December happenings...

So, as previously mentioned, I am the Hospitality Chair for my school.  December is our craziest month...so I just wanted to share what we did this month.  :-)

It's going to be a long post, so thanks in advance for sticking it out.

Every other month we get together to celebrate the faculty/staff birthdays from those two months.  Our Pre-K/2nd grade teachers hosted the November/December Birthday Club.  They put together a Cookie Decorating Party for us.  It was delicious!  The only problem was getting out of the chairs...adults are not meant to sit in chairs for 4 year olds.  :-P

 Every year we have a staff Christmas party.  This year, our Teacher-of-the-Year was our gracious Hostess.  We always have food, and play Dirty Santa.  Which, if you've never played that before, you should.  The blonde lady above is our principal.  She really didn't have a choice in the gift she chose, as one of our Pre-K teachers made a gift with her in mind.  The ornament she's holding has a gift card to amazon inside of it.  Along with pictures of our principal making the goofiest faces.  It was hilarious!

Yes, our faculty does play Heads Up!  Which, if you don't know what it is...it's an app by Ellen deGeneres.  Download it, you'll love it!

We started something new this year called December Eats and Treats.  Essentially it's a dessert potluck.  Everyone (that wants to) brings a dessert and puts it on the stage.  During lunch all faculty and staff members are free to go on stage and get some desserts.  I was a little worried at first, but more desserts showed up after I took these pictures.  And yes, that cake on the left was homemade by the wife of one of our 2nd grade teachers.

Last, but not least, we had an Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest.  This is the second year we've had it, and more teachers join every year.  The gentleman in the gray sweater with the face on it was our winner this year.

I just wanted to throw this picture in, because if I didn't have this lady (my music teacher) I wouldn't be able to do half the things we do for Hospitality.  She is amazing and is always willing to do whatever is needed.

Thanks for sticking out this long post.  I hope it gave you some ideas for things to do at your school.  If you do something different, I am ALWAYS up for hearing new ideas...please share!

Until next time!

Currently December

It's that time again...yup, time to link up with Farley for her Currently Link up.

So here goes:

Listening: My wife and I are trying to clear off our DVR from over Thanksgiving break (we were out of town), which means catching up on Ellen Show episodes.  I love Ellen...like, I would be one of those people who would cry just from meeting Ellen.  She might be my idol.

Loving: I'm super sad it's over already, but I love that we had a 5 day weekend.  It was just what I needed to rest and recharge before the crazy that is December.

Thinking: I had to change my schedule...again.  I'm so tired of all of this mess.  I wish people would pick something else to complain about other than my schedule.  Sheesh.

Wanting: My wanting kind of ties in to my thinking.  I would just like uninterrupted access inside certain peoples' brains.  I want to know why they think the way they think, why they feel the way they feel. (Do you know what movie that quote is from?  Haha)  For real though, I do want to know that.

Needing: It's past 10:00 here...which means I need to go to bed.  :-/

Giving: So...some advice that I think we, as teachers, need to hear every once in a while.  Elementary teachers teach math, reading, writing, science, social studies, penmanship, citizenship, manners, technology, and lots of other things.  That's a lot for anyone to keep track of.  We also have to remember, though, that we do not have to know everything about everything.  Pick one thing, and get really good at that one thing.  Then add another.  While you're waiting, ask for help.

I know the 3rd grade math standards like nobody's business.  I can tell you what our limits are and what we can and cannot be tested on.  And now, I have to learn 4th and 5th grade standards as well.  I know who in my school to ask for help.  I am slowly learning 4th grade standards, and once I have those, I will get 5th grade's as well.  But I am not going to burn myself out by trying to become the master at everything.  Not only do my students deserve better, but I deserve better.

Sometimes I think teachers have a constant need to be the best at everything.  We all need to remember that it's okay to not be the best at something.  It's okay to ask for help.  Isn't that what we tell our kids all the time?

Thanks for sticking out this long post.  Hope you all have a wonderful December!

December Activities

Just be aware that this is going to a post full of pictures...just a forewarning.

So...every year third grade puts on the Christmas musical (and by every year I mean this is our second year).  This year I got to sit down with the music teacher and pick our musical.  And we picked "Elfis and the Sleighriders".  If you haven't heard of it, look for it on youtube or just google it.  It is a super cute, super short, Christmas musical.

We had play practice for a little over a week leading up to the show.  We had two daytime shows, and one evening performance.  It is insane, intense, crazy, and wonderful.  We almost cancelled it 4 or 5 times.  But in the end, it was totally worth it.

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So, every year my kiddos make a gift for their parents.  The past few years, my kiddos each get a foam snowflake.  I take their picture, print their picture, and they glue their picture onto the center of the snowflake.  Then they get to glitter around it and we turn it into an ornament.  Well, this year, one of my kiddos was my student a few years ago...can't do the same gift.  But I wanted to do the snowflake.  So ALL three third grade teachers decided to glitter snowflakes to decorate our stage for Elfis.  I don't know what it is...but I love using glitter.  It irritates the mess out of some people...but since we don't have time for crafts in third grade, I tend to go all out during December.

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Have you ever heard of Pom juice?  It's pomegranate juice, sometimes mixed with other juices.  It comes in these bottles:

Well, my mother-in-law has been collecting these bottles for me for awhile.  She gave me some a few years ago, and they've been sitting in a cabinet in my classroom since then.  FINALLY, a reason to use them!  We painted them, and turned into snowmen and snowladies.  I LOVED it, my kiddos loved it, my table didn't like it so much though.  One of my kiddos flat-out admitted he didn't know how to paint.  And to think, we have an Art teacher at my school 4 days a week.  Sheesh.

  

 

They turned out kind of cute, if I do say so myself.

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When I first started teaching, I would spend the week before Christmas teaching Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.  As the years have passed, I have dropped Hanukkah and just teach Kwanzaa (just due to time constraints).  So every year I read the book Together for Kwanzaa by Juwanda G. Ford.

It's a great book that teaches the traditions of Kwanzaa, and the Swahili words associated with it, in a picture book.  My third graders even enjoy it.

After we read the book (while taking notes and having a pop-free pop-quiz the next day) we all make a mkeka cloth.  Seriously, this was the quietest my kiddos got all week.  You could've heard a pin drop in my room...it was fantastic!

December is crazy for me...I really don't remember December of 2012.  But I LOVE December.  This year I pulled out everything I could to make sure my kiddos got everything out of the month and the Christmas season that they could!