Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends! I love this time of year because there are so many special things going on. I'm already looking forward to the Polar Express Pancake Breakfast at the Applebees in Boiling Springs this Saturday, December 5. I'll be there in my "jammies" to serve breakfast to our OES families. Last year was a lot of fun and fellowship, and I plan to make this a yearly tradition!

In Room 109, we ended November with two wonderful events: our first field trip and the Clemson-Carolina Relay For Life Challenge. Our field trip took us to Kidsenses in Rutherford, NC, an interactive children's playground, where we also learned about solids, liquids, and gases. The students had a blast, and I appreciate those great parents who volunteered to chaperone!

Finally, the week before Thanksgiving break, our school participated in the Clemson-Carolina Relay For Life Challenge. As you can see below, both teams were well-represented in our classroom. Unfortunately, Clemson was able to raise more money than Carolina, so I, as a loyal Gamecock fan, had to get a pie in the face from the two students who raised the most money in my class, Carter Robinson and Brittany Moss. Hey, It's all for a great cause - to stop cancer!

What Makes a Good Leader?

There's always something going on in our first grade classroom, and November has been another busy month! My students have been learning about authority figures in our community, and our most recent visitors were Mayor Huff (Inman ) and Judge Ledbetter.

These two outstanding citizens spent time explaining their jobs and responsibilities in kid-friendly terms, and the students learned so much about leadership and serving the people. Many thanks to Mayor Huff and Judge Ledbetter! We are looking forward to meeting Craig Sims and Donna Hicks this week.

October is Over: The Grand Finale!

What a great finish to a jam-packed month! This past week, we celebrated Red Ribbon activities each day, from dressing in red and black to support our visitors, the Boiling Springs High School football players, to dressing "For Success" to Career Day! My firsties were involved in activities that promoted good health and lifestyle choices. WE also had our annual Fall Festival on Thursday which was "a complete blast" in the words of one of my students! I was busy face-painting so didn't get any pictures but go to the OES FB page to view some awesome photos. Career Day was HUGE, and I'm proud to say that three of my students' parents both presented and "represented!" The students were engaged, excited, and now are ready to start out first PBL, focusing on our community and authority figures. Then we ended the week with a Pumpkin Investigation in our classroom that involved squishyness and wonder!

Check out the pix below:

Looking forward to all the wonderful things we are going to explore in November! Stay tuned!