Feeding the kangaroos

This is L feeding one of the kangaroos at Hedrick's. The whole day was fun, but this was the part that caused the most anticipation. Most of them were loose, and sat around in an area around you, but for some reason this little guy was on the other side. L felt sorry for him, and I think he got most of her sweet potato strips!

School is in full swing

The school year feels like it is finally in full swing - into the routine, have figured out my class dynamics, and I have piles of grading (which is always the real sign!). We even take our first field trip, to the State Fair, tomorrow. L is loving school - getting so grown-up. It's such a cliche, but it feels so true, that she is growing up so fast. She is currently SO UPSET because she was reading a book about the rain forest, and she discovered that some people capture male Morpho butterflies and kill them and cut their wings up to be turned into jewelry. In the book, it said those people state that since they only take the males it doesn't affect the population. She is SO indignant! "It takes males to mate, and if there are no males, then the females can't lay eggs, and so the population will decline and then maybe go extinct!" She's so fired up about it!
My sister came to see us the day before school started, and we took the kids to this amazing local attraction called Hedrick's Exotic Animal Farms. You have to call ahead for a tour reservation, and then you get to pet/feed giraffes, zebras, ostriches, camels, donkeys, horses, water buffalo, pigs, and, Most Importantly, kangaroos! The kids had a marvelous time - if you have never been there, you should try it. They are also a bed & breakfast, so you can actually stay the night in one of their animal-themed rooms.
It was such a nice thing to do - one last "adventure" before school began!

Summer slipping by . . .

All of a sudden, I have realized that school has been out for ONE MONTH already! How did I let it slip by so quickly, without celebrating much of it? I have spent so much of that month involved in mundane things - cleaning, errands, meetings, classes - I don't feel like I have celebrated the vacation from school like I should have. Although I have more meetings and classes, and I have some SERIOUS CLEANING AND ORGANIZING to do in my classroom, and I am going to try hard to be more in-the-moment with L for the last few weeks of summer break. I want to be able to look back on these weeks and draw calm or peace from them during frazzled moments. I think that means I need to spend less time organizing (not that I'm spending an excessive amount on it now, you understand!) and more time beside the pool. :)

Colorado Drag Racing

We went to CO last weekend to race in Bandimere - outside of Denver. I've never been there before and it was BEAUTIFUL! We had a fabulous time hiking around the track area, cheering for Stuart as he raced, and then traveling to the Springs after he was done at the track. We went to the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, the Cave of the Winds, and the Garden of the Gods. We had never been to the CWWC before, L found it on the internet. They rescue wolves that were in fur factories or done being used on movie sets, etc, and keep them in a natural, safe environment. We had an amazing tour - so worth the drive!

Today I am at my last Tech Cadre meeting, learning about turning iMovies into iDVDs. I would never have guessed, a year ago, that I would be (semi) proficient at this now! Today we learned about a fabulous application called Handbrake, which allows you to convert DVDs into iPod-friendly formats. Love it!

Novel Summary Presentations

I am watching my class and the other 4th grade present novel summary projects. I am amazed at how creative some of my students are in their presentation choices - VoiceThreads, Keynotes, posters, skits, dioramas, castles made out of marshmallows and Hershey's kisses! It is so fun to watch them present the projects that they have poured their hearts and souls into - adding glitter glue, hand-cut bubble letters, animals made from playdough, tiny windows cut out of shoeboxes, and images printed off the internet to illustrate their favorite parts.

I can hardly wait for next year when we have more technology in our classrooms, and we can give the kids more options for how they would like to present their information. They are so motivated to create presentations using the technology and the other kids are a more attentive audience when they are watching a Keynote or a VoiceThread!

Welcome to Goertzen's Gathering!