shockingly . . .

this post will not be about Grace. :)

A few weeks ago we were learning about Veterans Day in 1st grade and my kids decided they wanted to make cards for Veterans they knew. In our class newsletter, I asked families to send in names and addresses of family members that were veterans. In all, we sent out about 20 cards to family members and also to a few local rest homes.

The kids were so excited when some of the Veterans wrote back to us. Pretty darn cool how much it meant to them and us.

In other 1st grade news . . . Frog and Toad have taken over our classroom. Do you remember these books?
We are deeply entrenched in all things Frog and Toad while we are learning about characters, setting, problem, solution and re-telling. We have done Frog and Toad puppet shows (I have to admit, I do a fabulous "Toad" voice . . . at least that's what my 1st grade friends tell me), retold the stories more times than I can count, made graphic organizers of the characters, setting, problem, solution . . . the kids even conned me into going onto Amazon and buying a Frog and Toad DVD.

Puppets for the story "The Lost Button"Our own illustrations for the story "The Surprise"While teaching this year has definitely taken a back seat to my Gracie girl, I still love the kids and all the fun things we do. We have been doing parent-teacher conferences this last week and sitting down with parents, now that I am a parent, has been a completely different ballgame. It's been harder to say the things that need to get said because I keep thinking, "How would I feel if someone said that about Grace?" Luckily . . . my co-teacher is there and I just look at her when it gets to the hard part and she says it! I was a softy before . . . but now, I'm afraid I'm a complete pushover. Kids have my heart.

One final thing, while I'm on the subject of school . . . if your kids are LUCKY enough to be in the Nooksack School district . . . our superintendent Mark Johnson, was named Washington State Superintendent of the Year.