Special Birthday

I would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mrs. Dzujna.  She is a wonderful colleague and I love working with her this year.  She is very dedicated to her work, the children, and our community of Franklin, NH.  I hope she had a fabulous day and that the children all spend some time wishing her a happy birthday tomorrow.  I will see you all on Wednesday.

Mason's Journal Entry

Mason's third day:
Today was the BEST day of snowboarding I have ever had!!!  I woke up to another eight inches of snow and the back bowls got 12 to 18 inches of snow.  The back bowls are considered back country!  The name of the bowls are Copper Bowls  They are never groomed and you ride steep terrain.  The elevation in the bowls are 12,441 feet.  They have old chair lifts and T-bars that take  you to the top of the bowls.  Today I jumped into a bowl which means I jumped a cornice.  A cornice is a drop off a ledge into a bowl.  Some people call it a face wall.  It was five feet high.  When I jumped into it I felt like a pro snowboarder!!

The BEST part of my day was getting to take a CAT ride!  A CAT ride is when you get to ride to the top of a mountain where no chair lift can go.  It is as backcountry as it gets!  The CAT is the machine that is used to groom trails.  It seats about 10-12 people.  It took us 15 minutes to get to the top of the cat ride and then we had to kike 15 minutes to the top of Tucker Mountain.  I was very scared but felt like I was on top of the world!!  The snow was so deep that I got stuck five times.  My dad had to help me a couple times.  At the end of the run I was soooo tired that my legs felt like red jello!!

I have never snowboarded like that in my life!!  After I ate lunch I went to Woodward and jumped into the foam pits.  I got my competition bib and my number is 1553.  Tomorrow, I have practice on all of my events.  We also have a parade and opening ceremonies tomorrow.  Have a good weekend.

Mason

Mason's fourth day:

I had an unbelievable day that was so AWESOME!  My day started off with a couple runs with my coach, Whitney.  I had a practice for every event that I am doing.  I did practice for giant slalom, slalom, halfpipe, slopestyle and boardercross.  The giant slalom course and slalom course got rutted and rough.  The halfpipe is 18-22 feet tall.  I tink the halfpipe is in the best condition.  I got to meet Chas Guldemod at the top of the slopestyle course.  Chas was really nice and very funny.  The boardercross course was really nice.  The course was fast, fun, and I got to race Tyler.

After riding, we had opening ceremonies.  We had a big parade with all the different series across the country.  We walk through Center Village and each series is introduced one by one.  We did the National Anthem.  the Maine Mountain Series was really loud.

Tomorrow I have my first competition.  I have Giant Slalom and so does my mom and Tyler.  I am very nervous and excited.  See you through the Blog tomorrow.

Mason

Mason's second day of his journey to Nationals

I had an amazing day I woke up to 5 inches of new snow. The snow was awesome and it snowed all day. The snow was heavy, making powder soft and fluffy. The snowboarding was awesome.

I had boardercross practice today. The coarse was fun and fast. The top of the course was the hardest but my favorite. I get to race on it on Tuesday!

Today was a great day of snowboarding. I boarded all day. We took the longest run ever. We went through the woods and the back bowls of Copper Mountain. I had to take a T-bar to the top. Tyler, my friend Aiden, and I got ice cream. When we stopped we were all beat. When we got back to the condo we played with our friends Mike and Emma. We deflated an airbed.

Have a great Friday at school! Mason

Mason's journey to Nationals- Day One

I had an awesome first day.  We woke up at four because we had to get to the airport.  We took a shuttle to the airport.  We sat in the back of the plane and I got a row of seats all to myself.  The four hour flight was good and fun.  I like taking off the best.  We landed in Denver at 9:20 which was 11:20 back in NH.  We are two hours behind you!! The airports were very big.

We rented a big suburban.  It was a long ride to the mountain.  We got 8, 9, or 10 inches of snow last night.  We saw bighorn sheep on the way to the mountain.  I got a new Wes Welker shirt.  I saw the Denver Bronco's stadium.  We went under a three mile tunnel.  

I went to Woodward yesterday.  Woodward is a fun place.  It is a training place for freestyle athletes.  I did a double front flip into the foam pit.  I tried to flip on the trampoline but banged my shoulder. 

We have snowboardcross training today and it will be hard with almost a foot of new snow.  I will tell you all about it tonight.  Have fun today.

Mason

Inspired Children

I was very pleased as a teacher to have two children so inspired from learning about the Iditarod that they completed a home project on their own.  This was not an assignment but something that they both wanted to complete to further their knowledge of their musher and the sleds that the racers use.  Great job Brenin and Eric on your projects.

Four students completed the Iditarod Hunt Challenge last night.  They are Reese, Lilah, Mason, and Libby (who emailed her answer due to being out sick).  Hope your feeling better soon Libby we miss you at school.  Great job finding the answer and good luck with today's question.

Iditarod Hunt Finders

Again today our two winners of the Iditarod Blog Hunt were Libby F. and Reese P.  Great job girls at finding the first four finishers of the 2014 Iditarod.  

Exploring Oobleck

Yesterday in science we explored Dr.Seuss' oobleck.  We were trying to discover, is it really a solid or is is a liquid.  We used our understanding of both properties to make a scientific guess.  After a time of talkative exploration, we explored while listening to me read the story Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss Guest Reader Day

We were honored to have Mayor Merrifield come and read to our class today.  He shared one of his favorite stories he enjoyed reading to his own daughters, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR.  We enjoyed listening to this story and then sharing our YouTube video with him.  We also had a very pleasant treat from Councilor Dzujna.  He brought us very yummy muffins as a treat during snack.  They were all a huge success and the strawberry hidden in some of them was a delightful surprise.  Thank you both for making today an extra special day.

Hidden Iditarod Question: What was the name of Susan Butcher's dog that was injured my the moose attack and later went on to win three consecutive Iditarods?

Iditahunt

We have begun our Iditarod adventures.  We selected our mushers today and began to read a story called Akiak.  The students received their first Iditahunt question.  Each day your child will receive a new question and these answers are due the following day.  Each correct answer will move your child to the next checkpoint.  Who will reach Nome first?

Who is following the Blog?  What are the dogs wearing on their paws?  How long before a student answers my question?  Time will tell.  

                                                       Enjoy our video from our Olympic Events.

The children worked so hard to learn and compete in their events.  It was what teaching is truly about.  Learning should be fun and children should look forward to coming to school each and every day.  It was impressive to find my students who find spelling a challenge doing very well and wanting me to ask them how to spell Olympics or Russia in Russian.  I even had one beg me to ask him to name the countries that border Russia.  Well it has changed so many times in my life I had to think.  I do believe that with these lessons that the children created life long memories.  I will not be surprised to see some of them in 20 years teaching something similar to their students.  I would say the highlight to my year so far was going out for a good portion of the day and snowshoe with the children and just have fun!!  I would like to thank each and everyone of my students for reminding me that a kid is in all of us no matter what our age is.