...You get a package in the mail that contains 2 games entitled "Alphabet Circus" & "Word Chase."
...You order them 6 months before the school year actually begins because you feel the strong need to do SOMETHING in regards to getting ready for Kindergarten!
...You received a gift card for Barnes & Nobles at Christmas, but you didn't spend it on a book or DVD - you spent it on these games.
...You don't consider that a waste of a gift card because watching your students play the games will bring utter joy to your heart.
...You realize that you already have a shelf at school bursting with games, but will find a way to squeeze in 2 more because you know that young children learn best through games and play.
...You can't wait to finish posting this blog entry, because the second you hit the "publish post" button, you will be opening up the games, reading the instructions on how to play both games, and be spending the rest of the evening envisioning how you will incorporate these games into your Phonics classes once the school year begins...6 months from now. :)
This morning in Sunday School, one of my future Kindergarten students asked me, with wide, hopeful eyes, "Is Kindergarten starting in 3 days??!!" I had to quickly say, "No, you have to wait for a few more months yet." I thought she would be all sad, but instead, she got a big smile on her face and said, "Boy, is that lucky!!" (Obviously, the difference between 3 days and a few months doesn't mean much to her at this point!!)
Later I told her Grandma about it, and discovered the reason why she thought Kindergarten was starting in 3 days. They had told her that Kindergarten would be 3 days a week. :) Gotta love 5-year-old reasoning!
Ah, yes, excitement is mounting (and not just for my future students!). I spent a couple of hours yesterday working on the daily schedule, researching new ideas, and just basically getting excited about teaching Kindergarten again. :)
Although "The Miracle Worker" was an excellent play about the life of Helen Keller, I wish it would have continued on with the rest of Helen's life. There is soooo much more that happened to her after she first grasped the wonder of language!
Take a few minutes to watch the following video clips. The first one I especially found fascinating because it shows how Helen eventually learned to speak by feeling the vibrations in her teacher's throat as she talked.
This past weekend a group of 9 girls from my church went to New York City. Our main purpose in going was to see a show on Broadway. I was ECSTATIC with the idea because that has always been something I've wanted to do. It being Valentine's Day weekend, we thought it would be a good idea for a group of single girls to go out and do something fun. :) We left around 11:30 on Friday morning and arrived in NYC around 2:30, after stopping at Panera Bread along the way for lunch. We got checked into our hotel, and just hung out for a few hours before getting ready to leave. Anne, Rachel and I did some exploring of the city to pass the time. We then had about an hour to get all "fancied up" for the evening. You can't go to a Broadway show without getting dressed up, you know. :)
When everyone was ready, we then headed out for the metro station. The trip just wouldn't have been complete had we not gotten turned around a bit, and gotten on the wrong metro. It just added excitement to the evening....and a few more blocks to walk in high heels...fun! :)
We were all pretty hungry by this point, and we wanted to find a nice, sit-down restaurant to eat at. The place we had planned on going to ended up being more of a walk-in/walk-out place with stools for seating. Let's just say, with what we were wearing, stools just weren't gonna cut it! We ended up finding a small Mexican place just a couple of doors down. The food was pretty good, but we all ended up forking out a lot of $$$$$$$$ for that meal. That's to be expected for NYC, I guess!
Thankfully, we didn't have far to walk to the theatre once we finished our meal. We were seeing "The Miracle Worker" - the story about Helen Keller. If you aren't familiar with the story, it's about a girl who was both blind and deaf and basically had no life at all until her parents hired a teacher, Annie Sullivan, for her. Although it took a long time, with tons of frustrating moments, Helen was finally able to understand what language was all about. A truly inspiring story for anyone, but especially for a teacher like me! I was soooo thrilled when I heard that is what we were going to be seeing!
The play was held in a very unique type of theatre. I have always seen plays where the cast is up front on a stage, and the audience is all facing in the same direction, focused on the stage. However, at the Circle in the Square Theatre, the oval-shaped stage is in the center of the room, with the audience circled around it. It was so neat how they did the scene changes. Props would be dropped down from the ceiling, or would pop out of the stage floor. It didn't take long at all for a scene change, because everything was moved super fast this way. Doorways would pop out of nowhere, and suddenly there would be a dining room table or bed dropping from the ceiling. Pretty neat!!! The play was AWESOME!! We were at the premiere show, and the cast did amazingly well. This play brought out every emotion in a person. One minute you'd be laughing hysterically at a line, the next your heart would be breaking for Helen, her parents, and her teacher. You felt the teacher's and parent's frustrations throughout the whole play, but then at the end, when Helen finally *got it*, it was such an emotional moment, you just felt the joy bubbling up inside of you!
After the show was over, I was determined to have someone take a group shot of all of us. We were tired and worn out, and many didn't feel like it, but I knew in the end, we would want it for "memory sake"!! (and yes, I realize that I blend into the wall :))
I was so excited to discover that Abigail Breslin was the girl who played Helen Keller in the show. She stars in one of my favorite movies! After we had our group picture taken, we went upstairs, and there she was autographing people's playbills!! Obviously, there was a crowd around her, so I just snapped a quick picture on our way out. It would have been nice to get an autograph, but a picture was faster :)
Here's a video I found on youtube with some of the cast members talking about the show. I thought it was interesting, so I thought I'd post it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl4KY4s7t4w
It took us about an hour after the show to finally make it back to our hotel. We stayed up late eating junk food and watching "What Not to Wear" and "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC. Good times, good times :)
On Saturday, we checked out of the hotel around 10:00. We split up into smaller groups, because some wanted to go shopping, while others wanted to go sightseeing. I was in the sightseeing group. My main goal was to go to the top of the Empire State Building!
The pigeon wanted to be in our picture with us! He was feeling left out apparently. There is another shot that is "pigeon-less" but I thought it was neat how this picture was taken at the precise moment the pigeon decided to fly away!
The Empire State Building!!
Our group of five soon turned into a group of two, as the other girls had to leave early to catch a train (which ended up being a bus, but that's another long story :)) So Anne and I were the only ones who went to the Empire State building. It was DEFINITELY worth it! We got a map and an audio tour, which made it even better because it pointed out what the different buildings were.
The ever present pigeon :)
It was BITTERLY cold and windy up there, but we kept going inside to get warmed up before venturing back out in the cold.
The view was spectacular! When you are down on the ground, all these buildings seem so massive and tall, but from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, they seem so tiny! It was hard to just pick and choose a few to post on here. I think I got at least 20 different shots!! Of course, it never looks the same in pictures as it does in real life. You just can't capture it on film!
Once we were done with the tour, we then headed to some other places such as the public library, Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler building, Times Square, Starbucks :), and Macy's, stopping along the way to go in the occasional store to browse around and thaw out! We almost had the opportunity to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, but we missed the show by about 45 minutes. Oh well! There will be other times definitely. I really, really, really had a blast this weekend, and I know the rest of the girls did as well. I think this just might have to happen again in the near future...more Broadway shows will be in my future, that's DEFINITE!! :) We did lots and lots of walking, froze a bit, spent some hard-earned cash, crossed a lot of crazy streets dodging honking taxis, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat!
Today at morning recess, two little boys were not very happy with each other. What started off as a disagreement turned into a whole "You are LYING!!" scream-fest. Of course, I brought them over right away to the "counsel bench" to find out what had started the whole thing. When I figured out what the problem was, I told them I was going to press the "rewind button" and we would start all over again. I told them that their "rewind buttons" were on their knees, so I pressed down on their knees, and smiles soon replaced the frowns that I had feared were a permanent fixture on their faces! They hopped off the bench and started their game all over again with no more issues for the remainder of the time.
After recess, I told the one little boy who had apologized to me for screaming at his friend that although I had pressed their "rewind button", I couldn't undo the mean words that had been said. They needed to apologize to each other, and ask forgiveness for what had happened. Thankfully, what's nice about that age is that they can be the worst of enemies the one minute and the best of friends the next! :)
Don't you wish that there was such a thing as "rewind buttons" in life? How many times would I press that button throughout the day when a thoughtless word came out of my mouth, or wrong thought entered my mind? Although we can't undo a wrong that has been done, it is reassuring to know that we have a forgiving God who NEVER gives up on us and will remember our sins no more once we ask for forgiveness!!!
