What a Day!

You may have noticed that there was no blog yesterday. I can promise you that today's post will more than make up for that. You may want to grab a cup of coffee and put your feet up. The story of today will take a while!

Yesterday R lost some of her Brownie awards. We were sad because one of them belonged to her mom when she was a Brownie! The word went out via email and the lost awards were found very quickly.
Today, L brought in a special gift for our classroom library. "The Lost Children" by L's aunt has been picked up by Scholastic and will soon be available through our book orders!
Today was E's birthday. He served as our Helper today and did an excellent job.
GUESS WHAT ARRIVED? Our new carpet! We are so grateful for our principal, Ms. R, picking it up on her way to school today.
Our first stop today was the Veteran's day assembly in the cafeteria. The kindergarten kicked off the show, with a future Bumblebee on the stage.
The fifth graders also had a very important role, too. These were Mrs. O's first Bumblebees 4 years ago, and look how they have grown.
Here is second grade sharing their patriotic songs. Our class is scattered among the other classes in specials.
In the back of the cafeteria were the guests of honor: our veterans!
One more great song performed by the second grade.
We sang with all our hearts!
Oh, look! There is a first grader who is also a future Bumblebee!
At the end of the program, students introduced the veterans they had invited to our program. This was very moving. If you have never attended one of these programs, I hope you will plan to next year. Go mark it on your calendar. I'll wait.
Moving along, we went and checked out books after the assembly because we had to be out of the library this afternoon on time for a special event.
When we returned to our room, the birthday boy passed out gift bags to everyone. His abuela from Corpus Christi made these for our class. Recognize the glittery glove? E is somewhat of a Michael Jackson expert, and certainly MJ's biggest fan.
We all got a bag (name blurred to protect privacy) filled with fun favors.
Wish they were this focused and enthusiastic during some of my teaching!
Thank you, Mrs. R. Your gifts were a big hit in second grade. On the NEW CARPET.
The halls were lined with red, white and blue paper covered with pictures of students' family members who served in the military.
Mrs. O's favorite vet, Mr. O, who enlisted right after graduation from high school. (Draft years, and all.) He served for 4 years during the Vietnam War.
E had a special gift-bearing guest for lunch: his aunt/godmother. We hope she will come again.
Guess what? An aid in our room also had a birthday today! Happy Birthday, Mrs. C!
Library time!
Ms. G read us a book about fall, and the pictures were made out of leaves. She also told use some exciting news: the video of our class singing for the BookSpring assembly last year is posted on their website! Click here for the link. We will also be performing this again at this year's Read-a-thon kick-off!
You may know that Ms. G sings a "beautiful" version of Happy Birthday to any student "lucky" enough to have a birthday on library day. We couldn't wait! (Rumor had it that E had pencil erasers in his pocket to plug his ears. Good think his dad is an emergency room doctor.) Here is E "enjoying" the song.
Next up? L's mom came to bring us a snack for his last day. Tomorrow, he is transferring to another school. We will miss him, but we are so excited for his new adventure. Mrs. C is a classically trained opera singer. (Unlike our librarian.) We asked her to sing for us and she did! It was so beautiful, and we wondered about what gifts as beautiful as her music were hidden inside each one of us.
A quick snack.
We were so excited there were some Michael Jackson moves being displayed throughout the room.
L took a few minutes to tell us about his new school. We know he will make good friends quickly. He was a very good friend to all of us for the past year and a half.
So: here is our good-bye picture. Semi-serious...
...and totally crazy!
Good-bye, L. We will miss you!

What a FUN day we had today! We work so hard most days that this teacher did not worry that all our academic work did not get finished today. I am thankful to be a second grade teacher at this school to these students every single day.

Well done, good and faithful Bumblebees!