Stars on Sneetches

Dr. Seuss' birthday is on March 2, and we celebrate it at school every year by having reading activities and challenges the first week of March. In fact, most elementary schools celebrate reading that week as a result of his birthday, it's just more commonly referred to now as National "Read Across America" week. I was the Dr. Seuss Week Chairman for the third (and final) time at Terreton Elementary this past year, which was kind of a surprise to me. Truthfully, after doing it last year, I told the principal I was stepping down from the position, and that I would NOT be directing it this coming year. But as of January, nobody had volunteered to do it yet, and I had some new ideas for it, so I told him I would be the director for it one final time, which he was happy about! I'm actually SO glad I did it, too! This was my best theme/idea for it yet!! 

This year's theme was inspired by my trip to Universal Studios in Florida last fall. When Kimi and I were in the Dr. Seuss Land, one of the rides had murals of the story "The Sneetches" on the walls, so that as you progressed through the line, you could read the story while you waited. The Sneetches is not one of Dr. Seuss's more commonly well-known books, and I hadn't read it before. I was intrigued as I read the murals, and wanted to know how the story ended--but I had to wait until the ride was over because you don't see the last 2 pages (murals) until you get off the ride. 

I went to Universal Studios Florida to see the
Harry Potter World but the Dr. Seuss Land was
a fun surprise and was one of my favorite parts!

I LOVED the story and felt that the lesson the Sneetches learned was SO applicable to students at our school, too: it doesn't matter who you vote for (even though they can't vote yet, there was some MAJOR election propaganda happening in the elementary this year!), it doesn't matter your skin color, it doesn't matter your family structure or financial status, we are all members of our school, and we need to value each other as part of our team rather than focusing on our differences and using those differences to divide us. In our kick-off assembly, I showed the students a YouTube video of the book being read aloud by a man, and then we discussed the lesson learned. It's a short story, but the students really understood the lesson being taught (Thanks, Dr. Seuss!). 

I used the Sneetches story as my theme, and we focused a lot on the Star symbol throughout the week. Our most recent PBIS program was called RISE-UP, an acronym that stands for 6 qualities we hoped the students would learn and use at school. This past year, I also introduced the acronym STARS to that PBIS theme (I was also the PBIS Chairman) and it stood for Students That Apply RISE-UP. Since we've already used star symbols in a lot of our PBIS prizes during this past schoolyear, I thought the Star that the Sneetches had on their belly was a great tie-in. I used the format that I created for The Grinch reading challenge I gave to the 3rd and 4th graders in December (CLICK HERE to read more about The Grinch) as the basis for the Dr. Seuss week challenge. Each letter in the word STARS represented a type of book that the students needed to read. I created more generalized categories, in order to fit all the reading abilities between Kindergarten and 4th grade. The categories were: S=Short book by Dr. Seuss, T=Tall book by Dr. Seuss, A=Animal non-fiction, R=Reader's Choice, and S=Silly book. After the students read each type of book, they filled out a simple book report. I created tri-fold pamphlets that listed all the instructions on the front, and had five differentiated book reports on each of the other sections. I created 4 different pamphlets/book report outlines to accommodate all the different learning levels/abilities: one for Kindergarten, one for 1st grade, one for 2nd grade, and this one for 3rd & 4th grade (the 5th and 6th graders opted to not join in Dr. Seuss week this year): 

This was the front of the tri-fold

My first 3 book reports on the inside of the
3rd/4th grade book report pamphlet:

The objective was for students to read one book from each of the 5 categories and complete all 5 book reports within 5 days. If they did, they would earn 5 prizes (since the star has 5 points on it, that was the magic number). If ALL the elementary students completed the challenge, ALL the students would have a "Sneetches Frankfurter Party" (just like the Sneetches on the Beaches did in the book) later that spring. I created classroom banners and hung them in the hall outside the gym, and every student cut out and wrote their name on a yellow Sneetch and attached it to their class banner. Once a student completed the challenge, they earned a green star to put on their Sneetch's belly, and everyone could see who earned their Star.  

The Kindergarten students put green stars on the yellow banner
rather than cutting out Sneetches like the other grades. 

The banners took the entire hallway that borders the gym.

A few years ago, one of the Dr. Seuss week challenges was a competition between the classes of who could read the most Dr. Seuss books, and I hadn't thought the process through completely, because there was a couple of classes who checked all the Dr. Seuss books out of the school's library, and it left the other classes with hardly any options of books to read. I was smarter about it this time around. I checked out every Dr. Seuss book from our school's library, checked out a TON from the Salmon Public Library, and added my entire personal collection to the stack. From there, I separated all the books into the 2 categories that the students were required to read and divvied them equally between the elementary teachers. I had a spreadsheet so I would know what books each teacher had, so that after the week had ended, I would know who had what (in case I was missing a library book that was checked out in my name, I knew who would have it). It worked out much better that way! All the teachers were grateful to have a stack of Dr. Seuss books available in their classrooms for the week, and it gave the students equal opportunity to complete the assignment!

"Short" books by Dr. Seuss that I divided between the teachers

"Tall" books by Dr. Seuss that were divided among the classrooms

In addition, we also had dress-up days every day to get the kids excited: STAR day (wear clothes with star designs, sequins, and/or glitter), SO BRIGHT day (wear neon or brightly colored clothes and/or sunglasses), SILLY day (wear silly clothes/socks, crazy hair, and/or clown makeup), and SEUSS Character day (dress up like a character from Dr. Seuss's books). 

My class on SILLY day

SO BRIGHT day

My students who dressed up for SEUSS Character day

Dr. Seuss week this year was a HUGE success!! The kids LOVED earning their Star and putting it on their Sneetch's bellies. Some of the Sneetches already had stars on it after just 2 days of school! In addition to the star placed on the Sneetch, the students also earned a Star medal that they got to hang around their necks, 2 Starbursts, and a Dr. Seuss bookmark (thanks to the PTO, who purchased the prizes). By the end of the week, there was less than 10 students who hadn't earned their Star yet, and in every case, it was because the student was absent one or more days, so I gave them an extra week to complete the requirements. I am so happy to report that we had 100% of our students, in grades K-4th, complete the challenge!!! I was blown away with how well it all turned out, and was so excited, along with all the students, for our Sneetches Frankfurter party (which we had a month later, and I'll post about it later!). 

Check out all those green stars!!

Last-Minute Couple's Trip

 After we arrived at church on the last Sunday in February, our friend Craig (who was two rows in front of us because every other pew is still blocked off for COVID restrictions) turned around and asked Josh and I if we'd be interested in going golfing with him and his wife Wendy that very week in Buhl. I instantly said, "Sure!".

My response surprised Josh because that upcoming week was Dr. Seuss week, a week that I've solely been in charge of at Terreton Elementary the past 3 years. However, I had done SO much prep work ahead of time this year, and had already delivered all the supplies to the teacher and had already done my kick-off assembly for it, that I knew everything would be okay if I was gone for 2 days during it. But then I got thinking about the logistics of how being gone would impact Kanyon, and I didn't know how he would get to/from school in my absence, and I knew he had a district Scholastic meet that week, so all during church, I went back and forth, wondering if it would actually be possible for me to leave for a few days. I started texting a bunch of people asking to give Kanyon rides to school and home after track practice, and I messaged his Scholastic coach, and by the end of church, I had the plans all finalized, and told Craig that it was a "definitive YES" that we would be able to go with them later that week.

This is SO unlike Josh and I to make travel plans last-minute, and especially to be gone from work for more than one day at a time mid-week. It was very exhilerating and exciting! I love having trips to look forward to, and it had been so long since Josh and I had traveled together (due to COVID), so it was definitely needed! I just couldn't believe that it had all happened so fast: we had no mid-week travel plans when we woke up that morning, but two hours later, we did!

On Wednesday morning, March 3, Josh drove his bus route, then drove down in the Mini to pick me up in Mud Lake. I worked until 10am, and met him at my rental house, and we drove straight to the Clear Lake Country Club in Buhl from there. Craig and Wendy drove their own car from Salmon and met up with us at the golf course, too. On the first day, Craig and Josh rode around the 18 holes together in one cart, and Wendy and I followed them in another cart. They golfed, and we watched and chatted. It was beautiful weather, and we all had an enjoyable afternoon!

After they finished golfing 18 holes, we drove to Twin Falls to check-in to our hotel for the night, and then we went out to dinner together at La Fiesta, just down the block from our hotel. It was so fun eating out with another couple! I can't remember the last time we went out to eat on a date with another couple (stupid COVID!). Dinner was delicious, and very filling for all of us!

I love me some horchata!

On Thursday morning, we got up early, packed up, checked out of the hotel, and drove back to Buhl to golf again. This time, Josh and I rode around in a cart together, and Craig and Wendy rode in the other cart. Josh enjoyed golfing so much with Craig. Craig is easy to get along with and doesn't stress about his golf game, so it put Josh at ease to play. They hit lots of mulligans and had such a good time!

On this Par 3 hole, Josh made it THIS close 
to the pin with his tee-off shot! Pretty exciting!

It's such a beautiful course, down in the canyon by the river!

After the boys finished golfing on the 2nd day, we headed different directions: Craig and Wendy stayed in the magic valley for another day, and Josh and I drove back to Mud Lake. We stopped for lunch at this awesome place called "The Shop" in Gooding. I just LOVED their decor! It was such gorgeous weather again, that we opted to eat on one of their outside tables. The food was fabulous, and the service was awesome, too!

We stopped to stretch our feet right before Craters of the Moon park at Wild Rose (AKA Carey) Hot Springs. It's a natural springs, accessible from the highway by a narrow trail. We didn't take a dip in it, because we hadn't brought our swimsuits, but it felt luke-warm, and would be nice to soak in during the summer on hot days, especially hiking around CotM!

We got back to Mud Lake that evening and treated Kanyon to a pizza dinner from Ike's. The original plan was for Josh to drive back home to Salmon that night, and then come BACK down to Mud Lake the next day to get me, because we already had weekend plans for the two of us to spend Friday night at Downata Hot Springs. However, I convinced Josh to stay in Mud Lake over night, because Jonah had contracted COVID that week, and I wanted Josh to stay away from home as long as possible, since I worried the most about its effect on Josh if he contracted it. It had gone around Jonah's friend group the previous two weeks, and it was a blessing that Jonah began feeling the symptoms right before our trip to Buhl, because that meant Josh wasn't in direct contact with him for several days. Jonah was a good sport, and stay isolated in his bedroom away from school for a week. He lost his smell for a few days, and was super tired and struggled breathing, but he bounced back after his bout with it, which was a blessing.  

I had a teacher work day on Friday, and Kanyon's scholastic district competition was that same day. It was a virtual competition this year, so he competed from West J and Josh was able to go watch him compete for the first time this season, which was nice. Kanyon had a few rounds of competition, and after it was done, Josh drove him to Ryker's house to hang out for the evening, and then Josh came and got me at work, and we drove to Downata together that afternoon. Neither of us had ever been there before, although we've both driven past it dozens of times. It was not very busy early that evening, which was nice for us. We checked in to our cabin, soaked for a bit in the large warm pool, and then had a nice dinner at their restaurant. By the time we were done eating, the pools were hopping with people, so we opted to stay inside our cabin for the night and watch a movie instead of soaking again. We were glad we had soaked earlier when we had the pools almost to ourselves.

On Saturday morning, we soaked in the smaller, hotter pool. There was only one family besides us in it. Their pools are nice and updated, and have a good family-feel to them. They have a lot of lodging options at that resort, and in the summer months, they open up the water slide and another pool area, too. They've really built it up over the years into a nice little family-friendly resort. After our last soak, we packed up and drove back home to Salmon, stopping in Mud Lake to pick up Kanyon on the way. 

It's unusual for Josh to take 4 days off of work in the middle of a work-week, but it worked out nicely with the timing of Jonah's COVID to have Josh gone. We both had such a nice time, just hanging out with our friends and each other! I loved having a mini-vacation that was so last-minute, but was so relaxing and rejuvenating, too!!