Blogging Recess, Indy 500, Mickey Mouse Countdown, Wax Museum

Okay, so I haven't posted in over 2 weeks and I'm calling it my long term blogging recess.  Yes, you can yell at me now!  Here are my excuses...interviewed for and accepted a new position in a new district (Yippee!!!), went to Florida for a wedding, interviewing 18 candidates for positions for next year, meeting the staff at my new building for next year, having a new puppy, new puppy having a parasite and worms, old pup getting the parasite and an eye infection, a field trip, and acting like a first year teacher just trying to keep my head above water! Whew!  I'm worn out just rehashing all of that.

I do have some exciting things to share with you all though!  First, the month of May is a racing craze in Indianapolis with the Indy 500.  We started our celebration with our racing Mickey Mouse who introduced our "Racing to the End" countdown!  Each day this little Mickey delivers a note to a student desk or cubby to introduce the next day's activity.  The activities range from relay races to pajama day to an all grade level read where they get to go read in another 2nd grade classroom of their choice.

Here is Mickey waving the checkered flag for our relay races!  He was our turn around point on the hill!

Did I tell you we had an Indy 500 Princess come visit us!  She shared a book about racing and gave all of us racing flags!  We loved her, and thought it was really cool that she used to go to school at the same place we do!  Here is copy of the letter they received after the princess came.  You can click on the letter to link to the PDF with all of my letters so you can create your own ideas from those!

Release of the Butterflies!

So our adventure with our butterflies had to come to a close as we let them out by our nature center.  I thought this picture was hilarious because they were so distraught about releasing them!  This pretty much summed up their thoughts of this activity...haha.  

Finally, we had our Wax Museum!  Here we have Tony Hawk and Helen Keller.  Helen decided that since she was deaf, blind, and mute she would have her friend record her speech on an iPod and present her speech that way!  I love the creativity they come up with.  Although I didn't make them memorize their speeches, it was a great experience for them to research about a person, practice point of view, and work on their presentation skills.  The day we shared with the other 2nd graders, it was beautiful outside, so we set up our locations and shared about our lives.  It was a really fun activity for the end of the school year.

Cheers to only have 5 more school days left, and to not waiting 2 weeks to post again!  For all of you on the homestretch, enjoy the last days with your students and remind them how great they will be!