The Finale

So I was thinking.... that no one told me saying good-bye was going to be so hard. I can not believe that I only have two more days until my first year of teaching is over. Over the past two weeks anytime I have thought about saying good-bye, tears have come to my eyes and I have tried my best to push them away. I have already warned my class that I will probably cry this week and not to worry, I'll be okay.

How can 21 six and seven year olds affect me this way? 

Well, first off, they have brought me so much JOY this year, and have made this year very memorable. Here is why my tears will be flowing these next two days.

1. I have been blessed with a class that loves to talk about the Lord. As mentioned before with one of my friends here, they know that God cares about them and loves them. I loved getting to listen to their conversations about who God is and what He has done for us.

Mark 10:14

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom

of God belongs to such as these."

2. I have been blessed to start my days for the past 178 school days with 21 smiling faces greeting me, ready to have a blast. 

3. I have been able to make learning fun, which is what I was most nervous about when I started 178 days ago. I have gained so much confidence in my ability to make activities fun: noun town, Oobleck, SCI FRIs, Native American head dresses, Ocean life Ipad reports, and everything in between. Seeing their smiles and their enthusiasm while working makes all the hard work of cutting out and creating completely worth it.   

4. I have been blessed with 21 fabulous students, who believe in me, encourage me, and laugh at all of my jokes. (Teaching 1st grade is a great confidence booster!)

5. I have been blessed to have been able to instill in my firsties the love of reading. One of my precious friends came up to me at Open House nine months ago and was nervous because he didn't know all of his sounds. With the help of everyone at our school he now LOVES to read to anyone who will listen, wanting to miss his center time to go read to someone.

6. The classroom community in my room is enough to make me tear up each day. Hearing a six year old encourage one of their friends to keep on going and celebrating their successes has been one of the greatest joys this year. 

While writing my good-bye letters, I realized how much I was going to miss this adorable, crazy, rowdy, caring, loving group of kids. It has been a fabulous year with many memories to reflect on. I have been blessed to be in a profession where I can see children mature and grow day by day.

 So wish me luck this week as I have to reluctantly say good-bye to my first class!  

~Rachel 

Monogramed Teaching Bag

So I was thinking... 

that every great teacher needs a great teacher bag! I was blessed this year with an adorable little first grader who gave me a Thirty-One bag that I use for Christmas!

One of my best friends is getting married in less than 100 days! She had an Around the Clock shower last weekend and I was given the time of 'teaching time.' I decided to make her a monogramed teaching bag and fill it with some fun teaching things!

Here is a quick tutorial:

First I went to my favorite craft store to gather supplies:

canvas bag, fabric, and yarn

 I printed a "G" for the soon to be Mrs. Goodell and traced the pattern onto the fabric to cut out. 

 The next step is a little time consuming, but super easy! Just thread your yarn needle and stitch away!

 The finished product before the shower!

 She is ready to teach now!

7 more days of school! I can not believe, be looking for end of the year posts soon!

~Rachel 

12 more days to go!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday. I am home for the weekend for one of my best friend's wedding shower. It was nice to go to my home church to day and take a break from the Auburn scene. I hope the Lord has given you many things to be blessed about on this pretty Sunday. I love getting to talk with my firsties about God and I wanted to share a quick part of our week that made my heart smile.  

One of my first grade friends has been having trouble controlling his behavior this year, and this week had not started out well for him. He had been mean to a friend, snipped someone's hair in Art, and just not making good choices. He had to sit out for part of recess one day and so I pulled him over to talk with him. 

Here was the convo:

Me: BC I just love you so much and I want you to make those good choices that I know you know how to do. BC who loves you?

BC: You do, and my mom

Me: Who believes in you?

BC: you do (heart melting so far)

Me: Who cares about you?

BC: God.

(My heart smiled so big, that I just gave him a huge hug and let him go play. If you remember, I ask that you pray for him with me.)

I LOVE when I see God working in the hearts of my 21 friends that I now after 168 days with them feel like my own. 

Here is our week in recap:

We have been learning about butterflies so we made some coffee filter butterflies and glued them to a butterfly poem that I created. 

I randomly bought a coloring book one day, and it has turned out to be a lifesaver. We love coloring the pages and displaying them in our brand new 'gallery.'

We studied commands and exclamations so I created this worksheet where we wrote one of each type of sentence and then drew a picture to match. 

I am LOVING making Anchor Charts lately! Such a great way to review all we have learned!

Here is our butterfly life cycle that we made. We read two books to find our information and then as an incentive I let them color in the pictures that you see on the chart. 

We have been reading The Magic School Bus: Expedition Down Under, so we worked on story maps and summarizing. 

Review on Contraction and Compound Words. 

Last week we worked on the life cycle of a frog and one of my parents sent in some little frogs for us to observe. 

I hope that you see the joy and blessings in each day this week! Happy Sunday!

~Rachel