First Quarter...Finished!

Well..we just finished the first nine weeks. I love every one of my classes. Such a sweet group of sixth graders!

The Bible ISNs have been fun for both me and the students. A favorite activity was the "fakebook" worksheets. I just googled Fake facebook activities and so many worksheets showed up. I printed off a free sheet and after our study on Noah and later on, after our study of Joseph...I had the students create a "fakebook" page as the Biblical figure. They then pasted the page in their ISN and I could grade it from there.

Bible Fun

Every Friday my students have two things to look forward to. First is their memory verse quiz *wink wink* and second is Sword Drills.

Students use their Bibles or the Bible under their desks...I call out a random verse and they frantically search for it so they can win.  I have sweetened the deal for my classes though. I have had parents donate prizes so the kids compete for candy prizes or the revered "Big Box" prize.

Here's how we play:
I call out different groups to participate. Sometimes it is by row, sometimes by shirt color, other times it is by what they ate for breakfast or if they have particular pets. The kids love this part.

Then I call out what they are playing for...either fun sized candy or a big box prize. The big box prizes are awesome donations that I had asked for near the beginning of the year and continue to ask for throughout the year. Usually they are non edible, dollar section prizes. Things like pens, locker magnets, journals, silly putty...

I call out a verse. All bibles are shut. If students have book tabs they have to hold them against their chest. I say the verse once more then say "GO."  The first student who starts reading the correct verse wins the prize. It is such a great way for the students to get to know their Bibles and the books in them!

I encourage my slow pokes to play at home with their families..it's a lot of fun

I have included a picture of our prizes.

Teacher Expectations

Seems like all teachers do on the first day of school is give their expectations to students. I got the idea from pinterest to ask each of my six classes what they expect from me.

School starts tomorrow

Our Bible department was told that the kids wished Bible class was less like history class...so I made it my goal to learn and do something new. 

I have been reading a lot about interactive student notebooks (isn) and decided to try it this year. Today I spent a couple hours with lesson plans and creating an interactive notebook of my own for unit one.

Honestly, I am not finding anything out there on the internet in terms of isns for Bible class. If you know of any sites that are Bible specific interactive notebooks would you post in the comments? I will make more posts as we begin using our notebooks. Just an fyi I am using Bob Jones sixth grade Bible curriculum and supplementing with the notebook.

Thick Delicious Whipped Frosting

This delicious and easy frosting takes just a few minutes to make.

Whipped frosting

1  16oz container Cool Whip defrosted
2   3.4 oz instant pudding packages of your favorite flavor. (I used pistachio)
1   cup milk

In a large mixing bowl whisk together pudding powder with the cup of milk.  Add entire tub of Cool Whip and whisk until entirely incorporated.  Place in your refrigerator to set. Pipe or spread onto cooled cake or cupcakes!  Enjoy! Keep cake refrigerated after being frosted.

What's your favorite pudding flavor for this frosting?

Yummy Pickled Red Onions

We love taco night...we love bbq night...let's just be real..we love food. So one of our favorite little add-ons to dinner has been our pickled red onions.

Just slice one red onion super thin..I use my mandolin. Season liberally with salt. Cover with red wine vinegar and wait. (A couple hours or overnight)  I have also added a clove of garlic finely diced and it is yummy!

So cute. Perfect little snowflakes falling from the sky this morning. Just like icy confetti...dotting the sky and sidewalk on my walk to school. I had to stop and snap a couple pictures of flakes that fell on a bench before class started.

Spring break

Today is our second day of spring break. More cleaning is in store for us today. And maybe some park will contain some of our exuberance of having a whole wonderful week off.
I can't believe my last post was way back in September was it? School...me teaching and the kids attending has been a much more difficult transition than I ever thought it would be. So here we are, almost in the middle of fourth quarter, and I am posting again! About two weeks ago I bought my first smart phone...a galaxy s3 if you must know..and slowly came to the conclusion that I can blog from it.
So here I sit. Enjoying Easter eggs for breakfast and scheming of ways to make the most out of this long awaited break.  See you again really soon.

yay

sometimes it's the lilttle things that make the biggest difference.

like getting to wear my ring again for the first time to school...after not being able to get it over my knuckle for about 6 months.

yay for baby steps.

Iconic, Ironic, or just plain awesome

I'm using this binder at school. I love how it slides the ring over, instead of opening downward.

I've got all my classes in this binder, separated by period. I put all my grading in for the weekend, or evening.

And...As I stand here teaching my sixth graders, it makes me smile to think that the Trapper Keeper I used in 6th grade gets a new life in this 6th grade classroom.