Pioneer Day - Part 3

Our fifth station was making the game Cat's Cradle and learning how to play it. I have so many moms and dads that always volunteer to come and help throughout the day. The lady in the red jacket is Grandma Hart. She spends an hour in my room every day. Our school has 3 grandmas that come every day to help teachers and kids. Thanks so much Grandma for helping us out every day this year.

Here are a couple of kids trying it out.

Another game was musical chairs.

At the end of the day we had a hula hoop contest. We had 2 or 3 girls that never did drop their hoops. I finally had to declare them all winners. We always end the day with homemade ice cream. This year I made a little goof. I was making two flavors of ice cream, oreo cookie ice cream and strawberry. I made the base of vanilla for the oreo cookie and took the oreos in a separate container so they wouldn't get too soggy and mushy. Well when I got ready to start it up without thinking I poured the oreos into the strawberry ice cream. As soon as I did it, I realized what I had done. So as a result, we had oreo strawberry ice cream and vanilla. It was actually pretty good. Isn't that how some things are invented?

Pioneer Day - Part 2

After we had lunch we did a round robin. We had 5 stations that my class rotated through. This station they did a stick pull and had playoffs.

Another station was jump roping. They did group jump rope and individual jumping with shorter jump ropes.

We had a marble station. Most of the children didn't know much about the game.

Here was a craft table where they made a game with a button and string. They each made their own game.

Pioneer Day 2010 Part 1

Well we just had our annual pioneer day for 2010 with my class. I started doing this as a culminating fun activity to end the Oregon Trail unit I do each year. We start out with a flapjack breakfast. Then we go to gunny sack races and they have a blast.

Our next game is the 3 legged race. This is a first for some of them.

We added the Limbo this year.

Later we follow up with lunch.

Chautauquas - Part 2

Dylan Wilson as Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Chappell as Milton Hershey, Derek Reese as Thomas Edison, and LeeAnn Perkins as Clara Barton

Daesy Parra as Harriet Tubman, Hanna Mortensen as Florence Nightingale, Braden Estes as Abraham Lincoln, and Rebecca Rebman as Sacagawea

Braeden St. John as Davy Crockett, Seth Olive as Daniel Boone, Jorge Cervantes as George Washington, and Jesse Robison as Benjamin Franklin

And last but not least, Maliyah Totten as Pocahontas. Thank you class of 2010, for making this a great year for Chautauquas. I'm proud of you all.

Chautauquas - Part 1

Chautauqua time has come again. On May 20th, we performed our 11th annual Chautauquas. This year my class presented 21 heroes and heroines from history. It was a great success, as it is every year. We had great parent support. I think everyone enjoyed it.

On May 19th, we did a trial run for the 2nd grade and then May 20th for the parents. After the performance, I had the children vote for 3 students who gave the best performance and they along with the best performers in the other 3rd grade classes then put on an assembly for the 3rd and 4th graders the following day.

Here are the following students and characters going from left to right.
Lainey Cornwall as Anne Frank, Hunter Wrzesinski as John Kennedy, Gannon Hanevold as Walt Disney, and Camille Hardy as Amelia Earhart.

Merce Tarrayo as Helen Keller, Gabrielle Shiozawa as Marie Curie, Mason Creager as Henry Ford, and Tori Leavitt as Annie Oakley.

My Beautiful Backyard

One of the things that makes me so happy is when my yard is well manicured and very green. Granted, we just did our front yard and we have no lawn, but as you can see from the size of my backyard, we still have a lot of green. Cutting out mowing the front yard is a help and makes our work less. Having a backyard this big is enough work in itself. Duane and I have been working hard in our yard and yesterday was no exception.

I have half the size garden I used to but it still keeps me busy weeding it. I can't believe how fast bermuda grass can grow in the summer. It definitely grows faster than I can keep up with it. It's a constant battle. Thank goodness for round-up! Yesterday we harvested some squash and onions. I'm still anxiously waiting for my tomatoes to ripen. We have a ton of green ones. Hurry up tomatoes!

A couple of weeks ago Duane and I planted the lawn behind the house. We didn't bother to plant the big side yard because when it gets hot, the fescue dies and the bermuda takes over anyway so it's a waste of time and money.

The grass behind the house however, has so much shade from the trees that the bermuda doesn't grow well there so we can have a nicer lawn. We've had such a cool spring, that we can still enjoy sitting out in the evenings and in the shade during the day and enjoy our yard. Getting to look at the pretty green yard makes all the sweat worth it.

For My Grandchildren

This particular post is for Zachary, Tyler, Gavin and Lexi. These 4 precious people are my adorable and fun grandchildren.

Last Friday I was driving past the cemetery on my way home from a meeting at our ward garden and I glanced off to the side of the road and this is what I saw. I was so surprised. I stopped the car and backed up. Sure enough, I spotted this tortoise as he was just crawling along the road. I love turtles, and I knew I couldn't keep him but I just wanted to take him home and show Grandpa. I happened to have a bucket in the car because I had just come from the garden so I decided to put him in it. He was so big that he barely fit into the bottom but nonetheless, that's where I put him.

After taking him home and playing with him I decided I'd better take him to the desert. I drove out to the desert with some cauliflower in hand to give him as a peace offering. Unfortunately, just as I left, the wind decided to kick up to a small hurricane. The sand was blowing so hard I could barely see. I pulled off the main road to a side road and let him out. He immediately headed for a sagebrush to hide in. I tried to give him the cauliflower but he just wanted to get away from me and hide.

Hopefully he went back to eat the cauliflower after I left. If he liked it he may look for the rest of his life for cauliflower in the desert but he'll be highly disappointed. Sorry, Mr. T:)