I'm Back with an Announcement!

It's been quiet around here... can you hear the crickets chirping?

From my last post, you know that I'd been having a hard year. Well it turns out that something else was in play besides just a difficult caseload.....

PREGNANCY HORMONES!!!!

Yep! My first trimester was not filled with morning sickness... it was filled with CRANKINESS! Even though we're thrilled about baby, those first few months I was in a terrible mood (especially at school!).

I'm at six months now and feeling great! I'm starting to get the nesting urge... :)

During these last few months as I've taken a prolonged absence from this blog, I've developed other interests. I've found it's much more fun to blog about my crafting life than my teaching life.

I'm so glad I wrote so much during these last five or six years of teaching - I never want to forget those memories (or all of you bloggy friends I've made along the way)! I'll be returning to the classroom once the baby is born, but in a part-time capacity. In the meantime, I'm having so much fun blogging over at my other blog: Yes Teacher Crafts.

I'd love to have you join me there!

Please Excuse

So..... it's been kinda quiet around these parts for a while.

 

I've been having a hard time in the classroom this year - I feel like my passion for teaching is dwindling. I do the best I can with what I've been given, but at the end of the day, I just want to...

 

1. Go home as soon as possible.

2. Turn off my brain.

3. Not talk about it.

4. Not write about it.

5. Not read what other people are saying about their teaching (see number 2).

 

If I haven't been around to your blog in a while, please don't take it personally! You may not see any posts from me for a bit until I can find wherever I've misplaced my creativity and my passion. Or perhaps it's just time to say goodbye! I've been blogging about teaching for more than FIVE YEARS. Maybe I've run out of things to say?!

 

In either case, I'm going to take some time to reevaluate my reasons and goals for blogging. Thanks in advance for understanding!!

Those people I'm related to

My whole family (parents and siblings) were all together for Thanksgiving - it was the first time in THREE YEARS we were all in the same place!!

Here are some highlights:

Going out for gingerbread ice cream (We love Braums!)

We hung out at the Stock Yards

I pretended I had something to do with cooking the Thanksgiving meal (when in reality it was my husband who cooked for 8 hours!!)

And we ate LOTS of turkey!

I hope your time off was STUFFED with good times too! 

(haha, see what I did there?)

Turkeytastrophe

Hello friends, I'm back from a week off from blogging. I had a fabulous Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to sharing more about it later in the week, but for now I'd like to pick up exactly where I left off.

 

As you might recall from the previous post, I had some wonderful Thanksgiving activities planned for Friday - mainly the Turkey Tracks recipe. When I got to school that day, I had an email from my principal stating that she needed me to be in an emergency behavior meeting with the parents of one of my first graders. It was good that we had this meeting, but the timing was all wrong. I pull my first graders from 9 to 11. The behavior meeting started at 9 and didn't end until 10:45.

 

So by the time I got back to my room, there was no time for Turkey Tracks.

 

But I still had hope for my Kindergarten group in the afternoon. At the last minute, we decided to join my colleague for a Thanksgiving video. I thought it was going to last for 30 minutes, but the movie took a little over an hour to finish. And.... any hope of making Turkey Tracks in the remaining 45 minutes was squashed when I had to do damage control for "Martha". Martha thought it would be great fun to kick me repeatedly in the shins, tear down my calendar board, and pour the ranch dressing from her snack over my table.

 

It was a very discouraging day. For the first time in seven years, the thing that is keeping me from having fun in the classroom ISN'T the administration, ISN'T the curriculum... it's the kids.

 

Here's to hoping things will only get better from here.....

My little turkeys

We are in full turkey mode here at school. And I love it! Doing seasonal stuff with my kindergartners and first graders is such a welcome break from our regularly scheduled programming.

We've read My First Thanksgiving and I'm No Turkey.

We've written a list of things that we're thankful for.

We had our Thanksgiving Music Program on Tuesday. (The kids were both hilarious and adorable!)

And today we're making Turkey Tracks! Except we're making them with peanut butter and straight pretzel sticks (because I'm not sure about how my picky eaters will handle chow mein noodles!)

It should be messy but FUN! I am especially excited because once today is over, I have the WHOLE BLESSED WEEK off for Thanksgiving! Do I hear an Amen? :)

Thanksgiving with Kids

I've been surfing around on Pinterest and came across so many fun ideas for Thanksgiving with kids!

So I thought I'd share my favorites:

Thanksgiving Placemat (via)

Fun snacks (via)

Printable kids activities (via)

Thanksgiving Skit (via)

Turkey Craft (via)

Fun Kids Decor Printables (via)

that final sound is kinda important

Last week, I was reading aloud The Stubborn Pumpkin to my first graders. In the story, a farmer tries to pull a stubborn pumpkin off the vine. He enlists the help of many people and animals. First his wife, then his daughter, then the cow, then the dog..... etc.

I paused after the cow came along to help and asked my students who they thought would come next. One little girl, who has trouble with the final "s", shouted:

"A HORE!!!!!!!!"

I knew what she meant. But what she meant and what it sounded like were two very different things, and I had to laugh!