So I was thinking...: November 2011

Friday, November 25, 2011

Sailing, Sailing on the Ocean Blue

I promise I will start getting better at posting weekly updates so I can be true to the name of this school series, the weekly review.

Our Mayflower voyage went well and we sailed right into the learning about the pilgrims daily life.

We created suitcases that displayed what we would bring on the Mayflower and even created our own Mayflower ships that listed our newly learned facts.

When polled: Most children decided that they did not want to ride on the Mayflower. One interesting fact we learned was that the Mayflower was not meant to carry passengers.

As you can tell we learned many more facts about the pilgrims and their voyage. Their favorite fact: When the water went bad, everyone, children too, had to drink beer.(Maybe I'll leave that out next year ha!)

I chose to include five things in my suitcases hoping that they would at least fill in the same amount.

This little guy went above and beyond listing 12 things he would want to bring. If you notice #11 it will bring a giggle. 11. and evrethig ellts (translated: and everything else!)

They also loved learning that little boys had to wear dresses until they were six years old! We took the two days before Thanksgiving break off from Scott Foresman to review before our Unit 2 test so we had time for some fun activities. The media center showed the Mouse and the Mayflower which allowed us to further our Pilgrim journey. I have to admit this movie is cheesy and very poorly made but my kids were enthralled with it as they always are when we get a chance to watch a movie. During the movie they quoted some Psalms which I loved and hope took root in my little guys hearts. This lead to the Pilgrims talking about the Holy Bible. One of my little boys(SJ) came up to me right after and said, "Miss Anderson, they just talked said the Holy Bible, guess what? My mom has that book!" Me: "Really, I have it to, its a really good one!" This was a great reminder that I am a teacher to not only teach them about curriculum but to spread His word and love by my actions and words.

This touching moment was followed by a hilarious one. Two seconds after the first mention of the Bible, little MM comes up and says " Miss Anderson, they just mentioned the Holy Bible and that reminded me...my mom's name is Holley."

As we were waiting on the bell to ring, we discussed all the things we were thankful for and I was shown God's work in my little ones again, when two of them said that they were thankful for God and Jesus. These were followed by a precious little guy saying that he was thankful for old people. At that comment the bell rang and they were off to their homes to celebrate Thanksgiving. Oh, how they make me smile! I hope you were able to count your blessings yesterday with great food, friends, and family. We have so much to be thankful for!
~Miss Anderson

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Someone I Love

So I was thinking...how blessed I am to grow up in a two parent home. Being surrounded by teaching and school systems my whole life, I am sadly realizing how common it is for children to come from a divorced home. My sister's photography challenge this week was: Someone You Love. I had many choices that I could choose from, however living two hours from family it was hard to take one this week, so I went to my albums to search for someone I love. Here is what I found:

This is my dad, taken on a mission trip that we went on together after my senior year in high school. For this challenge, we had a trailer that was tilted (visibly uneven) well with a lot of hard work we were able to completely level it and added some insulation siding on the bottom.

Pretty proud of our results!

But back to the topic, of someone I love. My dad is a pretty quiet person, well compared to my mom, sister and me who can talk enough for all of us; but when he talks, you listen and learn. There are many things that I have learned from this incredible person.

1. Family is important. Be there for them in whatever way you can.

2. Follow the Lord, he will direct your path. Spend time in His Word and make sure your decisions and actions reflect this.

3. Give with everything you have: your time, money, prayers, and love. My dad is one of the most giving people that I know. Giving most of his vacation days to go on mission trips and help out in literally WHATEVER needs to be done, he is the first one there and the last one to leave.

4. Do your best in everything, don't leave a project if you can do it better. (If you know me, this is where I get the perfectionist gene)

5. Love for the Auburn Tigers, War Eagle!

And so much more!

I am continually shown how blessed I am and I am thankful to the Lord, my heavenly Father, who has blessed my family in the tough times and the celebration times, all glory and praise to Him.

~Hope you are finding many things to be thankful for in this season of Thanksgiving.

~Rachel

Thursday, November 10, 2011

A month full of thanks

So I was thinking...how many things we have to be thankful for.

I made this little fellow as a craft for my class; however, it was a great reminder to how many things I have to be thankful for. My turkey could have had a full flock of feathers, but to a six/seven year old this could of been overwhelming, so I stuck with the basics.

Last week was a great reminder of how thankful I am for my faith and ability to worship God. On Friday night I got to spend six hours in the Lord's word. I attended David Platt's Secret Church. It was an intense six hours but definitely a great rejuvenation for my walk with the Lord. While there, we learned about the persecution of our fellow believers in Egypt.

The information we learned makes my heart break for these people who are trying to follow God's will. Please join me in praying for these people and to thank God for all of your blessings, He is the giver of all our blessings.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Native Americans

As I mentioned last week, we have started our November social studies unit with Native Americans. This past Friday, I told my class that we were going to get to be historians and go back in time to the first Thanksgiving. We were excited! Our adventure began with learning about Native Americans and how they respected nature, used all of the natural resources and were part of a culture group. After reading some great books throughout the week we were ready to become part of the First Grade Tribe. As I mentioned before, my Native American name was Winnataska, after my beloved camp. Well camp friends, guess what I taught my sweet students?

"We are the Red Men"

We began Friday by also talking about how Native Americans earned their feathers in their headdresses. We earned ours by working hard, being respectful, and following directions. By the time we created our headdresses we all had three feathers for our great decisions. My kids had been working hard all week creating their own Native American names. Here are a few of our tribe's names:

Little Gopher decided later in the day that he had earned the

upgrade and changed his name to Big Gopher ha!

We had tons of fun with our headdresses, here were a few of my favorite moments.

Before teaching our lesson, I had pulled my hair into pig tails and put on my headdress,

my precious little MM immediately pulled her hair into pig tails and then asked if we could

get a picture because we were twins!

SJ's game on the playground:

(yes, we wore our headdresses everywhere, even recess)

Guys! Let's chase after all of the non-head dressed people! This lead to a game

of Native Americans vs. Pilgrims.

Well, we are off to learn about the Mayflower next week, wish us luck as we sail away!

~Miss Anderson

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Oh the places your go and the shoes that go too

So I was thinking...about Dr. Seuss's wonderful book Oh the Places You'll Go and it reminded me of my family. We are the kind that will drop everything, get in the car, drive through the night to make it to an event or special occasion. Ten hour drives are nothing for our crew. This past weekend was one of those memorable events however, the drive was a nice and quick two hour one.

Our destination: Atlanta

Event: Brother's(in-law) first and possibly last MARATHON!

Reason: to be his paparazzi and cheering squad.

So Saturday morning I headed that way to the big city to meet up with the fam. My parents and III's parents were meeting us there for some weekend fun. Luckily for III he was able to sleep peacefully the night before because our beloved Auburn Tigers pulled out a victory.

Race Day

Early Sunday morning we all rose and bundled up to go and face the 30 degree weather. We met Trey at mile 6 and he was looking at a champ!

High Fives all around! Off he goes, 6 down, 20 more to go

Ugh, the first hill!

Our mission was not complete, so we hopped back in the van & navigated our way to mile 15, where he was still holding up strong. Impressive! We were very proud. We also met some friends along the way.

Birthday marathoner

Star Wars Marathoner?
Yes, he ran the whole way with the light saber!

He came and went. 15 miles down, 11 more to go. Back into the car we went, we were off to mile 21!

Mama G proud of her son! Everyone love LB's awesome sign!

LB cheering on III w/ my Forest Gump inspired sign. LB waiting to spot III coming at mile 20.

Look at his spirit, high-fiving the crowd!

The final stride to the finish line!

Guys, I'm not moving from here!

The lovely couple, LB checking on her man.

Christmas card?!

Marathon finisher!

We were so proud of III and his success in checking off a goal on his list!

In other news, I was super excited when I was able to buy three pairs of shoes for only $36! That's $12 a piece, which is great for my teacher budget! These are a little summery, but at $9 I could not pass them up. Linking up for the sis's photography challenge!

~Rachel

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Spooky Fun Times!

This past week we celebrated the end of October with our Pumpkin rotation party. After relaxing and realizing that a little chaos is okay for one day. Boy did they have fun! Here are some of our fun creations!

Yummy Snacks

After our pumpkin counting activity, the parent who led the station with the help of a few of my kiddos created this wonderful creation for me to keep! I was so excited to take it home for my doorstep!

We ended the week with making long i kites to practice our long i words. I think they turned out pretty cute myself. They are floating around my classroom now!

This week we started learning about the first people in America, the Native Americans. Here are some fun activities we are doing this week.

Our Native American fact book, where we record our fun facts, and a fun paper plate activity that I am using for one of my stations. Everyday this week we have been brainstorming our Native American names and we are excited to make our headdresses on Friday! I will let you know how it goes, for my Camp friends can you guess what my Native American name will be??

Winnataska!

Of course, it means land of laughing water

Catch you up in a few!

~Miss Anderson