Gosh it's November

So I didn't get to go to the pumpkin patch with the kiddos this year (no bonfires, no dropped hotdogs, no messy pumpkins) so I went with Bob (the boyfriend!). yay!
He's the one that made my card website (www.meganscards.com) Note to self-if a guy offers to spend hours and hours creating a website for you, it's probably more than just wanting to be your friend. I'm a little clueless at times:)

This is my class at the fire station. we took a walking field trip.

And this is all 6 classes at the fire station. They strapped Dawn to one of those backboard things they put people one after they've been in a car accident (gurney maybe?) and flipped her upside down. Poor thing:)

Out like a trout. Have a great day!

Dawn's hair

Dawn gave her hair to locks of love-isn't it cute?

from the back

front view-I had to jump in too:)

Loving you guys from KC:)

So I hope Grandparents Day was fun times...did Champ find herself a "sugar daddy?"
Dawn got her hair chopped off and gave it to Locks of Love! It's adorable. I'll have to put a picture on here.

Thanks for the mail! We're glad you liked the care package! It was fun to put together!
We miss you girls a lot-but we're doing well.

Here are a few "funnies"-
1. "I think I have a headache in my shoulder."
2. We had a tornado drill experience that was good times. We crammed our entire class in our bathroom. Do you girls have to do that?

Dawn and I are both doing "butler" learnals and they're going so well!

Hope to hear from you soon!
Love, Megan and Dawn

I've found a really good solution to gets getting in their backpacks before they get home (get parents permission first:) . Use zip ties! I have a collection b/c my roommate had a truck load. Then the parents can snip it when they get home. Wow. I should have thought of this sooner.

I hope your open houses and parent nights went well! Dawn and I are sending you a little something soon...it should be fun:) We have 4 days under our belt now and yesterday we had 2 false fire alarm drills:) Oops. I was picking my kids up from music and the music teacher was talking with her hands (like I do often) and she accidentally hit the fire alarm on the wall. Oops. So pretty soon there were 600+ student outside. The hallways at our school are somewhat of a maze so we just found the closest door and kept walking:)
Love you Bolivar Babes!

fuhrman and bennett

This is the closet that Dawn and i share. It took 2 days to get it organized.






Here's my chicka chicka boom boom tree.

Here's my classroom!

Yay Angie! Yay Butler! I'm proud of you both for posting:) Just a few more of you to convince:) Thanks for the school update Angie! Oh gosh, I'd be stressed too. I talked to Champ on Friday and she told me about the waxing thing! Gracious. That marlin. I'm going to post pictures later this week of my room "before" (in the scary state) and "after" (after I've put in 40+ hours making it look livable:). I spent 2 days alone cleaning out this huge supply closet (Dawn and I get to share it!) and here's a short list of some things that I found:

1. milkbone dog treats
2. enough pasta to open my own Italian restaurant:)
3. construction paper like you wouldn't believe! (I won't need to buy any for at least several years)
4. A bucket of old acorns (must have been for the unit on fall)
5. 4 (count them, four) balances
6. 6 containers of unifix cubes
7. 2 boxes of "Whisper phones"
8. enough markers to supply art for several years:)
9. a deer antler
10. 2 shelves of old discarded school library books


Anyway...thought you might enjoy that. Dawn and I now have a place to put things...which i find helpful! The teachers that had the closet before must have been pack rats that would have made B.O. proud.

We get to go to new teacher meetings this week. Yippee.
Oh, and our custodians are very pleasant!

I'm here!

Dawn and I are at our week long computer class. Supposively we're going to be on the list to get a smart board...who knows how long that will be!
If you've never been to downtown Excelsior Springs, you need to make a little visit. You could stay at the Elms Resort. Anyway...it's crazy. There are all one way streets and no real turns...you could just go around and around for hours and hours. And the building we were supposed to go to today for our meeting...well, it had two addresses online. Dawn went to the first one (I gave her the address) and evidentally it had been sold a year ago. Then I used the other address i had and entered it on the Garmin my friend Bob loaned me. And oh my goodness, I'm a believer in Garmin now! I think I might need to put that on my christmas list. Especially navigating to new places like I am currently.
If you don't have a little user name so you can leave comments, you need to get one:) I just helped Dawn create one.
Here's what you do...
1. Click on "comments" under the post you want to comment on.
2. If you already have a gmail/google address, type that in as your identity. Otherwise click on the option in blue to "create" an identiy.
3. Enter an existing email address (like your school email or other frequently checked email).
4. Set up the rest of your account.
5. Use your new identity to comment on the post. If you want to post your own things, use the comment option as well and others can respond to it.

We're going to use this to keep in touch...so get an account:)
Dawn and I send our love:)

P.s. I dumped half of my UHAUL worth of stuff off in my new classroom Friday. Yay! It's a really nice room. It's a little bit consoling since I'm missing out on the new room thing in b-town. I"ll post pictures when I organize a little bit. Right now I'm unpacking my apartment-whew!

The Daily 5

Butler, I tried to post on your page, but I couldn't figure out how. So, I'm just leaving another entry. I want to know your thoughts about that Daily 5 book. I just have one chapter left and it sounds good in theory...but I don't know how doable or even how different it might be from what I'm already doing. I'd have to change some things...I wouldn't really have "literacy centers" or a workboard anymore...althought the components of the daily 5 are things I have as literacy centers (read to self, read to someone, listen to someone read, writing, word work). And I'd have to release more of my control...the kids choose in which order they use a daily 5 and that scares me a bit. Maybe by the end of kindergarten it could be doable...but with mine and Dawn's new school expecting 90 minutes of guided reading/small groups a day I need to do something a little bit differently to keep the kiddos doing purposeful and engaging activities. I don't think I've ever done more than 60 min. at a time. But I like the idea of interspersing little mini-lessons throughout the 90 minutes. Re or reread the book and tell me what you think. Anyone else...please tell me what you think.
Basically, I think it all comes down to being a super-hero kindergarten teacher. The expectations are always going to be daunting.

I turned in my key today. That key and I have been through a lot together. Sundays at school. The times I was running down the hall scared as i left because it was dark. The evenings/mornings I would sneak in to set up for as sub. It's been on my key chain 4 years...and now it's not. I'm probably oversentimentalizing (is that a word?) my key...but it's the only part that I cried about as I handed it in to Mary. It's final.
Dawn, I think I might take you up on storing my school things in your basement. What does July 18th look like for you? :)

It's Butler's Fault

So But and i were talking at recess today and she said something like "you and I will have to blog back and forth about what's going on...but I don't even know what a blog is." I thought that was funny coming from her who needs help with most computer related tasks:) And then I realized she had a really good idea. So, Dawn and I can post things we've done in KC at Westview Elementary (complete with pictures) and then you guys in Bolivar can add comments/ideas too. This way I can get my "Butler fix" and we can still be somewhat connected with you guys. So, put the address www.missfuhrmanlovesbps.blogspot.com on your favorites so come August we can keep telling the crazy stories. And by all means invite other people who would enjoy it too. But especially if they're kindergarten teachers or can relate in some way or another (like B.O. or Cooker).