Oh the Fun!

Where has the time gone? Each day is going by too fast! Last week was a busy week. On Monday, my class was invited to a Toy Expo where the middle school students built toys and then showed them off. It was great to see their inventions and my students interacting with them. In Reading Workshop we completed the lessons for this unit and to stay on track we incorporated centers into this time. I was able to plan the centers for the week and engage the students in various review skills to enhance their reading. During Writing Workshop throughout the week we completed the lessons and the students were finishing up their fairy tales. I am looking forward to seeing their published work. My mentor teacher and I have a very fun way to publish their fairy tales and I can't wait for the students to engage in it. On Tuesday, my class was invited to a 5th grade Celebration of Learning. This was very interesting as the 5th graders presented their projects on different topics. My students rotated to the different presentations and learned all about each students topic. Wednesday was Valentines's Day and my students were very excited! As soon as they got to school they wanted to pass out their valentines. At the end of the day we had a celebration of friendship, love, and caring. During this time they handed out their valentines to their friends and then read what they said. Their valentines had to include at least one sentence using adjectives to describe that person. Each valentine was different but so cute. I even got some valentines from my wonderful students! Then we walked to the park to continue our celebration. We had many snacks and the students were able to run around and play as this was a combined second grade celebration. The snacks were very festive as the sandwich were cut in hearts and shapes, and the cookies were decorated cute. Then the students left early and the teachers stayed for our Professional Development. This Valentine's Day was hard being away from my family and Doug but getting a card from my parents and facetiming Doug made it better and of course spending the day with my students made it one to remember. Our science unit it on slow and fast changes on Earth. After learning about erosion, part of the science lesson Thursday was to take a walk around CDS and look for erosion on campus and ways that erosion is being slowed down. My students really enjoyed this as they got to take what they learned and apply it outside the classroom on such familiar grounds to them. Then Friday, I got to chaperone the 3rd grade field trip to Parque Diversiones which is an amusement park in San Jose. I had six girls in my group and we had so much fun! Of course I rode most of the rides with them and assisted them in with their project by asking deeper questions about the rides.I did miss my class throughout the day. Then Friday night my friends and I left for Puerto Viejo. Getting to the bus station was very stressful as we did not think we were going to make it. Once we got to the station our reserved tickets were given away as we did not arrive 30 minutes before due to traffic. With that being said all the tickets were sold and only standing room was available so we bought the tickets and sat on the floor whole 4.5 hour ride there. Once we got there we found our house which was so cute. Saturday, there was a surfing tournament that we watched for a little while then headed to the beach all day at Playa Cocles. On our walk we saw a sloth on the side of the road! He was close enough to pet but we didn't touch him, just took lots of pictures! It was overcast but we still got sun. Then it rained at night so we just stayed in. Sunday we made breakfast in our house and then rented bikes and hit the road to different beaches. We rode about 9km one way and ended up at Punta Uva. We got our tan on and and enjoyed the ocean waves. At night we walked to town and checked out the shops and went to Koki Beach for dinner which was absolutely amazing. We had Monday off so another day at the beach for us! Again, we rented bikes and head to the beach. We tried going to another beach but it was closed so we went back to Punta Uva. I rented a kayak and kayaked down the Punta Uva river. I saw so many turtles, fish, a crab, a huge iguana, and monkeys in the trees. It was well worth it. After I caught some more rays on the beach and then headed back to get on the bus. The ride started out great until we were stuck in traffic for 2.5 hour so our 4.5 hour trip turned into 8 hours. At one point more than half the bus was standing outside including the driver....that's when you know we aren't going to be moving for a while. Needless to say we were a bit tired Tuesday morning. But overall it was a great weekend trip and I will be visiting Puerto Viejo again!