It’s Friday! My two day work week with a trip to Chicago in the middle has worn me out…but it’s officially my BIRTHDAY WEEKEND so there’s no time to rest!
Speaking of birthdays, four years ago in my first year of Kindergarten I had the BEST classroom volunteer EVER! We had this great idea for a birthday celebration. We would walk my class to the nearby pedestrian bridge! I drove it and it was just a mile. We can do this, right?! And we did it. It was such a huge success that it is not a kindergarten tradition. Every year for my birthday the entire kindergarten heads out on our birthday adventure! Happy Birthday to me! Every year the trip is so much fun and really does allow for a lot of fun social studies activities (since we all know that EVERYTHING we do MUST meet standards. Even my bathroom in my classroom meets standards people…but according to administration I don’t do any work. HUH?!!) Two years ago it was 93 and HUMID. We almost didn’t survive that year. This year was perfect. 80, sunny and breezy! And guess what?! Four years and ZERO missing children. ZERO jumpers. 100% success. That’s right. Four years. 2 miles round trip. 400 students. No one is lost, hurt or wet. There are a lot of tears on the walk back, but we always make it!
This year we were treated to some fun on our trip. Not only was there music because of a music festival on the river this weekend (We are Music Ctiy USA after all) but a World War II warship was docked on the river! It was super cool to see and the kids loved it!
In order to order to make our birthday celebration “academic” we talk about maps and directions. We also talk about communities and all of the things we see in our community. Before we leave we make predictions about what we might see. I am always impressed with our predictions. After we return we check our predictions to see who we did. Next week, we will do some writing about trip. See, we’re learning. But I don’t work so what exactly am I doing? Here are our prediction charts!
Here are some pictures from our adventure!
And to celebrate my birthday I am having a sale at my TPT store! Happy Birfday to me! Go buy stuff. I do have THE WEDDING to pay for in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! WEDDING! OMG! Anyways, I am linking up with Casey at Second Grade Math Maniac for a Happy Fall Ya’ll sale! Everything is 20% off starting at midnight tonight and lasting until midnight Sunday!!
