Elementary Honor Roll Lunch

Today most of the elementary students got to have a special lunch at Mrs. Lytle's house. This was their special treat for getting on the honor roll this past quarter. We had a delicious meal of hot dogs, homemade mac n' cheese, and chips.

For dessert, Mrs. Lytle made "dirt pudding." You know the kind...the chocolate pudding, cool whip, crushed-up Oreos and gummy worms. Well, she made it look really authentic by putting it in a flower pot with fake flowers sticking out of it. She had Mrs. Hammett and I act like it was a pretty centerpiece and then suddenly say, "Oh look...a worm!" and then pop the worm in our mouth. The whole idea was to completely shock and gross out the kids when we stuck them in our mouths. But alas, they were too smart for us and realized they weren't real worms. (I know it is shocking, but worms aren't exactly part of my diet!)

After the kids were thoroughly stuffed, we played a game of "Keep Spring Alive!" Basically, I had a list of spring-related words and I would put the right amount of blanks on the board for the children to guess letters to see if they could figure out what the word was....like Hang-Man. However, I changed it a bit and drew a flower on the board instead. Each time they guessed a wrong letter or word, I would erase part of the flower. If the flower was ever completely erased, that meant that spring was gone! (and how tragic that would be!) Thankfully, that only happened once or twice, so spring is still alive. :D

We had lots of fun!! My group of kids were soooooo hyper on the way back to school though. I guess we fed them too much sugar :)...of course there had to be road work and traffic which prolonged the trip even more! *Sigh* Oh well, I survived!

It is officially spring break, so now it's my turn to be hyper and shout YIPPEE!!

Random Kindergarten Moments

This morning I decided to take some videos of my kiddos...

In this first video they are singing the "Days of the Week" song...and of course since the camera is on, they are being goofy(er)!

This next video shows the amazing accomplishment my kiddos have made this past quarter. They learned the Old Testament books of the Bible in order (sung to "10 Little Indians"). There are some rather challenging words in there, so it's been pretty neat to hear them sing it by themselves!

It was a gorgeous spring day today! I was out at recess for a few minutes with my kiddos and we had a fun time swinging on the swings.

I had just taken a random shot of them having fun on the swings, so I decided that it was time for the teacher, who was also enjoying the swings, to get in a picture. :)

This is my favorite because it proves that I actually did let my kiddos touch my camera...again! :D

Today in Science, we were talking about the different things that happen in fall. In our book, there was a picture of a whole flock of birds flying south for the winter and a squirrel gathering nuts. I told them that in the fall time, the animals are getting ready for winter. One of my kiddos was then quick to inform me that bears "suffocate" in the winter. At first, I was like ?????...then it hit me. Ooooh! You mean that bears hibernate in the winter?? He was like, Yeah, that's what I meant. Too cute :)

We did a "spring bouquet" art project this afternoon. They glued on cotton fluff for the pussy willows and crumpled-up yellow tissue paper for the blossoms. They found the name "pussy willow" quite amusing, and when I said that the flowers were probably from a forsythia bush, they were flabbergasted! Such a funny, complicated name for a little flower :)

However, I am afraid I have led my kiddos astray. This teacher did not do her "spring flower/bush" research before this art project and I told them that pussy willows turned into forsythias. Oops! (I have since researched and this is NOT the case!) Well, looking at this art project, don't they look like they are coming from the same branches? I just assumed....well, forgive me, Kindergartners! Your teacher does not know everything about flower & plant life! Next time, she will just keep quiet and not try to sound like she knows what she is talking about...cause unless it is ABC's or 123's, she probably doesn't! :D

Surrendering and Winning

I often find it amazing how you can be dealing with a certain situation, and something you read in your devotions is exactly what you needed to read that morning.

This excerpt is from the devotional book God is Enough by Hannah Whitall Smith...

What are the chief characteristics of the life hid with Christ in God, and how does it differ from much in the ordinary Christian experience?

Its chief characteristics are an entire surrender to the Lord and a perfect trust in Him, resulting in victory over sin and inward rest of soul. It differs from the lower range of Christian experience in that it causes us to let the Lord carry our burdens and manage our affairs for us, instead of trying to do it ourselves.

In laying off your burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You must hand yourself, with your temptations, temperament, circumstances, feelings, and all your inward and outward experiences, into the care of your God, and leave it all there. He made you, and therefore He understands you and knows how to manage you; and you must trust Him to do it.

Say to Him, "Here, Lord, I abandon myself to You. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed. Now I give it up to You. Take entire possession of me. Work in me all the good pleasure of Your will, according to Your promise, and make me into a vessel for Your own honor, 'sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work'" (2 Tim. 2:21).

Here you must rest, trusting yourself to Him, continually and absolutely.

A Quiet Activity Creation

In the morning after the children finish their seatwork papers, I allow them to get out a quiet activity to play with. One of the best things I like about my classroom is that the large chalkboard in the front of the room is actually magnetic. That definitely comes in handy when I want to hang up charts!

Well, anyway, the quiet activity of their choice today were the magnetic pattern blocks.

Note the before and after pictures...

Within a few minutes, they were all transferred and tranformed into this amazing and unique creation on the chalkboard (which btw, I wasn't allowed to see until they were all finished :)).

They were sure proud of it!

Web Albums & Spring Decorations

Today I discovered the wonder of Picasa web albums. All this time I have been uploading tons of pictures for each blog entry causing lots of frustration for me as I had to upload all the pictures, scroll through everything and then space out all the pictures. It might have caused frustration for all of you faithful followers, as well, who may not like to scroll down a seemingly endless page of pictures!! I tend to be "snap happy" and then it is hard for me to decide which pictures to put on my blog and which to leave out. Especially when I am posting pictures regarding Kindergarten activities, I want to make sure I give each of my kiddos "equal picture space". So posting web albums instead will probably save time, blog space, and aggravation for me and hopefully for my viewers as well. (I hope!) I won't do this for EVERY blog entry...just the ones I know will have lots of pictures :)

Today after school I completed the last of the spring decorating in the classroom. You can walk in my classroom now and be greeted by a bizillion birds, butterflies and flowers. I must say it is rather bright and cheerful in there. :) Spring has arrived in the Kindergarten classroom...now if only the weather would get the memo to STAY spring-like!

When I took the pictures of the classroom this afternoon, we had already set up for Sunday school - hence the reason why there are rows of chairs in the middle of the room and the desks are pushed to the side!

Our "Think Spring" Field Trip

Today we took the Kindergarten and Elementary kiddos to Rita's Italian Ice to celebrate the first day of spring with FREE ice! Ironically, as we were standing in line, snow flurries were coming down. Hmmm...what is wrong with this picture?!! It wasn't exactly what I had in mind for the first day of spring, I can tell you that. Oh well!

Although it was rather chilly to eat Italian ice, I think the kids enjoyed it :)

The Ants Go Marching...

I love spring! I still consider fall my favorite season, but there is something about spring that I just love. I guess after being cooped up all winter, having to bundle up each day, dealing with elementary recess in a small, enclosed, NOISY environment, I am just sooooooo ready for spring! There is such a refreshing smell in the breezy air. I wish I could just stay outside all day! Plants, tree blossoms, and flowers start to grow and make the world such a pretty place to live. However, its not even technically spring yet, and I am already seeing something negative about this upcoming season....bugs!

School was over. I had done a bit of decorating in the classroom, and was reluctantly closing the window as I was about to head out the door. Before I had closed the window, I had placed one of my teacher tote bags on my desk. When I picked the bag up, I noticed 3 little ants scurrying around on my desk. I quickly grabbed a tissue and put the little creatures out of their misery. I found it quite strange that there were ants on my desk, but I wasn't going to spend much time thinking about it...until I noticed a few ants crawling around on the outside of my teacher bag. Then all the memories came flashing back....

Last year, I had an ant problem in my classroom. Every day there would be ants crawling around in my lunch bag (Gross!). It took me a few days to realize that putting stuff on the floor next to my desk was not such a good idea! Funny thing was, during this time, I had an ant farm in the classroom. I was trying everything to get these big, ugly black ants to dig tunnels in their ant farm. I mean, that was the whole purpose of me buying them, so the kids could see the ant tunnels! However, they were not cooperating. So not only was I dealing with big, stubborn, black ants in my ant farm, but I was also dealing with little tiny brown ants all over the floor and file cabinet. Thankfully, after a few sprays with ant killer, the problem was over. (The ants in the ant farm eventually did make some pitiful looking tunnels...had they not I would have been tempted to spray them as well!)

So all this came flashing back today when I realized I indeed had the ant problem again. Funny thing was, I had just gotten done telling my friend last night that I didn't seem to have the ant problem this year. Grrrrr...they must have heard me, the little buggers!

I got down on the floor to see how many ants were crawling about. There was a whole host of them...ick! So I got my handy, dandy ant spray killer, and showed no mercy as I sprayed all around the area. Needless to say, the fresh aroma of spring was no longer in the classroom. :(

Today, I had a bunch of stuff to bring in to school, so I actually brought in 2 teacher tote bags. Of all days to do such a thing! I tried killing as many ants as I could find that were crawling around the bags, but I knew there had to be ants INSIDE the bags yet, and I really didn't want to deal with them at the moment. So I held the bags at an arm's length and took them out to the van. All the way home, I was literally smooshing ants the entire time.

When we got home, I took the bags out to the porch and dumped out the contents. Let's just say, I needed to do some spring cleaning in the one bag anyway! There were a bunch of ants having a picnic with some leftover snack crumbs at the bottom of the bag. I was literally feeling grossed out by this point, and was itchy all over. I really didn't want to use up a whole box of tissues on these creatures who just kept appearing out of no where. So, I decided to get out our little vacuum cleaner with a handy-dandy long hose, and suck those babies up! That seemed to do the trick, though I did see a few others after I had supposedly sucked them all up. Yikes, those little ants were determined little creatures!!! They just refused to die....arrrggg! Usually, I try to put myself in these little creatures' "shoes" and think about how frightened they must be to see this huge tissue or long hose coming down upon them with no thoughts of escape. Also, clips from the movie "A Bug's Life" start to haunt me as well. But today, I was not "feeling the love" at all.

However, it did remind me of the verse in Proverbs 6:6 ~ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

If we were as determined and as perseverant as these little creatures, I wonder how much more we could accomplish in our lives?!

I must admit that although thoughts of pity for the ants didn't really cross my mind during this process, the overwhelming thought of - This is how tiny and insignificant we are compared to God - stuck with me. God could just "smoosh" us at any moment, but He chooses not to because He loves us so much!

So I guess I learned something from my "ant adventure" today. Everything happens for a reason, you know! :D

Spring is Almost Here!

Today my kiddos and I took down all our winter decorations around the classroom. We were definitely ready to say goodbye to our snowflakes and snowmen! Over the past few days, I have been busy tracing and cutting out flowers, birds, and butterflies as I anticipate spring decorating!

It was such a beautiful spring day today so I opened the window and just let the refreshing breeze air out the mustiness of winter in the classroom. There is something about decorating for spring with the window open that gives you this certain boost of energy! :D

On Monday, the kiddos decorated kites with markers and construction paper, and today we each painted a butterfly, bird and flower. Once these are dry they will join the many, many, MANY other butterflies, birds and flowers that will make our room look so bright, cheerful and spring-like! And yes, notice I said WE...even the teacher had fun painting!

I know this is really shocking to all of you...I am still in shock-mode myself...but I actually allowed two of my kiddos to (*gasp*) hold my camera and (*gasp, gasp*) take a picture of me with it! This is indeed a big step, folks. Until now I have been a rather protective "camera mother", but alas, vanity took over this afternoon and I wanted a picture of me at the painting table. After a few, not-so-good shots of the side of my head as I attempted to put the camera on the chalkboard ledge with a 10 sec. timer, I took a step of faith and handed my camera to Stephen. Both of the boys had finished painting, so they each had a turn taking a picture of me. This would be the best shot we got of me trying to smile naturally as behind my teeth I am coaching them..."okay, be careful...hold it still...press the little gray button...good job!"

These spring decorations will definitely add color to our classroom!

The Wonders of "Insta-Snow"

This week in Science, we have been learning about different kinds of weather. Today we were learning about snowy weather (which hopefully is all behind us now!). When I told them that we were going to go play in the snow afterwards, they were quite confused. At first they thought we were going to play with cotton balls and pretend it was snow. Then they thought we were going to play with the sock "snowballs" I had made awhile ago. Were we going to go outside and pretend that the grass was snow??? Hmmmm...

When I then brought out a little packet of white powder and told them that was our snow, they were like, "Huh???!!" I gave them each their own container and scooped some of the powder into each of them. They got to add the correct amount of water to the white powder and ta-da! - Instant snow!! The product is actually called Insta-snow, and it is so cool! I discovered it while working in day care. The kids there loved the feel of it, and my fellow teachers and I found it rather addicting as well :D It really feels like snow.

So in case you have no idea what Insta-Snow is all about...enjoy this video clip!

My kiddos had a blast with it this afternoon!

I did put plastic tablecloths on the floor because I knew there would be snow everywhere! However, another positive thing about this product is that it is rather easy to clean up and the vacuum picks it up quite nicely!

So when it is mid-July (if you live in the US!) and the temperature is reaching up to the 90's or so, and you just wish you could just go jump in some snow, rest assured that Insta-snow is available year round for your enjoyment!

The Teacup

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful." As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke.

"You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay." My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "let me alone", but he only smiled, "Not yet."

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!" I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet."

Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as He shook his head, "Not yet."

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. "There, that's better," I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Stop it, stop it!" I cried. He only nodded, "Not yet."

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, "Not yet."

Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself." And I did. I said, "That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful."

"I want you to remember, then," he said, "I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

MORAL:

God knows what He's doing (for all of us).
He is the Potter, and we are His clay.
He will mold us and make us,
So that we may be made into a flawless piece of work
To fulfill His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not tempt you beyond what you can bear.(1 Corinthians 10:13)

For A Special Friend On Her Birthday

Sarah and I have been friends since forever! We were about 2 years old, I suppose, when we met...most likely in junior church...so obviously I don't remember much before Sarah entered my life!!

We have certainly been through a lot together...

From the "simple days" of elementary school...

(This is a picture of us in 1st grade. We were reciting a cat poem together! :P)

To the more complicated high school days of Chemistry and Advanced Math....

...Sarah has been such a true friend! I mean, really...how many friends do you have that would cut your hair numerous times...for FREE...and do such a great job?!! I sure was spoiled for a number of years when she was my hairdresser! :D

Growing up we had the "little girl" friendship where you play and have fun together and go over to each other's houses. However, as we have gotten older, our friendship has definitely deepened into something really special, meaningful, and spiritually-minded.

I found this poem that I think describes our friendship so well...

We grow closer to each other
When we’re closer to the Lord
The common faith that we share
Binds our hearts in one accord

For friendships last a life time
When built on Jesus Christ
Throughout each different season
We find we are in life

Friends are there through times of grief
And times when hope is gone
Always there with encouragement
So we can carry on

So thank the Lord for giving you
A true and faithful friend
To laugh with you, and cry with you
On whom you can depend

For friends will stay no matter what
Giving you support
And together your hearts truly unite
With the love of the Lord.

By M.S.Lowndes

I was looking through some of my old school yearbooks the other day, and came across this in my 1st grade yearbook....

"Dear Becky...I hope you like me in the future. Love, Sarah G."

In our little 1st grade minds, the FUTURE was what....2nd grade?! Little did we know that 17 years later we would still be the best of friends!

(And just in case you are doubting, Sarah, I still do like you in this "future" we find ourselves in now! :D)

So Happy Birthday, dear friend! I hope you have a special day :)

Thanks for being such an encouragement and blessing to me these many years. Yours is a friendship I truly cherish, and although we don't get to see each other as often as we would like, when we do get together, its like we never were apart because we share such a special bond. :)

I hope you like me in the future too :D...like when we are 90 and sitting on our rockers...cause then we will have TONS of time to chat!

An "Out of the Box" Painting Adventure

My kiddos were very excited when I told them we would be painting this afternoon! Its been awhile since our last painting activity. Instead of relocating to the lunchroom for this messy activity, I decided to be brave and put plastic tablecloths under the table and let the children just paint in the classroom. At times the tablecloths got bunched up under their feet, but it definitely helped to prevent some carpet paint stains!

We started off with white poster board paper and an assortment of small, different-shaped sponges.

They had a blast filling the poster board with color :)

Then I brought out this container filled with all sorts of odds and ends....

They were a bit perplexed as to what to do with all this stuff. I had to take them "out of the box" for a moment when I informed them that they could paint with them! The whole idea of not painting with an actual paintbrush made them a little insecure for a few seconds, but they soon recovered and went exploring with the different objects.

The assortment included: a toy car, 3 small cups, 4 combs, 1 toothbrush, 2 sponge hair curlers, 2 mini looms, 5 cookie cutters, 1 plastic straw, 1 shower pouf, 2 glow sticks, 1 shower curtain holder, 1 stretchy hairband, 1 pipe cleaner, 2 bouncy balls, 5 play dough designers, 2 thing-a-ma-bobs, and 1 whatcha-ma-call-it.

Look at the tire marks Abbi's car is leaving...she must be speeding! :)

Stephen is discovering the cool design a loom can make.

Joshua is rolling his paint around with a sponge hair curler.

Just look how full their papers are with paint! They really enjoyed this "out of the box" painting adventure. They wanted to explore every object to see what it would look like on their paper.

Always remember that it's the process, not the product that counts :)...but it kinda has that "modern art" look, doesn't it?!

An Addicting Snack

Tonight I was feeling quite desperate to write a blog entry. It always seems like I come up with all these good ideas all at once and write about 3 blog entries in one setting instead of spreading them all out! So anyway, its been about 4 days since my last blog entry, yet nothing "inspiring" was coming to me. I was about to give up when suddenly I got a craving for this new amazing snack my mom bought today. So I thought I would blog about that. Talk about desperate!!

They are called Pretzel Waves and they are Parmesan-garlic-flavored. I got home from school today, and discovered them in the snack container. At first they look like Sun Chips, but they are actually pretzels in a wavy shape (who would have thunk it?!). I find them quite addicting...as does the rest of my family. Please take note that the snack container is nearly empty after just one day! (Actually, I am surprised it isn't totally empty by now :))

So anyway, if you are in the mood for something salty with a bit of garlic spice, these are the snack for you!

Thank you for reading this pitiful lil' blog entry. Tune in tomorrow for a REAL blog entry. My kiddos and I will be painting....

They All Lived Happily Ever After...The End

I just want to say thanks to all of you who participated in my "Favorite Chick Flicks" poll! I must admit, the results weren't too surprising to me. :) I figured Pride & Prejudice and North & South would be the top favorites and I was correct! Some of you voted that you couldn't possibly come to such a conclusion as to which were your favorites, and I can totally understand that as well!

But anyway, I told you I would inform you which movies are my favorites when the poll was over, so here I go.

If I could only take 2 movies (one Austen and one Gaskell) with me on a trip, I would take Emma and Wives & Daughters.

Emma has recently been added to our video library, and it has quickly become a favorite of mine. I love the story, I love the humor, I love the dances, I love the dresses, and I love their hairstyles. In so many of these movies, the ladies' hairstyles are hideous, but in Emma, I thought they were quite pretty. I am definitely a big fan of Mr. Knightly, which is partly why I named my laptop "Mr. Knightly"! :) So, yes, that would be my favorite Jane Austen movie (at the moment!).

As far as Elizabeth Gaskell's movies, it was definitely a tougher decision for me. Wives & Daughters was my first Gaskell movie to ever watch, and I really like Molly's down-to-earth attitude. She doesn't go around trying to impress everyone she meets, and she truly cares about people. I especially like the father/daughter relationship in that movie between Molly and Mr. Gibson. His wife and Cynthia, however, pretty much drive me crazy! The reason I choose Wives & Daughters over North & South is because when I first watched North & South, I had absolutely no clue what was going on. The second time I watched it, I was with a bunch of my friends and they helped explain things to me. :) By the 3rd and 4th time, I think I pretty much got it! There isn't much color in the movie, so it made it seem like a rather drab and dreary movie to me at first. However, it is far from drab and dreary...the lack of color just fits the storyline perfectly. I guess another reason I don't consider that movie my top favorite is because of the guy who plays John Thorton. Oh, I thought he was great in North & South, but then I started watching the Robin Hood BBC series, and for awhile North & South had no appeal to me because I couldn't separate his role in Robin Hood from his role in N&S! Does that ever happen to you? You see an actor/actress in one movie and you can't stand their character, so when you watch them in another movie, you immediately assume they are going to act the same way?

I think the main reason I like these types of movies is because I know there will always be a happy ending. The miscommunication, challenges, tragedies, prejudices and other complicated circumstances throughout the movie may drive me crazy, but I can always be rest assured that in the end, all will be well and somehow, some way they will work everything out.

To me, movies are an escape from reality. I like knowing that no matter what, everything is going to work out just fine. The man and woman will eventually fall in love and live happily ever after- it's just a given! I like walking away from a movie with a happy feeling inside me.

However, yesterday afternoon I watched the movie Titanic for the first time ever. I had just been browsing through the channels, and came across it. At first I didn't know what I was watching, but it caught my attention because the main actress, Kate Winslet, is Marianne Dashwood from Sense & Sensibility. When I realized it was Titanic, I was tempted to turn it off because I knew there was going to be a sad ending, and I would be upset. However, I didn't listen to my gut feeling and kept on watching it. For awhile, it was great. It was like a typical romance movie - the girl has an evil boyfriend, another handsome guy walks into her life and saves her from evil boyfriend, and they all live happily ever after - right? Sadly, I knew this wouldn't be the case, and I was trying to brace myself for the tragic ending. Alayna came downstairs soon after the ship had been hit, and we watched the ending together. She was sobbing, and I was more sick to my stomach than anything. Movies really tug on the emotions, I'm telling you! I think what hit me the hardest when I saw all these people on this boat panicking, realizing that they were in big trouble, is that this situation REALLY happened. The Titanic tragedy was real. Of course, this movie was a fictional account with the love story and everything, but this was a factual occurrence. All those people really died.

I don't know the last time a movie has affected me as much as Titanic did. Seriously, I was like totally depressed for the rest of the day, still seeing the images of people in the frozen water, and replaying the ship going down over and over again in my mind. Let's just say, I won't be watching that movie again if I can help it! It was really well done, the actors were great and everything, the soundtrack was awesome, but give me happy (unrealistic!) ending movies any day over these sad, tragic endings!!!

I just can't handle it!