teacher gift

This is one of my special teacher gifts I received this year.  She took our class pic and captured each of my kiddos for me.  Thank you Lia and Mom.

teacher gifts

I forgot how cool getting end of school gifts was.  I had amazing parents this year and they truly blessed me the last day of school.  I got gift cards for TWO pedicures, one to Motherhood, two necklaces, purse & wallet, painting of the kids in my class, lots of cookies, Bath & Body Works, flowers, a special craft ruler, and candle.  Thanks to all of the parents for making me feel loved.

schools out

We had our last day of school party at the gym and Bella came with me.  LE has been running a fever.  One of the kid's parents brought an inflatable and we brought picnic lunches.  I had a really great year teaching, glad to cut back though too.  I will still teach two days a week and do fitness consulting, but need to catch up on life too.

letter from a parent

My boss just forwarded a letter from a parent she recieved...

Dear T,

I wanted to drop you a note thanking you, again, for the quality staff that you have selected to serve and teach my children. A is in Miss Kristi's class and has shown wonderful growth this past school year. Since Kristi has come on board, A has learned to walk in line, eat when it's lunch time, and talk-out his problems rather than crying or hitting. These things were so important to me at the beginning of the year and he has achieved these goals! As an added perk, A can read many words, he knows the months of the year, can count way past 100, and recites the Pledge of Allegiance completely by memory. AND HE'S ONLY FOUR YEARS OLD!!! A has professed his love for Miss Kristi and we are looking forward to another great year with her. I thank you for allowing Kristi to fill Ms. G's position. We are most grateful.

Sincerely,
"Mom"

western day

We celebrated Texas' birthday at school last week. The girls got to join my class for our chili cook-off. I just want to know why my class always makes better chili than I do at home. It was so yummy. The girls even enjoyed it, I think the chips were a hit with Bella (she is her Daddy's girl).

geography lessons

This month, we are learning about the United States of America for our geography part of school. We have looked at maps, the globe, learned the pledge of allegiance to the TX and United States flags. We have learned to sing "Y'ou're a Grand Ole Flag" & "Deep in the Heart of Texas" This past week we began making our own maps. Colin and LE had fun making mountains and oceans. Bella liked coloring the stores. She wanted an HEB on her map.

letter o and fractions

This week we learned about the letter Oo. We made octopus and oceans. In math, we are learning about fractions so the octopus was a perfect cooking lesson. We learned how to cut the octopus legs half way and then into fourths - I attempted to cut them into 1/8 but it was harder than I thought. Then, we boiled the octopus and YumYum, ate them up. We also had fun with our ocean felt pieces (nostalgia for me - I loved Bible stories in felt as a child). Then, we made our own oceans in a bottle.

Fill water bottle half full (fraction reinforcement) and then add several drops of food coloring and then add almost to the top with the cheapest cooking oil. Put top on the bottle, seal tight and shake, shake, shake. You can also add glitter and beads to your oceans.

Would you, could you...

Yes, they could, the girls loved green eggs and ham. I cannot get LE to eat eggs, but she torn into these.

*It is scrambled eggs, ham (lunch meat) and blue and yellow food coloring - the letter of the week is G.

letter h for house

This week we made houses for the letter h. They did a really creative job of designing their own houses out of Popsicle sticks. I gave them no instruction except on how to use glue - one drop of glue.

muffins

We reviewed our letters this past week, so we just did some fun things that I wanted to do, just for the fun of it. We made mini blueberry muffins. We painted alot. We played outside - is it just me or do the mornings seem to be cooler lately. It was a nice week off from regular lesson plans. The muffins were good too!

letter f

We made rainbow fish for the letter F. We also watercolored some cool fish too, but I some how skipped taking pics. Must have been too busy watching for budding messy artists. We got a new student this week. He says LE is as cute as his mom:)

Roar!

Letter L activities included making lemonade, difference between land and water animals, The Grouchy Ladybug - learning about clocks and one of my fave animal crafts - lion masks. Yes, she twisted all of the curly q's for her mane and his nose reminds me of a bird. Bella's lion only had two curls and no very good pics of him.

apples and air

necklaces, noodles and notes

letter of the week?

Spiders, Snakes, and Swimming, oh my.  Can you guess what our class letter was this week? We made strawberry jello, which none of them liked.  Both girls did try it, but did not like the texture.  We went swimming at the Duncan's pool on Wednesday, so we got to throw that element in the week.  On Tuesday we found this beautiful spider web perfectly in tact.  It accidentally got messed up and when we checked it Thursday the spider had repaired it.  What a learning experience it was for all of them.

P week at school

Red + Blue = purple (paint) - Bella did not want to take off Daddy's shirt (paint shirt)

Piles of Bugs (sorting) Patterning and 

Picnicing

benefits of school...

...educational toys

more big news

A couple of weeks ago two friends approached me about why I did not have my own school.  Ben has been asking me for years if I would want to do something like a Mom's Day Out.  I guess I was always to chicken to take on that much responsibility.  The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why I couldn't do something like that.  I have everything from my teaching days in the garage, I have 10 years experience and a framed piece of paper on my wall that says I can.  Not to mention LE will be 4 this summer and what was I going to do with her.  I am excited to announce that I started a learning center in my living room last week.  It is only a couple of kids right now.  I have to get registered with the state to have any more, and I am going to do that next week.  

For the first day of school we did phonics, sorting, made play-dough and had lots of fun, according to one boy "it wasn't that bad, Mom."