By the time most of you read this, the sun will have set on your summer vacation. However, hopefully, you are at least a little excited to be starting a new school year as 5th graders down in the middle school wing. I am very excited to welcome all of you and to help lead you on your journey this year as new middle school students. It will be a little different for you as you move from having only two teachers in two classrooms to four teachers, Mrs. Hill, Mrs. O'Leary, Mrs. Sampson and myself whom are spread throughout the school. It does take some getting used to, but that is just another reason why we've introduced a new study skills class this year for 5th grade only. Mrs. O'Leary and I have been working hard to plan this course for you to help you transition to middle school, stay organized, keep up on assignments, and make the most of your educational experience this year. Beyond welcoming you back to school, I thought I'd write a little summer wrap-up here for you to get a little background on me, your teacher, when I'm not busy teaching.
Although I'm not teaching during the summer, I am by no means not busy! I have a son and daughter at home that keep me going quite a lot. We LOVE summer vacation and thoroughly appreciate all the time we get to spend together. We start making a list of all the fun things we want to do during our summer vacation a good month before it gets here. Things on our activities list usually include time with family, biking, fishing, camping, movies, swimming, day trips to places like castaway cafe, Kensington, the zoo, and turtle cove (a water park), and of course playing with friends. This year we managed to accomplish almost all of it, not to mention a few things that weren't even on the list. Two big things we did this summer that weren't on the list were a couple of fun road trips, one to Indianapolis and another to St. Louis. The Indianapolis road trip was inspired by a family member's graduation open house. We decided to make a weekend of it and went down early. While there we went to the Indianapolis Children's museum and it was pretty awesome. Of course, I'm not sure what my kids enjoyed more, the museum or just staying in a hotel and swimming at the pool.
Unfortunately, my husband wasn't able to join us on our St. Louis road trip, but my mom and step-dad came along for the ride. My kids really enjoyed having their Bubba and Bousha on vacation with us, and they helped me keep the kids going for our busy schedule to cram in as much fun as possible. The trip included a visit to the St. Louis Arch (which is REALLY big and impressive), a cruise on a Riverboat down the Mississippi River, going to the St. Louis Zoo, a trip to Meramec Caverns, the City Museum (which is totally AWESOME), and Grant's Farm all in just 2 and a half days (not counting travel time). It was a long 9 hour drive there and another 9 hours back, but it was totally worth it. The kids cannot wait until we can go back and show their Daddy all the fun things we did. It was a great last trip to round out our summer, and we really enjoyed taking it easy for a week or two afterwards before the back to school rush began.
So, that was my Summer, and as I've already said, I'm really excited about this year and looking forward to getting to know each of you. What kinds of fun things do you do this Summer?