Fall Freak Attends Awesome Concert

This Fall Freak (me) was delighted when my dad told me that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was going to play a concert at the Bartlett Arboretum!  My parents, husband, and I purchased our tickets and awaited the special day.

The day was a simply beautiful day---crisp, Fall weather, but not TOO cold.  The Arb was at it's fall best---I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful trees!  I don't know what I was thinking when I did not take my "good" camera along with me, but was able to shoot a few shots with my little camera I carry in my purse.

Can you imagine living in this house?  With this scene as your "back yard?"  I'm SO jealous!

In this next shot, you can see just how low the pond is---Kansas has had a bad year for precipitation---we are in desperate need of rain.  Even so, it is still beautiful!

All four of us had a good time at the concert; I even caught my dad tapping his foot in time to the music once or twice.   Check out this link to see some better pictures and notes: http://bartlettarboretum.tumblr.com/ .

Bat Exchange, you know, like flying mammals!

Have you  heard of a poly com?  Well, I had not until very recently.  Essentially, it is similar to video chatting.  My school has a poly com system and one of our technology specialists in my district asked me if I would like to participate in a "Bat Exchange."  I said, "why not?"   So here's what we did:

1. My students constructed a bat using black construction paper, googly eyes, and their imaginations.
2. Each student then wrote a descriptive paragraph about his/her own bat.
3. Another 2nd grade classroom across town did the same thing.
4. Each teacher snail-mailed the bats to the other teacher.
5. We set up a date & time to poly com; we chose Halloween Day.
6. Each classroom took turns reading a description of a bat while the other room tried to find the bat based on the description.

It was such fun!  I let my district media department know about the exchange and I was visited by Susan Arnsemen who witnessed the event, took pictures, and put an article on the Wichita USD 259 website.  My class is "famous!"  Wichita Public Schools Newsroom Events

I hope that we can do similar events in the future as well as different poly com events.

Following is a picture of Ms. West's class's bats all laid out on the floor of my classroom.  As one of her students would read their description, we would find it.

Below is a picture of my SmartBoard where we could see the other classroom on the poly com.  It is super fun using technology in my classroom!