Zoo!

Today we took the wild things disguised as children to the zoo for our last field trip. So. Much. Fun. Everyone loved it! Despite it being 95 degrees out and sunny, sunny, sunny my kids were troopers and most (MOST) were great.

The kids LOVED the squirrel monkeys, one jumped into a tree right above our heads and scared us all!

We ate lunch then headed to the "Safari" area where the giraffes came up so close, it was amazing! One came up first and when the other came over (to eat) one of my kiddos shouted "they're getting married!" Every animal at the zoo was either the "daddy, mommy or baby".

We had to book it around the next loop because we had to be back in time and I wanted to see the koalas who were there on loan from the San Diego Zoo. Today was the last day, we got lucky!

We saw lions, tigers and rhinos, oh my! I love hearing the kids tell me which lion was the male and female and how they knew because the male has a mane. I ignored the question "is that Simba?" On the way to the koalas we took a shade break, 95 degrees, did I mention?

We saw a tortoise that was 100 years old, he kind of looks how I felt at this point :) There was a jackrabbit in the same area and one girl pointed out that it was the "tortoise and the hare".

The elephants didn't turn out to be as big as they expected,  the koalas were sleeping, and it was 95 degrees. Put a fork in us, we were done! Great field trip with great kids...job well done 1st grade team!

Post field trip, exhausted and sweaty but totally worth it!

Here Goes Nothing!

What a week! A Sarti Party is truly a party now thanks to Amber Tyson over at http://artysonfamily.blogspot.com. She is a friend from growing up and we haven't been in touch much over the years but I read her blog and she generously offered to help me create mine when I quickly realized I was out of my league! Bear with me here, I'm a newbie :)

This week was great and crazy all at the same time. I came back from Spring Break recharged and with TONS of cute ideas for my classroom thanks to the many blogs I happened across. There are some amazing and dedicated First Grade teachers out there with blogs and ideas that put me to shame! My kiddos are a unique bunch but they have a lot of academic needs, Title One, enough said. They also lack some life experiences and exposure to many things I took for granted growing up. Which makes it even more fun to provide these experiences for them and watch them light up and learn something new.

Wednesday was our field trip to the Phoenix Art Museum. It seemed at first the kids thought the bus ride was the field trip, oohing and aahing over the freeway (racing other cars), the airport (Mr. Sarti was flying all 13 we counted apparently), baseball stadiums, water tanks and storage facility. No such luck sitting quietly and singing "The Wheels on the Bus". Oh well, forget the migraine that was brewing. The art museum was great, they are generous enough to give us FREE admission and reimburse us for the busses! They were down a docent so we had to rearrange our groups from 10 kids to 1 adult, to 15 to 1. Yikes! I handed my best 5 over to Miss Swygert and took on the other 15. Together we battled being quiet, staying still, following directions and nude paintings and statues. I'm exhausted even thinking about it. I kept telling myself "they're 6, they're 6, they're 6".

The highlight was the picnic in the beautiful courtyard (last year it rained to beat the band and we were hovered under an overhang in wind and cold, not recommended). The migraine continues and nausea sets in on the bus ride back to school. Luckily I made it through a longer than normal recess and an hour where they wrote amazing stories about their favorite part of the art museum. Job well done Mrs. Sarti :)