650 feet under

We spent Saturday evening (and rather late into the night) helping our good friend Melissa celebrate her upcoming birthday. Now, this was not your ordinary birthday party venue. We traveled 650 feet below ground into the Salt Museum in Hutchinson, KS. We could see how salt is mined and transported out of the mine. The salt at this location is used for livestock and road treatment. The salt mine is also used as a storage facility for movie reels and memorabilia. At the mine, it was more cost effective to leave everything down there than transport it back up. So there is a pile of trash that has been completely preserved, thanks to the conditions in the mine, for over 60 years!

This is the costume worn by George Clooney.

This was a shuttle system used to transport employees around the mine (back in the 50’s or 60’s, I believe).

We had to wear hard hats and rescue breathers in the mine. It’s a good look, don’t you think?

After we had toured the galleries and learned all about salt, we headed to the event center for a murder mystery dinner theater. Dinner was delicious and the show was hilarious (with audience participation). Melissa’s husband Ryan had a small impromptu part and ended up stealing the show. He was a great sport!!

  

Ryan played the part of Sir Groom and had to marry the lovely Princess Cactus Blossom.

Happy Birthday, Melissa! Thanks for including us in such a fun evening!

family photos

For Christmas I vainly decided to give my in-laws a ginormous canvas of our family. As soon as I placed the order, I started to feel weird about giving them such a large picture of just our family. Well, several months later, all is well. We had another photo with my hubby’s family, so now they can order matching canvases to include the rest of the family. And now it won’t look like we’re the favorites!

our second week of school

After an exhausting first week of school, I wanted to start off the second week with some fun and excitement.

The kids came in Monday morning to a little treat. They were thrilled. I got this idea from a friend who teaches in California.

For Science and “team building” we did an activity called “Save Fred”. The students were told that Fred (a gummy worm) is stranded on top of his boat (a plastic cup) and his life preserver (gummy life saver) is trapped under the boat. They had to work with a partner to get the life saver around the gummy worm using only 4 paper clips (no hands can touch the worm, cup or life saver).

 

They also can’t injure Fred in any way (like stab him with a paper clip to pick him up).

They had so much fun with this activity. I was very impressed with their problem solving skills! My teaching partner found this idea on a teacher blog and it’s definitely a keeper!!

I ended the day by sending home a bag of gummy worms along with their reading logs. As a school, we are participating in a Million Minute Challenge. The students keep track of the minutes they read at home and we hope to have a cumulative total of 1,000,000 minutes by the end of the year. We are also having monthly celebrations if we reach certain milestones. Just one more fun and exciting activity to promote reading!!

Now I need to think of some more little incentives for the coming weeks. All ideas are welcome!

soccer

Saturday was Delaney’s first soccer game. I don’t know if you know this, but Jeremy is a pretty great soccer player. So we have been hopeful that she would inherit some of his skills.

She did an amazing job waving to her fans on the sidelines every time she got in the game. And she tried her very hardest to not touch the ball. The whole game. And I must say…she succeeded in that!

She did however, love drinking water from her special water bottle. And seeing her new friends. And waving to her fans.

They don’t technically keep score at this age. They don’t. But I do. We tied 2-2. No thanks to our little non-soccer player.

back to school

I’ve neglected the blog for the last couple of weeks as summer was winding down. I was busy trying to enjoy my last days at the pool. And busy getting my classroom set up. And I was extremely busy stalking all the creativity on Pinterest.

We had our “Meet the Teacher” night on Monday. I gave these bags of microwave popcorn to my students. Thank you Pinterest! And my students thank you, too!

 

These are my math manipulatives. And I want you to notice the super cute drawers on the rolling cart. {Pinterest}

Extra storage and seating. Another fabulous idea from you know where. They are made from crates, plywood, batting and fabric. The kids love them!!

I actually came up with this idea all by myself. Amazing!! As you can see, the kids aren’t learning anything today.

This board to keep track of “no name” papers was found on Pinterest as well.

Hi. My name is Marcie. And I’m addicted to books.

This is my very favorite place in my classroom. I have my books sorted by themes, genre and/or levels. It is so fun to see how excited the kids are to find a book to read. I hope it will be their favorite spot in the classroom as well!

I tried a different formation for my desks this year. I think I’ll like it. I love standing in the middle and quickly being able to help any student. So far I’m spending most of my time picking up their pencils and erasers off the floor. Apparently having a desk in front of you helps keep your supplies off the floor. Who knew?

 

Bloom’s Taxonomy…it’s a teacher thing.

So there’s a quick tour of my classroom. Room 306. My home away from home.

senior year

How is it possible that I have a Senior in High School?? Today was Bri’s last first day of school.

And Allison started her Junior year this year.

 

My girls are growing up!!

first day

Today was the first day of school for Nate, Delaney and me. Delaney is now in the Early Childhood Preschool class at Lincoln (where I teach). I’m so excited to have 2 of my kiddos at school with me once again.

And Nate is now in Third Grade!!! I convinced his nurse, Melissa to get her picture taken with him.

I’m happy to report that both kids had a great first day! I’m looking forward to a great school year!

tulsa road trip

We took a mini vacation to see Scott and Erika last week. We were only there for about 24 hours. But it was a nice getaway. We went to the Oklahoma Aquarium and I took a TON of pictures. So I apologize if it takes forever for your page to load!

There was a tank of rays and baby sharks to touch.

Look! We found Nemo!!!

There were tide pools where you could touch sea cucumbers and starfish.

Isn’t this an interesting looking guy?

I think he wants to give me a kiss! Mmmmmmuuwah!

There are some strange looking creatures deep in the ocean!

I had to force Delaney to sit and get her picture taken.

And then she wanted to pose so I could take more pictures. Go figure!

A giant prawn…appetizers anyone?

It was HOT in Tulsa! So we couldn’t do a whole lot while we were there. But before we left, we went to a park near their house and let Delaney play.

Thanks for the fun getaway, Scott and Erika! We had a great time!!