More Bubbles!

It's another Bubble day here in White Mountain! The students have been working on exploring bubbles, and today we made poems! They turned out really, really cute and the kiddos had some fantastic ideas. It's amazing how quickly the younger students become independent with their work!

Here are some pictures:

Click on the picture to get a bigger view!

!!!BuBbLeS!!!

This week we have been learning about Bubbles! My host teacher, Kim has asked the 2/3 and 4/5/6 grade classes to join her class in measuring, making, and exploring bubbles!

It has been an exciting adventure-here are some pictures:

Our Bubble Words:

Making Bubble Prints:

Measuring our Bubbles:

Today we also watched some YouTube videos. It's a nice resource when there are filters in place. Here is the video we enjoyed the most:

Are we ready ?!?!?!

I graduated.

I moved out of the house.

I went to college.

I got a good boyfriend.

We got a puppy.

We got married.

We built a house.

We moved away from home :(.

And I'm only 22.

Is it really time for kids?! I mean, what's next right? Of course our dream is to travel the world-Who doesn't have a dream like that?! After having numerous conversations about this subject and asking questions: Will we be good parents? Are we prepared enough? Are we financially ready? Are we ready to lose our freedom? Can we handle a baby? Etc.

I was thinking about this today when I saw this post. I laughed until my sides hurt-So I thought I would share the joy (I know it's long, but humor me and read it all!)

Thinking of Having Kids?

Do This 10 Step Program First

Lesson 1

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline
2. Lack of patience
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels
4. Allowing their children to run wild
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 2

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approx. 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down gently, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at midnight and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1am.
4. Set alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45.
7. Get up at 3am when alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4am.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive.)
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 3

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 4

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus in the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this- all morning.

Lesson 5

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle Cheerios all over the floor, them smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 6

Go to the grocery store. Take the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 7

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a 9 month-old baby.

Lesson 8

Learn the names of every character from all shows on PBS, the Disney Channel and Noggin. Watch nothing else on TV but shows from these channels for at least 5 years. (I know, you're thinking "what is Noggin?") Exactly the point.

Lesson 9

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 10

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from lesson 9 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Hmmm....Maybe we'll think about it some more for now!

Teacher Tips!

My time on the internet is spent either facebooking (yes, sadly) or looking up teacher resource sites I have compiled documents, ideas, resources, papers, themed units, and everything else you can think of. I don't however, keep them in one spot! So, I've decided to compile a list here!

Hope this helps/inspires those who are also on their journey to become a teacher-It's a great start to helpful tips on how to have positive conduct as a teacher:

1. Establish an air of formality in class.
2. Be the adult in the classroom.
3. Watch your mouth.
4. Drink moderately. (Especially out in public)
5. NO DRUGS!!!
6. Understand what the word "inappropriate" means.
7. Keep kids out of your car and house.
8. Don't "burn" leave.
9. Keep your own records and phone logs -- away from school property.
10. Imagine how it would play on the 6 o'clock new or the newspaper before you do it.
11. When it comes to your conduct, perceptions reality.
12. If you don't know, ASK!
Proteacher

Winter Wonderland

The river is frozen, the animals are hibernating, the trees are white, and the ground is covered in snow :)!!! It is a Winter Wonderland today. So Clint and I walked the dogs up to White Mountain hill to get a better view:

And then we made our way to Scow-John...We had some fun with the camera! :

Happy Snow Day!

Reminder Tree!

Clint has been gone this week for an ED Conference in St. Michael. I was a little bummed I couldn't go, but it gave me a lot of time to do homework, scholarships, and my favorite thing crafts! I started on making Christmas presents and I am so excited to share them! But most of the people who read this blog are getting those presents so I can't blog about them until after Christmas. But to those who are lucky enough to receive them...You are going to LOVE them! Serious. Just wait. :)

BUT: I do want to share this!

am so proud of this project!! I got the idea from this post: they call it a Wish Tree but mine is called a Reminder Tree see the difference? I went outside and since it's winter and all the leaves are gone, I grabbed some branches off of the ground and put them in a fish jar (okay, I don't have that many vases around here so this was the next best thing) and put some ribbon on the top, and some paper confetti to hold the branches in place.

I then printed some adorable reminders that I also got on this site. They also have blank ones so you can create your own reminders or wishes!

I simply put the reminders on the tree and here is what I made:

Sorry for the bad picture quality. Photography is on my list of things to learn :)

Winter is here:

Some of you may be enjoying the fall colors, pumpkin patches, and crisp weather with a little wind. Others may be experiencing high winds and rain, cloudy and dark days. Here in White Mountain? We are already well into winter! Yes, we had our fall for a few weeks with the leaves changing color and the light breeze in the air and it was wonderful-but now it's long gone! It's been fa-reezing here for the past few weeks and the wind is atrocious the past couple of days. But, one thing that is good about cold, windy weather....Clear blue skies! It's amazingly beautiful, even if you have to have a face mask on to go walk the dogs!

Last weekend Clint and I decided to go for a walk with the dogs. It was high time that we took them out because they have been cooped up in our apartment and needed to get extra energy out. Jack Russels? Energy? Ha! Anyway, we were on our way to 2nd Mountain, which is a little past Sweetheart. But on our way there, we heard a Moose or Bear. We couldn't quite make out the sound so we decided to turn back and go to Sweetheart again, but go on a different trail (I know, smart of us huh? after hearing the "noise"). Nonetheless, It has been a blast exploring different trails and ways to get around White Mountain and the area.

Hello Winter!

Oobleck!

It's been two months. Two months of experiencing life as a teacher. Well, not quite the teacher, but the classroom environment. I have been going to our K-1 classroom five days a week and this week I taught my first practicum lesson! It was amazing. With only seven kids in our class (2 kindergarteners and 5 first graders) it was a perfect lesson in my opinion-and fun! We have been learning about solids and liquids and I remember in elementary school that I played with some gooey stuff that was really fun....Oobleck! So, I taught an Oobleck lesson to the kids and it was a hit! They enjoyed it so much that after they kept asking how to make it, so I wrote a letter to the parents explaining what it is and how to make it.

Here are some pictures:

I had to adapt my lesson a little bit in the beginning because these kids are smart! Even the kinders know the difference between a solid and a liquid. But, it was such a fun hands-on, minds-on activity for them to explore the reasons why something is a solid or a liquid. This is definitely going in my teaching box that I have for future use.

I guess it would be nice if I put some information on here on how to make Oobleck, you know, just in case you want to make some (which I highly, highly recommend!).

Oobleck Recipe:

2 parts Cornstarch
1 part water

Mix in a bowl (slowly as to not get the cornstarch all over. Trust me. It happens!)
And add food coloring- any color!

You can find more information about Oobleck and what it is here!

Okay, go now and make some Slime...I mean...Oobleck!

White Mountain Living...

I've been procrastinating on this post since we moved here. I know, a long time! But my favorite mother in law keeps asking to see the living quarters, so here are some pictures! They're not the best, but I'm still working on my photography skills.

Here is the front door looking into the "storm" room:

We have two freezers! : Our pantry/storage:

Looking into the kitchen/living room: Our long living room:

Our very, very small bathroom :(

Our Kitchen:

and the dining room. I LOVE this table! :

Since I've Been Gone....

I taught 1 Science lesson

Clint has traveled 3 more times for Cross Country

We have received more than 12 new movies in the mail

I have completed 23 Homework Assignments for college

We have ran over 100 miles :)

And now
I'm Back!!!

The Post Office is my friend

I really do love my visits to the post office :)

Box 1 of 2 from my momma! Thanks Mom!

Just Remember....

you can get a free PDF file from kindovermatter.com !

Such an inspiring quotation!