Mrs. Hannon's First Grade Fly on the Wall 

I had a lovely home visit after school with Brooke, starting off with a delicious smoothie (and healthy). It didn’t take long for me to empty that glass!

Brooke says she likes EVERYTHING about first grade! She couldn’t pick just one thing. We had a nice visit…we talked and talked. She is a girl after my own heart. She loves the arts. She likes dance and theater. We talked about opportunities for that in our community. It turns out she takes dance from the same place my daughters took dance. Miss Lori and Miss Laina are ageless!! She has also been active at The Biz, a musical theater sort of school. The owner is a teacher/friend of mine who teaches in Plainfield. We were in undergrad together and have stayed in touch for many years. Our paths continued to cross as my daughters moved through high school, and VP (as he is called) did a lot of choreography for their high school musicals, as well as some community theater productions. We go way back and it is a long story how our paths have continued to cross. So, Brooke and I have a lot in common because I love first grade and I love the arts!

Like me, she also plays a musical instrument. I enjoyed hearing her play a piece for me during our visit (and her big sister Chloe…a former first grader of mine…also played for me). They are both very talented. Thank you for a truly lovely visit, Brooke!

Sometimes I am just a little hesitant about sharing some of the stories from first grade. I am stepping out of the box just a bit here, but I just have to share these. Please send me an email if anything ever offends you. All information is anonymous! I am sure you hear some funny stories about me as well. We all need to be able to laugh at ourselves. There is in no way enough laughter in the world..:)

Story #1: I received some information from some boys that when using the bathroom, some body parts often get exposed and they wished this wouldn’t happen. (I did not spend a lot of time discussing this, I promise…more “serious” work to accomplish.) In any event, the day after this brief conversation, a student came to school and shared with me in great detail that his dad taught him how to “pee” without exposing anything. The conversation continued something like this (but I won’t include all the words): “Yes, Mrs. Hannon, it is really easy and simple. You just unzip and ________________________________.” (The student used the proper words for body parts as well which is great.) Enough said!

Story#2: On this very same day as we were preparing for dismissal, a student out of the blue told me that his grandma could do the most amazing thing. “She is able to take her teeth right out of her mouth and put them right back in. I just don’t know how she can do that.” Note to self: Be sure to include lessons during dental health month.

DISCLAIMER: Again, no names will ever be mentioned here, nor do I make fun of a person or their family….ever. Heh! I have an older brother with false teeth. 🙂 I think over time we won’t see that any longer since we are now living in the age of preventative care. No one will ever know who these students are…:) If I EVER offend you because you know it was your child or your family, please send me an email and I will remove the post in question.

Teachers just wanna have fun! And I want YOU to have fun with me and I hope you all have a GREAT sense of humor! (It’s a good thing my brother doesn’t read my blog!)

I have received participation permission from all Camper families, and am excited to get started. Without further adieu, please meet this year’s campers….drum roll please!

And just so you know, we DO have a lot of silly fun around here in addition to our regular “serious” work. Evidence? Here you go!

Camp Care-A-Lot officially opened its doors today, although I have been pretty busy over the summer thinking, planning, attending a professional conference, and reading professionally. My mind gets overwhelmed with all the ideas I can gather, not only from reading and professional development, but from sites like Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. It almost seems as if we have too much at our fingertips. It takes some work to select just the right thing and often I have to wait until I really get to know my students. Each year is different. While some things stay the same, I am a rare (I am told) person who likes change. Not doing the same thing means more work, but when you love what you do it doesn’t feel like work. I would much rather work on my classroom and plan things for my students than do my laundry and dust the furniture!

I have used a sort of camping theme for a few years now (my daughter Kelly who has had a lot of experience at CYO Camp and loves camping, helped me settle on it), but I try to vary it or add to it a bit each year. One of my challenges is finding a new hall display to welcome my students. Chances are I WILL one year have to start repeating. I don’t consider myself to be very inventive and I usually just copy what other more creative people have come up with, but this year….TA DA!…I did come up with an idea on my own. I read another teacher’s blog which showed how to make a tree, so that part wasn’t original. What is original (at least I have never seen it anywhere) are my sleeping bags. When browsing at the teacher store (United Art and Education) I noticed the library pockets with owls on them. The owls got my attention because…well, you will all hopefully find out later why I love owls. So the library pockets became sleeping bags. Next I searched for some cut outs of people and was very fortunate to find some that fit perfectly into the pockets. Lastly, I glued some rectangular shapes for pillows. The display will be complete when I either take photos or use last year’s K photos and add the sweet faces of my new students. So, I’m going to have to find a way to share my display somewhere (heh, I’ll maybe get it on pinterest and link to my blog here…not very tech saavy…if I can figure it out).

 I will be sharing new pictures of my tree through the year, since I plan on leaving it up all year. I already have changes in mind, but I’ll keep them as a surprise. I also want to post when I get the photographs added.

As soon as all of my new families turn in the forms with permission to post photos and student work, I’ll be taking off with the blog this year. In the meantime, it HAS been a wonderful new beginning. Even before our first day today, and then today as well, I received some very sweet notes and kindnesses. Thank you so much for being so sweet to me.