Welcome to.......

THE FARM!!!

We have been very busy learning all about the farm for the past couple of weeks, doing everything from milking cows and gathering eggs to planting lima beans and making butter!  Here is just some of the stuff we've been up to:

Giant veggies with cool facts

Farm Dramatic Play- complete with farm animals, hats, bandanas, stick horses, chicken hats, crops to plant and a cow to milk.

 Grass-heads, Our Schema Chart and Our Crops

 Muddy Pigs

Lima Bean Greenhouses

Farm Words Word-Wall

If I lived on a farm writing

Moo-velous Data and Cows at Night


It's been a busy couple of weeks to say the least!!!  Up next?  Easter!

TGI{almost}F!

Those Pesky Leprechauns!

One of the best parts of being a teacher is creating magic for the kids.  Holidays are a fabulous opportunity for this and with today being St. Patrick's Day, well, let's just say......

magic was made!

A couple of my kiddos created a leprechaun trap today before heading off to school.  They were so excited and spent about 2 hours working on it!  At this point, while I was impressed with their ability to stick with an activity for that long, I was a bit skeptical on whether or not they really believed the leprechauns were going to come.  I mean, these are third and fourth grade boys.  Who don't believe in the tooth fairy.  Or the Easter Bunny.  Or even Santa.  But, realizing that at the very least I'd be able to make some magic for my younger students, I upset the trap, stole all the pennies being used as 'bait' and sprinkled green and gold glitter.....on my carpet. (I should insert here that I have a love/hate relationship with glitter.  I love how it can complete a project but I absolutely HATE the mess it creates!)  I also typed up a little poem from the leprechaun himself.

When my kindergarteners got back from school they were, as I expected, very excited to see that a leprechaun had been in our room.  As my older students started to trickle in, they were pretty excited too.  Then I went to pick up the boys who had built the trap.  They were hardly even on the bus before asking about the trap and when they got back, were so excited to see that they had almost caught a leprechaun.  I think what shocked me the most was when their parents came to pick them up, they just had to tell them all about the trap!  (the best part was the looks on the parent's faces as they tried to figure out how on earth their child really believed that a leprechaun was real!)

And I have to say, the treat the 'leprechaun' left was delicious!

Our version of a

"Shamrock Shake"

1 scoop vanilla ice cream

Sprite (add extra food coloring to make it more green)

Whipped Cream

Gold (or rainbow) sprinkles

The best part of the day? 

"Ms. Jessica, you always make things so much fun!" ~ 2nd grade girl

Don't you just love holidays? :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Out of the Mouths of Babes.....

My kiddos have said some of the funniest things in the past few days.  Sometimes I wish I could see into their little brains when they talk to see what they're thinking!  I really need to start saving these little quotes; they would make for a great book someday!

"Ms. Jessica, did you know I'm one-half German, one-half French and one-half Kolish?"

"You mean Polish?"

"Oh yeah...I'm so embarrassed!"

"Sometimes I talk sassy because she talks sassy to me!  And she says bad words!  Like the s-word, the k-word and the z-word!"

(I obviously knew what the s-word was and I figured the k-word was kill but I had no idea what the z-word was so I asked her)

"I don't know Ms. Jessica, but it's bad!"

"I'm in my element!"

Happy Tuesday everyone! :)

Difficult day....

I've noticed a lot of posts in the blogosphere on life as a twenty-something lately.  It's rather refreshing to hear other people going through a lot of the same problems.  Sorta makes it feel as though we're all in this together....

Today was a difficult day.  I completely fell apart at work and found myself ducking into the bathroom so I could regain control of my emotions.  Unfortunately, this was after not one, but TWO of my co-workers saw my hasty entrance into said bathroom and wanted to ensure I was okay.  Which was sweet but I found myself struggling with what to say.  "Yes, I'm fine.  Just a bit emotional because I feel like I'm still waiting for my life to start.  Thanks for asking though." I think I went with the "I'm fine, just tired" card instead.  Which I suppose is partially true.

The problem is I'm not even remotely where I thought I would be at this point in my life.  Like most girls, I had it all planned out:  graduate college, get a job teaching kindergarten in a good school, find the love of my life, settle down and eventually start having babies.  Pretty fairytale life huh?  So far I can cross out graduating college.....and that's it.  Now I don't even know what I want in my life anymore.  I thought teaching was right for me, and it might still be, but lately, I just want a break from kids.  I'm burnt out.  I work three jobs, seven days a week, all of which are with children.  Don't get me wrong, I love children but when I was working my butt off in college, I didn't envision working in daycare for the rest of my life.  Nor did I expect to be working three jobs, yet still be living paycheck-to-paycheck.

I have some hard decisions to make this year and I am at a complete loss for what to do.  In the past three years, I have applied for over 900 teaching positions and still nothing.  We're coming up on the time of year where I need to start gearing up to apply for more.  With all the budget cuts, teaching jobs in the midwest are getting harder and harder to come by and I'm just not sure what I'm suppose to do.  Do I apply for jobs outside of the state I've lived in all my life?  Do I start looking into a different career?  What do I do in the meantime until I can figure all of this out?  And, most importantly, am I prepared enough/strong enough/brave enough to make these decisions?

I've been looking into other career choices lately too.  I loved planning events for the sorority in college and I think I have enough organizational skills that I could be a decent event planner.  I have also always loved children's literature, but I'm not sure what I would do with that yet.  I'm just not sure if I'm even suppose to leave the education field. 

Sometimes I wish I could just get a thirty-second glimpse of my life ten years down the road.  Just a quick peek to make sure I'm doing okay and maybe give me a clue on what I should be doing to get there.  Too bad life doesn't come with a crystal ball huh?

I guess I just didn't expect life to be this difficult.  As little girls, we're fed all these wonderful stories about life but the problem is, real-life isn't a fairytale.  Real life is hard.  It's confusing.  And let's face it, it's scary.  Despite all this, I'm going to continue to cling to the quote "everything happens for a reason."  I may not understand why things are the way they are right now and that's okay.  I just need to remember that there is a reason for it.

Hello from the Frozen Tundra!

Could it possibly be any colder? 

 

This is what I found when I got out to my car tonight after work.  Seriously, it is currently -9 degrees (NEGATIVE NINE!!!) and DROPPING.  Factor in the wind and we're looking at -25 degrees.  BRRRRRRRRRRR!

Raise your hand if you're up for moving somewhere warmer! :)

Speaking of cold weather, last Friday we had our Winter Gala at work.  This is where the preschoolers put on a program for their parents.  I was put in charge of the backdrop and decorations and it all came together in the end!  The parents just loved seeing their babies up on stage! :)

I LOVE my walrus, although I can't take credit for it.  I stole borrowed the idea from Mrs. Jump.

The baby penguins had the names of all the preschoolers on their tummies.

Hard to see but it's a penguin mosaic on the blue paper.

If I lived in a snowglobe....

Alright, it's time to put on warm jammies and snuggle up in bed with lots of blankets!

Dear February,

Can you pretty please hurry up and get here?  The people at Lifetime Fitness are trying to keep their New Year's resolutions to work out and thus making me go cah-razy by dropping off their massive amounts of children in the child center!  If you could just hurry up and get here, enough of them will have failed at keeping their resolutions that life will be back to normal!  Thanks so much! :)

In other news, Chloe got mail today.  Yes, you read that right....the CAT got mail.  Apparently when you're a new customer at Southview Animal Hospital they send you a card with a brochure telling you their info.  Attached to the card was a little catnip toy for Chloe.  She's thrilled!  Here are some pics to prove it:

She likes to throw it in the air and try to catch it.  HILARIOUS to watch!

  

Also, I realize I didn't post a picture yesterday for "A Year of Photos."  I took it but just forgot to post it!  As a result, you get TWO pics today.  Lucky you.

I found an idea online to make these so we decided to give it a try in Kindergarten.  They turned out super cute!

This is now hanging in my living room!  My roommate bought it on her way home from work yesterday and I love it!  The city is LA.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend thus far!  I'm off to make some cocoa (to hopefully help coax my voice back) and curl up to watch a movie!