Today was an epic fail on my behalf!  Below is what I should have done differently, to name a few:

1. More intentional prior to our shopping experience in checking each group’s math and purchasing requests.
2. More strict with each group monitoring and being responsible for their budget (admittedly I was a bit exhausted at the end of our ReStore trip and did not have the heart to say no to the group that wanted to buy fix cute pillows)
3. More accepting of help when another teacher asked if I wanted assistance at the store.  I thought “it is only 14 kids, what could go wrong”?  14 kids is equivalent to 100 cats running around!
4. More focused on the process of honoring and maintain the budget rather than shopping itself
5. Encourage more collaboration and being consistent with our belief statements

Overall though, it was an AMAZING (albeit exhausting) trip.  Who would have thought we could fit that much stuff onto a school bus (and our driver was so understanding and kind).  It was awesome to have our kids working together (to load and unload the bus…thanks 6th grade) and to communicate with adults in real life situations (we made a new friend in Ms. Susan at Lowes…she knows everything there is to know about carriage bolts).

Our next step is to:

1. Complete an inventory of what we have
2. Organize all we bought (some of it is outside and some inside)
3. Refresh on basic construction skills
4. Start building