Jumping Up to Middle School

It was January 2012, I took a picture of my then second graders jumping off the sidewalk.  Then just cause it was such a fun picture, I immortalized them in black and white as my blog header. 

It's 2015 and those second graders just graduated from fifth grade and they are moving on up to middle school.  So just for fun I took another picture, same location, same order.  It's amazing that in such a transient community the core group of this class is pretty much the same.  They are still amazing kids!

Stranger than a High Schooler and Other Admiring Notes

In every First Grade Teacher's Life there comes a moment when you have to make a choice - correcting the spelling or letting it go because it's just too funny to change.  I chose poorly here because this note literally read,

Daer Coach,

You are stranger than a high schooler...

 

Don't ask me why I didn't just focus on fixing the word "dear" and leave the rest of that awesomeness alone!

This note is pretty awesome too because it looks like coach is out on the field with his hair dryer.

 

Better than that might be the picture of the bulging bicep inside the card.

There is nothing like a note from a First Grader to bring a little joy to the day unless of course it's a quality quote.  It just so happens that I have one of those too.  We were talking about how the Israelites were always grumbling.  So I asked the kids if they ever grumble.  Mr. Vocabulary raises his hand and says, "Yes, I grumble when I don't get my duty sleep!"  I laughed and said, "You mean your beauty sleep?"  He was pretty confident that it was "duty sleep."  So another little boy tried to help him out and said, "Yeah well it's dudey sleep cause he's a dude!"  Clever little guy!

Targets, Ombre, Chevrons and All Things Crafty

Just thought I would post a few of my favorite recent card creations.

 

I decided to use my circle dies to create a rainbow target and then pop a word out from the middle using the scripty thanks die from Lawn Fawn and a Hello die from Papertrey.  I loved the way these turned out.

Then I had a little ombre chevron action happening in these ones and used the same dies to cut out the words for these two cards.

I love this last little card for its color combination and that sweet little "Congrats" stamp from Stampin' Up's Your Perfect Day set. 

Happy, Happier, Happiest

I've been on a forced blog break due to a dead computer and the work of learning to use a new one.  But I am back with this gem of a picture that I hope will leave you feeling...

happy, happier, happiest.

 

If that doesn't do it for you then perhaps some First Grade dance moves and muscle love will.

 





April Fools in My Fridge

Thanks to one of my former students, I received a highly amusing gift on my birthday.  She made her way into my house and filled my refrigerator with a bunch of silly characters.  

A sign of things to come!

Ha. I love the bushy mustache and tie man. For my Sahel Peeps...makes me feel like Paul David Tripp is in my fridge and that's just funny! :)

The eggs are just too funny!

I realized today that the guy behind the mustard bottle is supposed to have bushy eyebrows...love it!

I surely do love to laugh and this is certainly the gift that keeps on giving in that department.  Thanks for giving me the gift of laughter, HR!  This might just be the best birthday gift I've ever received.

The Mosquitoes Are Driving Me Batty

Lately, there has been some repair work going on to get the sprinkler system working properly so that the lawn right outside my classroom can stay nice and green.  That's meant a lot of standing water and a direct increase in the mosquito population.  Last Friday I literally had mosquitoes swarming in the classroom.  So, of course, I have been strongly promoting a closed door policy.  But then there's that one time when a fellow teacher stops by and stands in the open door to visit and who should swoop in for a visit but Mr. Bat. Perhaps he heard that the eating was good what with the abundance of mosquitoes and all!

Now I've had a lot of visitors to the classroom - a swarm of bees, a scorpion and a water scorpion to name a few.  But this was my first time to have a bat drop by.  It was nice of him to consider helping us with our mosquito problem but with all his swooping and carrying on it would have been hard to focus on learning.  (Really, I just didn't want everyone to hear me screaming like a girl!)  So I called some friends to help me catch Mr. Bat and send him on his way.

Bye, bye, Mr. Bat!

(No children were traumatized in the making of this story.  They were away in French class.)

Hoofin' It

Well, now this gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Hoofin' it through town!"

There are loads here in Niger and then there are LOADS!  I can tell you straight up that this wouldn't be a load upon which I would like to find myself precariously perched.

Disgusting!

(Hope nobody is too grossed out...but sometimes you just have to share because otherwise no one would believe the things you see!)  :)