Miss Mitchell's Last Day

Brian helps Miss Mitchell open her gifts

Today was Miss Mitchell's last day at SMS. We were very sad to see her go, but we are so proud of all of her hard work and accomplishments. She is officially done with her Masters Degree from UMES! We know it was a lot of hard work and that she will go on to be a fabulous teacher. We are hoping she will come back and see us very soon!

To celebrate the fun times we have had with Miss Mitchell since March, we had a pizza party, followed by gifts and cupcakes. Miss Mitchell made us each a bag with our favorite things, including a certificate with a personalized note on the back.

Miss Mitchell gives Savannah and Karoline their gift bags

  

Miss Mitchell and Alexis

Logan and Miss Mitchell

  

Savannah and Brian give Ms. Ennis
a gift from Miss Mitchell

Miss Mitchell and Regis share a laugh

Savannah got Miss Mitchell some candles from Bath & Body






Everything we will ever
 need to bake!



Miss Mitchell gave our entire class a wonderful gift that we cannot wait to use. She gave us a giant bin for the "Culinary Cuties" to continue baking and cooking! It had everything in it that we could possibly need to cook a gourmet meal! 





Michael and Miss April check out the
bin of baking and cooking supplies

Miss Mitchell, we will miss you and your smile very much! Best of luck to you, and congratulations! We love you! 

Terrifically ^Tyra^ Trip 5/12/11

We were able to take our field trip to celebrate Tyra on Thursday, May 12. It was a day beyond all of our imaginations! We got to ride in a Hummerzine to our favorite place, Ocean City, and play mini golf, have lunch at the boardwalk, and then get ice cream.

Tyra sent us beautiful weather: Ocean City was about 72 degrees, a bit breezy, and full of sunshine. When the Hummerzine pulled  up, we couldn't believe our eyes! We are used to taking the big yellow school bus on field trips. We rode in style in a limo full of fun, friends, laughter, and even balloons! 

It was tough to narrow down the 200 pictures to fit our adventures into this blog. Here are some highlights of our day, thanks to Miss Nicole and Tyra. We can't thank them enough for their kindness and generosity, and only hope that these pictures begin to show how we celebrated Tyra. We know she was looking down on us from heaven smiling and laughing with us.

Before we left, we each put on our Terrifically ^Tyra^ buttons
that Miss Mitchell made for us.

The Hummerzine pulled up to SMS to pick us up.
We were rockstars for the day!

Alexis was beyond excited in the limo!

Karoline holds a picture of our guest of honor

Ms. Karen helping Savannah perfect her swing

  

Regis and Michael taking turns at their golf game



Savannah, Michael, Miss April, Regis,
and Miss Mitchell at the mini golf course

Brian checking out the caveman

Savannah high-fives Regis (aka Tiger Woods)
 after he gets a hole-in-one

Logan posing, shortly before his ball landed in the water

Having tons of fun at Old Pro!

Regis and Miss Mitchell having a blast at the golf course

Miss April got a great group shot of us!

   



Brian signs his name on a balloon that will be
sent up to Heaven for Tyra

 

Miss Mitchell writes a message to her brother Sean,
who also passed away in March 2009

Preparing for the balloon release!

Tyra played a trick on us and decided to send her balloon on a wild ride

Lunch at Caruso's was delicious!

Alexis holding a picture of our guest of honor at the
giant Ripley's tire

Brian and Miss Mitchell dancing on the boardwalk

Finishing up our trip with some Dumser's ice cream

  

A note from Mrs. Grunden:

I know it took me a while to write this because there was so much to narrow down! However, while writing this post, I realize that our original Tyra Trip was exactly three years ago today. Looking through the pictures from the last trip reminded me that no matter how annoying I am with my camera, I will continue to be my class's paparazzi. Two people from our last trip have since passed away, and I treasure their memories  that I was able to capture on "film." The trips that Nicole and Tyra provided us with will always be two of my favorite days.

A Terrifically ^Tyra^ Trip

In May of 2008, we celebrated a very special birthday. Tyra, who was a student at SMS, turned 16. Her mom, Ms. Nicole, planned a super-fun trip to Ocean City. We celebrated in style, departing our school in a Hummer limo! We got to play miniature golf, eat pizza, hang out at the boardwalk, and enjoy one another's company. It was one of the best days ever.

Sadly, Tyra passed away shortly after her 17th birthday. She touched many lives through her kindness, beautiful smile, and chic style, and she will never be forgotten.



Ms. Nicole helping Tyra, the guest of honor, into the limo



Some class members anxiously pose in front of the limo



Clarence, Caroline, Jessica, Glenn, Karoline, Kayla,
and Brooke wait with Mr. Metzger,
who joined Tyra in heaven earlier this year

  

Fun at Old Pro Golf

Good times at the boardwalk

  

This year, Tyra's mom has arranged for our class to take that very same trip! In Tyra's memory, Ms. Nicole is sponsoring a trip for us with everything we would possibly need. We will be taking the Hummerzine to Ocean City on Thursday at 9 am. We can't wait! We will play mini golf, eat pizza, and have fun at the boardwalk. Ms. Nicole and Tyra gave us one rule: to have fun! We think we can handle that!

We know that Tyra will not physically be on this trip with us, but we are sure that she will be there with us in spirit. This week, instead of doing holiday page, we are completing a ^Tyra^ page so we can learn all about the beautiful person whose life we are celebrating. Miss Mitchell and Mrs. Grunden have a few ideas up their sleeves to make sure that we make the day extra special just for Tyra. 

Ms. Nicole and Tyra in the Hummerzine

Happy Birthday/Welcome Joshua!



Joshua started in our class last week. He celebrated his 13th birthday on April 30. We combined his birthday and first day at our school into one big surprise party. Joshua was surprised and so excited. We celebrated with cupcakes, presents, balloons, and fun!



Anticipating the surprise



Miss Mitchell made Joshua a sign

    

 

Joshua was truly surprised!



Mr. Carnahan and Mrs. Elzey helped out

with the surprise party



Cinco de Mayo

In learning about Cinco de Mayo this week, we thought it would be fun to try some Mexican food. Miss Mitchell brought in chips and salsa for us to try. Most of us really liked it, especially the chips. She also brought in taquitos for us to try, which are little rolled up tortillas with chicken and cheese in them. They were yummy! We also got to make our very own sombreros! 



Joshua, Michael, Karoline, and Brian sporting their sombreros

Sea Monkey Update:
Today the water was warm enough to add the sea monkey eggs. We observed the water before putting the eggs in the water. Most of us noticed a lot of bubbles. We put the eggs in and noticed bubbles and a greenish tint to the water. We can't wait to see the sea monkeys hatch. They will most likely hatch over the weekend, but we will continue to make daily observations.

Logan observing the sea monkeys to make his hypothesis

Using our observations to make predictions, we all predicted what we would see. Here are our hypotheses:

• Regis, Savannah, Andrew, and Michael all said fish.
• Brian said we would see bubbles and babies
• Logan said we would see algae and hatched sea monkeys.
• Alexis thought we would see no sign of sea monkeys for 7 days.
• Karoline thought we would see hatching eggs
• Joshua thought it would take a few days for them to hatch.

National Sea Monkey Day

Logan with our Sea Monkey kit

May 15 is National Sea Monkey Day. Today, we set up our sea monkey "tank" so that our sea monkeys will hatch and grow before National Sea Monkey Day. We learned that they need purified, room-temperature water. Tomorrow once the water has gotten to the right temperature and is purified, we will put the eggs in the water. When we get back to school on Monday, we should have sea monkeys!

Brian checks out the sea monkey tank

Regis adds water to the tank

Savannah pours in the water purifier

Andrew stirs the purifier into the water

We will start observing our sea monkey tank as soon as we put the eggs in to see how long it takes for them to hatch. Once they hatch and grow a little bit, we should be able to see them swimming around!

Red Kayak Night

Red Kayak Night was on Monday, May 2. We have been reading and summarizing the book since March. Red Kayak Night even made the news! Even better, our class display was featured on the news. Check it out by clicking the link below.

Red Kayak News Link

Our display includes summaries of each chapter on a poster, a crab net, seashells, a book of characters, and a picture of our class with a real red kayak.

Miss Mitchell poses with Tilly the dog

Keaton and his owner from the
Salisbury Kennel Club

The beautiful Butterfly Garden display by Mr. Propper

Mrs. Taylor hands out samples of delicious recipes
seen in the book. (Our class made the signs!)