Yea for Thanksgiving and Pioneers!

Wow! I can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here! It is going to be at our house this year with my Dad's side of the family coming over. We have started cooking some of the food tonight and I actually made a pie I saw in the Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. It is a Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Pie. It looked so good in the picture and I am a HUGE fan of cheesecake and pumkin pie and chocolate....so to combine them all together is FANTASTIC! I just finished it, so I couldn't help but take a picture of my little creation. I have to say, it doesn't look too bad! I will be excited to try it tomorrow!

As far as Pioneer Day yesterday, we had a BLAST! The kids were all dressed so cute...some parents even making dresses and bonnets for their children to wear! They came into school and sat in chairs with the girls on one side and the boys on the other side. They then had to use their chalk and "slates" to write down some math problems on the board and a poem that they had to try and memorize. Oh, and when I called role, they had to stand up and say "Yes, Ma'am" and sit back down. Also, throughout the day, they had to drink out of a bucket of water, instead of the water fountain. They all had their own cups and would dip a laddle in the bucket and pour the water in their cups. Nobody would do it for a while, but when they got thirsty enough, they tried it. I tried it too, and it wasn't bad at all!

We had a bunch of rotations in the morning and then went on a "trek" in the afternoon around the field. It was a LOT of work but it all turned out okay because we had so much help with all of the parents that came in. I had a total of 7 parents come (including my own mother :) ) from my class alone! I will definitely do this again! It really gave them a taste of how pioneers lived and traveled. It is those kinds of things that really stick with them for a long time! Anyway, here are a few shots from the day:

School Days

Well, things are back to being crazy as usual! :) This week I spent Wednesday and Thursday at the school for 12 hours each day, doing Parent/Teacher Conferences! They were VERY long days, but all of them went pretty well though. I didn't have parents yelling at me like I feared...they were actually really supportive and if their kid was doing bad, they wanted to know how they could help improve the situation! I have such awesome parents of my students! I am really thankful for that...it makes my life easier to have that kind of support, because I really do want these kids to succeed and they will if I have help.

I am pretty excited for next week, not only because it is a short week, but we are doing a Pioneer Day on Tuesday! It is going to be filled with pioneer activities like making candles, tying quilts, making butter and soup, playing games, and making potatoe prints in the morning and then in the afternoon, they get to "pack their wagons" and go on a "trek" around the field outside! We are going to actually have them pull wheelbarrows or wagons with things in them and have situations in which they will have to get rid of items and have trials. We are then going to have them come in and eat some soup and bread with butter on it and go home! I did a pioneer day similar to this when I was student teaching, but I don't think it lasted the whole day, so it will be a blast! (hopefully!) I will have to take some pictures and share them...

Back To School...

Well, my break is officially over... :( It is back to reality tomorrow! On Friday I had to go in and move all my stuff into another classroom. Luckily there is lots of help, but it just takes a while to get everything all set up! The good thing is that I am in a really big room so there is more space in between the desks and more places to move around the room. Also, they just installed a microphone in that room so I don't have to talk so loud anymore. I noticed that my voice would be kind of hoarse when I went to bed each night when I started teaching. Now, I can just wear this microphone around my neck and talk normal. It will be really nice!

Anyway, it will be good for me to go back, because I started getting bored this past week! I was having a hard time motivating myself to do anything useful, but I did manage to get some lesson planning done, so hopefully I am ready for tomorrow. It will be fun to hear what all of my students did over the break. They are such cute kids! I really am excited to see them again!