We are the shapeshifters!

Today (April 15th) I had the opportunity to complete my bulletin board assignment. So, I got to teach a mini lesson with the students and do an activity. I read The Greedy Triangle to them.

They were completely glued to the story. It was awesome. I guess that means my voices and expressions passed the second graders test. ;) Then, I gave them their instructions, showed them an example and we worked on our anchor chart.

The bottom one is the sample with the sample also written on an index card in the corner for my shape sample. I also asked them for words they thought they would need help spelling and wrote them on the top chart. :) The parallelogram stumped both the teacher and myself. LOL! We had to look that one up. I told them that was a very good word. ;) haha!

Here are some examples of what the students' did. There are two boys who have autism in this class as well. Both of theirs are pictured. I just loved the creativity. I know, you are thinking, "Why didn't I give them something to trace?" Well, I did this for a couple of reasons. I wanted them to know the shapes and to do them on their own. The other reason, and much more important reason, was that I wanted to students to be creative and make their own shapes. I wanted all the shapes to be different, just like they are. I wanted the shapes to show character. There were two girls who did pink stars. If they had things to trace then the stars would have looked exactly the same. However, they didn't have templates or anything to trace so they looked completely different and totally fabulous! I loved the way the students used their own imagination to create their shapes.

Here is how the whole thing looked. Two students were absent so theirs will be added later. ;)

I had so much fun!!!

By the way, I earned an A!!! :)

Mother/Son Campout

Collin and I went on a campout this weekend. Yay!! It was a scouting activity and, apparently, it's normally the dads who go with the cubs. I was one of 3 women there and the only one who slept in a tent (the others slept in a camper) and seemed to be the only leader without a camper or an air mattress. LOL! I suddenly felt young and limber. ;) I was also, unfortunately, the damsel in distress. Collin and I were trying to put up the tent by ourselves. I know how but I normally do it with another adult. So, Collin and I were having a little trouble lifting the poles once they were in. We weren't frustrated and we weren't in any hurry. We were just laughing and having fun with it. Suddenly, a leader of one of the other troops was there and took over. It was very nice of him but I was hoping it would be just Collin and me doing it. Oh well. I was grateful. He got it up super quick. Maybe it was painful watching us put it up for him and going so slowly about it. LOL! ;) Then he kept checking to make sure we had food and water and kept offering for us to join them. I brought all our food in a cooler. Their troop ordered pizza in for dinner. LOL! Collin and I were content eating our sandwiches, apples, and cheese. ;) haha! Loved camping with Collin. He is very relaxed and was content with just hanging out with me.

Collin and me taking a selfie Friday evening after getting our camp all set up.

Collin posing in front of our tent. 

If you look closely you can see Collin. We were walking the landing strip.

All the lights...

The big X in the middle of the runway. Not sure what that was for.

 The night got cold. I brought a sleeping back for us to sleep on and each of us a blanket to sleep under. However, it got cold so I wrapped Collin in both blankets and we slept in side the sleeping bag. It was nice and cozy then. :)

Breakfast.... cereal in the back of the van. ;) I folded down the back seats so we sat in the back of the van to eat. We didn't bring tables and things like other troops and packs. We were keeping it simple. It was just the two of us after all.

 A shot of the camp. Most of the pictures taken Saturday were shot blind because the sun was SO bright!!! :)

 Walking down the runway again. ;)

 Model planes!! These were really cool. We got to vote on the planes and when you submitted a ballot you got a free poster. Collin wanted that poster. ;)

 Aren't these beautiful? They are made from mahogany. Only $59.99 each. haha! We didn't get one but Collin wanted the shuttle pictured below.

 Helicopter!!! Rides were only $400. Yeah, not so much.

 Above is a shot of Collin's favorite plan out there.

 He was in the middle of writing. In the end it said "AIRSHOW".

 Since I couldn't afford the $400 helicopter ride or bi-plane ride, we compromised and spent $10 on a monster truck ride. haha! $10... $400.... compromised, right? LOL! ;) Collin was the only one on this ride. Cool!

 We had a funnel cake. Collin LOVED it!

 This is a shot of the patches Collin and I earned for going. We laid out our blanket and had a picnic lunch as we waited for the show to start.

When we finished, the 80+ degree weather was getting to us. No shade and very little breeze. I gave in and bought us Dippin Dots. Collin had Rainbow and I had Cookie Dough.

 We used 50 SPF sunblock 3 times throughout the day and we both still got a little burned. We both drank about 4 bottles of water and I think Collin still had some sun exhaustion going on. I made him lie down, set the backpack next to him for shade, put one water bottle (out of the cooler) over his forehead and made him sip on the other. He felt better after half an hour or so. :)

 Finally, the show begins.

 So, I've never been to an airshow so didn't realize they did this. You may have but I'm going to tell you anyways in case you didn't. There were skydivers!! They jumped out of the plane with a giant US flag and parachute as the Star Spangled Banner was sung, the sky writer wrote USA and 4 planes flew in formation circling the 'USA' and the sky diver. It was pretty cool.

That was our weekend. We came home and all of us were asleep before 8pm. haha! Fun stuff!!! It exhausted us.