End of the Year...

Friday was our last day, technically, the kids last day was Thursday, however, Friday was a teacher day to get things cleaned up and files done!  I have to say that after leaving the school this morning, I got a little sad.  In fact, I got a lot of sad!  I not only am terrified about not finding a position for next year, but, and more importantly, I'm going to miss this amazing school, these amazing teachers and most of all, these amazing kids!  I'm not sure what the future has in store for me, however, I do know that these kids are in good hands at Timothy Ball.  I've never met a more connected group of people who want to help and rally around each other.  A lot of the schools I've been to have been quite the opposite.  This school just has the atmosphere of friendship and that is what I think I'll miss most of all.  I want to be part of that.  Part of something that will allow me to be creative, yet, have the people behind me to help me when I get stuck!  Believe me, this year I had a few "getting stuck" moments!!!

I'm so thankful for this past year and I wouldn't have changed it for anything. I'm so proud of the kids.  Both the kindergarten and 4th grade kids!  Its amazing to see a student learn and "get it!"  I had quite a few of those moments this year and let me tell you, I think I cried 100 times! I think I not only grew as a teacher, but a I grew as a mother and overall person.  So many of our kids are having to go through things that I can't even imagine having to go through at that age, yet they seem to come to school with a good attitude and a drive to be better.  I hope that the kiddos learned that this year.  I know that I was only with them for 4 1/2 months, however, that time was spent teaching and teaching to the BEST of my ability.  I have definitely grown and will continue to do so over the summer.  To be a good teacher, you have to teach beyond the text book.  To be a great teacher, you have to teach beyond the textbook, engage the kids, and most importantly, know your kids.  Not every class will be the same, so we as teachers have a duty to the kids we teach to know who they are and know what they like and dislike.  We would be doing them a disservice to not do those things.

So here's to the summer!  I'm going to do some tutoring and spend time with my little Max.  He is getting so big and the time is flying by!  Keep me in your thoughts and prayers as a lot of the summer will be applying and reapplying for positions in and around my area.  Have an amazing summer!  I will miss all of you kiddos and I can't wait to hear and see some of the things you will be doing in the future!

I love you all!

Mrs. Bushnell

Kindergarten Graduation

So I think you all know I started the year off teaching Kindergarten.  I have to say that I am so incredibly thankful for that experience!  Those kids brought a smile to my face each and every day and I was so impressed with how much their little brains absorbed during the short time I was there! 

I was invited to come to the graduation of the kids that I started with and I was so incredibly excited to see all of them!!! I couldn't believe how big they were and was so excited to see all of them!  Here are a couple of photos from their graduation procession ;)  It was absolutely adorable and I will always remember these kiddos!

I had the privilege of having 2 classes, a morning and afternoon class.  Here they all are!

The program was so adorable!  The kids had their little graduation hats and they sang some adorable songs!  It was such a cute program!  Good job to all of the kindergarten teachers!  The kids were great and looked so cute!

When I Grow Up...and other Health Topics!

I was struggling to find one more health assessment to complete with the kiddos, so I decided that I would let them have the choice.  They had to either choose the topic of "When I Grow Up, I want to be...," Bones, or pick a chapter.  A lot of the students picked the "What I Grow Up project," and I was so impressed!  Below are a couple activities that stood out to me!  Check them out!

Chloe's creation!  She wants to be a dentist!

Taylor's study of bones!  She labeled them all!!

Indy 500

Every year, the 4th grade classrooms have a study about the Indy 500.  We watched some video clips last week about the Indy 500, about how the cars are made, about the drivers, and about the history of the race.  After watching the videos and studying a little bit on our own, we created a timeline from when the race started, all the way up to this year.  I had the kids research a 10 year time frame and they each had to write 5 facts about the race.  They had fun doing this and they really learned a lot about the history of the Indy 500!!!

Our Timeline of the Indy 500

Check out all of the years!  They each had 5 facts listed!

Some of the resources we used to find all of our information!

Poetry Portfolios

So I hope all of you had the opportunity to check out the students Poetry Portfolios.  Overall, I was quite impressed with their understanding of poetry and I really hope they continue to write it and study it.  Poetry is such a great form of expression and the kids really got into writing it!  Here are some of their final projects.  We created a poetry portfolio and it had to include 5 original poems.  Check out some of their Imagery Poems and final Poetry folders!  They all did such a great job!

Taylor's Poetry Portfolio

Joey's Imagery Poem, it was about our classroom Poet Tree!  LOVE IT!!!

Bryce's Poetry Portfolio

Bella's beautiful Poetry Folder, she made the adorable flower attached!

Dylan's Imagery Poem about Nature.  Love his take on nature and the beauty of it!

Final Design and Motion Projects!

As mentioned in a previous post, I did not really like the final assessment activity for the design and motion unit.  After a colleague presented me with a roller coaster video and activity, I got to thinking, this would be a GREAT assessment for the kids to create a roller coaster.  They not only had to create one roller coaster, but also had to create an entire amusement park!  They had to create all aspects of the park, including kiddie rides, food vendors, and a variety of other activities!  They had to figure out the pricing of each activity and decide how their park would be "laid" out.  Where should the bathrooms be?  Where should the kiddie rides be?  Where should the food vendors be?  ETC.

I have to say that most of the students did a pretty amazing job.  They understood that to design a roller coaster is a pretty daunting task because EVERYTHING  has to be just right so that it can go from start to finish and not have any problems!  They understood friction and how it correlates with motion and they even understood why the design of something affects the motion of that particular vehicle or contraption.  I took some photos of my favorite parks.  The kids got creative and a couple of them created 3D parks!  The one below was done by my "artist" of the class, RJ.  He created an army themed park including tanks, a watch tower, and even an American Flag ride!  Check it out!!!!

The kids really only had to create maps for their parks, check out my favorite map below!  They included everything in their park map, including their food vendors and kiddie land!  LOVED all the details they put into their map!!!!

Design and Motion: Design Challenge

During one of our final lessons in our design and motion unit, the kids were given a design challenge.  We learned about lunar vehicles and some of the things that were needed to design a lunar vehicle.  We found out that the moon does not have gravity, therefore, our vehicles needed to have a little more weight on them so that they wouldn't fly off into space.  However, they also needed to be designed so that they would fit into the "space ship" going to the moon!  The kids were given 30 minutes and had to design their vehicle so that it would carry lunar rocks (our wooden blocks).  The vehicles had to carry at least 3 blocks and travel a distance of at least 39 inches.  Check out some of our creations!  Most of the groups did a really great job!  Not to mention they carried a lot more than 3 blocks!  We also had to draw our vehicles too!  The drawings were pretty great and included a ton of detail!  I was very impressed!  Check them out below!!!!