Last day of school

Today was the last day of school and in true Iowa fashion it was cold, gray and raining (just like last year) even though it's been in the 80's and 90's the last few weeks!

Ammon has Mrs. Hackbarth this year. He did a great job in school and really improved his reading. This year he only had 17 kids in his class versus the 28 last year. Having the small class size was a great thing for Ammon.

 

Corrine had Mrs. Johnson and LOVED her. What can we say she is an amazing teacher! Corrine excelled in math and science. Corrine is hoping with all the changes to classes next year to still be in her class.

Simeon has Mrs. Gordon. He did amazing in math and science and his reading has really improved this year. He had some focusing struggles this year, but he didn't let that slow him down. He'll have her again next year.

It's Great to be a Lemme leopard!!!

1st days of school 2011

Again this year Corrine & Ammon were at camp on the 1st 2 days of school, so the 1st day of school happened on multiple days. During the summer our school went through some remodeling where all the partition doors were taken down and real walls put in their place. Because of the remodeling and larger class sizes in some of the younger grades all the class rooms (except the 2 kindergarten rooms that are not in the library wing) were switched around.


Our 3 Lemme Leopards in 2011




Simeon started on August 18th. He has Mrs. Gordon and is in room 17. He is in a 5th/6th grade combo class, and was excited to be with some friends he made 2 years ago. He has his good friends Nick and Carter in his class. He (like always) was super excited to start school and was up and ready to go long before it was time to go. Being in 5th grade brings more freedom and changes. He now has a locker, which he shares with Nick & Carter, in the library hallway. He can go to the library any day to check out books, and they get to do lunch duty (which earns them a free hot lunch). He is down to only 1 recess a day now.



Corrine Started August 22nd. She has Mrs. Johnson (Simeon had her for the last 2 years and we love Her!!) and is in room 15. She is in a 3rd/4th grade combo class. She has Madilyn and April in her class. She doesn't have her closest friends in her class this year, but our request to have her not with a certain girl (because she was very mean to her all last year) did happen. 3rd grade comes with some extra privileges. She gets to pick anywhere to sit at lunch and they can go anywhere on the playground.




Ammon also started on August 22nd. He has Mrs. Hackbarth (Simeon had her for 1st grade) and is in room 10. She is a stricter teacher, yet also kind. Ammon has his good buddy Grant in his class. This year his grade increased to 59 kids. They had 2 1/2 teachers the 1st day of school. This meant that in the morning each class would have 20 kids, and in the afternoons they would have 30 kids each. Ammon was with Hackbarth all day. Luckily we received the funding to get the 3rd teacher full time, so Ammon's permanently in a room of 19 kids. In 1st grade quiet time is no longer and his teacher doesn't do snack time.


Rebecca gets to stay home with mom again this year. She had her Toy Story lunch box packed with her lunch and was dressed for school, but she was more then happy to come home with mom and play with friends at home. She'll do "mommy school" at home again and hopefully sign up for a gymnastics class.

Last Day of School

Well today was THE DAY. Today was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.

Corrine had a field trip planned to Kent Park for today, but it rained, ALL DAY. So no field trip for her. I was up at the school getting some final meetings for Simeon's IEP done and I heard "I feel bad for those 1st and 2nd graders today" numerous times. What do you do when you have everything cleaned and packed in 5 classrooms and your field trip gets cancelled for the last day of school. And to top it off, Corrine's teacher got sick this morning and wasn't at school and the sub wasn't able to get there for an hour. Thankfully the other 2nd grade class has team teachers and one of them popped over to help out.
Despite the cancelled field trip, the rain outside, her teacher getting sick and not having a teacher for an hour, Corrine had a fun last day of school. They got to have a movie party and eat a picnic lunch in their classroom. Since Corrine's teacher wasn't there today I didn't get a picture of her with Corrine.

Ammon's teacher has been gone all week. We knew at the beginning of the year this would happen. She's at her son's wedding. So they did lots of packing and finishing up of things last week. This week they got to watch a movie during quiet time in the afternoons. This was our 3rd time having Mrs. Christanson and all the kids have just loved her. She's been a part of our family for almost 5 years now and were so grateful for all the love she's given our kids. She's seen us at our lowest and most stressed times and has celebrated with us during the good times.


I've kicked myself more then once that I don't have a picture with Simeon and his teacher Mrs. Johnsen. (I will be taking one during the ice cream social in August with her-NO MATTER WHAT!) He's had her for the last 2 years and she is AWESOME, AMAZING, SO HELPFUL!! We are hoping Corrine gets her. The last 6 months we have known that Simeon needed some serious catch up with reading and writing. She has implemented new things time and time again to help him. She knows Simeon and what he is comfortable doing. One thing he was doing was bringing him almost to tears, and she told him to finish it this one time and he was done. She knew it was doing more harm then good, so she found something else for him to do to help him. She got him into a reading program that after just a few months he has shown so much improvement in reading. She has been the biggest advocate for Simeon, and has gone to so many meetings with me this year.