Writing from Walsh Mountain

Join Amy Lynn Walsh in her teaching, reading, and writing journeys

So Far this Summer…

The end of the school year is always wonderfully hectic with celebrations and culminating projects.

My classes always end the year creating a notebook full of their poetry, autobiographical writings, bucket lists, signature pages, and letters to themselves in ten years. They love to show their personalities through their art and items they bring from home to glue inside to make make their smash books especially “smashy.” Here are some pages and covers from my students’ smash books:

I love creating my own smash book while my students are working on theirs. It’s a way to honor another year of learning and loving life!

Our school took part in a terrific math contest online — FirstinMath. The teachers were allowed to help as well, and our fifth-grade team had an exhausting weekend trying to help the kids win! We took second place. Too much math and screen time probably contributed to my eye looking like this:

Our wonderful art teacher, Mrs. McDonough, ran a Michael Jackson drawing contest. We couldn’t get over all the talent — all the different styles of art.

I got friendly with chalk paint towards the end of the school year, painting over way too many shades of brown wood stain — and then making decorations out of old wall hangings I would have just thrown away because they were sitting in the attic for so long. These are for a friend who is having a baby.

I had a blast dressing up like a colonial and attending a fundraiser tea to benefit a production of 1776 taking place in my school’s auditorium.

I’ve had all sorts of wonderful food experiences — from tea parties to a graduation brunch for my nephew Jonathan to a Brazilian restaurant in Albany to some local places to a French restaurant to a Canadian poutine place in Bethlehem PA.