Released

Spring Break at last. Along with an earlier Easter, this year's calendar has an earlier Spring Break for Seattle's schools. So that means more time in the classroom between April and June, but really, this break had to happen like, right away ! It actually would've been better if it had started along with the snow on Friday at about 10:30 in the morning. The snow started falling and that was all the chatter for adults AND kids. It was wet snow so it wasn't sticking. Then they announced 'Rainy Day Recess' for snow which means all these jumpy kiddos are plastering themselves to available windows watching the snow and telling each other every conceivable story of what they are going to do in the snow. But wait, it gets better. By lunch recess the stuff is sticking and one little guy chortles (over and over), "It's like a winter wonderland!" I harrumph, "How about a SPRING wonderland?" So lunch recess was inside too. And of course it was Friday which is a no prep time day for us. Then there were all the odds and ends we had to dispense to each of them to take home: little Keep Books for reading, a reading calendar and homework, Progress Reports for second trimester, and of course the bean plant that they had begun two weeks earlier. Now THAT is the picture I wish I had taken; smiling five and six year old faces above the stems and leaves of freshly sprouted beans in paper cups. Aside from the calendar routine we dispensed with math and started Activity Centers early, it seemed like the most sane solution to an already crazy day. By 3:10 dismissal the snow was gone. By dismissal, I mean the kids' dismissal. I stayed at school 'till 7:10, held one brief conference, cleaned up the snack storage, rewrote our sight word chart, filed this and that, sent the isopods from our Science lesson to a better home in the compost bin, took down the charts from the Animals 2x 2 unit, put up the calendar for April, and spent major time reorganizing the cart with the document camera and that led to reorganizing some of the classroom seating (they'll be surprised!). Sometime during that four hours, the 4th grade returned from their 3 days at Camp Orkilla and I had to hear a few stories about their adventure...especially the part where the bus got into an accident! Yes, it is true! It seems the driver made it safely with our students all the way to the circle in front of the building where he smacked the bumper of a car as he was making a left into the circle. No one was hurt and everyone could just walk up to the building from there. Out of all the great things they probably did at Orkilla and this accident is most likely what they will remember! 7:00 came around quicker than I imagined. Now I can set work aside and enjoy the week ahead, released from 102A.



This photo was taken outside our classroom door. After lunch, classroom life got way too hectic to even consider picking up a camera. For a professionally photographed, serene view of Friday's snow fall in West Seattle visit David Perry's site.