Multitasking :)

Nothing is new in Shishmaref.  We're doing a gift exchange with each of the teachers and apparently I should have waited to get homemade slippers.  I wonder what I'm in store for instead?  

Our class is working on learning "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Up On The Housetop" for the Christmas Program.  I'm trying to download the songs from i-Tunes onto my i-Pad so we can listen to them but for those of you who know me; I'm technologically challenged.  I'm currently on the phone with i-Tunes Support.  I actually have been for about 40 minutes.  Hopefully, the call will not drop like GCI tends to do. 

We went for the gym for the first time on Monday!! We loved it!!!!  Check out what my awesome 4 and 5 year olds can do! :)

Usually this is a sand table.  Today, it was a water table!  Do we usually have sand on the floor?  Yes.  Did we have water on the floor?  It wasn't a flood; it was more like a pond.  Next time we have a water table in our room, I'll put towels on the floor before we begin.

We're doing math.  That's right!  We're counting the drops of colored water we drop to make a new color mixture!! What does that mean?  We're doing science too! We may be only 4 and 5 years old, but we're multi-taskers!!

Painting on the easel has never been a choice in our classroom, until now!  We loved being able to use the easel to paint.  Lauren even gave a limit of two pictures so everyone could have a turn.

Photo Gallery

Will it sink or float?  

 We used a tub of water and guessed what would sink or float.  These are a few of the things we guessed would sink:  play dough container, a ball, a wooden block, and a button. Some things that we guessed would float are:  a foam block, a ball, and a puzzle piece.

Our classroom!

Do you see the easel? I built it!  I followed the instructions, so don't worry about it toppling over. 

Science Lab

 Here's the Science area.  On the shelf we have a globe, which I know is more for Social Studies, a balance, magnifying glasses, bug sorters, magnets, kaleidoscopes, and a "feely box".

Our best work :)

The doorway on the right is the door the children come though when they arrive.  The purple papers have their names on them and will be used to display what the students' feel is their best work!  Today, we all did our best work to color, cut, and glue a stocking.  What will be displayed next?  

Circle Time

Here is where we do our morning greetings as well as all other whole group activities.  

Literacy Lab

What you see here is our Literacy Lab.  During Learning Labs, children have the opportunity to go work on the board which is magnetic; they can use magnetic letters as well as use dry erase markers.  In this lab area, there is also a shelf which contains many other literacy activities that the children can do.  There are alphabet puzzles, dry erase cards, letter beads, as well as many more choices.  

Almost Thanksgiving!

                                                                                      Here, the children are making turkeys!  I had all of the shapes traced but the kids were in charge of cutting them out.  Some of the turkeys look a little different, but most do look the same.  Even though that's good, I was kind of hoping otherwise.  

Dramatic Play Lab

Here's where we play "Kitchen" and "Store" and other things, but basically, that's about it.  We love playing with the cash register the most and the new classroom came with new phones to play with, and new kitchen toys!

Cute board!

Here's the cute chalkboard!  Okay, so it's not a chalkboard anymore.  Under the red paper however, it is!  Around the board, I used tissue paper and just twisted and stapled/taped.  I didn't think of this idea myself; I stole it from Sammy.  While in college however, I was also told, "Why reinvent the wheel"; so, I didn't.  

Parent Board

This is where parents sign in (on the table) and can get information about what will be going on in the classroom throughout the week.  As well as the sign in on the table, on can also find the weekly newsletter and books that can be checked out for parents, to help them through stages of their child's development.  

Sand/Water Lab

Here's the Sand/Water Lab!  The kids love this area, especially when it's water day.  I mean, think about it. If you lived on an island that was completely sand (when it's not snow of course) would you want to come inside and play with sand?  I have had enough sand for a lifetime.  Unless of couse we start talking about vacationing at a beach, then that's a different story. 
The bags on the board that you see are our birthday bags.  I made those, as well as the people sticking out of them, using the Cricut. Yes, that word pronounced like the annoying bug that chirps.  

Cute :)

Here are a couple of my children playing with boxes.  The theme was 'Boxes and Balls'.  I actually brought these boxes with me from WI. When I go home for break, I intend on getting the cylindrical boxes as well.  

Colored Spaghetti?

What's going on??  Well, I'll tell you.  I'm eating spaghetti.  No, I'm not using propor table manners and yes, the children are watching.  These colored noodles were used for our turkey art.  I was so thrilled that I found this activity (to dye noodles, fall colors, and use them as the feathers for turkeys).  The kids however, they weren't so interested.  They thought the activity had too much sensory, in a bad way.  Apparently, sticky noodles are not the way to play.   

I saw an activity online that said that if you cook 'Ivory' soap in the microwave then it will look like this and you can mold it.  Well, I bought some of this soap to give it a try and guess what?!?! It didn't work.  It did look like this from the microwave, but it wasn't moldable.  It was too hot to play with and when it did cool down then it was just a layer of soap.  

READ THIS!!

I finally finished my book!!! I got it for my birthday and started reading it over the summer.  I actually forced myself to finish it in three nights.  Now, I just look forward to watching the movie.  I got it on Black Friday (phone shopping on this day is the way to go!) and will get it when I go home for break!  

Sally O'Mally

Here is the look of "No more pictures please. Just let me go hide under the bed."  Sally's doing swell! Last night, I think I actually was petting her in my sleep because I woke up and she was on my tummy and well, I was petting her.  

Sled dogs <3

Here are some pictures of the sled dogs and me, in the frosty air.  I feel bad for the dogs being outside.  I know they are fine but I'd still rather have them inside.  

Yes, you see it right!! I've got my official teaching certificate!!!!

New Building!! ---Soon to come.

Dear Readers,

I'm almost 8 months old!

I’ve been in the no writing zone for a long time now.  I don’t think I will be getting my writing motivation back any time soon.  What does this mean?  I’ll tell you.  This will be my last blog post.  Yep, you read that right.  After this post, I will try to make it long enough for you, I will no longer be adding to my blog.

Sally’s doing great! She loves her purple, fuzzy ball.  She enjoys chasing it around the house as well as sitting calmly with it.  What do you picture as calm?  It’s probably not what I mean for this situation.  Let me rephrase that then.  She likes lying on the floor with her ball and every time you move she thinks you will take it away from her so she takes off with it.  Is that better?  I hope so.  Sally also enjoys playing beauty salon.  Yep, the same game you enjoyed playing when you were seven years old.  How does she play?  Well, first off, I don’t let her use real scissors. He does wash my hair with her tongue then brushes it with her claws.  I noticed last night in particular because I woke up to her playing this game.  It’s not always my favorite game to play with her; however, when she wants to play when I have bed head already, I don’t mind. 

Lunch?  No, really, they're plums.

Can we please have a silly pose?

School is going well.  I’ve been busy working on vocabulary with my students.  That’s a large problem here.  So many of the children have such a limited vocabulary that it is difficult to explain things to them sometimes.  Here’s an example of what I mean.  We were talking about the letter ‘Aa’ and coming up with words that started with that letter.  Someone said ‘aunt’.  I asked (to clarify) if he meant the person or the tiny bug that crawls on the ground.  He said the person, so I wrote ‘aunt’ on our paper. It wasn’t until later that I realized that he, as well as the rest of the students in the class, probably had no idea what I was talking about when I said “The tiny bug that crawls on the ground.”  I checked my future themes for school and I will be teaching the kids all about bugs for the third week in April.   Here’s the better part.  We will be focusing on spiders on my birthday.  I’m sure I can find a way to make it fun and not gross. 

Cleaning?

The new building is in progress still.  We were supposed to be moved in by Monday, yes, tomorrow, but no, that’s not happening.  Phil, the person working on the building, will not be leaving until Tuesday.  What does that mean for us?  It means that with Phil’s extra supplies and other materials that he needed to bring, on the floor, we can’t complete the cleaning process.  The four-year-old classroom is clean; however, the three-year-old classroom is not.  Once that classroom is clean, my room can be emptied and then set up.  I have done what I can so far.  I have set up my bulletin boards and plan on setting up my lending library today.  Yes, I heard you.  “What’s a lending library?”  It’s a set of backpacks with books, games, or other materials that help to emphasize a particular topic.  A few of them are as follows:  shapes, numbers, letters, Alaska, and science.  The backpacks are available for students to check out and bring home.  There’s no set return time but I’ve seen anywhere from overnight to a week of checkout. 

TRANSPORTATION!!! :)

The weather here in Shishmaref is getting really chilly.  I’m wearing my boots often now. I’m wearing my bogs, that is.  Those go down to about -30F.  When it gets cold enough, I will pull out my bunny boots.  Those go down to about -80F.   Other than my boots, I am staying warm.  I’ve got my mittens and headband and jacket.  I did order another jacket, with the SNL logo on it.  No, I don’t mean the Saturday Night Live logo, I mean the Shishmaref Northern Lights logo.  I also intend on having someone make me one of the awesome headbands I see people wearing to keep my ears warmer.  A little girl in my class came to school with her new headband on and I stared at it for literally five minutes. I’m not even joking, it was amazing!  We do have snow but it’s not piled up yet.  I haven’t seen more than two snow people yet.  However, the two that I did see, were quite elegant.

Owl in the air

Owl on the pole

I saw an owl!  I don’t know what kind it was, but I saw it.  I got a picture of it sitting on the pole as well as one of it flying away.  After it flew, it landed near the water, which yes, is freezing over, but then a raven came right next to it.  It didn’t look like they were hurting each other.  I was far away enough that I could have missed some things. 

I went to the first home volleyball game last night.  I don’t think I’ve ever watched volleyball until last night.  It was interesting.  I kept counting, 1, 2, 3., each time the ball was on one side of the net so I could remember how many more times they could hit the ball to make it over the net.  I got to hold Caroline for most of the time.  Caroline turned one year old recently.  She’s one of the daughters of another teacher, one who has made it 14 years up here.  Caroline sat with me, pointed in the same direction for most of the night, and ate an orange Mr. Freeze. You know which ones I mean, right?  They’re in the plastic wrapper and they’re about a quarter each.  They come in many colors, purple being my favorite, what’s your favorite color to eat? 

Painting with cars :D

Did I really have you going?  You don’t think I’d actually be able to be this far away and not have some form of communication going on with you all, did you?  Here’s the real deal.  I really do have writer’s block.  You know, the one where authors/blog writers can’t think of a dang thing to say.  Well, I hope to be able to create my published pieces soon.  On that note, this will NOT be my last blog post.  I’m not sure when I will update again.  Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later.  Have a splendid day and remember that April Fool’s Day is only 140 days away.  If you fell for this one, you better get ready to be fooled once again.  Good Luck!

Sincerely,

The Early Fooler