Philly Fun and another visit from the Terrible Trivium!

So I survived the longest day of school so far in my career! Last Friday morning I arrived at school at 4:45 AM and began greeting my students around 5AM. By 5:30 we were all loaded on the bus and had begun the long journey to Philadelphia! Later that night, I handed over my last student into the loving arms of her father. It was 10:00 PM. That was a 17 hour school day!

I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. I think they were more excited about the gift shops, the bus ride and eating fast food at a truck stop than they were about the Liberty Bell though!

They did me proud by answering all of the National Park Ranger's questions in Independence Hall! Their behavior was excellent, and no one got lost! All in all, I have to say it was a successful trip!

I only slept til 11 in the morning the next day too!

George W. was a big dude. The life-size statues in the constitution center were a huge hit with the kids.

On a more sour note...I had to spend an hour after school preparing my classroom for a visit from the Terrible Trivium. Tomorrow begins our week of state standardized testing for Reading and Math. Like in most states, I'm required to take down or cover up all of my posters, student work, etc. I think it really makes the room look awful. All the butcher paper hanging on the walls makes the room look disorganized. I have to believe it affects the moods and thinking of my students.

Either way, we'll work our way through this week's tests and then be done for the year! We're also still reading Wonder, starting a new list of Greek/Latin roots, and studying our Westward Expansion unit. The kids love all of those things, so they'll be a nice relief in between the morning and afternoon tests each day. We're getting close to the first part in Wonder where I think kids might cry. I hope I can hold it together while I read it!

In TpT news, I finally finished up a game to help review telling time and practicing elapsed time. It's another "I have, who has?" game. I like to have the kids play these in a small group during math workshop. Both games come bundled together for $3! Check it out here by clicking the cover picture:

My kids love the "steampunk" look of the victorian pocket watches.

Finally, another great piece of news is that the weather here has finally gotten reasonably Spring-like! There's nothing better than breaking out my Vespa and riding it around the countryside here in central PA on a slightly warm evening. I'm so excited to be able to start riding to work again now. You can't beat 74 mpg!

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