Exploring the Past!

The Train Depot building in Astoria has been closed for nearly twenty some odd years, and they held an open house recently.  The Maritime Museum is renovating the space to use as a showroom and a boat restoration shop.  Here are some photos that I snapped while visiting the open house, prior to the start of reconstruction. 

 The Peacock, a boat formerly used by the Columbia River Bar Pilots.

 1970's Astoria street map.

 Some of the plans for the redesign!

Year End Giggles and Gifts!

I have officially sent off my first class of students for the summer, granted I have to go to school Thursday for in-service and check out, but that's nothing compared to the smiles and waves from your children as their school bus passes in front of you.  With only a half day of school, we were busy wrapping things up, and doing really absolutely nothing of consequence! What a lovely and peaceful way to end the year!

This blog is a summary of some of the various highlights of my final day!

First things first, my gift bags, which were simple yet effective! I purchased yellow paper gift bags from Dollar Tree, 2 for $1.  The letters were punched from construction paper on our school die-cut machine.  I used the first initial of my students' names then wrote their whole names on the letter with blue markers.  After gluing the letters onto the bags, I stuffed each bag with the following treasures:

• 2 pencil top erasers (40 count package for $1)
• 1 glitter pencil (10 count packages for $1 each)
• 1 mini composition notebook (3 count packages for $1)
• 1 plastic frog or lizard (8 count packages for $1)
• 1 plastic Hawaiian lei (6 count packages for $1)
• 3 brand new chapter books by popular authors, Louis Sachar, Beverly Cleary, and Gordan Korman
• Although I bought 63 books, it only cost me, personally, about $10 dollars because they were all $1 books on Scholastic Book Clubs website and I had reward points to use! Plus a kind donation to my classroom from MY K-5 principal of many years ago helped lighten the cost. 
• Thank you Judy Bigby! You are a model educator and person!  

Today was also my last official day of Sing-a-long, our daily music program in which our K-4 classes participate.  The teachers lead all of the students in songs for about twenty minutes first thing in the morning.  

Since I will be teaching a 4/5 blend, our class will not be attending Sing, so this was the last day for sometime...

I also gave my students ten minutes today to ask anything, school appropriate questions, that they had not yet learned about me.  Here are some of the most memorable queries:

Q. Are you an alien.

A. No, I am also not a zebra.

Q. Are you a fan of Justin Beiber? (this was asked by the boys, who proceeded to boo)

A. I do have ONE Justin Beiber song on my iPod, but I do not have a preference either way.

Q. Who is Kevin?

A. My boyfriend.

Student response: Ooooh...

Q. Are you a Beaver or Duck fan?

A. Beaver fan, but I will not rag on my Duck fan students.

Q. How old are you?

A. 23

Student responses: Cheering, "YES!", high-fives, etc... 

All around it was a wonderful day, although the room was too quiet after they all left. :( 

I am so thankful that my first year was so fantastic, I could not have hoped for a more positive working and teaching environment. 

Fishy Surprise!

This past Saturday, Kevin and I were cruising around the county in the warm sunshine, and ended out in Olney near Sigfredson County Park, there is a small turnout  on Highway 202.  While wandering down to the creek, we dodged mosquitoes, mud holes, and crossed over the rocky beach to reach the water.  Being oblivious, we start finding good skipping rocks and try to skip them to the little rock island in the middle of the creek.  While bending down to get a rock near the edge of the water, Kevin is surprised to see hoards of eight inch fish (not certain if they are steelhead or Chinook)! After a closer look, we discover that twenty feet of water is plugged with hundreds of small fish! Kevin kindly ran back to the truck to get the camera so we could document this cool event. They were fighting for position in the river, but not attempting to advance, essentially to just tread water.  We watched them swimming for some time, thoroughly entranced by their beauty and vigor.  I wish I could watch them every day! Or at least track their movement regularly. I suppose I would have to work for the hatchery in that case.  

Meet the Phoebs!

I have two clever boys in my class who thought it would be appropriate to name the classroom plants.  The potted plant was a room warming gift from my family and the plant on the window screen is really just part of an overgrown bush outside. I joked with one of the boys that the plant keeps growing closer, meaning it must want to be friends.  Taking the friendship seriously, he immediately took to naming it with the help of his neighbor.  The plant outside is named Phoebe, and the potted plant is now named Phoebstah. The boys suggested that they have name tags that say, "Hello, my name is..." Loving their enthusiasm, I willingly obliged!

Summer Approaching!

Summer is literally around the corner, and a sunny, perfect Friday afternoon is the best sort of reminder! We are also reaching the end of the school year, a bittersweet moment for a first year teacher like myself.  My first class has been astounding, challenging at times, but I feel overwhelmingly blessed to have the class I do. And on that note, I get to keep over half of them next year!!!! I will be teaching a 4/5 blend class next year, and if our class lists are accepted by the principal, I will keep 13 of my 20 students. I am greatly looking forward to September, although I am quite excited for summer break to arrive as well. :)  With only one more full week and a half week to follow, my first year is very near completion and I have enjoyed it immensely! I need to remember to take my camera to school for end of the year photos!

PS: The picture above is from our front porch, overlooking the Columbia River and the neighborhood today! I understand if you are jealous of this awesome Friday view! Happy weekending!