Teachers aka Improv Artists

For beach week my intended cooking activity was going to be "beach in a cup".

What's beach in a cup you say?

Well I'm glad you asked.

Beach in a cup is when you use blue jello to replicate an ocean in a cup, then crumble some yellow cookies on top to simulate your "beach". To up the cuteness of the craft you can add a piece of fruit roll up to be your beach towel and lay a teddy gram on top as your sunbather. And the pièce de résistance... a small drink umbrella to be your beach umbrella.

Cute right?

Totes, it's adorable. So there's only so much "cooking" you can do with a 10 two-year-olds in a room, all of whom are eager to participate and crowding around the table. Start at the jello, usually something that you do with boiling water. Am I giving two-year-olds boiling water? No. So I let the kids pour the jello mix into the bowl, then take turns pouring cold water in the bowl. After that they took turns stirring the jello. I vigorously stirred it after that, but I just could not get the jello to dissolve enough. I hoped for the best, spooned it into separate cups and put it in the fridge overnight.

Fast forward to the next day.

I checked the jello in the fridge expecting jello but just checking as a formality...

Total. freaking. liquid.

So I'm looking around like... bro -__-

My boss tells me to leave it until nap time and if it hasn't set by then then to freeze it... I'm like if it didn't set overnight it isn't gunna be set in the next 4 hours.

So they put it in the freezer for me.

Here comes the improv

Now my beach in a cup jellos are going to be jello pops with cookies on the side... as if the kids will care.

But fast forward to snack time and the jello isnt all the way frozen yet either!

This jello is causing far too many f#@&ing problems in my life.

So I'm like Hey, I can still save this. Since it's in a slushie state they can eat it with a spoon I can still go with the original plan.

So we crumble the cookies and lay the teddy gram on top and voila.

My point is, teachers think quickly on their feet.

No Pictures Please!

At my new job they're very strict about us not having our cell phones out. Since I've been working in my field I've actually tried hard to abide by the rules and not get into trouble at work, versus when I worked in the grocery store and I didn't give a f..... you know.

A year ago when I started this blog I was taking pictures almost everyday  of the various crafts and projects we did... with my phone. It makes me sad to not be able to show everyone the cute ideas I come up with... or "borrow" from others, and the work that my kiddos do.

I'm going to try to take pictures of our bulletin board at the end of every week if I can but no guarantees. For now I guess we'll have to settle for me describing their beautiful artwork for you.

Turning the Corner

A few weeks ago I started a new job where I'm a Lead Teacher in a toddler classroom again and I am sooooo happy.

I haven't posted in a while because I had a few other things I wanted to post about but didnt because of some personal issues that conflicted with my work and my schooling.

Anyway I'm going to skip those posts or maybe post them later.

I love being a toddler teacher like there is no tomorrow. My kids are the perfect age for me, 2's who are almost 3. They're still little and cuddly but they're old enough to talk and have some self sufficiency.

The small things make me feel like I'm really making a difference. For example, my school does a different theme every week, this week was farmer's market week. I had been trying to teach the children things about the farmer's market. What it is, what we get there, who works there, where the food comes from etc. During snack time we had carrots, I looked at the table and said "Oh we have carrots, where can we buy carrots from?" and one little boy actually said "At the farmer's market!"

My heart filled with joy. It might seem like a small simple thing but to know that they're actually paying attention and I'm teaching them something is literally my entire life's goal.

The Dilemma

I love my new job but I only intended to be their for the summer and then return to substitute teaching. Everyone at my job is really cool and nice and I feel really appreciated there. They constantly tell me what a good job I'm doing and how they wish I would stay passed the summer and I could possibly move up the ranks in time (although that may have just been a playful conversation). But it's a significant pay cut from subbing. I love subbing and I love being a lead teacher. I hate to make a decision based off money but I have bills to pay and I'm trying to save to have a better life. I hate being in a position in my life where all of my jobs and my living situations are temporary. Hopefully after I graduate I can stop hopping around and just stay in one place.

DAB ON EM

I'm starting a research project with my second graders soon and I was trying to figure out a way to get them excited about it. I've seen those posters that make acronyms out of popular dances like Hit the Quan and Dab On Em so I jumped on board.

Our classroom is Minion themed so I try to incorporate Minions whenever I can. Lucky for me I happened to find a Minion doing the Dab on the internet. #Score

So our research process is as follows

Decide on a topic - Pretty self explanatory, pick what you're going to research

Ask questions - Figure out what things you want to know about your topic

Brainstorm answers to your questions - Make educated guesses and predictions about the answers to your questions. Also take this time to think about where your could find the answers.

Open a book - Look for information in books (a good excuse to get kids into the library as well as show them how we had to research before the internet was as accessible to kids as it is today)

surf the Net - Use the internet to search for answers on reputable websites

Evaluate your answers - Here's the step where we actually start answering the questions we want to know about our topic

Mark notes on paper - Don't forget to write down your answers!

The Name Game

I wanted to make some new name tags for this kids but I wanted them to help make them. I got the idea from pinterest to take one of those word art fonts and write each child's name. The ones I saw on pinterest looked nice, they were printed with designs on them but I let the kids color them instead, then I cut them out and taped them to their desks.

I think their cute and now they're more personal to each student! Hopefully they last the rest of the school year.

Agent P teaches Pronouns

My students were having a problem remembering what a pronoun is and frankly I couldn't remember what they were off the top of my head when they asked. So I made them an anchor chart starring Perry the Platypus aka Agent P.

As I always tell my students, he may not be perfect but I tried my best. Anyway, I started the poster with the definition of what a pronoun is. We talked about it and I gave a few examples, then had the children come up with some examples and write them on the poster. I thought it'd be more meaningful if they got to help me make it instead of me just listing a bunch of words to them.

What Time Is It?

I decorated the classroom clock to look like a flower in order to help the students with telling time. In a way I feel like it's cheating but, help them get the skill now, they'll be able to do it with ease later.

I'm not afraid of heights but I was very nervous getting up on a ladder to hang these up. Particularly since the teacher I'm in for is out with a broken foot she got from climbing on something in her classroom and falling.

Anyway the flower serves two purposes. One to look cute cause it's spring time. And two each pedal represent the minutes on the clock, but the leaves on the stem are strategically showing that the hour hand and minute hand are different lengths.