Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.
It’s Saturday and that means it is time to reflect on the week and celebrate things both big and small. Join our community and celebrate this week by linking up or just stopping by the host Ruth Ayres’ blog to read others’ celebrations.
This week was a crazy week and I am celebrating all of the craziness!
First, here in Wisconsin, the beginning of March is not often warm and sunny. But this week, most of the days were bright sunshine and highs in the 50s and 60s. Break out the shorts! (Seriously, people wear their shorts in this weather as if it were a day at the beach)
Next, we had a field trip on Tuesday to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. My school receives a grant each year from the Herzfeld Foundation to attend the concerts for schools that the symphony puts together. This is so important because many of these students from low-income families would never be exposed to this type of performance if it weren’t for this field trip. This year, the music teacher at our school decided to participate in a program called Link Up: The Orchestra Rocks. The students prepared ahead of time learning the music from the concert and all about the composers. There were materials provided to the music teacher for this. They also learned to play some of the songs on their recorders and to sing some of the songs. Therefore, our experience at the symphony was really interactive. I really enjoyed this field trip and hearing my students’ excitement when they heard a song they knew how to play.
Then, on Thursday we had our Spring Open House at school. We did something new this year. It was called Festival of Nations and each class studied a different country and created a display to help people who attended our open house learn about the countries. My class studied Laos. One of my students comes from the Hmong culture and her family came here from Laos. I loved being able to connect with her and help the class learn more about her culture. She even brought us egg rolls and lotus flower cookies to taste! It was a great event and I am also celebrating the fact that it is done!
Last, but not least, my class had a visit from the current Alice in Dairyland, Teyanna Loether. Her job is to be the ambassador for Wisconsin Agriculture. The presentation she does for 4th grade students in the state focuses on the foods that are produced throughout the state and how the agriculture business contributes to the state economy. It is always great to have a guest speaker. We had an added benefit in that this speaker was really good with the students. Our kiddos learned a lot about nutrition and agriculture in a short 45 minute visit. They even got to sample some Colby cheese.
We had a busy week, but it was a good one! I am looking forward to being a lot more back to our regular schedule and routines next week, but I am so glad for the shared experiences that make our community continue to grow together.
What are you celebrating this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!
Oh my, that picture of Florida/Wisconsin!!!! So true! We just got home from FL thurs night and my daughter walked out in a tank top today!!! She’s having withdrawals!
You are doing fabulous things w/ your students. From the symphony, to learning about Laos, to understanding Wisconsin agriculture, the learning experiences you bring to your students are authentic and engaging. I’m so very impressed and am happy I found this post.