Round 'Em Up!

Good morning and happy Saturday! Today I'm excited because not only am I coming off of a ridiculously fun-filled week with character training and an NSOC site visit, but it's also our school's big community carnival day!

It's already begun, actually, with a Fun Run earlier this morning, but since I'm still healing and recovering, I won't be going until later on, when it opens. From 11 until 4, our families and community members will gather to laugh, play, eat, and bid on auction items, all in the name of FUNdraising.

The PTO Round Up Committees have been working tirelessly donating countless hours of their time to get ready for today. They've secured donations from our generous business partners and from the teachers and staff at our school. The Teacher Treats actually sell really well because they involve staff members spending time outside of the school day with students and their families. A crowd favorite was last year's First Grade Team Progressive Dinner. I think it was for five children and it went something like this. The first grade team made dinner in courses at their homes, then the highest bidder got to bring their group of kids to each of the four homes for an early dinner including appetizers, salad, main course, and dessert. After dessert, they all met up in the park to play. Something like that. Anyway, who wouldn't want their child's next birthday party to go something like this? 

It was a huge auction item! 

Something new that I'm sure will be a hit this year is that each class family created a class book and the PTO put it with 

a yummy fleece blanket to be auctioned off as 

Tuck In Time with teacher's name class. 

These will undoubtedly be in high demand as well.

Here's the package I put together: Author Maria Dismondy was kind enough to donate an autographed copy of her newest picture book, 

The Potato Chip Champ. 

So I bundled that book with a 

Cooking With The Counselor 

item to include a cooking class at my home for up to six children. We plan to make potato-chip cookies and/or homemade potato chips; I'll let the child whose parents win the item help me decide. Then, we'll read the book and ... and this is the best part! ... visit with Maria in Michigan via Skype! I wish you could have heard the gasps when I told the kids about this item during my last round of peace class. Yay for fun partnerships ... thank you, Maria.

If you're nearby, please stop in and say howdy.

This just in: Cooking with the Counselor sold for
 $500 this afternoon - yee haw!