Who said life isn't FAIR?

We had our last Book Fair for the school year in April. Which means I'm officially done being in charge of the Book Fairs. (I'll help next year, but I'll pass on the main responsibility!) We were pretty steady all week, so it seemed to go fast. (The picture was taken while the fair wasn't open.)

The Buy One, Get One Free Book Fair always keeps us busy.

Drop, Cover, and Hold On! We participated in the Great Utah ShakeOut! It was a state-wide earthquake drill. (I got the school to sign up too.) We were at the school during the drill, so we got under the table for one minute, and then evacuated like a fire drill.

Under the table at the Book Fair.

That same week was the Science Fair. Woodruff had 181 participants! That's a lot of projects. Andrew choose to feed 12 different ingredients to some flowers. We took pictures of the plants each day to monitor the progress. The first plant (that was fed vinegar) died overnight, so we had results to document immediately. Along with some other things, he learned that feeding a plant milk makes it stink, that power aid survived for quite awhile, bleach and window cleaner died pretty quickly, and that water is the best for plants.

Andrew showing off his display.

Tyler was assigned a partner in class and worked on his project both at school and after school. Toby and Tyler decided to see what brand of bubble gum could make the biggest bubble. Tyler got the job of measuring Toby's bubbles, since he can't chew gum with his braces. They found out that when Toby has one piece of all the brands of gum in his mouth at the same time, he could make the biggest bubble. (Isn't that funny?)

Toby and Tyler showing off their display.

Next year's PTA Board had a Convention at the end of April too. (Yes, I threw things off by having my due date fall the same time as the Utah PTA Convention in Provo. So we made our own training and retreat.) We had a great turn out and had a lot of fun as well as setting up the calendar for next school year's PTA events. I'm excited to work with my new board next year, I think we will have a great year! We have some fun stuff planned and a lot of willing volunteers! I just need my boys to stop quoting the book Diary of a Wimpy Kid. "My mom is the President of the PTA, and she can ruin your life!"

"The sky is falling down, It hit her on the crown"

Woodruff Elementary's Annual Theatrical Production this year was Chicken Little. The volunteer director and her assistants held eleven practices after school during the month of March. Tyler was cast as a Foxy Loxy. Andrew was a Henny Penny Chick. They loved it and had so much fun! They performed four times last Friday, twice as assemblies for the school and two evening performances. Thanks to everyone that came to watch them.

Look at those cute feet!

Scared Chicks! "The sky is falling down, and we must spread the word around."

Silly pose!

Tricky Foxys! "We're putting our trust in the fox."

Silly pose!

Tyler

Andrew

The cast of 73 students! "This is our barnyard home, We live here as a group."

A photographer from the Herald Journal also took some pictures for Sunday's newspaper!

"The sky is falling down. It hit her on the crown."

"We're Foxys who love to scheme and plot to get our way. No cunning plan is too extreme when we're on the hunt for prey. Foxy Loxy is our name, and huntin' prey is our game. Somewhere near we smell a treat, we are Foxy Loxys, ready to eat."

"We count on one another to save us all from trouble."

"The world's a scary place, if you go it alone."

"Two heads are better than one (than one), and three are better yet (you bet)."

"We'll never be undone, when we work together as one."

"We try to get along, though different as can be."

"It's here we all belong, on that we do agree."

PTA in February

This week we had the Valentine Manners Social. We set up tables and decorations Monday night. Tuesday I spent ALL day at the school. I had neighbors set up to watch the girls, but Lee decided to switch days at work and he stayed home. That worked out well because Andrew ended up sick and stayed home too. Each class (well, it was really two classes at a time) went to have a manners lesson in the Little Theater. One teacher was Ms. Manners and the other teacher was Ms. Un-manners. The teachers were pretty fun for the students to watch. The one I stepped in and saw was when Superintendent Garrett was being Mr. Un-manners. He was hilarious. He ate his cake with his fingers, flicked water at the other teacher, knelt on the chair, used his sleeve instead of napkin, threw the napkin at Mrs. Kelley, and kept wiggling around. Then the kids went into the cafeteria and we served cake, and red Kool-aid. We kept 72 seats always set throughout the day. We had 15 different shifts of classes. As soon as the kids left from one group, it was a mad dash to set up for the next group.

After school Tuesday, and after we cleaned up the Valentine's Social, we set up for the Book Fair. The girls got to go play at the neighbor's house and Lee came to help us. We set up in the Little Theater this time, so we had to carry the book carts down the steps.

Parent Teacher Conferences were Wednesday and Thursday. We opened the Book Fair during the conferences. We stayed open until 8pm both nights!  We earned over $1700.00 in books for the classrooms and Media Center. I had some great helpers! We worked late and cleaned up the Fair Thursday night. Lee came and helped then too.

And here is the estimation jar. None of the students guessed it exactly.

Because it was Parent Teacher Conferences, the PTA also provided dinners for the teachers on Wednesday and Thursday. I didn't help much with that because I was in charge of the Book Fair. They served large sub sandwiches with chips one night and the huge hit was the Chinese buffet. We have some great teachers at Woodruff.

December 2011: Season's Readings

December 2nd was the Woodruff "Buddy Read". It turned out awesome! I had some amazing Cache Valley Celebrities (and Santa) come and read story time style. I also turned the event into a book swap. I had 800 books donated to the PTA for the school and everybody that came got to leave with at least two books, more if they brought some to swap. We even served popcorn and hot chocolate.

October 2011: PTA Book Fair

I ran the PTA Book Fair for a week. We raised about $2500.00 in books for the school classrooms and Media Center. We do an estimation jar during the fairs. I turned that project over to Tyler and Andrew. The theme was "Reading is out of this world," so they made a rocket. Can you guess how many packages of Star-bursts are inside? (None of the students got it right.)

The Scholastic truck.

Estimation jar.

"My mom is the PTA."

I overheard a girl telling her friend that she couldn't go home yet (even though it was after school already) because, "My mom is the PTA." I thought I would share some of what you do in the month of May if you are the PTA.

It actually starts at the end of April with the Woodruff Wildcat Run Fundraiser kick-off assembly. I'm not sure why women wearing crazy clothes and dancing around gets kids excited, but it does! They even joined us in a conga line. Maybe it's okay I don't have any pictures of this event.


Then we decorate doors for Teacher Appreciation Week. Lee helped me decorate the two doors I was in charge of this year. We did Tyler's third grade teacher and the school SLP (speech teacher). Both teachers will be moving and not teach at Woodruff next year. They will be missed.


Mrs. Corry's door is suppose to look like a book with book rating forms, like the ones she used in class, on it. It matched the book that she got on the last day of school from the class that had a list of reasons why each student thought Third Grade was Fabulous.

Ms. Holt's door said, "No matter how you say it Ms. Holt is /Gr/eat". It had different synonyms of the word great all over it.

Then we spent two weeks counting money daily from the fundraiser and delivering bookmarks, shirts, water bottles, and tickets to the swim party and dinner with our Prize Patrol shirts on. The kids did a great job. They almost doubled the school goal!

Lee took off work so I could spend a Thursday and Friday in Provo for the Utah PTA Convention. In reality it was two days filled with classes, meetings, and networking, but I don't have any pictures of that. I only have this picture of us in the hotel with chocolate masks on. I don't have pictures of being picked up at six in the morning or the other retreat type things we did, like dinners at Brick Oven and Applebee's, soaking in the hot tub, making bracelets, and playing the card game Spot it! It was an information packed weekend.

I popped into Tyler's class a couple times to take individual pictures of each student and a group shot of the class. I even sent the camera to school with Tyler a couple times so he could take pictures at recess. He did a good job of making sure he eventually took a picture of everyone and even had someone take a picture of him. I made a book. (I had help getting pictures from Mr. Corry too.)

We started setting up early the morning of the Wildcat Run. We had a great turn out from parents and the community. We set up volunteers throughout the route to help cheer on our runners and make sure nobody made a wrong turn. We actually had two fourth graders break the school record. The new school record for one mile is 6 minutes and 12 seconds.

We cut Old Grist Mill Bread and made McDonald's punch for the runners to have after they crossed the finish line.

Lee, Emma, and Andrew ran the Kindergarten Dash.

We passed out last year's prizes to the kindergarteners, since they didn't have a chance to earn them and we didn't want them in PTA room taking up space.

Lee ran with Tyler in the third grade race.

I was running around doing lots of different things. For part of the time I was helping at the finish line. Lee took a picture of me and Mrs. Corry.

Andrew wanted to run the full mile, so Lee and Andrew ran with the fifth graders. (Lee also ran with the second grade too.)

Doug, our Modern Woodmen representative, came up from Ogden and ran several of the races.

After the run we had a needed girls night out and stayed and talked at Chili's until closing time.

We had 30 students earn the Star Dinner. These students raised at least $100 during the fundraiser. They got to go to dinner and have the teachers serve them. I didn't think to take a picture until after it was over and more than half of the teachers had already left. We decorated with star balloons and I made gift packages with star shaped sunglasses, Starburst candies, and a cool glow stick straw. It was great! The kids loved it. Golden Corral printed the tickets wrong and we got creative while we waited the extra hour, just in case someone else came.

We had about 150 students come to the reward for raising at least $50. We had fun with lots of pizza, crafts, limbo, musical chairs, a candy toss, and a bounce house.

Then we walked the students about a mile East to the Aquatic Center.

We handed out 600 free snow cones at the Woodruff swim party. We had to stop when we ran out of cups.

We hosted the fifth grade graduation party with water games, lots of cake, and more snow cones.


I distributed the sponsor donations that I was in charge of. We passed out Texas Roadhouse kid meal coins and also delivered the check from Modern Woodmen.

We delivered ice cream and Mrs. Corry's book during her surprise birthday party the last day of school. I delivered the rest of the ice cream to the office staff and other third grade teachers and had them also sign her book.


I have great plans for next year. Do you want to be the PTA?