And the holiday begins

What a busy, swirling last week before Christmas break.

 There was Christmas concert this week where the older students were part of a play and the little groups popped on for their songs. There were 3 performances of this and then with a big sigh of relief, we could take the stage down and get back to having a gym again.

It's been bitter cold and the kids have been inside almost 100% of the time for noons and recesses rfor the past 3 weeks. They get so squirrely without that time to run around and get some fresh air, but with windchills into the -40C range and more, that's a little too much fresh air for safety.

My class had their annual potluck party. 35 kids eat a LOT of food. They had a great time though. I was surprised at how many had no potluck etiquette experience to draw upon. It was a great teaching moment showing them how to not touch every dish with their hands...how not to take heaping amounts until everyone had firsts, and then seconds.

I have had a student teacher with me once  a week for the past four months, then a few more days as he was done his  exams. The best part is that he is a former student of mine and a lot of the activities were things he remembered from being in my class, only this time he got to see them as the adult. There were a lot of  'so THAT is why you always....." comments :-)

We had pajama days and movies today. I popped popcorn yesterday after school and then again early this morning. We sang carols this afternoon and then we released them to their parents for the holidays.

It was a great feeling to be home and in my jammies by 4 PM. Such decadence!

DS2 left this morning for a winter camp weekend. Crazy kid...excited to be out and camping this weather. I am taking advantage of his being gone to strip down his bed and do laundry and get it tidied. I know...he should be doing this, but for some reason I just feel the need to surface tidy and clean.

I am curled up watching Season 2 of CSI New York, that I got from the library today. Tomorrow will be soon enough to do all the things I need to do, outside of the house.