A Hope of A Celebration

            Thanks To Ruth Ayres, we have Celebration Saturday! Tweet at CelebrateLu  Link up here!  

             It was a week of celebrations and a week of worry this time. I hope I can find time to read and comment tomorrow, but I still have my company, daughter and family, and am preparing for an unexpected trip. My grandson in Texas had a bad accident in his final baseball game. He missed catching a fly ball, and it hit his left eye. He just came home from the hospital Thursday, and the ongoing concern may mean surgery. Like any injury to a growing child, the worry is how future growth might affect the injured muscle, etc.  So, as you might imagine, with both parents working, it's tough. I'm going to go and help this coming week, starting Tuesday. I celebrate that the injury wasn't even more serious, and that I'm finished with school! Whew, life throws a metaphorical curve ball sometimes, but this time it really was one!

Continuation of our 8th graders happened Wednesday. For many
years, I've been in awe of how wonderful the ceremony is. The
pennants are designed by the students, and created by parent volunteers.
Those on a black backdrop are for the current class.

Goodbye School

          Poetry Friday is hosted today by Carol Wilcox here, at her blog, Carol's Corner, welcoming summer days with a beach trip! Happy Travels, Carol!

             Thursday was the final day of school for our students, and while all of them and all of us staff are ready for a break, there were tears too. Here's a goodbye I imagine from a student or a teacher.

Outta Here!

Goodbye pencils

and lined paper,

friends at recess,

game creators.

Farewell teachers

and homework lessons.

They must leave us to our summers-

assignments lessened.

Stories - whales and politics

        Two quite different non-fiction books, yet both have connections, about the good results of working together to make good things happen. Thanks to Alyson Beecher at KidLitFrenzy who hosts this community. I am grateful for learning about so many good non-fiction picture books!

         Happy Reading!

        Finally a little free time at school, so have been reorganizing books in my office, then going in to browse in our library.  This first one is an older book, another magical book about whales. The second is not a new story, but told in a fun way for younger children. 

A Symphony of Whales - written by Steve Schuch and illustrated by Peter Sylvada.          

         Because of the recent special book about whales, Following Papa's Song, this book caught my eye. In my own library, hiding in a stack. It's a wonderfully inspiring story of the people of the Chukchi Peninsula and the crew of the icebreaker Moskva risked their lives to save thousands of beluga whales. 

Changing Slices

Time for Tuesday's Slice of Life Sharing at Two Writing Teachers
       Thanks to all of you who gather this community (Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna and Beth) and to you who participate. I love reading what's going on in your lives.
       My life has changed because Saturday my daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters moved in with me while renovations are being done. This also includes a dog and two cats. By now, all are relatively used to their new lives, except one cat. Rose May, a beauty of a black and white cat, but shy, elusive, and now hiding out in the "parents" bedroom. Imogene, the almost three year old granddaughter is having more trouble sleeping. She's at the stage of transitioning out of a crib anyway, so she is lately spending time climbing in and out of the pac 'n play, lying in the bed with her sister, trying out my bed, and so on. If you've raised children, you know this hard, hard stage. How does one keep them down in the bed when in the crib, it was so easy?  And Ingrid is busy with EVERYTHING, painting, making pla-dough, playing in the sprinklers, reading books. Then she collapses in bed at night. Sorry, wish I had a pic of Imogene, too! She walked to get the mail with me today, (a half block), and literally jumped all the way!

It's Monday - Fabulous Reads!

Thanks to Jen at Teach.Mentor.Texts and Ricki and Kellee at Unleashing Readers for hosting our

Monday Reading community. Come see what everyone shares! 
          Tweet at #IMWAYR

          It's taken a while in this busy final weeks of school, but what a wonderful time I had reading this recent, poignant book by Gae Poliser. I loved meeting Francesca Schnell (known as Franki), her friend Lisette, Lisette's boyfriend Bradley, and four year old Franki Sky. Yes, all of them play a part in the puzzle of who Franki Schnell is, discovering hope in her life after the tragedy of her little brother drowning in the ocean (which she blamed herself for). Life is not easy, it is complicated, and as Franki keeps figuring out the truths of her life, and using them to get better, I found myself hurrying in the book, wanting to discover what important thing she would discover next. I'm not a teen any more, but really the life lessons shared in this book apply to all of us! I know many of the mature middle school students in my school will love the voice in this book, and connect to those mixed up feelings so aptly shown.
(This book meets the challenge of the Gathering Books blog found here, named CORL: 2014 (Check Off Reading List and Carrie Gelson's #MustReadIn2014 here)