Spring Break

Here's a little run-down of what's been happening over here this week... told in iPhone pictures because I'm too lazy to take real pictures, thank you very much.

1. I went to dinner with some friends I used to teach with and we went to see The Hunger Games. Uh, guys? How awesome is that movie? I heart Peeta... just needed to say that.

2. A few girls from school and I went to Wine and Easel last night. It's one of those painting classes you take with your friends. It was a blast! I used to paint a lot but I realized last night I am VERY rusty! Ha.

Me and Lane

Brittney and Betsy

Claire and Lane

Here is my painting about half-way done.

Working hard...

My finished product!

Claire's, Lane's and mine all done :)

It was a fun night, ladies! We should do it again soon :)

3. I've been working on the house a little. Mostly cleaning my room and organizing some closets. But, I've made a few purchases.

I bought some pillows for the patio chairs...

and added some plants. I've got a baker's rack at my parents house that I still haven't moved over and I'm thinking it will look great out here!

I got a new pillow for the couch,

a new basket for storing some soon-to-be-bought puppy toys,

and I moved this painting that I made last summer into my bedroom.

Oh, and I rearranged the kitchen a little too.

4. I took a little trip to the snow-cone truck... my most favorite place in the world.

5. I've been cooking some new stuff.

Yes, those are Brussel Sprouts. No, I didn't like them.

6. I went shopping with my mom today at The Avenue in Murfreesboro. I got some cute clothes and some awesome perfume! And, I didn't buy one thing for my house... except a bath mat. So, that's a big accomplishment! Ha.

7. I'm starting to pack for our trip to Land Between the Lakes. We leave Monday. I cannot wait! It's so fun to see our sweet kids experience things for the first time. I'm so lucky to get to come along... even though I don't teach second grade.

Okay, that's about it. The second half of the week should be pretty laid back... just like I like it!

Hope you're having a great week, too!

Congrats, Matt!!!

  Congratulations to this guy:

That's my little brother, Matt.

And why are congratulations in order? Well, because he made this team:

The Kane County Cougars!

And, he'll get to play here:

Pretty cool, huh?

The Cougars are a Low A team located in Geneva, Illinois that are associated with the Kansas City Royals MLB program.

This is a promotion from last year when Matt was playing on a Rookie League team and rehabbing his arm.

We're so proud of Mr. Matt. He's an awesome kid and he works really hard. He had some bad luck his senior season at Western kentucky University. He was having the best season of his life. He broke the all-time wins record at WKU and had been pretty much lights-out the entire season. He's a pictcher, did I mention that? Anyway, he was getting a ton of attention from Major League scouts and it was pretty much a given that he would be drafted in the first ten rounds of the draft. But, during his last game of the season, when he was 1 out away from breaking the all-time wins record for THE ENTIRE SUNBELT CONFERENCE (yes, you can be impressed), his arm gave out. The next few days were a whirl-wind. While the team was preparing to go to the conference tournament, we were finding out Matt needed Tommy John surgery on his elbow. Five days before the draft. And, the bad news is that there were a TON of scouts at the game he got hurt. So, news spread like wildfire that he was injured. Teams started calling him and telling him they couldn't draft him if he was hurt. Which, I think must have hurt him a lot more than his arm did.

But, you know what? That kid NEVER ONCE threw himself a pity party. He had a huge smile on his face every time I saw him and was a great support to his teammates during the tournament and during Senior Day. I know on the inside he was reeling (I know I was!), but he never got down. He had his surgery the day after the season... because, he didn't want to miss any games and be there for his team. There's not a selfish bone in his body. I wish I could say the same about myself.

Long story short, the draft day came. And, it was a long and excrutiating day for our family. What would have been the most exciting day ever was so nerve-wracking because we kept listening and kept listening and we didn't hear his name.

But then. In the 41st round, we heard his name. And, people? I'm pretty sure we cheered louder than we would have if he had been drafted in the 2nd round. Noone cared at all about the round. We were just so happy that a team took a chance on him!

We went out and bought Kansas City Royals hats to celebrate:

(Check out that arm brace!)

We had a signing party for the boy, too.

And, then he left. He went to Arizona for a YEAR to rehab his arm at the Royals facility there. We took a few trips out there to visit him and he came home for Christmas, but that was a long time for him to be SO far away!

Visiting Route 66 on our trip to the Grand Canyon

Last year, as I said, he finally got to play. And, he did great! He played in Burlington, NC for the Rookie League Royals.

Here he is after his very first Minor League win. We were so glad we got to be there for it! It was amazing to see him back in action!

Anyways, I've digressed from my original point. Which is...

Matt, I am SO proud of you!

You're going to do great this season and I can't wait to get out there and see you pitching in person. I miss watching you pitch! But, even more than your baseball ability, I'm proud of your character and your hard work.

You'll go far, I know it.

If Ever a Wiz There Was...

Well, people? I'm back. I know you've been waiting on pins and needles to hear what's been going on in Ms. Ridings' class. (Yeah, right.) Here's what's been  going on: The Wizard of Oz!!!

Let me go ahead right now and confess my undying love for The Wizard of Oz. It's hands down my favorite movie of all time. I love it. I sing the songs. I know all the words. I have Pinterest boards devoted to it. Not even kidding.

Oh, and the kids I tutor after school two days a week? They're putting on a play. The Wizard of Oz. So, we've been practicing it ALOT.

I've been reading my kids the chapter book since about October. Yeah, that was a long time ago. But, give me a break. It's hard for me to find time to just read without an agenda in my day. But, the kids were ENTHRALLED with the book. They could not get enough. Personally, I think the book is a little weird. But, to each their own...

Since this week was the week before Spring Break, a few teachers on my team and I decided to go full-on Wizard of Oz. We purchased Abby Mullins' awesome unit on TPT and we also came up with some great activities on our own.

Monday, we read the picture book and watched the movie. The kids were so excited they could hardly even contain their little selves. It certainly didn't help that we gave them popcorn with "munchkin treats" in it. Oh, and we worked on our character booklets. I made them all a book with some blank pages where they could draw each of the six main characters and write what they are thinking in a speech bubble. Here's what those looked like:

The front cover

We had lots of good invented spelling of "courage" this week! Ha!

Tuesday, we did some of the math activities from Abby's unit. They loved graphing their favorite characters and doing some of the math journal prompts. We also did a Venn diagram to compare/contrast Glenda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch.

Wednesday, things got pretty exciting! In writing, we did the ruby slipper activity from Abby's unit. They turned out soooo cute! We even added some doilies to Dorothy's socks.

Pretty adorable, huh?

Also on Wednesday, we worked on a class mural. I had pre-made a yellow brick road on a big piece of butcher paper and labeled it with the places Dorothy went throughout the book/movie. The kids were so curious about it all week. They kept asking when we were going to work on it.

I basically just split them up into teams of three or four and gave them all a location. I had typed out some ideas of things they could make and encouraged them to brainstorm with their teams. I set out about a bazillion pieces of scrapbook paper and just let them go to town. Ya'll? I am shocked at what they came up with and what a great job they did! They were so into it and so creative! I must admit I helped them outline the Emerald City and the Witch's Castle... but, they did EVERYTHING else!

Here it is!!!

Close up of Kansas and Munchkinland

I typed out quotes from the movie and we added them to our mural, too.

The Cornfield, Forest and Field of Poppies

The Emerald City and the Witch's Castle

As we went through and retold the story using the mural, I had some of the kids write each part of Dorothy's journey on index cards and we glued those on, too.

The winged monkeys are my favorite, ha!

Dorothy, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. And, Toto too.

I really never predicted that this would be such a great activity. I'd say it's maybe my favorite thing we've done this year.

As luck would have it, Mrs. Carroll over at The First Grade Parade posted this right in the middle of the week! So, we took full advantage and my kids got a great opportunity to use the mural to retell the story.

Poo. I just realized that the other pics of these that I took had some last names on them... so, I'm not going to post them on here. But, you can go get this awesome freebie at The First Grade Parade.

Thursday, I let the kids create their favorite character. All I did was cut out the circles for the faces so that the kids wouldn't make them too small. That's all I did. And, let me tell you. It was painful. I kept debating about whether I should cut out witch's hats and magic wands and Dorothy's hair, etc. But, I just decided no. It's okay if their artwork doesn't look perfect. They're kids. I just dumped out the scrapbook paper and let them go to town. I did give them some pics of the characters from the internet as a refernce point. But, I let them work in their teams and make them all on their own. I had to take a few deep breaths when all the Dorothy's came out looking like pigs. But, I'm so happy I let it go and just let them have fun. And, I think they turned out adorable.

Glenda and Wicked Witch

(You can click on the pictures to make them bigger if you want to read their writing.)

Tinman, Dorothy and the Lion

These friends right here were having a race to see who could write the most. Normally, I would stress quality over quantity. But, the day before Spring Break? Race on, friends!

That Dorothy looks totally like a pig, right?

I hung them out on the wall... along with our mural. And, they're going to stay there for a while because they make me happy.

We will FOR SURE be doing The Wizard of Oz every year from now on. My kids had so much fun... and, I may have had even more fun than them!

Now, I'm off to get my Spring Break started! Hopefully, I'll be able to blog some this week. Although, not about school. I'm not even thinking about school after I push the "publish" button to this post.