Mountain Men, Pioneers, and New York, Oh My!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while! It seems like I barely have room to breathe lately! Sometimes I wonder what in the world I am doing being a teacher.... It seems like a 24/7 job! I guess for a first year teacher, it is because of all of the planning. Maybe next year will be better! I still love being with the kids though. I think they keep me entertained and learning new things every day. I love the challenge that it is too, trying to get them to understand a concept. Then when they get it, it is so neat to see that light in their eyes! I just have to keep reminding myself of that everyday...

These last couple of weeks have been okay. We finished up talking about indians with our tribe habitats. We also did a short unit on mountain men. I had a mini mountain man rendezvous for them on Monday. I purchased some tan-colored felt, beads, and feathers at the local JoAnns and made them all "possibles sacks" (mountain man bags). I sewed them together and then they decorated them on Monday. They had a blast! Some of the girls still bring theirs to school! They brought little things from home to trade and we did some arm and leg wrestling. We also happened to have a real Mountain Man come talk to us the same day too! They REALLY liked that! I am starting a pioneer unit now. They are going to do a simulation of a wagon train traveling across the plains to Utah. We started this week by splitting into "wagon trains" and packing our "wagons". It is fun to listen to them argue about what to pack and not!
I also had my first experience with doing sub plans and having a sub yesterday. I had to get a sub so I could go to a funeral for my friend Candyce's mom. She died of cancer on Sunday. It came as kind of a shock, even though we knew it was going to happen. It was a beautiful funeral though, so it was worth getting the sub for. I worried a lot about how they would be with a sub, but they did just fine. Today, they said she was kind of mean! That just made me laugh because I am probably too nice to them!

Anyway, I am just anxiously awaiting next Wednesday when I get to go off track until November 10! YAHOOO! I need the break so bad! Also, I am going to New York with my friends Sally, Candyce, and Candyce's sister, Melissa on the 24th of October. I am so excited to do that. I think it will be good for Candyce and her sister to get away, especially after all that has happened in their lives lately. My heart aches for them, but it is comforting to know that they will get to see her again someday. It is just hard going on without a mom.

Well, that is all until next time I guess!

I Am Still Alive!

In the midst of another week of my teaching adventure, I am having a great time! It is stressful and a lot of work, but the kids are so much fun! This week I had them create tribe habitats for the 5 tribes of Utah. They were divided into groups and each had a tribe to research. They brought everything they needed to make habitats showing the food, clothing, shelter, and way of life of their tribe. This is them in the process of creating:






























The finished products!




















It was fun, just listening to them work together! They were so cute! The made pretty cool little habitats. It is fun also to see what their creative little minds could do.

I also had some of the students that were looking for a "job" to do, rearrange my collection of books that were given to me by a retiring teacher. Here are the pictures of them! I couldn't resist how they sorted them out.... and then look at how they spelled the categories out on the boxes.... :)

5 Weeks Down, 4 More to Go!

So, I can't believe I have made it through 5 weeks of teaching! Only 4 more weeks until I go off track! Wahoo! What a journey so far! This week I was sooo frustrated on Monday because I felt like the kids weren't turning things in and all the papers just kept piling up and so on, but then I talked to my mentor (another 4th grade teacher) and she told me that if kids don't finish their work or bring their homework back, they have to stay in and do it at recess in her class. What a NOVEL idea! :) So, I started posting up all the work each student was missing and making them stay in and it has worked so well! I am getting a lot more work turned in, because they really don't like to stay in for recess! Who knew....

As far as the work piling up to correct, I started sending it home for parents to do (that said they could do it) and it worked too. It has made it a lot easier for me to grade the really important things instead of spending my time on all the "little" things! To all those parents out there who help out teachers...THANK YOU! It really does make a difference!

I also had a few parent volunteers come and help out this week in the classroom. On Monday, we did salt dough maps of Utah, because that is what we have been talking about in Social Studies and a mom came and helped with that. Also, today I had a mom come in to help give spelling tests. It was so nice to have that time to some other things. I also have a mom that has planned out who is going to help with all of the parties and who is going to come and work with the kids on certain days of the week and so on. It is great to have people willing to do things like that!

On the down side of things, I gave out a math test on a unit I have been teaching and only about 7 kids passed with 80 percent and above! :( Real wake up call to me! So, now I have to go back and reteach a few things next week and test them again. The joys of teaching! :)

Anyway, I took pictures of the kids with their salt dough maps when they were finished. They turned out so cute! The librarian is letting us display them in the library. They were excited to do that! Here are the pictures:

Can't tell who the class clown is, can you? :) And then there are the sweet girls!