April 2021

My principal was the last "Star Student" of my class in April. Each student gets one week during the year to be the star. They get to be the line leader, sit on special chairs, bring a special poster about him/her, share Show and Tell, and we learn more about the person. It's a fun week that the students look forward to! When I moved from 2nd grade up to the 3rd/4th grade split this year, I wondered if it was too immature of an activity to keep, but ultimately I decided to keep it and just change up some of the activities the Star Student gets to do daily. I'm always the first Star Student of the year, so I can model it for the class, and I've always had our principal Mr. H be the last Star Student because I feel that it's important for the students to get to know their principal, too! Mr. H went all out this year...because he knew it was my final year teaching at Terreton. He told me he looks forward to the event every year, and this year he pulled our Superintendent Mr. Williams into the experience, too. One day, his show and tell was bringing in Mr. Williams for a Q & A session. On the last day of the week, his show and tell was to do a live rock concert for the students, and again Mr. Williams came and helped. They sang songs on both their acoustic guitars and their electric guitars, and they had me join as the drummer on the final song, too. It was such a fun week: for me AND my students! I will always be grateful to my West J administration for supporting me and my endeavors both in and out of the classroom. I was very lucky to work for such understanding, talented, fun, and professional administrators!

Josh and I had a low-key wedding anniversary this year: we went to the small, nearby town of Leadore! It's never been a destination for us, but we didn't have a lot of time to go out of town this year (we had kids' sporting events on Friday, and an appointment on Sunday). We ate dinner together at their newest restaurant The Depot on Saturday night the 10th. Thankfully, it wasn't very busy and we were pleased with their service. After dinner, we planned on going Jeep/tent camping east of Leadore, but it was SO cold and SUPER windy, that after we arrived at the campground, we didn't want to spend the entire night freezing and uncomfortable with the howling wind, so we called the local hotel, and we spent the night there instead! Happy 23 years to us! 

Jonah got his patriarchal blessing on Sunday, April 11. For a while, nobody could get any patriarchal blessings due to the COVID pandemic. We were grateful when the policy changed, and blessings were once again allowed. It was a nice experience.

On April 13, Josh happened to come home from work mid-day to do some things at the house, and he heard a bunch of sirens really close to the house. Edward had started a pile of trees on fire in the field below our house, and then had left the site to do some other things, and the wind blew the fire across his dry field and up to some trees lining the ditch. Barb noticed the spreading fire and called 9-1-1, and thankfully the fire trucks arrived before the fire spread up the ditch to her log home!

Tim & Barb's house is on the hill above/behind those trees.

Our house is across the ditch line to the right of the fire.

We went camping as a family for the first time this season on Saturday, April 16 during Stake Conference weekend. We took the boys to Williams Lake campground--our usual spot. The weather was nice and the short camping trip was relaxing!

We have a family goal of taking the boys golfing several times this year, so after we got back from camping, we took them to the golf course since it was such lovely weather! It's a nice family activity, and we always feel happy when we get to hang out on Josh's beautiful course!

We didn't have enough time to play the Saran Wrap game when we went to my mom's house for Easter, so she sent it home with us to play, and we played it for FHE in mid-April. She wraps up money and candy and prizes in a giant wad of Saran Wrap. To play, you roll a set of dice over and over. When you get doubles, you get to start trying to unroll the wad using only one hand. You get to keep whatever you unroll until the next person rolls doubles with the dice, then they take the wad. The game keeps going until the center of the wad is unwrapped (usually where the largest cash prize is) and taken. I'm so grateful for a mom who's fun and creative and makes fun things to do when we're together!

One night in April when I came home mid-week from Mud Lake, Josh took me out to dinner to the Ranch. They have Josh's favorite Prime Rib in town, and it's only served on Wednesdays. He's made me a believer in that menu item (I usually order seafood when we go out because I don't cook it at home), and I usually order Prime Rib when we eat at the Ranch now, too!!

My Dominoes group celebrated our friend Angie's birthday in late April. I hosted this time around at my rental home in Terreton. We ate good food, played games, laughed a lot, and Tanis surprised us all with matching caps that say "Hot Mess just doing my best" (part of an inside joke in the group). Val also gifted us all the best flavored rice crispie treats I've ever had. They're made by an East Idaho company, and were SO yummy! I just love spending time with these ladies!

Amanda and Ryan were special guests in my classroom at the end of April. They were driving through on their way to Salmon, and it was so nice of them to stop and talk to my class. I share so much about myself with my students, and I'd told them often about my best friend Amanda, and I've talked to them about Ryan, too, so it was nice for them to be able to meet my besties in person! I love that my friends took the time to come to my classroom! And my students enjoyed it, too!

Easter/Conference/Grandpa's Birthday Extravaganza

Josh and I took the boys to go to my parents' home overnight in Utah for Easter at the beginning of April. It had been 2 years since we'd all been together as a Perkins family (due to the pandemic). It was also the momentous occasion when Easter and General Conference converge: those are my mom's favorite Easters when that happens.

We drove down on Saturday afternoon. We had planned to color Easter eggs when we arrived, our old tradition the boys always did with Grandma on the Saturday before Easter, but it didn't work out. Truth be told...I don't even remember what we did after we arrived. I'm getting old and forgetful, and there's no photos, and it happened 6 months ago, so I don't remember! 

On Sunday morning, the boys woke up and wore their church clothes to listen to conference from the convenience of my parents' living room. I was impressed with their commitment--but it doesn't look like they're too thrilled about it! ;)

I love listening to the Prophet of God speak!

That morning, the boys also found their Easter baskets--which were outside of Grandma's front porch. Each boy got some new frisbees for our disc golf course at home, some of their favorite flavored milk from Gossners, and some of their favorite snacks. It's getting both easier, and more boring, to gift them items at holidays!

After the morning session of conference ended, family members began showing up for the Easter festivities. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day outside (mom had been fretting about what to do with the Easter egg hunt if we couldn't be outdoors). Instead of eating the traditional meal of ham and potatoes, we had soups and salads, so people could eat whenever they showed up, which eased up a lot of mom's stress about making sure the meal was prepared for everyone at the same time. Since we haven't been all together for a couple of years, it was stressing mom out to suddenly make a large meal and have it prepared at the right time for everyone, when she didn't know when they would be arriving exactly, so although Easter was structured different this time, it was a lot more relaxing for mom, and I think it turned out just fine! 

I told everyone that I really, REALLY wanted to have a family photo. I was dismayed it didn't happen at Easter of 2019, and I was persistent about having it this time. Although everyone is not here in this photo, it represents our family getting back together again after the long pandemic! We are missing Lisa and her family, Cody and his family, and Ammon. I'm grateful that everyone complied with my request. I love having family photos to document our time together.

After the photo, we started the Easter egg hunt. It was a simplified hunt this year, which was just fine too! There were 2 gold and 2 silver eggs this time, and the kids got to hunt with the adults, which is a first I believe! Mom and Dad's new yard is a lot smaller than the old yard, so dad had to be creative when he hid the eggs. He did a good job! It was a fun hunt!

Gold Winners: Aspen and Jonah (his first time!)
Silver Winners: Mick and Sunny

After the egg hunt (and money exchange for the eggs we'd found), we had dad's birthday party. His 80th birthday was two days later, but we celebrated all together on Sunday. We had a family zoom meeting with Lisa and her family so that she was able to join us, too. I made a Kahoot for dad's birthday, just as I'd done one for mom's birthday in January when we were still having our monthly zoom family meetings. It was a trivia about some of his favorite things, from childhood to now. It was SO much fun, especially because we got to be together as we played. We all laughed and laughed! I made a few of the questions challenging, and although Tawna and Bryce had won my previous 2 family Kahoot games, mom came out victorious this time at the end!  

After the Kahoot game, Dad opened gifts and we ate cake and sang happy birthday to him. It was a memorable birthday; Dad said it was a special party with thoughtful gifts and he liked the fun Kahoot game. I'm glad we could celebrate it together. 

One Heckuva Hectic Work Week!

The week in between Spring Break and Easter was a super crazy one for me at school! 

I absolutely love project-based learning, but we only do it a few times a year because it takes a LOT of time. It's worth it, though! The kids retain the learning, and they get excited as we near its completion, because they can recognize their own growth! Since I taught 2 new grade levels this year, the projects were different sometimes between what the 3rd graders did and what the 4th graders did. However, in March, ALL my students worked on biographies.

I bought lots of biography books early on in the year with some grant money, and then I checked some additional ones out of the library. At the end of February, I gave each student the choice of which person they wanted to research and learn more about. Everyone either got their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd choice. They read the biography book, and filled in a 2-page graphic organizer (that I created) with information to find more about their person. Then we turned that information into a 2-page essay, filled in timelines about their famous person, and had a resident artist come to class several times to teach the students how to draw realistic faces and they drew and colored their celebrity, too. We compiled all the research onto a tri-fold screen (that was originally supposed to be attached to desks for COVID, but we re-purposed them) and then we had a presentation day on Tuesday, March 30th. We called it the "Historical Heroes Museum" and students had 8 different showings throughout the day. Each showing lasted 30 minutes, and they presented to students from Kindergarten to 6th grade, as well as adults in the school district and family members. It was my first time doing something like this, but it was a HUGE hit! The students tracked how many times they gave their presentation throughout the day (they gave a condensed version of all they'd learned, plus asked for questions and answered whatever their audience wanted to know more about), and most gave over 100 presentations and had it totally memorized by the end of the day!!! They really enjoyed the experience, too! I was BEYOND proud of them for how well they did on this project! 

I taught the students that they are superheroes of our day, too! All 
year, they each had a week where we learned more about them, and I
kept all their posters for this specific week. Their posters were on
display during the Museum, and then I hung them in the hall
afterwards. They also did a timeline for themselves, and it was so
interesting to read about what they thought were the most important
parts of their lives thus far. 

Originally, the Historical Heroes Museum was going to happen the week BEFORE Spring Break, but then we had a COVID closure, so it got moved to the week AFTER Spring Break instead. However, I'd already planned to do the Schoolwide Sneetches Party (the prize they earned from Dr. Seuss week at the beginning of March) that same week, so it was a very stressful week for me to get my classroom ready for the Museum, have 8 tours in my classroom, clean up afterwards, and get everything ready for the school-wide party just 2 days later! 

The prep work for the Sneetches party was a big undertaking, and I worked on a lot it during Spring Break, since I knew the week of the actual party was going to be stressful. There were 18 game stations overall--enough to let the students spread out and have a variety of activities. I tried to think of the easiest way to set up--I used the PTO storage room, and I had a bin or box for each outdoor game. I made posters and taped them to each box, and created lists of what I would need for each activity. As I got those items (either from my home, or from the store, or from the P.E. closet), I put them in the designated box. The night before the Sneetches party, I pulled all the boxes out and made sure EVERYTHING needed was in each box. The boxes would also be used to mark where the stations were in the open fields, so the students knew where to go for each game and where the lines would start at each game (I mapped it out so I would know where to place all the boxes but I didn't mass produce the map for the students). I had clipboards placed in each box with instructions for how to play each game, in case I couldn't talk to each person before the event started. Logistically, it was a big event to plan for and make sure I had enough people to help, but it all worked out! The last step was to pray for good weather--it was the biggest factor that I couldn't control.

Our Sneetches Party was on April 1--April Fool's Day! It was an outdoor party that lasted an hour and a half at the end of the day. The students could go to any of the games in whatever order they wanted, and they also rotated as grade levels through the meal station where they could have a hot dog, chips, and a drink. I made up little cards for each student that listed all 18 activities, and they were allowed to go to each game only twice, so that more kids could have the opportunity. I asked for volunteers to help with the event: some were parents, and some were older students who manned the stations. When the students came to their station, they gave them the instructions, took their cards as the kids played, marked off that section of their card, and then returned them after the game was done. I told the students that if they made it to at least 12 stations, they would be rewarded with an ice cream when it was done (an incentive for them to actually GO to the stations, not just sit around, and also an incentive to KEEP a hold of their card, not lose it!).  The afternoon of the party, Mr. H brought his speakers out and played loud music, which was so fun! Mr. Kimbro took time off work to grill for us, and he even brought his own grill from home to grill the hot dogs for the kids. The lunch ladies brought tables outside for the kids to eat on. My students helped me sweep the area for the scooter obstacle course and carried all the boxes outside for me. Volunteers who arrived early helped set up the equipment after the boxes were set-up. I had extra people show up last minute to help, thankfully, since some others couldn't come at the last minute, and I had exactly the right number of people to help, which was a blessing. Thankfully, the weather turned out beautifully too! (You never know in Mud Lake--it's usually cold and blowing!) The party was a HUGE success!!! The kids had a LOT of fun! Everything worked out and I was elated to have it over and done! 

Happy kids eating!

Happy kids playing!

Ms. Blake & I both wore our Dr. Seuss shirts for the special event.

The kids showing me their completed cards at the end of the party
before they received their popsicles (kindergarten students had pink
cards so the volunteers would know who to make accommodations
for during the games, like stepping closer to a target).

A few days later, our school secretary surprised me with a giant thank you card signed by the elementary students, a bouquet of flowers, chocolates, and soda pop. I was blown away with the generosity!!! I cried some happy tears when she gifted it to me on behalf of the school. I'd wanted to do a field day of some kind ever since I started working there, and I'm glad I finally accomplished this activity before I left. It was my pleasure to direct, but it feels so good to be appreciated, too! I sincerely loved working at West J School District.