Gobble, Gobble!

This is my favorite project we have done so far. Each child got a feather to paint.



Then we put them together to make this turkey! I love how great it looks!
And notice the hand turkey's around them? I am not huge on "crafts" but this was too cute to miss!

We also put these turkey's on our Thanksgiving Cookbooks. First, Mrs. Clark sat down with each student and asked them what their favorite Thanksgiving food is. She then asked them how to make it and to draw a picture of it. We used these very creative recipes to create the cookbooks. We made a copy for each child and the cover of their book has their name and their handprint on it. Here are a few samples:

CHEESE PIZZA
Mix together bread stuff with yellow stuff in a pan. Then you put it in the oven on 1 degree for 4 hours. When it is done you top it with marshmallows and chocolate candy. Then you eat it!

TURKEY
Catch the turkey and put m&m candy and Spongebob Squarepants fruit snacks on it. Then you put it in the microwave on high temperature for 6 minutes. Then you eat it!

CORN
Mix yellow paint and that is it. Put it in a pan and cook it on the stove on medium heat for 10 minutes. Then you eat it!

YELLOW JELLO
Mix together yellow mashed potatoes, yellow bananas, sugar and flour. Stir it together and cook it in the microwave on high heat for 50 minutes. When it is done put pizza on top and eat it!

I will be doing this project every year. It is so much fun!

In our life: we have moved into our home. We signed our life away on our mortage and it is officially our home now. We have been there for two weeks now. We had great friends that helped us move and even had a slumber party that first night.

Teaching

Today was a good day. Let me tell you why.


It was "free centers". This is a time that I allow them to choose what activity they do. (I would let them do this most of the day, but our school has certain requirements that do not allow this). They can move around the room as the please. Of course, as long as they are being safe and kind to their friends. I watched as they were all engaged. Everyone of them was working on a task that they enjoy. Those are the days that I LOVE my job. I watched them work, play and laugh together. I watched them being creative and incredibly focused on their work. They were smiling and enjoying themselves.


Had my principal walked in, she probably would have thought they were simply "playing". Oh no! They were learning so much in this time. This age group learns best through play, I wish more peopled could see this.


She is learning to express herself through art, to concentrate on a task and what happens when colors mix together.
She is learning her alphabet through a puzzle. She is learning the order of the alphabet and how to solve problems.

She is learning to have confidence in herself. She said to me, "Mrs. Meryhew, I did it!"

They are learning to work together, what happens when you stack too many blocks up and a little bit about gravity and balancing things.


And he is learning that he is loved by someone. Sometimes, that is the most important thing I can teach.

I am in love with my job in my classroom. I love these kids and helping them learn to read, write, think, solve problems, make good decisions, understand math, computers and science. But I loathe the politics that run through this school. We are on pins and needles about what we say and who we say it to. Some people will run and tattle at the smallest, unimportant thing. This staff doesn't trust each other because we don't want to get written up for simply venting about our day or making a silly joke to the wrong person.

My ability to be a great teacher and love these kids is stifled because I am not given all the information. I had a student in the hospital and one with family issues. Both were gone from school and I simply thought they were sick. I found out the details through the grapevine two days later. I should be told as soon as it is known to the administration so that I can support them and love on them.

Even my time teaching is taken away by things like paperwork and required programs that I don't believe are developmentally appropriate for my kids. Our counselor is required to have 1.5 hours of lunch duty everyday because it is just more helpful to have more hands in the cafeteria. Forget that she has other responsibilities!

I wish that I could simply focus on my job rather than everything else thrown in. I wonder if it is like this at every school?

Almost....

There it is! Our almost finished house. I will post inside pictures when it has our things in. All we have left is our final walk through tomorrow. We will walk through with the builder and point out things that we think need to be fixed. Then they fix them and then we close! It is so soon!

Life has been pretty good lately. We got to spend last weekend in Tahlequah for NSU's homecoming. It was nice to catch up with Bob and Deb, Danielle and Mike, other students from the BCM and our old church family. The best part was enjoying our favorite food places. I will never find a pizza place as fantastic as Sam and Ella's!

Jake's birthday was last Friday. We just went out to eat together and spent time with family over the weekend. We went to Hallowzooween with Trysten and the family. It wasn't fantastic. It was just us wandering around in the dark for candy. I was sad that all the buildings were closed and we couldn't see any animals.

Teacher is fantastic. It of course has it's days (like today) but I really enjoy it. Pre-k is a lot of fun. We spent the last two weeks on pumpkins and Halloween. We did all kinds of things with pumpkins. We measured them, touched them, played with them, drew on them, cut them open, smelled and touched the inside, ate the seeds and carved pumpkins. It was a blast. In fact this week seems a little boring compared to all that fun.

I am not feeling so hot lately. I hope I am not coming down with anything. I hope you are well!