Strawberry Picking

Mr. Ten Million & Co.

(My dad has requested better captions with my pictures, so here I go.). Last week, our school announced the results of the Millionaire’s Club, and surprise, surprise, Caleb was the school’s top AR reader with over 10 million words read. He also read the most last year as a 4th grader, with over 6 million words read by the time school closed in March. At that time, he set a goal of 10 million words this year for himself, and we were all so proud of him for meeting it!  Josiah’s’ results were not too shabby either. He was the third top reader in the school with over 4 million words read. And Eleonora even made it into the Millionaire’s Club (K-2 ‘only’ have to read 250,000 to make it in).  On the same day, Josiah added to his reading accomplishment by being named #3 in the seventh grade, based on grade point averages. Eleonora and I were so proud that we came home from Walmart with these surprises for the boys and wrapped them right up!  They loved them and took them straight outside to play.

Caleb also won a Kindle and a  Barnes&Noble gift card at school and Josiah got to be an usher at the 8th grade graduation, thanks to being a top 10 7th grader.

Last Day of School & Report Card Day

Josiah’s 7th Grade Band Concert

Before & After

Buddies

Cousin Sleepover

Ballet Recital

Twinsies

April Books & Goals

First, a goal report:

*Disclaimer - I feel a little silly typing this up, but one of my favorite bloggers posts an update on her goals every week and I find it quite interesting, so here I go!

Exercise - I walked 10,000+ steps eleven days this month. So far, every month this year has been an improvement on the last.  Most days after school for the last two weeks, the kids and I went to the walking track/soccer field straight from school in the afternoons, and that’s been a big help!

Give-always - I got rid of 236 items at home this month (and plenty of organizing/downsizing has been happening at school as well).  

Facebook - I got off-track for a while after I looked at everyone’s cute Easter pictures, but I’ve been back off for the last week or two, which has given me lots more reading time. 

Bible/Spanish - Still scooting also on my Bible app.  We are reading through the Psalms and Proverbs in 30 days at the moment.  I’ve made it to 400 days on Duolingo!  

Books - I read ten books this month!  Only three were written for adults, but I’ll take it. 

I enjoyed this book just fine, but not a fav. 

I finished reading Little House in the Big Woods to my third graders (7 girls and 1 boy), and it was oh, so good, as usual. I brought in an apron and an old fashioned iron and our Little House paper dolls and we had a fabulous time. 

I started lots of organizing-type books this month, but this was the only one worth finishing for me. I recommend it. 

I enjoyed this. Sad story though. 

We listened to this in the car. Not my fav by Beverly Cleary, but I’m not an animal person and it’s told from the perspective of a cat, so what do you expect?

Okay, no one in my family seems to know what I’m talking about, but you know in the movie, “You’ve Got Mail” she recommends the Shoe books to a little girl. Well I’ve always wanted to read them and then Eleonora found the movie “Ballet Shoes” on Amazon Prime and we watched it and I realized that it’s based on the book and so I bought the series and now I’m on to the second one. They seem like books my mom would have bought for me as a kid. Don’t know how she missed them. Ha. 

Read this to the boys. Very good. Now I’m reading them a book about some hunting dogs (yuck) to try to even out my book choices with them. Haha. 

I’ve been testing in my classroom for the last two weeks, and I often read my own books on my library app on my phone, but my phone had to be off, so I read the next three books the boys had left in my room. Beedle the Bard isn’t really my style but very creatively written. I would have believed the tales were circa. Hans Christian Anderson. 

First graphic novel I’ve ever enjoyed (I’m looking at you, Dog Man - bleck).

Caleb’s read this but it’s from my classroom library and hence more my style than the previous two. Historical fiction for the win!

There you have it!  A happy, healthy April!