kids gone wild...

...and they said it couldn't be done!  Yes, finally we had an ALL green day which in St. Christopher parlance means we were as close to sainthood as it gets.  Congrats first graders...let's do it again and again and again... 

election day at st. chris...oy vey

Election day 2012...passions and enthusiasms...and a lot of hard work by the St. Christopher 5th grade and their awesome teacher Mrs. Amber Barker.  From start to finish the 5th graders have been impressive and as far as I can tell they had a "hoot" doing it all...tomorrow will truly be a post election let down for them all.

The poll workers were poised and professional...

...and then 1st grade arrived...hence the "oy vey" in the title!

Everyone is taking this VERY seriously.

The Obama girls...

...and the Romney girl.

...and you know those annoying poll workers who try and persuade your vote at the last moment...yes, we had those too (no offense Ben).

Two voting booths...hand made with love.

First up to vote...that pen was taped down so well that there was no chance a first grader could walk off with it...those shifty first graders.

Notice the voter ID (our lunch tickets...with pictures of course) and notice the tape on that pen!

My absolute favorite moment of the whole experience was when I was helping one of my first graders fold his ballot for the ballot box and I noticed he had voted for BOTH candidates.  When I asked him about it, he looked at me very seriously and said, "well, I put a check for the one I wanted and an x for the one I didn't want.  
Reason #8456 why 6 and 7 year olds should never get legal voting rights!

Results:
Obama 143
Romney 88

Now we wait...

wiggle....

I love when the kids start REALLY writing sentences and stories...especially when their writing tickles MY funny bone!  Every week we have four new vocabulary words with a test on Friday where they have to use one of the words in a sentence...there has been blood, sweat and tears but we have arrived where we can start doing a little publishing.  Our word this week was "wiggle"...I knew it would be fun!

Kate made this statement and I said "prove it"...

It took several photographs to get her to wiggle her nose without going completely cross-eyed...but we did it (apparently nose wiggling involves mouth scrunching).

RayLawnce always takes things to a higher level...upon reading this I may have had a little coffee come out my nose!

She knows she's funny but one of our other words was "bashful" and she has that down pat too.

I'm with you on this one Tawawa...even wiggly fingers coming my way causes "the tickles and the giggles".

See...

...and that's the truth up until last night.  

Old snaggle tooth no more...Case has had a dangling tooth way too long so his sentence was kind of a celebration...I l.o.v.e. this!

Sour pickles...wiggle?...creative!

Kloie just tells it like it is!

Stay tuned because in two weeks one of our words is BUSYBODY...can hardly wait!

boo...

On Halloween we let the kids come in cute and appropriate t-shirts and jeans to "kinda" celebrate the holiday.  I took groups out into the hall to pose with their awesome witch drawings and...well, get a look at how they "pose" without any directions from me.  These kids are NATURALS in front of a camera...some more "hammy" than others. 

Of course they ALL told me they had glow in the dark t-shirts but when we experimented...Ben was the only "authentic" one in the bunch...

Isn't he the cutest?

Must say they ALL came in dragging today either from their late night or a severe class of blood sugar dropping...either way it was kind of quiet in my room...tomorrow...who knows?

food pantry and photo op Jesus...

Each class at St. Chris commits to a service project for the entire school year.  The 1st grade project is helping to stock the wonderful food pantry at the church that is run by a very dedicated "army" of parishoners.  Every year the first trip over with our collected donations is very fun for the kids because we get to visit Fr. Mike's guilty pleasure room...

We have deposited our goodies so on to the fun...

I remember when Fr. had the WHOLE room but it is now being taken over by the food pantry...which is a good thing.  What are they so curious about?

Yep...Fr. Mike is a train "nut".  

I can speak with certainty that our parish pastor has just become a whole lot " COOLER" in the eyes of these kiddos!

The "no touching" thing was such a challenge but they did good!

This was my contribution some years ago and it's good to see the old gal is still there although I noticed the miniature Mr. Potato Head is gone...guess Fr. Mike could only tolerate so much.

...and the trip is NEVER complete until we have answered this invitation.

And there we are sitting at the table with Jesus at the Last Supper (or photo op Jesus as some wisecracker teachers have named him).

I thought this was so neat...as we were leaving a few had to give Jesus those last minute pats and that makes me proud.

Joe's hat...part 2

Hopefully you've all read Joe's hat...part 1 or you will have NO idea what's going on here!  Here's the rest of the pics of all the little darlings who stayed on "green" this day with a surprise ending!

Tawawa definitely had a case of the giggles over this whole thing!

Noah was in fireman heaven...he loves anything connected with big engines. 

I'm thinking that Jackson is thinking..."I stayed on green for this?"

Knowing Nia, I'm sure she is wondering where she could put some hair bling on this hat!

Kloie is looking a little afraid...actually...very afraid.

I think Alli is a little nervous that she might get an out of uniform violation slip for this...she is my rule follower!

...and just to prove that one size does not fit all...Ben is wondering how you could possible put out a fire when you can't even see the darn fire.

...and the surprise ending!  I don't usually put myself in the blog but really...who puts out more fires in a day than the first grade teacher...man this thing is raggedy.

Thanks Fireman Joe for a fun day and really...you were long overdue a new hat.  Thanks for all you do for the Indianapolis (and surrounding areas) community...you are a hero!

Joe's hat...part 1

I have a card system for behavior...Green means an excellent day...yellow is a warning...blue is kind of like purgatory and pink...well, let's not even go there!

So my trust sidekick, Maria, got an idea for an incentive and it was an interesting one.  Her husband Joe (a firefighter) got a new hat...the reason being his old one was beat up, charred, dented and pretty smelly between smoke and sweat...pretty much all around disgusting.  However...VERY appealing to a 6 or 7 year old.  All they had to do was stay on green for the day (easier said than done).  Well...that old fire hat was a whopping success...whatever!

Elijah...green is a snap for him anyway!

Andrew...thought the cross was a good addition.

Abby...looking a little impish!

Ethan...oh man, student of the day AND a fireman's hat...does not get any better than that.

Gage...has a real fascination with all things fireman-ish!

Anna...can you tell old toothless here is a first grader?  Loved the hat!

Kate...not all too sure about the whole thing...just happy to be on green...as usual.

...and Ava...it's her Dad's fire hat so how proud is she?

Stay tuned for Joe's hat...part 2.  I even donned the smelly old thing.