No School Friday

Another day of no school...I will see you all on Monday. Be safe and enjoy your family time.

Tropical Storm Fay

This morning I had to go to the beach area to run an errand so Matthew and I decided we would head down to the beach to see how the storm was coming in. Matthew is like me and we love the beach so we were interested to see how bad the waves were beating up our coast. WOW...the waves were big, the wind was strong, and the rain hurt as it pelted against our skin. We were saddened to see that the boardwalk was already starting to get torn apart as the waves were crashing into the beach and pier. Matthew attempted to save the pieces from going out in the water but there were too many pieces already broken.








We stayed for just a few minutes and took some pictures from the boardwalk. It wasn't long until the wind started to pick up even more and the rain started to come. We knew that we needed to head back safely home. We will have to hope that as strong as Fay is, she doesn't destroy our beaches too much.


As I sit and write this the storm has picked up. The wind is whipping the trees and the rain is thundering against the windows. Luckily we are in our house and safe as I hope all our families are.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Today I am sure every kid in Duval County was please to have the day off (it's ok to be honest and say you would rather be home than in class with me). I have to say I wished we were there even though I got a lot done around my house. We had a great first two days of class and were starting to get into our daily routine on Tues. I hope that we can just pick up where we left off when we get back. So now that everyone is home for at least another day I challenge anyone to one of the following: read a book and write a short response to the book or write a short sharing events story about what you did during the storm. If you bring it in on our first day back, you will get something special!!

Here is my short story about Day 1 of Tropical Storm Fay:
This morning I awoke to a dark house and the sound of rain. I love to sleep when it is raining outside but I knew I had to get up. I did some work and read my new book that I haven't had time to read over the last two weeks. After lunch I went to a friend's house. She is a principal so she had the day off too. Then Matthew and I went to the gym. I was tired by the time we got home. Before I knew it Matthew was asking about dinner ~ he wanted pizza. I couldn't say no to that idea! By the end of the day I was ready for bed. It was a pretty good day after all.

Around the world...on a bike

Today we were lucky to see a presentation by man who literally traveled around the world on his bike with his wife. Bruce left his home in South Dakota and spent years riding across Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America. I can not begin to tell you the wonderful pictures and stories he had to share with our school today. Here are our favorite parts of his travels:




Jasani – when the monkey groomed his wife's hair
Richa – When they saw the fairy penguins
Bridget – when the kangaroo jumped with the baby in the pouch
Nakyya – when they saw the orangutan swinging and they did too
Marcie – when the monkey landed on her head
Abigail - when the monkey got on her hair
Payton- when the monkey was on her head
Faith – when they saw the penguins together
Alexis – when the monkey was her head
Lauren – when the girls balanced the baskets on their head
Matthew – when the monkey jumped on to the ladies head and combed her hair
Brandon – when the monkey got on her back and went in her hair
Ty – when the army truck ran over the bike
Riley - when the monkey got on the girls back
John- when the monkey got on the girls back
Mia- seeing the sea lions
Hannah – when the were swinging from the vines like the monkeys
Rebecca - when the mommy had the baby monkey
Julia -when the kangaroo camped by them
Cameron – when they saw sea lions
Katie - when the camped on the volcano top
CJ - when the monkey jumped on her back
Dylan - when they climbed to the top of the volcano
Valentina - seeing the orangutan
Zach- when they saw the camel
Lisa - when the car crashed into the girl's bike
Brandon R.- when they had to throw the bike away
Hangil - when they went to see the Christians .
Isaiah - when the monkey jumped on her back
Mikey - I like when the monkey jumped on her back
Carter - when they went camping on the volcano
Peter - when they camped by the kangaroo and the kangaroo camped by them
Maya - when they went in the rainforest

Check back in to see our pictures.

It's a new year!

WOW...what a great morning at orientation. How great it was to see all our old classmates come in refreshed, tan, taller than two months ago. The best part about looping a class is seeing everyone again and knowing you get to spend another 180 days with them. This year we have grown as a class ~ we are now up to 33! The good thing about a bigger class is that there are more friends. This year joining us we have plenty new students from other places in the united states and other schools in our county. I can't wait to get to know them.

On Monday we are going to have a fabulous day. We will begin our journey not only around the world in 180 days but to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. You will love learning all about this great continent.

I look forward to listening to your stories about summer. Let our adventure begin...

As summer comes to an end...

Summer is almost over and pretty soon we will all be back to great times at Chets Creek. I know this year will be fun and exciting for all of us. We will have our same group from last year and also have some new friends joining our class. I bet you will know many of them already. I want to hear about your summer vacation and all the things you did. Post a comment about one fun thing you did this summer! And don't forget ~ make sure you are keeping a log of the books you read. I can't wait to see what great readers you still are when we come back!!

Summer Fun Activity # 4

This week your activity is to keep a little journal of your week. Start with any day you would like and write about your day for 7 days. Think about your day and all the things that you are doing. If you are leaving for a trip soon, what a great time to keep a journal. Try to make your journal entry include the date so you remember the days easier. Don't forget to include a picture. If you enjoy doing it for a week, try to continue doing it for the rest of summer. We will have some time during the first week of school to share some of these entries. Plus they also are great memories to help us during Writer's Workshop! Here is an example of my journal entry for this week:

Sunday, July 6, 2008
Today was a great day. Matt, Jessie, and I went to Adventure Island in Tampa. It is a really big waterpark that is owned by Busch Gardens. It was a hot day and we got there at 9 o'clock in the morning. The kids went and took off to do all the slides and I sat in the sun relaxing and reading a book (The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult). Before I knew it they were hungry and asking for lunch. When we were finished eating, we decided to go hit some slides together. I love to do the slides just as much as they do! Just as we were finishing one of the slides we saw the lightning. The park said they were going to close the slides until the storm passed. We got our bags and headed to the cafe to sit and ride out the storm. It was a bad storm with lots of lightning and thunder but it all ended in an hour. The moment it passed we were back on the water rides ready to go. Soon we were getting tired and figured our day was coming to an end. We headed back to our chairs to find it was already 5:00 ~ dinner time. We cleaned up, grabbed some dipping dots for the ride home, and headed back to Brooksville. We were all very tired but sure was worth it!