One teacher's trash....

is another teacher's treasure!  I make fun of my mother's pack rat personality but I have to say that it is nice having a mother that #1 cares about me and the kids, #2 saves everything, and #3 has been teacher for over 30 years!
My mom has brought me some GOOD stuff lately!  We have two new BIG maps, a really cool old globe that talks and tells all kinds of cool info about locations, some nice dictionaries, lots of hands on learning stuff, manipulatives, and so on....most of this she saves from years past or is stuff she has picked up along the way and passes on to me!  I've turned in to a frugal mom for the most part so this is really nice!!!!

We put these maps in the hallway...out of everyday site but a place where we can get to them easily (I wasn't sure I wanted maps in my dining room).  Whenever we read a book or know of a family member traveling, we will find and place the locations on our map!  At least that is the plan!

John Daniel loves this dictionary!

Today I found John Daniel using his dictionary to find words that he could then spell in the fridge word wammer...smart boy!  He would then sound them out and put them on the fridge.  This was HIS idea!  Here are all his words!