Inspiration

After reading some of my cooperating teacher's (from student teaching) blogs (check her out on my inspiration's list: Chalk Talk), I have been re-inspired to take pictures of the things we do in my classroom and upload them. Here are some things that we have done throughout the year that I have taken pictures of... (I will have to start getting better about this!) Oh yeah, they are in no way, shape, or form in any kind of order... :)

In the fall, we made turkeys out of construction paper and wrote about them.

We also wrote what we were thankful for on a "feather" made out of construction paper, then I fashioned this humongous turkey and laminated it for us to use for the bulletin board.

We studied rocks and did a complete investigation with rocks we brought from home. In this photo, we are comparing the mass of our rocks to snap cubes.

We also learned about solids, liquids, and gases. We made "Oobleck" and wrote in our science journals about what we thought it was: a solid or a liquid.

At the end of October, we dressed up as literacy characters. The 1st grade team dressed up as the Three Little Pigs!

We talked about pumpkins and how they grow. We even carved a pumpkin (my first time...) and dug out its guts! Then I took the seeds home, baked them, and brought them back to school for the class to taste them. We wrote about if we liked them or not.

We also do math tubs to further our math skills. This math tub works with place value. The students pull two numbers out of a baggie, place one in the tens place and the other number in the ones place, then use base 10 blocks to make the number.

We did a study about plants and how they grow and we worked in groups to find the roots in small plants.

Another math tub (I told you these weren't in order!). The student rolls the dice to get two numbers, then adds them together.

Literacy Stations. We have an ABC/Word Study station. This student is putting cards in ABC order.

Buddy reading literacy station. Two students work together to read a book. They can echo-read, read together, take turns, and even find word wall and rhyming words.

Handwriting. We work a LOT on handwriting to make our writing look even better!

So there's the beginning of my mini-collection of my first year of teaching. Hopefully I will get better about taking pictures of the things we actually make and create! (And I'm not sure why this is underlined...)

Chapstick?

This day has been full of up and down emotions.



Terrible morning. Kids would notttt be quiet. Called Nate at lunch and cried (for multiple reasons). Okay afternoon. Had surprise yearbook pictures... awesome... Sent a kid home with 100.6 fever (great things are going around my room...) but it was a better afternoon because we made fun water cycles using construction paper :) AND I got to leave at 3:30pm!

Chloe-Picture-Of-The-Day

Nate just had an exciting phone call!!!!!!!!!!!!! Details to come as I can release them.

Tonight, Nate is having the youth up at the church to have a game night! It'll be fun: I'm in the mood for a hard-core game of Monopoly (with debit cards, holla). AND thin crust cheese pizza from Domino's! No one in my family likes Domino's, so I never get it... I love it!

Saw on YHL the Do-It-Yourself magazine (or DIY) and I've decided I want to subscribe.

This has been a random post, but it's been a random/blegh day.

When is Spring Break again?

Boy, did I take MLK day for granted last week.

It was nice having a four-day work week last week. I know it's only Monday, but I can tell it's going to be a l.o.n.g. week. Today was such a dragginggg day! Let's see what's on the agenda for this week:

-The Water Cycle
-Writing about our favorite fruits
-Comparing maps and globes
-Repeating and Additive patterns
-Entering TPRI data into D2SC (blegh)
-Tutoring Tuesday and Thursday

And I'm sure about 1732 more things will come up. That doesn't seem like much, but... it is (I don't really have much more of an argument...) LUCKILY I get to come home to Nate and Chloe everyday, which makes for a much better day :)


This weekend, we were able to hang out with two very good friends of ours, Ashton and Roger. We went to DBU with them (Ash & I went through college together: EDUC majors) and they were married about 10 months before us. They also have a dog, Bella, so we were able to take Chloe too and they had a fun dog play date! We enjoyed watching our dogs play, eating at Johnny Carino's, and going back to their house in Mansfield to watch a movie. Spending time with friends is the absolute best!

I have made two decisions this past week.

#1. I will shut down "teacher mode" around 4:30 everyday, unless something MAJOR is going on. I really enjoy preparing activities and whatnot for my class (sometimes) but when the "required" content/materials are forced down my throat, it makes teaching a lottt less fun. Not the reasons I became a teacher. So I've decided I (and Nate for that matter) will be a lot happier if I shut down "Mrs. Johnson" before I get home.

and #2. I will use my weekend time for me, not just my job. Yes, I have to work over the weekends to prep for the following week... BUT this does not mean my ENTIRE weekend. I have committed to doing one craft/DIY project a weekend. This past weekend, I painted/covered a plain white serving tray with brown paint and scrapbook paper (and quite a bit of mod podge). It was very therapeutic and I enjoyed it! I've been getting a lot of ideas here at YHL (the young couple who has completely renovated their home and posts all sorts of DIY projects). I'm addicted!

Hopefully this week proves to be better than last. I'm just counting week by week until spring break... I may have to take a personal day in February. Not sure if I can make it to March...

okay, let's try this again.

Honestly: third time's a charm.
I'm going to really try and keep up with this blogging thing. We're hoping some new and exciting things will be happening in our life, and we need somewhere to share it all!
First off, welcome 2010! It has proven to be good to us so far. All of us, except Chloe. We had to get her spayed about a week after New Year's and she's been wearing a "cone of shame" for about a week and a half. Luckily, she gets it off tomorrow!
Nate graduated from DBU with his Music Business degree back in December, so we're currently searching for a full-time ministry position: we know God has some awesome plans in store for us, and we are ready for Him to reveal them to us! All in His time though :)
I'm still teaching 1st grade... Luckily, tomorrow is MLK, which = NO SCHOOL. Too bad I'll still be working... (i.e. grading papers, lesson planning, yawn-city).
I have found a new addiction: www.younghouselove.com
If you have a house, or just like DIY projects or home decorating, this is the site for you! It is a young couple that COMPLETELY renovated their home and they are now design consultants. They have awesome ideas and great DIY projects that I can't wait to try (unfortunately, you need a home... I do not have one... all in good time!) My first project is going to be a DIY headboard. I"ll post pictures if it looks halfway decent. Nathan is not excited about my new addiction because he's already seeing the $$$ in my eyes. Baha: oh husbands. Gotta love 'em! Lucky for me, I am a thrrifftyyyy-nifty shopper and can't wait to find awesome deals!
We will see how long I can keep this one last...