Christmas Party & Field Trip

   The much needed Christmas break has finally arrived. The past couple weeks of school were very busy but not as crazy as I had expected them to be.  Realizing that my students were going to be more hyper than normal saved me the stress of constantly calling them down.  My students seemed to respect me more the past couple of weeks and I feel that our team became much closer. Sometimes you just have to have fun with them and realize that they are kids.

   We had a Christmas party on Wednesday where we allowed the kids to bring in store bought snacks to share  with everyone.  We had so much food it was a little ridiculous.  Next time, there will be a sign up sheet or we will just provide popcorn and drinks.  We watched the Disney version of "A Christmas Carol" which went along with the book we are reading.  The kids loved the party, however with 55 kids in one room it was often a bit too loud for them to hear the movie.  I'm sure next year we will do something different and hopefully a little more healthy!
   On the last day of school we went on a field trip to the Natural Science Center in Greensboro.  I couldn't have asked for a better trip.   The kids were well behaved and very excited to be there.  The exhibit we were most excited to see were the Accidental Mummies.  We studied mummies in Egypt so it was great for them to see real mummies and learn their stories.  They also enjoyed playing in the HealthQuest exhibit where they got to learn all about the human body.  They will be studying this later in Science so hopefully the exhibit sparked their interest. Their favorite exhibit by far (and mine too) was the Discovery Zoo.  We were able to see monkeys, birds, wallabies, and pet farm animals.   For anyone living in NC, I definitely recommend this place for a field trip.  They have a little bit of everything!
  We arrived back at school right on time for them to leave, which was a super nice way to end the last day.  Even better than that was what I had waiting for me in my school mailbox.  All the Language Arts teachers were given Common Core books called Ready North Carolina that align with the EOG. I was given student workbooks and teacher guides with daily lesson plans inside!  I absolutely can't wait to start using them.  It really helps knowing what kinds of questions will be on the EOG.  Does anyone else have these books and if so how are they working for you?