VIPs and Thanksgiving Treats

Well, I'm staring happily at a restful week off from school, but I'm still up way too early. No more cursing this body clock, it is what it is.

Yesterday was VIP Day at Louise White School. Students invite one or two of their VIPs to come to their classroom to observe for half an hour. The VIPs are meant to see us during our "normal" routine. Um, one problem, our normal doesn't include 17 extra adult bodies in the room!

So yesterday, we moved math to the morning, and the kids "versed" their grammas, grampas and parents in Factor Captor.

After a quick go over of the rules, they got down to it. Some kids were surprised at how quickly their parents caught on (read: and started beating them). I did help some parents with good choices--choosing a good number with the fewest factors so they'd score more than their kids.

My favorite thing was walking around the room and seeing the nicknames for the grandparents on the score papers. Generational terms of endearment.

Here's the crowd:

Skylar's gramma and grampa:

Luke's dad:

While the kids were at specials in the afternoon, I set up the room for our Thanksgiving Mix assembly line. The tables were wiped down with bleach wipes, gloves were grabbed from the nurse, stations were sent up for dispensing, unwrapping Kisses, "zipping", labeling, and counting. We made over 100 bags of mix, two for each student to bring home, and one for every staff member. The kids loved being allowed to travel the school making their deliveries.

I would have taken pictures of us at work, but it was work, so I didn't even stop for a moment! One boy at the unwrapping Kiss station dropped foils on the floor, and when he bent to get them, he touched the floor. So we lost his gloves and him! (Actually, he was reassigned.) The production line slowed, and we learned a bit from that.

The recipe:

Bugles

Shaped like a cornucopia, a symbol of our nation's abundance

Pretzels

Arms folded in prayer, a freedom sought by those who celebrated the first Thanksgiving

Candy Corn

Food was so scarce that Pilgrims survived on just a few kernels of corn a day during their first winter

Nuts or seeds

Promise of future harvests to be reaped only if seeds are planted and tended with diligence

Dried fruits

Harvest gifts from our bountiful land

M & M's

Memories of those who came before us and memories of those whom we miss on this and every day

Kisses

The love of family and friends that sweetens our lives, a symbol of giving to those we know and to those who are strangers except for knowing of our kindnesses

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you to Brenda for sharing this with me a few years back;

it's become a 5S tradition!