Thursday later on.

Scene:  end of school.  The children have gone back to their places to pick up all their things for home and then line up by the outside door.  Polite Little Boy is still standing by his chair, exchanging pleasantries with a friend, oblivious to the fact that everyone else (including aforementioned friend) has picked up their collective things and are standing in line.  Fortunately (for him), I am in a good mood.

Me:   Polite Little Boy, you're a bit slow to pick up your things.  Do you think that might be because you are chatting too much to your friend?
P L B:  (looking somewhat misunderstood) I'm not chatting, Mrs Clark.
Me:  I think you are, I saw you.
P L B:  I'm not chatting, I'm HAVING A CONVERSATION!!!
Me:  (speechless, but not for long)

AND NOW IT IS HALF TERM!!!!!

Thursday

Last day of the half term.  Jubilee Day.  All very good reasons for feeling happy and celebratory. 

It is also non-uniform day.  We are all wearing red, white and blue in exchange for bringing something in for the June Fair.  The children will be hyper from the word go.  I love to watch them showing each other their outfits before they come into class and register will be later than usual as they will take so much longer to settle down!

At lunchtime it will be a right royal picnic (weather permitting), all out of the field together, packed lunches and school dinners, which is a 'pick a picnic' day where the children have a little box and they select from a sort of buffet and put their choices in their box before going out onto the field to eat.  I gather the MDAs intend to decorate the hall early this morning, which will be lovely!  And then later on in the afternoon we're all congregating in front of the music platform (outside) for a singsong, speeches, 'champagne' (really lemonade) and cakes.  They have learnt God Save The Queen and the chorus to Rule Britannia and the juniors will sing Land of Hope and Glory!  One of my colleagues sings like an angel and she will provide the verses to R B.   Very Last Night of the Proms-ish, isn't it?

Yesterday morning, in the ICT suite, they all produced very bright Jubilee pictures, mostly union flags (which is not as easy to reproduce as one would expect) and a few pictures of Her Majesty on horseback, all of which got stuck on sticks so now they have TWO flags to wave in the singsong.  And in the afternoon we made 'crowns', which they just loved.  Which reminds me - I don't have a flag.  We can't have that!!!

All in all, it was a very happy day yesterday and I expect that today will be equally happy, not to mention noisier!

My birthday rose is flowering and I thought it very appropriate to have this as today's photo!

Wednesday

Dear children of XXXX Bay,
I am getting tired of the Union Flag.  I would like a different one.  It needs to be red, white and blue but not too much white, please.  I would like you to design a new flag for me.
From
Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II

Not having ever received a letter from her majesty, I have no idea whether she signs her letters like that; I strongly suspect not, but the children liked it!  I think one could describe their efforts as 'varied'.  There were a few I was not convinced about - I doubt the Olympic team would be too thrilled to have hearts, crosses and flowers on their kit, for example, and I doubt the one that looked as if her majesty was sitting on the loo (it was meant to be her throne I was told, indignantly) would go down a bundle with the armed forces but they all had a jolly good go and enjoyed the activity no end.  And they will make a bright, colourful and easy-to-put-up display!

And today is PPA and then more of the same.  It's ICT today, Dazzle, and I think I will, for once, give them a choice of drawing a scene from Jack and the Beanstalk, a royal portrait or a flag.  That should keep them happy and occupied.

Ivy on the fence!

Tuesday

As I said yesterday, it was very red, white and blue.  The bay now has home - I mean school - made bunting and appropriately coloured paperchains covering the more mundane displays and it looks very merry and British (and a lot better from a distance!).  They learned the chorus of Rule Britannia and the first verse of God Save the Queen.  They wrote about what they knew about the queen and seemed very knowledeable if a trifle stereotyped.  They learned about how the union flag is put together from three national flags and then coloured a flag properly to stick on a stick (only way to describe it) for Thursday's celebrations.
And they wrote their diaries (have to do SOME 'proper' work this week)

Today is sort of proper work.  A Jack and the Beanstalk dvd, discussing characters and scenes, some nice practical maths based on measures and recording results pictorially and . . .  making hats/crowns for Thursday!  Well, I did say 'sort of'.

I wish I had taken some photos of the decorations but I didn't, so here's another from the garden instead.

Monday

And here we are at the start of the last week of the half term which has all gone terrifyingly quickly.  I seem to have been extremely busy with nothing to show, although the amount of work in the children's books tells a different story.  It's a four day week as Friday is report writing day and is Jubilee week so the afternoons will be very red, white and blue!.

Yesterday was pleasant although I was very tired and slept much of the afternoon away.  This was lucky because I spent most of the evening in front of the PC sorting out hustings questions for the OUSA Officer elections, in the company of two other mods.  By the time we stopped, we were all making silly mistakes from sheer tiredness, but we got loads done so that was good.  One more evening's work should see it done.
The morning was busier.  I popped out to Hobbycraft and ended up buying some more sock/glove yarn.  The knitting is on a go slow at the moment because there's so much else to do but come half term I will be able to make up for lost time.  I also found (elsewhere on the same site) some Morny lavender soaps, very much reduced, so I treated myself.

It appears that today we may get storms.  Not in school time, I sincerely hope.  Some children can be terrified of storms!  However, I have taken the garden cushions into the shed, just in case!  The garden could do with a good soaking, that's for sure!

Sunday morning

Hot again yesterday, wasn't it?  However, it didn't seem too humid which meant we could do all the normal things without breaking out into a sweat at the least movement.  It the morning I went into town and did the necessary on my list, including paying in a cheque and buying some clothes, which made the day a bit out of the ordinary.
Once home, George turned up and gave the garden its regular haircut, after which I pootled off to Morrisons early afternoon where I found, to my disgust, that they had sold out of strawberries.  As I really didn't want to drive over to Tesco or Sainsburies, I bought raspberries and blueberries instead and hoped.  As it turned out the Pimms drink was very nice indeed and I guess any fruit would work really.  Must try it with strawberries at some point though.

I did manage a snooze in the afternoon, with the fan playing over me and after a bath I was ready to face the witches.   As always, we had a jolly good time with lots of giggles.  We got next Sunday's do sorted out as much as we can and now we all know what we're doing.  We have a new witch, S, who has moved into the house at the top and it was good to meet her.

And now I have a bowl of pimms infused fruit.  I suppose a trifle, but DD can't have trifle.  Maybe mush it a bit and fold it into yogurt.  That might work well.  Or in muffins?  Or a smoothie?  If there was more I'd have a go at jamming it but there isn't enough.  Can't waste it, that's for sure.  Any ideas, gentle readers?

Saturday a bit later

Some photos.

More chive-y stuff



Another aquilegia




View from the front (with the inconvenient bits cropped off!)