Another Move for Miss Camille

This marks the end of six years of teaching for Miss Camille! And wouldn't you know it? Time for another move! (If you want to read more about our previous adventures click here or here)

Westmore Elementary has a brand-new building built adjacent to the old 1950s building that they've been in since, you guessed it!, the 1950s!

But, here's the problem... school ended on May 30th and the teachers needed to have all of their stuff moved to their new room THAT SAME DAY! ACK!!! I went on Tuesday to help Camille and we worked until she was exhausted (she'd taught all day and then put in another day's work packing)... we knew there was still a lot left for us to do on Thursday, the next day I could come and help her.

Miss Camille in her new room!

You know the old adage- "many hands makes light work"? It is so true. Desi and Alex came over to help us finish. But let's be honest here... Alex was the real hero here! It is a definite advantage when one set of those *many hands* are strong man-hands. Alex schlepped desks, bookcases and stacky-stackyertons like only a young man can do! He did in 3 hours what it would have taken Camille and I alone three times as long to accomplish! Once again, a big thank you to Alex!

So it's *good-bye* to good ol' room 4! I can promise you that this room has never been this empty since its birth 60 years ago... (and the collection of accumulated junk from all past teachers that Miss Camille inherited? She passed it on to a very deserving intern teacher who will be teaching the newly created 4th first grade class this year)

My favorite thing about the old building! Teeny kindergarten sized toilets!

Ickle-Firsties

(What would I do without all of my Harry Potterisms?)

As tradition dictates it was time to go to Miss Camille's 1st grade class and help her ickle-firsties make their hand-print-snowman ornaments. Camille and I were trying to figure it out... how many years has it been? (A quick blog search revealed that the first year was 2008, Miss Camille's second year of teaching. Click on the 1st grade label if you want to read more about how we did this.)

This year the only day we could both work it into our schedules was Monday morning, EARLY. I arrived shortly after her early-birds and thought I'd gone to the library instead of her classroom... it was so quiet with each ickle-firsty staying on task. I pulled them out of their stations one by one to paint hands and have them grip the ornament just-so.



By the time I'd finished with the last of the early-bird's hand-prints the first globes (we always called them globes when I was a girl) ornaments were dry and ready to turn into five darling little snowmen.

I'd tell you who this darling firsty is... but, not only should I not divulge that infomation... I don't remember! Bwahahahahahahaha



It wasn't long before the later-gators arrived and things in Miss Camiile's classroom weren't quite so library-like but still very manageable!

Until... FLASH! FLASH! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!!!!!!! 

FIRE DRILL!! 

(Luckily Miss Camille had warned me this would be happening. But with that first flash I thought, "Who's taking a photo of me? bwahahahahaha).  Just as well-taught ickle-firsties should, they lined up ready to exit the building.  I sent a few of them back for coats, baby, it's cold outside!  I'm always amazed at how orderly these drills are.  Speedy-quick and we were back inside in the warm classroom.  The principal announced that they'd set a new record at 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

I hand-printed the last of the later-gators and we finished up the ornaments with help from Miss Camille's aide. We were finished before 10:30.  I love these times when I get to go back to 1st grade!

Won't this be a wonderful keepsake for all of these darling ickle-firsties?

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Room 4

I blogged two months ago about moving Miss Camille's out of her old classroom at Saratoga Springs, then last month I talked about the process! But somehow neither Camille or I got any *before*, *during*, or what we refer to as *BOMB* PHOTOS! (I think I should be drummed out of the blogging community for this infraction!)

So, first, do you want to know what a *BOMB* photo is? It is when you have to make a giant mess, taking everything out of the cupboards, so that you can get it put away in an organized manner. We were amazed at how many times a BOMB went off in Room 4!

Here is what it looks like today- all ready for the ickle-firsties to come in for reading tests. (Kevin visited Miss Camille's classroom today for the first time since he helped move in boxes. His comment- "It looks just like what you and your Mom would do. I'm not surprised!")



This is what it looked like on July 26 when Camille was stapling up her bulletin board background.



Horton has a new home above the circa 1950 student cubbies. Can you see all the October birthday eggs? We've found that this is a trend.



And, lastly, my Miss Camille! I sure love this girl! But now I have to go through Camille-withdrawals after spending lots of time with her in her room. =o(



OK... I lied! That wasn't the last! I took Miss Camille lunch today (simply an excuse to see my girl again today.) As I was leaving I overheard two moms talking, "I can't believe my youngest is in 2nd grade!" "I can't believe my youngest is in 4th grade!"
So I just had to tell them...

Ladies, my youngest is down the hall teaching first grade!
(Frankly, they didn't like being one-upped!) bwahahahahaha

Old School

My hands are finally healing enough that I can get out and do things! (Boy this has been torture!) Several days this week I've gone up to Miss Camille's new school to help put things in order... and boy-howdy, does that room ever need some order!

For the last four years this room; Room 4, Mrs Maynard's new school home, has been inhabited by a different first-year-teacher! This last teacher; pregnant and moving across the country, literally picked up her purse and walked out of the room. Every single cupboard was stuffed with junk including: thank you notes, bakery cupcake from who-knows-when, old bulletin-board things, etc. So can you guess what Miss Camille has been doing? Yup, lots of cleaning and de-junking.

I felt like I'd stepped back in time as I walked down the hallway! This little school looks like it was built in the 1940s! It looks exactly like the school I went to right down to the cubbies where students hang their coats and signs on the bathroom doors...



The floors are waxed to a deep shine (yeah... and this photo was taken before the custodian stripped and re-waxed the floors today!)



And, AND... there is a vintage wooden teacher's desk and chair plus an equally old chest of drawers! They look like they've been tortured by little hands for the more years than I've been around! Miss Camille got permission to paint them and now they have a new lease on life.



Before we left yesterday afternoon (after another torrential thunderstorm) we finally got to the point where we had started putting Miss Camille's teaching aides put away in clean and empty cupboards, the desk and chest of drawers newly lined and re-assembled, and the first bulletin board fabric up! Yup, it's coming right along.

Miss Camille Moves 1st Grade

When I took the baby SD card out of my MPC-phone I discovered that I had some very fun photos from 11 days ago (the day before my surgery) that I'd completely forgotten about. What a happy find!

Camille's been teaching 1st grade out in Saratoga Springs for the last four years and whereas she loved the people she worked with (you know who you are) she was not wild about the commute, especially since the onset of the I-15 corridor construction! (It already cost her a tire.)

Each year Camille has put in for a transfer to other schools, within the district, which would be closer for her. This year was her lucky year! Her previous school was going through a significant downsize: from 8- 1st grade classes in '09-'10 to only 4 in '11-'12! (There were only 7 last year!) It is a wonderful blessing that Camille was able to transfer to a school right in Orem, 2.1 miles from her house, right across the street from Desi's! Hooray!

ANY-way, on June 13th Miss Camille and I trekked bravely out to her old school with Kevin's (Camille's-kind-of-Kevin) cargo van. Our quest was to remove 4 years worth of planning and working, playing and teaching from her old room there. There were so many fun memories for both of us. Camille has let me come help her prepare for each school year: putting up bulletin boards, original artwork (Horton the elephant in his tree, and other trees) and tons of fun visuals for those ickle-firsties!

Our main concern was could we fit the kiva into the van? LIKE A GLOVE! I just love the laws of physics: leverage, wheels, balance, a little muscle-power. We leveraged the kiva onto one of the rolly-carts, wheeled it out the very uncooperative double set of doors, tipped it into the back of the van and...

P-U-S-H-E-D!

Go little Camillie!



The second section of the kiva just needed to spoon on top of the first. But we didn't realize we had it backwards until we got outside. We flipped it around, again with the tip and push! Yay for girl power!  We laughed and had a good time with all of our silliness.



With impending thunderstorms threatening us I neglected to get a photo of the van fully loaded... right up to the roof! We stopped at Carl's Jr for a much-deserved milkshake on the way home.

I'm looking forward to another day of working in Miss Camille's new classroom when my hands are strong enough for the work.

348- First Grade Sweeties

This is my fourth year being a *Grammie-helper* in Miss Lewis/Mrs Maynard's class. I love it!

One of my favorite activities comes at Christmas when we turn a 1st grade handprint into 5 little snowmen! It's magic. (Thank you Miss Sarah for this idea!)

This is one of the exemplary globes! What a good little artist.



This precious little girl stole my heart. Frankly, it's taken me most of the last 29 years to be able to look at a precious little red-headed girl and not burst into tears with missing Amanda. I'll admit that as I stroked her soft red hair I choke up a little.



Little Sweetie here! She is the face of 1st grade! Look at that typical toothless smile! We sang All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth while we painted her hand!



Speaking of toothless smile... this is a toothless birthday boy!



Think you're seeing double? I asked them how people tell them apart and the answer was, "They just guess!"



This is Camille's very best class! I told them so. If you want to read about previous year's globe painting click on the *1st grade* tag below.

232- Gordy-boy Goes to First Grade

Last Friday Gordon and I went out to Miss Camille's room (wait, can she still be Miss Camille? or is it Mrs. Camille? I don't know!) to help her get ready for the new school year which begins on 8/25.

It is a tradition for Camille and I to go out to her school in August. We've put up bulletin boards, made signs, cleaned desks, rearranged furniture, painted Horton in a tree, used yards of poster tape, laminated miles of things and mountains of *ticky-tac*. Each year it gets easier and we get quicker.

But this year we managed to get Gordon involved. There was a job, frankly a horrendously ginormous job, that was "just right for Gordy-boy!" (That is a direct quote) All of Miss Camille's books, which heretofore have been labeled *Lewis* all needed to be changed to *Maynard*. Yeah, and we are talking 1500 books! (And I am NOT exaggerating!)

Now you want to know the most fun thing about all of this? Last year my friend Sonny told me about a site that would generate a font using your handwriting. These printed labels are using *Camille* font! How cool is that? (Sadly, my writing isn't consistent enough and my font looks like it is riding a roller-coaster!)



This job was so big we ended up going out again on Monday to finish the job. It was so nice to have Gordon come along.



See all these tubs? They are labeled A-K, each denoting a reading level. Then there are several uncategorized tubs. THAT'S A LOT O'BOOKS!

034- Heart-Break in 1st Grade

Miss Camille, best loved teacher in 1st grade, had a handsome visitor recently. Kevin, a talented musician, came to see his sweetie in action and to sing with the 1st graders. What no one counted on was that this little visit from Miss Camille's boyfriend would cause heartbreak in at least one little infatuated 1st grader!


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Oh, what a sad lesson to learn at such a tender age. But not all was heart-break... do I detect some twitterpated little girls? (Yes, and maybe even one big girl in this class!)



And how do I know all this? I was that proverbial fly-on-the-wall. I was there on the same day to help Miss Camille get ready for parent/teacher conference. I am so thankful that I am close enough to do this. And this time I'm also grateful for Miss Jamie's camera and my camera phone, because my big one was at home. Sad...

351- Junie B- 1st Grader

I got to go help Miss Camille in her class today. I always enjoy my time there. Today we made the famous snowman ornament again.

These little 1st graders are always so cute! I just happened to be there during singing time again... I love those little voices! It really made it easier as Miss Camille sent them back to the classroom in 2's & 3's to have their hands painted to form the little snowman bodies. After singing time, when the paint was dry, the 1st graders (that is how Miss Camille refers to them!) used permanent markers to add the scarf, hat, arms, face and buttons.

So here is *Miss June B* with her creation.

327- Show and Tell

So are you wondering why I have a picture of all these cute *ickle first's* bums? If you look very closely you will see my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top in the middle of all of them... and under it are half a dozen assorted quilts that I brought in for *Show & Tell*!

This is the second year that Miss Lewis has invited me to her classroom to show & tell about my quilts. The class has just completed a unit on quilts where they learned all the different shapes. I am always amazed at how much they know. Last year I even learned what a rhombus is! And this year I learned what a quadrilateral is! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?



I just love going into Camille's class. I love children! If I could go back and have a *do-over* (which I wouldn't- for so many reasons!!) I would make sure to get my teaching degree so I could work with these delightful little ones all the time.

After Miss Joanie's *show & tell* the children were off to singing time. Just down the hall is a kiva room where they have group activities. It has a nice rotunda ceiling and the sound is beautiful. Just imagine 175+ 1st graders singing their hearts out! One of the seven (yes, 7 first grade classes) teachers plays the piano beautifully! I set my quilt basket down in the hallway and stayed to listen to them sing... it really doesn't get much better than children singing; and I not ashamed to admit they made me cry!

218- Busy Day

This has been a happy, busy day. I've got so many things to write about I wish that I could spread it out over several days... but what is the fun in that?

Camille teaches out in Saratoga Springs, which is on the west side of Utah Lake. She has the most beautiful drive out through the fields on winding country roads. She has remarked to me before that she frequently sees dead raccoons on that drive. Today I went with her to work in her room preparing for the new school year. We were driving along and there were THREE!! (count them THREE) dead raccoons all together. I quipped, "What was this, a mass raccoon suicide? Hey, turn around... I want a picture!"

"EEEWWWW, Mom, GROSS!!" So this is *Camille* from her Mood Swing Book...



One of my tasks today was to create more signage for her room. This has been a work in progress... this is the third summer we've worked together on her room. (And each year she needs me less and less but lets me come anyway!) I created *Horton's Happy Birthday* for her birthday wall (I painted Horton 3 summers ago), *Class Rules* and *Reading Strategies* with cool scrapbook paper some mom had donated. I was thrilled when I found this whole pack of Basic Grey paper (what was that mom thinking??) So Horton got the Basic Grey. Ahh, but Horton is up his tree... HIGH UP HIS TREE!

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME (or at school either!) Yeah, that is a chair on top of a desk!



Now let's r-e-a-c-h way over here...



Finally, this evening was Stuart's summer Chorale performance. This is the second semester he's taken a Chorale class. I was so impressed to see him make this stretch. It is all I can do to contain myself and not stand up and yell, "That's my boy!" (Well, not really, but I used to do that when he'd score in soccer!)

Yeah, Stuart is the handsome man, back and center, with the grey tie!


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Miss Joanie- Queen of Quilts

That is what Miss Becky tells me I am... Queen of Quilts. I'm not sure that is universally true, but it was true today at Camille's school.



Camille invited me to bring some of my quilts into class. They are doing a unit on quilts and she wanted me to show mine off. I had fun choosing which quilts to take. The whole point of this unit is shapes and patterns (I just love this kind of math!)



As I displayed each quilt the children would identify the shapes they saw: square, rectangle, triangle, rhombus [I ask you? when you were in first grade did you know what a rhombus was??? No? me neither!], hexagon and then today they learned octagon. We talked about the different shape that make up a block and how shapes can trick your eye into seeing a circle when it is really an octagon. What fun.

I really enjoyed my interaction with them. (But I may have been a bad/rowdy influence on them when it came time to finish and fold them up.) The kids were so cute flapping the quilt... poor Miss Camille, "First graders, One, Two, Three... eyes on me!"

Miss Joanie goes to 1st grade

Today I got to help Miss Camille in her classroom. I haven't been a classroom helper with her before so this was fun.

Several weeks ago Grannie Annie and Granddad went to Miss Sarah's class to help with an ornament project. (It is so fun that these cousins are both educators!) I thought it looked like such a good idea that I showed Camille; she thought it was darling and just the ticket for her 1st graders to take home as a Christmas gift.

You start by painting the child's hand with white paint. Some of them giggled; they thought it tickled.















Then you put the glass ball in their and and have them slowly close their fingers. Most of them we needed to press their fingers so we would get a good print. I was surprised with how fast it went. We got all the hand painting done before lunch.














By the time they'd finished with lunchtime the ornaments were dry and they were ready to add the snowman parts. Miss Camille thought it would be easiest to use permanent ink markers and she was right... it went like a charm. With just a little instruction we ended up with some very handsome snowmen.


















So here is one of her random little 1st graders (no names, please) feeling quite proud of her creation. What a fun day.

Kiva- Part Trois

As promised, oh so long ago, I finally have photos of Camille's kivas in her classroom with her little first graders. They seem to be very useful and the kids all get a good view of what is being taught.




















Notice that they have their folders on the bookshelves behind.

Kiva- (Warrior Princess) Part Deux

OK, well maybe you had to be here to get the title. I was feeling very pleased with myself and thought, "Shera... wait, Kiva - Warrior Princess!! Yep, that's me."

I've been blessed with the ability to look at what someone else does and then copy it. That was the approach I took when I did the drywall in the bathroom last year... I'd never done drywall, but I knew what the end product was supposed to look like. (How hard can it be?)

When we moved to our house on Columbia Ave I watched the carpet men put the carpet on the stairs. The bottom two stairs were exposed on the edges and the carpet guy did something like this. You know, roll under the edge and staple the heck out of it. Kind of like binding a quilt, but with bigger pins ;)

My original plan was not to carpet the sides of the kiva, but the remnant of carpet Camille bought was 9' x 12'. With tricky cutting I was able to carpet the sides. I think it looks better than the wood sides (I couldn't get paint grade plywood at Home Depot) and it will be more user friendly.

I got some wonderful feedback from my sister/niece Cindy.

• You make me laugh... "How hard can it be?" will be on all our headstones when we die. But you know, because of you the kiva is a reality. Both Curt and Kevin wouldn't have magically combined efforts to make it happen without you! You are a project manager extraordinaire!

You just have to love it when your family members are your biggest fans!

I also got a question from another niece, Sarah, who teaches as well. I thought it might be nice to answer some of the questions here.

• The finished size of the kiva is 24" tall at the highest tier, 60" wide, and 48" deep. (That makes them small enough to fit through doors and the back of pickup trucks)
• The teacher who's kiva I measured said she could get 15 children per kiva. We've made 2 kivas.
  
• The cost for building materials for the 2 kivas was about $225.
• It is very helpful to have talented family who help you out when you're in a fix... but you could accomplish this project with a few power tools and lots of gumption!
• If you want more particulars, send me a message...
  

Stay tuned for Kiva- Part Trois- In the Classroom!

Kiva Plans

What is a kiva you may ask? Well, don't do a Google Search (prior to today's posting) and expect to find anything that even resembles what you are looking for if you work and teach in the Alpine School District! The classroom term kiva means a small tiered seating arrangement used during group instruction.

• The true meaning of a kiva is "a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and above-ground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies."

Since Camille began teaching a year ago she's wanted to have a kiva for her classroom but we've had a difficult time locating plans (and for me, I wasn't even sure what it was supposed to look like). She'd pretty much given up hope for getting one this year since school starts in 2 weeks.

Earlier this week I went to help Camille prepare her classroom for the new school year and finally got to see a kiva in the flesh, or in this case, in the wood. As soon as I saw it I said "How hard can it be?" I took some rough measurements and came home and sat down to start drawing up plans. It didn't take long to for me to realize that I had no idea what the frame of this kiva should look like... great, now what?






Then it hit me like a bolt of lightening!!! Duh! Your son-in-law is an architect!! So I called Curt and asked him for some help. He started sketching and 3 days later I had some rough plans! Yay... How hard can it be? (Are we starting to see a pattern here?)








Camille, her friend, Katie, and I went to Home Depot to buy the needed lumber and supplies (make note, don't send a Momma to do a man's job... I got some totally tweaked 2 x 4's). I called Kevin and asked him if he would transport the supplies to my house and loan me his tools so I could build these bad boys.









But Kevin did my one much better! He brought his tools AND himself AND his wonderful expertise as a framer and woodworker.













Even with Curt's plans, I know I would have been a little out-classed with this job... but "How hard can it be?"









Apparently if you have a wonderful and talented family it's not so hard after all. I sat in the garage (it was quite hot, do I get credit for that?), was minimal help to Kevin but lots of moral support.









Now all that is left for me to do is sand, stain and carpet the treads and risers (notice those technical terms?)















And THAT is something I can do... likely all by myself without any additional help from wonderful family. I will keep you updated with the finished project!

So stay tuned for more updated photos of the finished kiva.