my computer then upload them or share to YouTube.  But 'still' pictures of dominoes are no fun!  So I had to create a new plan to share domino chain reactions with you later in the blog.  

So I am going to re-type my post and hope to add some awesome videos.

January is long dreary month following the excitement of the holidays.  Luckily, I got an inspiration in early January. 

It was from one of STEAM Facebook groups...I saw this post and the rest is history ;)

I immediately thought of the Kids Heart Challenge in February...I  reached out to my dear friend who was leading this activity and she was open to adding it.  Then I asked my principal...and he said YES as well!

Now to plan and coordinate the fun.  Here is the letter that we sent to families!  

I decided that a lesson on dominoes would be cool.  I didn't find any that I loved...so I developed a totally new lesson, bought a pack of dominoes, and decided to throw in my observation as well!

My lesson included a power point...students wrote out SEE THINK WONDERS about dominos.  I think that we will answer some WONDERS next week.  I have to find a safe and easy way to research dominos.  Not sure if we will use Power Library Kids or a regular search engine.  

Plus we discussed potential and kinetic energy.  I found a short pandemic video on this topic.  It worked well.  

Then students were given a bag with 10 dominos, 10 Legos, and 10 Keva planks.  They had 10 minutes to engineer mini domino chain reactions.  Sharing was a challenge as well as keeping accurate counts in the bags...but we just made adjustments as needed.  

Students enjoyed this activity along with 10 minutes of coding on Code.org.

The end of class brought a discussion of the world record for cereal box dominos.  The video was a huge hit!  Cereal Box Domino

Plus some students learned about the history of the word DOMINO and a bit about the game on Wonderopolis.  Wonderopolis - Domino

If we had any extra minutes - they got to see a new fun website on CLEVER which was the Kids Guinness World Records - Kids Guinness World Records

I cannot add videos here so I created an album in Google with some of the chain reactions.  Student domino creations

This week will be our official Heart Healthy Cereal Box Domino on Tuesday.  Then before the holiday party, we will run the domino chain reaction.  After that, boxes of cereal will be donated to our local food panty.  Kindness is a part of the Kids Heart Challenge and a great message :)

Next week is on Copyright and Creativity and some quick research on our WONDERS.  

Excited for a quiet-ish weekend, fun week ahead, then a LONG weekend :)

Here is my start of the cereal box collection - I did not want to store all of them - so more of coming in!  The goal is HEART HEALTHY CEREAL!

Perspective week

 Some weeks life is going well...Some weeks cause you to pause.

This was a tough week...tougher for others but losing two woman was a bit of a mental health speed bump.

Saturday morning my sweet second cousin passed away from brain cancer.  A fellow mom and teacher.  I saw her once a year at reunions...maybe at a wedding or funeral.   I always remember her smile!  It was tough...I regetting not sending a note in January like I wanted to send.  We drifted apart with COVID and no reunions. 

Fast forward, Sunday I fought a mild stomach bug brought home by my 5 year old.  Thanks honey.

As Monday started, news spread of a dear mom in my community who suddendly passed away.  Her son a senior...I knew her as the kindest person.  Any visit to her food truck resulted in her trying to give me an extra.  Plus I worked a few nights with her over the summer.  I was doing a bit of waitressing and she was one of the cooks/fryer.  Her son was playing football and a senior.  She jumped in to fill the opening. What stands out most, her infectious smile.  Always putting others first.

Two smiling joyful giving women...loved others...gone too soon.

There is a beautiful message here...but writing is more therapy than inspiration. 

I just know that I need to live every day with no regrets...

So I am signing off to make home made poptarts, drive kids to musical practice, then build some memories in my home.

I have lesson plans to write for a new exciting lesson on dominoes...not the pizza.

Dominoes are the vehicle to a new unit on energy, kindness, heart health and more!

I like to post photos in this blog, but nothing fit but this quote. This is what stuck out to me as I was listening to my Catechism in a Year podcast this week...we need grace and we need each other! It spoke to me.

The last two minutes really was what I needed to hear...but this was the best nugget.