la gratitud

This morning, my pastor preached about gratitude—Living with a Grateful Heart.  He used the event in the life of David found in 2 Samuel 9:1-13.

·         Gratitude is born by remembering the kindness that we have received

·         Gratitude makes our hearts like the heart of God

·         Expressed gratitude has significance

I have so many things in my life for which I am thankful.  Rather than give the standard list, including friends and family, I will share the list that I shared with God recently.

I am thankful for the obstacles that He has sent me, and the learning experiences and crises.  I am thankful because I can see how each one has challenged and sharpened me.  I have grown and learned a lot this year, and I know God will continue working on me!

P.S.—I am also thankful for this finished art project!  It’s been months in the making.  The kids used what they learned about texture to create a memory quilt based on the book Tar Beach. 

Sunny Peace Town

In my elementary Social Studies class, I’m teaching about community and map skills.  An extremely helpful teacher knew this and sent me a link for a paper craft town (http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/2028/list_15_1.html).  I immediately loved the idea and decided to base the whole unit around it. 

Little did I know that the construction of the town would take months!  (That’s what happens when you only have class twice a week and students are regularly absent.)  Each building is extremely detailed and complicated to make, so each student only made one.  I quickly realized that I would need more builders than myself and my class of three, so I enlisted the help of everyone I could get. 

Casey made the coffee shop and a house, Rebekah made the hospital and town sign, Saúl and Gaby made some vehicles, and Kevin and Kristian made the church.  As for the actual class members: Larimar made the school, Kioney made the flower shop, Mizael made the fire station, and I made the gas station, police station, post office, and a house. 

This was truly a school-wide effort! 

After the buildings were finished, we had to plan the town layout.  This included some great discussions using critical thinking skills.  When the roads, sidewalks, parking lots, green spaces, and crosswalks were in place, we painted.  Then we glued.  Then we celebrated and took lots of pictures!

So here it is…Sunny Peace Town!  (We voted and compromised a few times to get this name.)

The mean streets of Sunny Peace Town!

After all that hard work, I had to give the kids time to play.  It was amazing how much they enjoyed maneuvering the little people and vehicles.  They really got into it! 

The kids are signing the word "fire" above the house!

Since this project took months to complete, I have vowed to work it into every Social Studies lesson for the rest of the school year…we’ll see how long that lasts.

Right now, we’re using it for map skills.  Our first skill is using a map key.  Here is first of many maps…I hope!

noviembre

November is the month when we have more off days than school days.  Some people think I’m lucky to teach in a place that has two days off for Election Day, one for Veteran’s Day, and a week for Thanksgiving, but I’m not so sure.  It makes it tough to teach anything cohesively.  It’s even harder to get anything done when kids don’t come to school every day—perhaps I’m using this blog entry to vent a bit. 

I guess I have a choice:  be annoyed as I feel like I’m not teaching anything, or use the time that I have wisely.  I guess 14 days are better than none!

mi mesa

My favorite part of my classroom this year is my table.  I'm not sure where the idea originated from, but one day last summer I decided I had to make some sort of white-board table.  I knew this was a necessity since I would be teaching mainly math this year...and math requires a lot of writing.  I covered my table with white paper, then I covered that with a clear vinyl table cloth, and...voilà!  It's like a real white board...it uses the same markers and everything!

One of my favorite ways to use the table is to slip worksheets under the plastic so that the kids can complete them and erase when they're finished.  Then I can use them again.  The little boys think it is so fun to complete a worksheet and pull it out from under the plastic before they erase.  Then all their answers are still on the table!

I am encouraged to see that we're three months into the school year and the kids and I are still excited about the table.  Here are two of the ways we've used it so far (the only ones of which I have photo evidence):

Saúl attempts to write the names of his family members.

Larimar writes a word problem.