Mrs. Costner's Special Guest, Mrs. Carolyn Ito

Kaylan showing a stained glass boy that was Mrs. Ito's mothers.

Tuesday was a very special day for Mrs. Costner because she got to invite her special guest to come and spend the day with us.  The class was so excited on Monday when I told them who would be coming the next day.  My mom was able to come and spend a few hours with us and during that time the class interviewed her.  Mrs. Ito is from Williamsburg, Virginia where she lives and enjoys retired life after spending 32 years in education.  She has taught children and adults of all ages from preschool to college level.  She spent quite a bit of time sharing some of her hobbies with us!  My mom is a very talented quilter and she taught us all about the many tools that she uses while she is making a quilt.  We also learned a little more about the 2 quilts she had made for our classroom and the manatee quilt she made for our school that is in the front hallway.  Another one of her hobbies is making things out of stained glass.  She taught us the difference between opaque, transparent, and beveled glass.  She even gave us two beautiful glass pieces to hang in our classroom window.  Mrs. Ito loves to travel and she loves chocolate and she brought gold chocolate coins from around the world for us to enjoy (which we did!).  We were so interested in listening to her talk we didn't get to ask a lot of questions.  Caleb did get to ask her if Mrs. Costner was naughty as a child and luckily Mrs. Ito didn't give away all of my secrets.  It was a very special day for all of us!

DJ holding a piece of cut glass with copper around the outside.

A new quilt top that Mrs. Ito is working on.

Mrs. Ito showing a finished wall hanging quilt.

Nicky and a quilt ruler.



Mrs. Costner and her mom,  Mrs. Ito



Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you for spending so much time creating your beautiful turkey projects!  The children were so very proud of their work and were beaming as they shared their projects with the class.  Each one was unique and I love that you used your projects to spend time together.  I hope that you were also able to use them for your Thanksgiving table center piece.  I have also included a picture of our Thanksgiving Friendship Soup.  We had a messy (but exciting) time putting our soup together and watching it cook on Tuesday.  We were also thrilled to eat it and we went around and said what things or people we were going to give thanks for on Thanksgiving.  It was a special tradition that I always enjoy each year.  Thank you for sending in your items for the soup.

Some of our family turkeys!

A few more . . .

And a few more . . .

All of our beautiful turkeys!

Thanksgiving Friendship Soup!

Meet Caleb's Special Guest Mr. Michael McDonough

Caleb waiting for his dad to begin.

A CCU football that was signed by a favorite player.

Caleb and his daddy.

Saying "The Sun News" for our group shot.

Lots of silly faces!

Today we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Michael McDonough.  He was Caleb's special guest.  Mr. McDonough is from Ohio and he lived in both Toledo and Troy.  We found out that he is an identical twin and he also has a big brother too.  All 3 of the boy in his family have the initials MD!  Mr. McDonough's first job was picking corn at a farm and then he worked in a pet store which was good because he loves animals.  He came to Coastal Carolina for college because he really likes being around the water and being outside.  He has a Marine Science degree from Coastal and one of his favorite things to do is be out on the water in his boat.  He also loves going fishing with his friends and with Caleb.  Mr. McDonough works for our local newspaper, The Sun News.  He works in the advertising department and works with local car dealerships making their ads.  He and Caleb enjoy spending time together on the weekends and going to Coastal sporting events.  He also loves to go camping at Edisto Beach.  Since we have been talking about traditions and customs, Mr. McDonough shared that his family was from Hungary and that he can remember his grandmother making special cookies and decorations for the Christmas tree that were from Hungary.  It was so much spending our morning with you Mr. McDonough!

Annette's Story about Mr. McDonough

Madison P.'s story about Mr. McDonough

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was our Thanksgiving lunch here at school! We were so excited to share our feast with our special friends and families.  Here are a few photos from our lunch dates!  My special thanks goes out to my photographer Hailey who walked around and took pictures so that I could eat my lunch!

Jayden and his  mom.

DJ and his mom and dad.

Caleb, his mom, and his sister Ashton.

Kyle, his dad, and Memaw.

Kaylan and her mom.

Alec and his mom and dad.

Tiara and her mom.

Ashleigh and her mom.

Alayna and her mom.

Seslyn and her dad.

Millie and her dad.

Annette and her daddy.

Madison P. and her mom.

Nicky and her mom.

Diana, her cousin Eirck, and her aunt.

Good-Bye Miss D'Onghia

 Today we had to say good-bye to a good friend of ours.  Her name was Miss D'Onghia and she was a student from Coastal Carolina University.  She is a Junior there and she is studying to be a teacher!  She has been coming to our classroom since school started every Thursday morning.  We have really enjoyed having her and we will miss all the extra help she has been giving us!  We made Miss D'Onghia special cards, a bouquet of flowers and we had a good-bye snack of some mini cupcakes!  We do hope that she will come back to visit us soon!

Madison W.'s Special Guest, Miss Michelle Legate

 Ethan's Story about Miss Legate

Alec's story about Miss Legate (I wish this was darker and you could see it better!)


Today we met Madison W.'s special guest.  Her name is Miss Michelle Legate and she is a scuba diver at Ripley's Aquarium.  She knows Madison because Madison goes to an after school program there each day.  Miss Legate was born in Kentucky and lived there for 18 years.  She told us that her mom was a doctor and that she was home schooled!  Miss Legate enjoyed living in Kentucky but she moved to Tenn. when she was finished with high school and got a job at the Ripley's in the Smoky Mountains.  She worked there for a few years and then eventually was transferred here to the Ripley's at Broadway at the Beach.  Miss Legate feeds the sharks and does the swim shows at the aquarium.  She loves to play with the stingrays too!  She brought in lobster shells that had been molted off and also lots of shark jaws for us to see!  She told us her favorite animal at the aquarium was Gabby the sea turtle.  We really liked learning about the cone shell which is the deadliest animal at the aquarium.  We all decided that Miss Legate had a really cool job and that we would like to visit the aquarium more often.  It was a great Hearts' Story!

Madison is ready for her guest to begin!

Miss Legate showing us the stick she uses when she dives in the shark tank!

Learning about a Sand Tiger Shark.

Caleb with a Mako Shark mouth.

Mrs. Costner holding a Hawaii Slipper Lobster shell.

Madison and Miss Legate

Which ones are the sharks?

We love silly shark faces!

WPDE Field Trip

Marcus and Ashleigh on the bus!

Madison P. and Caleb sitting bottom to bottom and back ato back on the bus!

The gang ready for excitement!

Here we are entering the front door of the station.

Mr. Stack giving us a tour of the room where the important computers are and the director sits!

The news room and the new multi-million dollar cameras.

Millie's mom, Madison W.'s mom and Nicky's mom on the morning set.

Trying to get everyone in front of the green screen.

Do you think we like to see ourselves on TV?

This is what we were looking at!

The shot that got on the news!

Tiara and Ethan's invisible arms due to the green screen!

On Thursday we had so much fun visiting with Darren Stack the meteorologist with WPDE News 13.  He gave us a tour of the news station and we got to try out the green screen where he does his weather report.  We asked so many great questions and did our best to sit still and listen.  After the station visit we headed to Riverfront Park in Conway for a picnic and a few minutes on the playground.  It was a great day!  We also were on the 6:00 and 7:00 news!