Colonial Day at the Capitol

I was so honored to be asked to participate in the Colonial Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute. I was able to meet people who do interpretations of famous people from our history, participate in activities like dancing and debating, and be energized by others who love American History as much as I! There were many children there in full costume to participate in the day's activities. Here are some pictures from the day:

Capitol Dome

We had to outside for a bomb threat!

Meeting "Ben Franklin"!

Colonial Boys

Colonial Girls

Curious George Goes to DC & Virginia

Finally! Curious George and I have returned from our trip to Washington, DC and Virginia. We visited 3 cities in Virginia: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. I think my favorite place to visit in the DC area was Mount Vernon, the home of our first president George Washington. It was a pretty long trip to get there by using the metro and public bus systems. The trip was completely worth the effort. Washington's home has been restored to when he lived there, including the outbuildings and gardens. The weather in DC was hot and humid and there were around 200,000 Girl Scouts visiting and celebrating the 100th anniversary of their organization. I enjoyed being a Girl Scout for 9 years!

Virginia is a beautiful state. Colonial Williamsburg is a fun and educational place to visit. I was lucky to receive a fellowship to attend their Teacher Institute last week. I was there with 27 other educators from Oklahoma and we were able to experience the founding of our country through different perspectives of the people who lived there during the late 1700s. We teachers came home with a renewed sense of citizenship and tons of resource materials to share with our faculty and staff. What an honor to represent our state!

Here is a little video I made showing some of the things Curious George did while we were on this trip. I hope you enjoy it!

Curious George Goes to Washington...DC That Is!

The students have spoken and Curious George is the winner of a grand tour of Washington DC and Colonial Williamsburg! CG and I will be spending four nights and three days exploring our nation's capital city. Then we will travel by train to Colonial Williamsburg so I can attend the Teacher Institute.

I will be posting pictures and updates via Twitter (@librarykittie), Facebook, and this blog. I hope you will consider following this blog, my Twitter feed, or me, on Facebook so you can keep up with our travels! I've booked a wonderful little Bed & Breakfast in a neighborhood row house in Washington that is close to a Metro (subway/train) station for our stay in the capital. Then, we will be staying right in the Colonial Williamsburg village for a week of great learning.

Who will be my vacation partner?

I am very lucky to be attending the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute this summer. While I'm in the vicinity, I plan to stay a few extra days to visit Washington, D.C. I will be taking a children's book character stuffed animal with me to help document the trip for my students. This week and next week, students will get the opportunity to vote for their favorite by putting their change in a bucket. All money will be donated to our One For Books campaign running through our Scholastic Book Fair  to purchase new books for our school library. The characters students will be voting on are:

If you'd like to vote online, please comment on this blog entry to let me know which character should go on my trip this summer!