The Counting Continues

Here we are at the end of December. The kiddies are home dreaming of what Santa will bring them and I have visions of 500 000 bread tabs before the end of the year dancing in my head. I wonder if there is a support group for this. Last week was a bread tab counting extravaganza. I kept my promise and invited the students, that had left my room, back and we had an estimating, tabulating, place value considering, rollicking good time. Forty grades four and five students all huddled around tables in my room, counting tens, hundreds and thousands. My intern from UNB, the teacher from the other class and I wandered around replenishing the tables as the sandwich and freezer bags got filled. The grade fours were very cute. Never having done this before, exclamations of "I already have one hundred" rang out around the room. The grade fives, to their credit, just smiled, said nothing, but looked at me with a "One hundred is NOT a big deal" look on their faces. By the end of the class, the kiddies had counted and bagged 16 870 bread tabs! Quite a feat! We had had estimates of between 15 000 and 20 000, so not bad at all. We are currently sitting at 465 355 bread tabs. Only 34 645 left to get to the halfway mark. We have moved ahead much faster than I predicted. I appreciate all the donations. I couldn't do it without you. While I have been enjoying my kiddies and the things the Christmas season brings to an elementary school, the staff, parents and students of Sandy Hook Elementary have been consistently in my thoughts and prayers. When I looked around the gym on the last day of school, as we all sat in our PJ's, drinking hot chocolate and singing Christmas carols, I could not help but think of that dear school that could not celebrate Christmas together, but rather are just trying to figure out how they can move on. Please keep them in your prayers as well.