Inter-Island Event on MATINICUS!

Last week we headed to the FIRST EVER Inter-Island Event on Matinicus Island! We were SO pumped to go to Matinicus since the boys and I had only ever been there once and Miss Margaret had NEVER been there!

We had to take TWO boats and one car ride to get there, but we were just happy that we had nice weather for traveling!

We arrived on Matinicus and we're greeted with smiling familiar faces and BIG hugs!!!

We got to the school and Margaret saw the playground for the first time! And not only was it a playground, but it was a playground covered with kids!!!

Can I just say... love at first sight!!!

More HUGS! I love seeing these kids reunite!

Once we unloaded all our gear it was time to set up our tents.

Dalton and Quinn always have the BIGGEST tent at IIE. And then I always have the smallest...

We had to round up for a welcome and announcements. Margaret had already made friends with her buddy from Cliff Island.

Our fearless IIE leader... ANNE!

Mr. H lead the kids in an opening game! They got to be explorers!!!

Somehow all the explorers got lost in the woods!

The rest of the day was filled with fun workshops like capture the flag, sand castle building, baking and getting ready for the....

IIE talent show!!! YAY!

I could not have been MORE proud of Mr. Dalton for shaking what his mama gave him! How far this boy has come in his confidence!

And then Miss M. showed off our moves! It was a GREAT time!

Day #2 started off with a delicious breakfast...

and lots more running around.

Of course we had to play more capture the flag.

I mean, what is IIE without a whole lot of capture the flag!!

Got to love a truck load of kids!!!

The "serious" group picture! We told them to be GQ models!

The whole gang!!!

Anne and I gave an AWESOME presentation about our first every Inter-Island Student Council!

Yea, it was awesome!

See those smiles... that means AWESOME!

Beautiful mural!

And beautiful kids!

Thank goodness we had our own fireman, just to be safe!

Goodness me, I love this face.

WEEEE!!!

Obviously Quinn was not having any fun.

Gorgeous girl!

Lots of playing...

Obviously island kids do not know how to use a slide.

King of the playground!

And what a playground it was!

At the end of the morning we had a special surprise for the kids... Inter Island YEARBOOKS!

Dalton and I had created the yearbooks at the end of last year with TONS of pictures from all our exciting events!

The kids got right to work signing each other's yearbook! A first for most of these kids.

The yearbook creator with his pride and joy!

He did an amazing job!

The kinders drew pictures for people to sign!

Before we knew it, it was time to circle up for closing time.

We sure were going to miss our friends.

Time for the youngers, middles and some chaperones to head to the boat. Margaret got a special ride!

And her new pal from Islesford carried her backpack.

Goodbye Isle Au Haut boys!

Margaret and her new pal from Cliff! Talk about two cuties!

The olders with a few chaperones stayed on Matinicus for an extra day to do some WORK! (stayed tuned for THOSE posts!)

Quinn just had to say goodbye to his favorite teacher, Mr. H, with a GREAT BIG hug!

Goodbye! See you soon!

IIE - Extra Middle School Day!

Once the youngers and middles headed home it was just the boys and I who remained on Matinicus for an extra day of curriculum work with the other middle schoolers!

Obviously Quinn did not get the memo about being excited for our work day! (I think he wanted the youngers to stick around so he could run around the playground some more!)

We said our goodbyes and piled into a truck to be transported to LUNCH!

Lunch = all the amazing leftovers from the pot luck supper! SCORE!

We got word that there were some rather large storms headed our way so broke down our tents and moved into the Matinicus school for the day/night.

What team work!

We started off our middle school work with some warm-up games.

And moved into the exercise we call "compass points," where we figure out what "direction" we are when working in a group setting... a north, south, east, or west. Dalton is totally a west... the detailed, organized member of the group. He had some fellow wests to be OCD with :)

The Easts! They are GREAT at figuring out the big picture of a project and defining a groups purpose!

Quinny took notes for the Norths... the ones who just like to jump in a start moving. They are often the ones with not a whole lot of patience and sometimes move a bit too quickly, BUT they are great motivators and are often very creative in getting the work done!

And lastly, the Souths... the are the caring, compassionate ones in the group who make sure everyone is heard from and feeling good! I do love Souths!

We then set some group norms to make all of the different "directions" feel like they would be comfortable in our group work.

After compass points and norms it was time to dive into the curriculum work.. the kids look over the standards they will be meeting in science and social studies this trimester and highlighted parts that interested them, concerned them, and excited them!

Lots of good stuff up here!

The kids then moved onto brainstorming activities they could do that would demonstrate mastery of these standards!

We used LOTS of stickies to come up with the activities list!

Writing down all their brilliant ideas!

We broke the activities into different categories!

All of this curriculum work was so exciting the teachers were continuously documenting all that was happening! It is not everyday you get to see students helping to plan the curriculum they are going to be studying! It is pretty cool stuff!

We took a little break for some yoga mid afternoon.

Finn the dog was just exhausted from all of our work!

After even MORE work we ended just in time for dinner, movies, and sleep!

Rise and shine! It is another morning of work for these middle schoolers!

We got straight to work on our science curriculum the second day. The kids were tired but they pushed through. As we finished up our work for the morning and the kids were complaining about how much work we had them do I heard Dalton say, "Hey, at least our teacher's want to here what we have to say about this stuff. Not all kids are that lucky." Couldn't have said it better myself dear Dalti!

Time to walk to the wharf and head home! The time just flew by!

A quick lunch before boarding...

Loading the gear.

Last hugs...

And off we went!

It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride.

So long Matinicus!

We arrived in Rockland and had time for one VERY important stop before driving to Port Clyde to meet our ferry!

One final boat ride and we were home. I have to say that my very favorite part of field trips is analyzing the entire thing with D&Q on our way back to Monhegan. We sure do have a good time together.

Ahhh.... home. It was a GREAT trip and it was GREAT to be back on Monhegan.

Skyping with the kinders!

Last week we got the opportunity to have Margaret meet her kindergarten penpals on skype! This was the first time Margaret has ever used the computer to see other students from the islands so we were very excited! (ESPECIALLY Margaret!)

It was fun to have written letters back and forth for the first couple of weeks of school because Margaret already knew what her new friends looked like from the pictures they sent and what they like to do because of what they wrote in their letters!

I mean can it get any better than this? Kindergartners on skype! YES PLEASE! I am SO excited for the collaboration we are going to do with our youngers this year! It is going to be GREAT!