It's always exciting in my class!

We have been a very busy class lately... actually, who am I kidding? We're always a busy class! It's one of the things I love about grade 2 and 3!

First for Science we had a "liquids race"


Liquids are (from top left, clockwise): white glue, shampoo, molasses, coke, hand soap, ketchup, syrup, oil and milk. We were all surprised to find out that shampoo was SOOO slow! It took over 4 minutes to run to the bottom of the cookie tray. We also had fun smelling the different liquids to guess what they were... molasses smelled like cookies but it was hard to figure out!


Now to show off a few things that we've done around the room.

Our calendar corner (as you can tell by the date, this picture is getting dated!)


Our Reading Across Canada display. Each student colours a car and as they read at home, they record their time and bring it in to move their car across Canada. The times are based on driving times from our home city to cities on the way to Ottawa.

(The route is on the center beam... also visible is our projector (love it!), our mobiles, and a few other goodies)

For our Science unit of "Matter: Solids, Liquids and Gases" I created a Science table with 3 areas for each state of matter. My students brought in things from home to place in each space. I was proud of their innovation!

(The duck in the gases is because it's a squeaky toy and therefore there is gas inside it! Smart!)

And now, a few cute quotes...

During art one afternoon, I put on classical music to "inspire" my mini artists. With the start of every song I'd hear "hey! This is from Peter and the Wolf!" It never actually was but hey, at least they were listening. At one point, Beethoven's 5th came on and many of my students recognized it,
Boy 1: "Hey! I know this song!!"
Boy 2: "Yah, me too... I think it's been in a movie..."
Boy 1: "No! I heard it on Judge Judy!"
...oh my sophisticated young minds.

My students were lined up in our hall to wash their hands before eating their lunches,
Boy 1: "Kerri, I don't mean to be mean but... (at this point I'm listening very carefully and am ready to interrupt at any second)... your nose is really funny looking."
Kerri: "Haha, I know! I didn't draw that part very well!"
Oh phew... he was just critiquing her skills on her drawing in the hall!


And, this is the way to type up a blog entry on a random day off... :)

There is definitely never a dull moment when you're a teacher! I really do love my job.

One little letter.

One little letter can change everything. How important is an 's'? Well sometimes, very important.

Directions: write a sentence using the word "once".

"Once, I got to ride a horse"

With no 's' everything changes.





(and yes, I laughed when I read what she'd written...)

Back in the swing of things!

School is back and this teacher is pooped! The first week of school always kicks my butt but (haha, butt but) this year is worse for some reason... ;)

Today we talked about our classroom jobs. At the end of each day my students have a job to do, whether it's vacuuming the class, wiping down the boards, sharpening our pencils or emptying the garbage cans, they're all busy little bees.

After we initially discussed our jobs, we wrote a contract and I had them all sign it.



They are so direct and to the point- "I will do my job even when I don't want to." Haha!

After we assigned our weekly jobs:


We moved on to my classroom "money" program. In order to increase money skills, budgeting and general classroom management (as well as ticking off social studies goals for learning) I have created "classroom money". I "pay" my class with stamped coins, they accumulate money throughout the week on a large poster board and add it up on their bank sheet on Fridays. My students can earn money through positive behaviours- having their homework completed, have a clean desk, having a parent sign their homework book every night, winning at a classroom game etc. However, they can also be fined money- leaving their clothing on the field after gym (they have to "pay" me to get it back), wearing their outside shoes on the carpet, leaving their hook messy. I'm really bad at remembering to fine them so I keep it simple. And, of course, they can spend their money on rewards- renting a class sled or skipping rope, playing games, eating lunch with a friend (rather than with their assigned seatmates), using my camera to take pictures and the ultimate- being the teacher for 30min! All payment range from 50cents to $2 and rewards are in the same area... except the coveted being the teacher- that's $30! It takes diligence and perseverance to save that much! Last year I had 6 students make it and they loved being able to decide what games we played during gym (as well as using the whistle and making the teams!). The kids love the system and it helps me reward students and keep on top of their homework! Plus... it has other bonuses!



I've never seen our coatroom so clean! :D

I love this job :)

Summa Time!

I love the summer holidays, I really do. Last summer was my first summer off, no more stinky summer camps for this real teacher!

But back to the end of the year, it was fabulous. We all had heaps of fun and enjoyed showing off all our (their) talents at our first annual "Show and Shine". Our special day included a performance of "Peter and the Wolf" that was written and directed by our fantastic grade 12 volunteer (another bonus of working at a K to 12 school, high school volunteers!), oral readings of our favourite creative writing stories and numerous projects set up around the room. The kids, and I, were exhausted and very happy to go to the water park to enjoy the sunny weather after all our excitement. A wonderful wrap up to our year!

And now... I miss them all something terrible! But, I suppose I'll be seeing them back at school soon enough, along with a few new grade 2 faces (8 to be exact).

I've been spending some time in my classroom writing supply shopping lists, organizing my curriculum for this coming year and arranging the room. I decided I'd take a few seconds to show you two of my favourite time savers...

First, my solution to the pencil sharpening dilemma.

I have four cups (actually a cutlery organizer from IKEA!) to hold a few things... the first cup, the blue one, is for lost and found pencil crayons, crayons, markers, pencils and erasers. The second, the green cup, is for lost and found bigger items like scissors. The third cup, the purple one, is for dull/broken pencils and the last cup, the black one, is for fresh sharp pencils. At the beginning of the year I get the students to give me all their pencils (unless they're super special ones) and I put them in my supply cubbie. I take out a handful of pencils, enough for approximately 4 pencils per student and put them in the pencil bins. Now when a pencil breaks there is no need to sharpen it and disrupt the whole class, the student can just trade in their broken one for a new sharp one. I hate being interrupted to be asked to sharpen a pencil (especially since all I have is an electric sharpener and it's noisy!) and now it's one student's job at the end of the day to sharpen all the dull pencils. I found that this worked really well and the students really enjoyed being on "pencils" for their job too!

Second, I have folders... I'm still perfecting this one.

I have a slot and folder for each day of the week. I liked this system but found it hard to keep tidy as it was just a little too easy to just shove anything in there to get it off my desk! I'm pretty sure I'll keep a variation of this for this year though... maybe instead of days of the week I could do subjects? Hmm...

Anyways, back to summer time activities... like cleaning my house for when my parents get here later today!

A vocabulary lesson

Mrs. P: "Ok, so what is the opposite of "appear"?"
Students: "Down here!"

Mrs. P: "What does pitiful mean?"
Student: "Something to do with your arm pits?"

Thoughts on marriage from Grade 2

Grade 2 boy: When I'm 28, if I get lonely I'll just go visit my mom and dad... I'll get my mom to send me food too. I'll need a maid to do my laundry... (pauses and turns to look at me) or you.

Grade 2 girl: I'm going to get married so I have someone who can cook for me. And, snuggle with. Or I'll just invent a robot.

Grade 2 girl about another grade 2 girl: She's getting married... she doesn't want the kiss part, she just wants to have kids.



Oh, the innocence! I love their ideas and thoughts.

Locker Pets

The end of the year is coming near and we're all feeling it here in the land of two-dles and three-dles. None of us want to say goodbye to the three-dles (as previously mentioned)... one of my two-dles today decided that the grade 3s are going to be our "locker pets" next year. They will live in the lockers and we'll just quietly squish little pieces of food through the vents. The grade 2s are all about this new idea... the threes just laugh... I think they agree. Haha. I love the problem solving of kids.

Only 16 days of school left!? How on Earth did that happen, I swear it's still November. I can almost say I've been a teacher for a year. I'm still marveling at that fact, I really am a teacher. I couldn't be happier in any other job, I love my kids and my job. What a wonderful feeling!

That's not an antenna.

Conversation between myself and a student at lunch:

"So guys, I saw this movie and there was this guy and he was NAKED! He wasn't even wearing underpants-"
"Umm! Is that something you should be talking about at school?"
"Well, no... but it's really funny!"
*Shaking of my head*
He wanders away, continuing the story under his breath (guess he just had to get it out) "And then he said... boy, that sure is a funny place for an antenna!"

What on Earth was that boy watching!? Although, it was one of those DON'T LAUGH, DO. NOT. LAUGH. moments!

Just a regular Wednesday...

All in a days work.

After first break the teacher on supervision came to me to holding a pair of little boy's sneakers that had been tied together... twice. A smart little man in my class had decided to tie his shoes together and had walked around all break, therefore tying them nice and tight. It took two teachers, 2 thumbtacks and a pair of pointy scissors to get them apart.

When asked why he tied them together he responded:
"I just wanted to see what would happen"
And to that another student added:
"Well it woulda been worse if you'd tied them to a tree" Hmm... true that.

Overheard at lunch:
"There are things that are fake toe-nails but they have to go under you skin... I saw it in a store at the mall... I think it was Walmart"

My sparkly grade two student came to school today with a full set of super shiny, super blingin' nails glued to her fingertips. She told me her big (grade 12) sister had put them on while she slept. At lunch she came to me and was prying them off, her logic for removing them made total sense to me- pretty nails really don't help when you're digging in the dirt in the forest. Again, true that.

Tether-ball bum tag could become a hit however...

As we near the end of the school year, I'm already starting to mourn giving away my grade 3s. I only have four of them this year but they're quite the little bunch of wonderful girls (yup, 4 girls). I have the talker (reminds me of someone... hmmm), the giggler, the social one and the quiet/sweet one. After spending 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, with these 4 (and sometimes Church on Sunday too, of course) I'm not sure how I can let them go away from me. I told them I was going to fail all of them and... they were actually ok with that. I'm not sure they think they're ready to be part of the big grade 4/5 class next year. However, I know without a doubt that, sadly, they're all more than ready to leave me. So, now I just plan one killer party to send them off. I'm thinking awards, a poem and a cake, not much beats that for a little'in. I'm not sure I'm going to get used to getting a new batch of grade twos every year.

A new game was invented yesterday in PE... helicopter using a tether-ball, no pole. You know the one, Helicopter, helicopter, please come down... only if you're... (insert random describing feature here).
This is usually played using a skipping rope, well... I like my new skipping ropes and don't want them to be brutalized on the cement so I've been horribly mean and won't let my class play helicopter. In comes a new invention. Helicopter-tether-ball. Instructions are as follows: (this must be played on grass as well, concrete is just asking for life threatening injuries) swing the ball on the cord as hard as you can around you and challenge your classmates to jump over it. As you get tired, let the ball raise until it smacks into someone and then declare "ha! You're out!" ...not sure this game is a keeper. Not like the turkey game where the turkey's had to protect their babies while gobbling... that was a good one.

I jumped.

Honduras was amazing, inspiring, moving, fun, hot, touching and I'll never find all the words to describe it properly.

My husband told me the other day to not expect anyone else to care as much as I do about Honduras. I was changed, not in a huge way that everyone around me is marveling about, but I was changed. I will never forget the time that I spent in that small, beautiful country.

We spent our two weeks painting the school, painting a mural, visiting the villages, fixing the local's bikes and so much cuddling, hugging and playing with the kids both in the school and locals. Trips to the beach, river for swimming, church services... it was all memorable. Being attacked by a bat (guess that's what I get for pretending my head was a banana...), making slime, alkaseltzer rockets and pop bottle rockets with the school kids, the passionate worship, campfire worship. All amazing. I took over 700 pictures and still didn't capture a tiny slice of it.

And, God was with me through it all. I was filled with anxiety before we left, and traveling. I'm not going to say that I was filled with peace the whole trip but I was shown his grace and given an amazing experience where I was blessed and cared for at all times. I was able to give my fear over to God and relax, seeing him watch out for all of us was amazing. We were supposed to leave on Sunday, however, our flight was canceled so we had to leave on Monday instead. We later found out that, as always, it was part of the bigger plan, His plan. If we had left on Sunday we would have all been stuck in San Pedro Sula as the roads to the school were flooded due to heavy rain. No Canadian with no knowledge of Honduras should be alone in San Pedro, again, it was a blessing. God always has a plan, and it's exciting to see his plan for me unfolding.

I feel a definite call on me to go back to Honduras. I don't know in what capacity, with the youth group again, or if my husband and I will just go on our own, I do believe I'll be back. The connection I now feel with the country and the people cannot be ignored, or forgotten. It's this connection that makes it hard to remember that other people just don't care as much as I do... and really, that's ok. I'm just glad that I had the chance to go and see and do and love.

So yes, I jumped and what a good jump it was.

Fear

We leave for Honduras in one week. Tomorrow I'm going to be speaking in Church. This is what I'll be saying/reading.

"Fear

I was recently in a situation where I was afraid. I was so afraid that my knees were shaking, my heart was pounding and I was sure I was going to die. Rationally, I knew that I could handle the situation, be brave and strong and get through it. However, I let my fear get the best of me and I gave up. I climbed back down and didn’t jump off that insanely scary 5m diving board, I just wasn’t brave enough. Even after seeing my very brave grade 2 student jump, I was too scared.

When I’m in a situation that makes me fearful, I want to quit, run away and hide. I’ve been a Christian for 3 years and I’m still learning how to rely on God rather than try to just jump on my own. Going to Honduras is going to test me in more ways that I can even imagine. I don’t like change, I don’t really like to travel (I’m much happier at home in my own bed), I don’t even like bugs. I’m a worrier; I’ve been a worrier ever since I could worry. What if I get bitten by a mosquito and get malaria? What if I get lost? (Highly possible, bad sense of direction here) What if it’s so hot I can’t sleep? What if I get sick? What if there’s an earthquake? What if, what if, what if. It would be so much easier to just stay home, no one gets Malaria (here). But, I’m going and I’m excited to go.

I am going to use this trip to Honduras as a chance to fully put my trust in God. I can’t control everything, not even close. I can’t know what’s going to happen, or not happen, and I need to trust in God that it will all work out. This will not be easy for me, I am still very much learning how to let go of the fear that’s been a huge part of my life. I know that He will protect me and everything will turn out exactly as it should but it will still be hard for me to let go of the fear.

I want Honduras to test me, to force me to grow, to make me appreciate my life here even more, to make me compassionate and to scare me. I am sure that our time away will do all of that and, this is the biggest thing, I am going to pray that I am able to give my fear and anxiety up to God and trust in him. I don’t want my fear to hold me back from doing and experiencing anything.

This time I want to jump."