G is for Grace

I have thought about doing this craft with the girl I nanny for for months now. I kept pushing it back because I didn't think she could do it. She is 17 months now and I thought for sure she would be more interested in the pom-poms instead of the craft itself but I was wrong. I cut out a letter "G" and put it on the table. I put three dots of glue on the paper and opened the bag of pom-poms. She immediately grabbed a pom-pom, put it on the glue and said, "Push!" I didn't even tell her what to do... I think I nanny for a genius! Seriously, I was amazed. Once she put all three pom-poms on she reached in the bag for more and said, "More, more, more!" I said, "More glue?" She showed me her pom-poms and said, "More gue!" 

So simple and yet so freaking cute don't you think?!

Leaf Craft

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!

G and I did this leaf craft back in September. It turned out so cute! 

Directions:
1. Cut paper into small squares
2. Put glue on paper
3. Put squares on paper
4. Find a leaf template online
5. Use template to cut project out

Echolation

Back in October we were reading tons of books about Halloween. One day we specifically focused on Bats. We read Stellaluna, made upside-down hanging bats and watched this YouTube video called, Echolation. We also had Mrs. R stand in the middle of the room and a student hide somewhere. The student and Mrs. R would "beep" at each other and eventually Mrs. R found her. The kids loved that and they really seemed to enjoy learning all about bats! 

Since I was in such a batty place, I wanted to introduce the 16 month old I nanny for to bats too. She enjoyed my singing of the Echolation song and the cute bat song below:

Flutter, flutter little bat,
How I wonder where you're at.  

Swooping through the darkest night, 
You find your way without a light.

Flutter, flutter little bat, 
How I wonder where you're at!

Thankful for You!

I always share the devotions I write to my team. Although I do not serve this weekend I wanted to send out an e-mail to my team wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving! Here is the e-mail I sent out a few minutes ago:

Hi Team!

I was reading Jesus Calling this afternoon and wanted to share today’s devotion with you.

Let thankfulness rule in your heart. As you thank Me for blessings in your life, a marvelous thing happens. It is as if scales fall off your eyes, enabling you to see more and more of My glorious riches. With your eyes thus opened, you can help yourself to whatever you need from My treasure house. Each time you receive one of My golden gifts, let your thankfulness sing out praises to My Name. “Hallelujahs” are the language of heaven, and they can become the language of your heart.

A life of praise and thankfulness becomes a life filled with miracles. Instead of trying to be in control, you focus on Me and what I am doing. This is the power of praise: centering your entire being in Me. This is how I created you to live, for I made you in My own image. Enjoy abundant life by overflowing with praise and thankfulness.

Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

Psalm 100:4-5 “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for all that you do for the kiddos and families in our church! I am so thankful to serve alongside each one of you. Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to you and your families!

Gratefully,

Elizabeth Mary

How to Make A Turkey

On Wednesday November 20th, we read the book, "This is the Turkey" by Abby Levine. After reading the book we talked about the steps it takes to make a Turkey. Students were given the paper below and drew the different steps of making a Turkey. On Thursday we had parents come in and dictate their pictures turning it into a story. On Friday we typed the dictations and cut out the pictures turning this fun activity into a class book.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Date a Girl Who Teaches

I read a blog post called, "Don't Date a Girl Who Teaches." It had some really great points. I would have to say my favorite was, "She will bring home every strain of every airborne disease within a 25-mile radius. Hope your immune system's perfect." 

This blog post was written in reply to this blog post. Date a Girl Who Teaches was just as cute. I nodded my way through the entire article. As a future teacher who has over 300 children's lit books I especially enjoyed reading, "Date a girl who teaches children. Date a girl who enjoys more in a bookstore for school supplies and children’s books rather than in make-up store. She has problems with storage space because she has too many trinkets and storybooks to keep. Date a girl who has a list of stories that she wants to have and read, who has a collection of Aklat Adarna, Leo Lionni and Eric Carle’s books." I also really enjoyed this bullet point, "A girl who teaches won’t require much of your time. She will hardly see you on weeknights because she prefers to finish her lesson plans and worksheets and catch up sleep. Unless she had a really bad and long day, she will randomly ask you to have dinner or coffee with her. But if you insist, she will try her best and make it to the last full show of Inception even on a freakin’ Wednesday night just to be with you. (Please cooperate and pretend with her that she enjoyed the movie by not asking details of the show anymore.)" 

If you are a teacher or you are a future educator take ten minutes and read both of these blog posts. You won't regret it.

Owning Cats

Found this great article called, "Owning Cats Can Inflict Permanent Damage To Mental Health But Nobody Bothered To Warn Us. You can read the article here. I am clearly a cat lady because I related to this article 100%. I also have an Instagram for my cat. Yeah, I am that girl. In all seriousness though if you have an Instagram look him up. His username is @mister_biebs.

This was one of my favorite pictures from the article with the caption, "We're more annoyed than scared when there's a loud noise at 3am in the morning." Biebs does this all the time!!

Live for Today

James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

On Sunday November 10, my dog was running down the steps to go play Frisbee when she either miss stepped or missed a step and fell. She started squealing and could not walk. We took her to the emergency vet where they did an x-ray. She had fractured her elbow and would need surgery. She fractured her other elbow when we was six months old. We gave her surgery and she made a full recovery. This time was different though. Because of her age there was no guarantee she would make a full recovery and surgery cost several thousands of dollars so we made a hard decision and decided to put her down.

That day started off just as any other day and then the unexpected happened. Throughout the whole day I kept thinking about how short life is and that none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. I find myself pushing things off until tomorrow whether it is really tomorrow or a month from, a year from now or even five years from now. I get so caught up in today and what needs to get done that I need to start living life as if there is no tomorrow because tomorrow may never come. I need to do things like stare in wonderment of the starry night, actually stop to smell a rose, really and truly do unto others, and love those He has placed in my life especially those who are hard to love. 

Thank God for today, for giving you breath and enjoy the simple things in life. I know I will.

Kids Say the Funniest Things

- I wore a my hair in a bun to school. I knew I was going to get questions and comments but I didn't know how many questions and comments. "Miss. S, why is your hair like that?" "It's in a bun because..." "Do you need a hotdog to go with that bun?"

- I have been sick and the kids knew that. A girl motioned me to come closer so I bent down thinking she was going to whisper to me. She cups her hand over her mouth and starts yelling into my ear. 

- During snack time one of our students was looking sad so I walked over to him and before I could say anything he said, "Miss. S, I don't think it's very funny when kids laugh at me during lunch." "That isn't funny. Who laughs at you? Anyone from our class?" "J and L from Mrs. R's class." "Why?" "My mom writes love notes to me in my lunch box and they think it's funny." "Oh, that's not nice. My mom used to write me special notes and put them in my lunchbox. Now, I write my mom special notes and put them in her lunch box." He had the biggest smile on his face after I said that.

-  "I love you, Miss. Schweiter!"

- "Are you teaching a math lesson today?" "No, Mrs. R is." "Oh man, I want you to teach us!"  

- "Who made you?" "Huh?" "Who made you?" "What do you mean?" "You know, like you were once in your mommy's tummy, but how did you get there?" "You need to talk to your mom and dad." "How did you get here?!"

- "Miss. S, what does envious mean?""You would feel envious if your friend moved to a house with a pool." "I have a house with a pool." "Okay, I am envious of you because my house does not have a pool." "Oh, jealous!"

- "Miss. S, I don't mean to tattle but..."

- "What are your super hero powers?" "Flaming ear wax and flaming snot!"  

- Two boys were spitting as they waited to go out to recess. I went over to talk to them and one boy turned his head threw his wrist to the side and said, "Oh, you know boys!"  

- Ms. S, you look beautiful! Do you have a date after school today? #iwish

- "Do you have kids?" "No." "Oh, that's okay. Some people are not meant to have kids."

- "How old are you?" "24." "You're still in college when you're 24?" 

- Drops her Chocolates on the floor and yells, "Why, God, Why?"

- Girl I babysit (7): "I wish I was an only child. I don't understand how some families only get one kid but we have three." 

- Grace (16 months) greeted me at the door and said, "Missed you!"

- Conversation with the 16 month old I nanny: "You're the best girl." "Ever."

- Liz (to Baby E): Do you want some food too?
Grace: If you want food you need to say please Baby Eloise. (I walk over with a jar of Carrots.) Say thank you Baby Eloise.

- Grace was reading books. She started to get up suddenly and said, "My back is sore." She's hanging out with too many old folks.

- Grace spilled her milk. I was cleaning it up when she said, "I bet the ants would love some milk!" There were ants under her chair not even 5 minutes prior that we picked up and put outside. :-)

- This was totally out of the blue but during dinner Grace said, "I need some camera phones." 

- "Do you see that pile of birds up in the sky?"

- Me: "Gentle hands or you will take a break." 
  Grace: "I wanna take a break!" 

- Grace (2 years old): "Hey! Stop talking to each other and talk to me instead!" 

- G: "Are those kids bullies?" 
  Me: "Yes!" 
  G: "Should we go attack them?"  

- Stranger to Grace (17 months): "What's your babies name?"
  Grace: "Jesus." 

- Within the first 3 minutes of the first day of school one of my 2nd graders asked, "Do people who kill themselves go to Heaven?" "You have to talk to your family about that, everyone believes something different." "Okay, well, murders go to Heaven."

- Within the first 15 minutes of the first day of school I was asked, "How do babies get here?" "That a good question to ask the people you live with." "My mom won't tell me. She won't tell my brother who is 13 either. Please."

- Grace (24 months) saw a birds nest and asked, "Is it made from man's hair?" 

- Tons of flooding in our area like to the extent that roads and walking trails are closed and you cannot be on the lakes or rivers. Grace and I went for a walk when she exclaimed, "Look Liz the trees are taking a bath in the water!" 

- I cheered for Grace (2.5): Good job good job. Good job good job. G-O-O-D-J-O-B good job good job!" Grace loved the cheer but instead of asking me to do it again she yelled, "Good job L-M-N-O-P good job good job!" 

Worst Day of my Life

Sunday November 10, 2013 was the worst day of my life. It started out like any Sunday. At 11:30 I was microwaving leftover pizza and my dad took the dog outside to play Frisbee. I had just sat down to eat when he came inside holding Sophie. He said she ran down the steps and started squealing. She either missed a step or miss stepped, we'll never know. My dad was holding her and she was panting and wouldn’t let him touch her paw. She couldn’t put any weight on her paw so we took her to the emergency vet.

We waited for an hour and then they brought us back. Even though she had just been at the vet a week ago they put her on a scale and she fell right over. It was so sad. The vet technician even made us put her on the table so she could take her temperature and whatnot. It was so frustrating because she couldn’t stand and it was painful not only for our poor little Sophie but for us too!

The vet technician left us alone in the room and my mom sat there just shaking her head no. It was like she was saying prepare yourself, this is not going to have a good outcome. I knew that too but was in denial. Forty-five minutes later the veterinarian came in and looked at Sophie. She said she could feel the bone moving around so she wanted to do an x-ray. That meant broken. That meant most likely we were going to be putting our dog down within the hour. All the praying, all the begging I did to God did not change the outcome. The veterinarian came back in with the news all four of us had been dreading.

Sophie had fractured her elbow when she was 6 months old. We gave her surgery because she was 6 months old; she had her whole life ahead of her. Now though, she was 12. She would be 13 on December 21, 2012. She had the exact same injury but on the other leg. Surgery was thousands of dollars and there was no guarantee for a full recovery. My dad started crying, then I started crying, then my mom started crying and my sister who apparently mourns loss differently said, “I think we know what we need to do.”

They kicked us out of the room and put us in the waiting room. I was a mess and my mom and sister were telling me I couldn’t be in the room because I couldn’t handle it. Their comments irritated me. This is my time. This is my goodbye. This is my time to mourn. I can be in the room and I will be in the room. They called us back and brought us to the biggest room. This is the room that I saw two other families in earlier. Both put their dogs to sleep and both ran out of the veterinarians office crying.

The vet technician brought Sophie in. She had a little IV and was wrapped in a towel. It was horrible. They gave us time to say our goodbyes. We all held her one more time. We were probably with her for a half hour before the vet came in. She basically gave Sophie an overdose of meds. Within 5 seconds of injecting the meds into Sophie, my precious little dog was gone. Her eyes were still open, her body just got cold and her jaw dropped open. The vet came over listened for a pulse and said the two words no one ever wants to hear, “She’s gone.” I asked for a pair of scissors so I could take a lock of hair and my mom took Sophie’s collar off. We handed Sophie to the vet and that was that.

I know the Bible says animals don’t have souls meaning they don’t go to Heaven but as an animal lover I can’t believe that. I’m going to have a child like faith because I need to right now. I can’t bear to think that when we put Sophie down that was the end like she’s just gone and all she is is ashes now. That brings me no comfort whatsoever and she was too great of a dog and holds too special of a place in my heart for me to believe that.

I believe that God greeted her. That he was there by the gate when she took her last breath to hold her in his arms and show her around Heaven. I picture him re-introducing her to Maty, our old cat. I picture Sophie hanging out with our neighbor, Bob who lost his battle with cancer in June. I picture Sophie wagging her tail at all the mail carriers in Heaven because our mailman was one of her favorite people on Earth. I picture Sophie sleeping on a cloud, playing Frisbee and eating all sorts of delicious treats. She’s having a great time and even though I miss her dearly, I know she’s watching over me. She’s my angel dog and I think about her everyday.

Digraphs

Below is the sound of the week lesson I am teaching tomorrow:

This is Thumper. He is a rabbit from the movie Bambi and he always taps foot like this and that is how he got the name, Thumper. Thumper starts with the letters th. Does anyone know what sound the th in Thumper starts with? That's right, th. To make that you stock your tongue out a teeny tiny bit in between your teeth and when you blow, you'll make the th sound. On the count of three, we are going to say th as a class. One two three th. One more time. One two three th. And again, one two three. Great job, you all sound like thinking Thumpers! This time, I want us to tap our foot as we say the th sound. In just a minute, everyone will stand up and as a class we will tap our foot and say th. We are not going to stomp or foot, we are going to tap our foot. Your heel always stay on the ground. Alright, everyone stand up. On the count of tree, we are going to tap our foot and say th. One two three, th. Again, one two three, th. Last time, one two three, th.  Nicely done! You may sit back down.
On the white board is a poem called, My Thumbs. I an going to read it and as I am reading be listening for th words. My thumbs help me do so much. There's so much they can do. Throw a ball. Pull a thread. How about you? I am going to read it one more tine and I really want you to turn your listening ears on because I am going to ask four students to cone to the board and circle the th words. My thumbs help me do so much. There's so much they can do. Throw a ball. Pull a thread. How about you? Put your thumb in the air if you see atleast one word in or poem that starts with the th sound. I see lots of thumbs, let's see who will be the first to the board...

Thumbs, there, throw, and thread all have the th sound in the beginning of the word. The th sound can be at the end of a word too. Take with for example. The th sound is at the end of the word. What's this word? Path, that's right and where is the th sound in the word path? Yes, it's at the end of the word... Path. We know with, path, thumbs, there, there and thread all start or end with the th sound but I am curious to see what words you guys know so we are going to create a list. Raise your hand if you know of a word that starts or ends with the th sound. Wow! I am impressed, you guys know lots of words that start or end with the th sound.

I have one more challenge for you. I am going to read a list of words and just like we did before, I want you to tap your foot and say th when you hear the th sound. Alright, everyone stand up. This first word is practice, I am going to say a word and you are going to tap your foot and say th when you hear the th sound. Here's the word... Math. Good! One more... Teeth. Good job, now I need you to really turn your listening ears on because I am going to start by reading the words slow but then I am going to get faster and faster. Give me a thumps up if you're ready to play! Alright first word is,Earth. Math, thank, thick, thirty, sixth, Thanksgiving, wreath, tablecloth, throat, thunder, bath, earth, thread, thumbs, teeth, math, mouth, third, thing, underneath, birthday. Show 5... Show 5. Raise your hand if you know where the th sound is in birthday? That's right, in the middle. We know a lot of words start or end with the th sound but sometimes, the th sound can be in the middle of the word. Great listening, that was a tricky one! You may sit down. 

**I plan on using this lesson again but next time using words that do not have the th sound in them while playing the game. Kids were constantly tapping their foot but other than that, this lesson went great! Every child was able to list words that start or end with the th sound so it was a successful lessson. 

Emancipation Proclimation

For school the other week we had to create a 4 Door Diorama. I did a timeline of important dates leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation. I am obsessed with Abraham Lincoln and I always have been so whenever I have a history project 9 times out of 10 my topic has to do with Abraham Lincoln.

Planning Web

A few weeks ago in my Social Studies class, we had to create a planning web. I did mine on Lewis and Clark and I decided to post it here so I can reference it again at a much much later date.

Grand Canyon Little Book

One of my assignments for class this week was to go on a virtual field trip and create a little book. A little book is a six page book with a title page. I did mine on the Grand Canyon.