Labor Day to Thanksgiving

Phew!! We finally made it to Thanksgiving break, and I am exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my class this year and am really having some fun with them. But, I'm sure like many of you, we have not had a break since we began the Tuesday after Labor Day. I just want to crash.

So, instead of sharing about everything, I wanted to share our most recent fun! Our school has a fun tradition of having a Thanksgiving parade. Y'all, when I say "Thanksgiving parade", I'm talking we go all out.

Yes, that's Santa riding the floor cleaner! I don't even have pictures of the mini-marching band from the high school that marches through. No kidding. We have a few of the high school band members come out for this (and they're paid in donuts). Anyway, they wanted to represent more cultures this year, so we were presented with a last minute request to maybe come up with a "float" or two.

We actually started this project Friday, and my kids jumped on it with vigor! I have a diverse enough class that we actually had at least two people who actually celebrated each holiday (with the exception of Kwanzaa), and the rest of my students jumped on board to help research and decorate as needed. These are the results of maybe 3 hours work (two of which were with a substitute yesterday), and they had a blast then surprising the rest of the school today in the parade!

Of course, we did end up right in front of Santa, so a few of my kids commented that everyone was more excited about him. Well, really...how do you compete with a dearly loved janitor riding a floor cleaner? #cantwinemall

Along with that excitement, we had our grade level "party" today. They had three rooms with different activities that they rotated through. My room had minute to win it games, and the kids had a blast!

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We have also been reading Wonder along with the rest of the world, and I'm maybe 30 pages from the end. I actually read for almost an hour total today, but we're planning on going to see the movie next Monday after school. I wanted to be close enough that I could feasibly finish before we went, and, let's be honest, we weren't going to get much accomplished today, especially not after a parade AND fall festival games. Some days are just good reading days, plus we had to make it through the who nature trip section. I love how engrossed in this book they are!

Anyone else seen the movie yet? I've been watching the previews and can't wait! Also, does anyone have suggestions on what I should read next? I want to read something with a minority character. Thinking about A Long Walk to Water, and I started reading it myself last night. I should be able to finish it tomorrow and will decide from there, but I'm open to suggestions!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!