Exhausted Pigeon.

One of the things that I love about this month is all the fun, festive artwork that my kids do! They helped with the stocking and helping me with the white and blue paper chain. :) They also helped me with the candy canes and we made reindeer hand prints! The kids LOVE art...the two things that my keikis' love are art and music. Two things that I absolutely love myself. I am constantly playing music, and I am all up for all different kinds of art projects for my keikis. I love my class. I love being a teacher. I love my job. :)

I had to place this here because I couldn't stop laughing when I read this quote! I feel like this is me! I am a "permanently exhausted pigeon!" :)

Classroom Bullletin Board.

I love this time of year! I love how festive it is...and I love decorating my house to reflect how much I love all the holidays! But since I can't do much decorating in my studio, I like to go all out in my classroom. Here is the bulletin that I created for my classroom. It isn't finished yet, but it is a start! I am going to have the children help me in it as well. I love how I have that Christmas tree in the corner! That is where I have been putting the gifts that the kids have been giving Mrs. A and I already! :) I love the lights! Jade brought her Christmas decorations to school and allowed us to use it...and I had borrowed her lights and it LOVE it! I leave it on during nap time and the kids love it! And it looks so festive and calm. :) I like it...:)

All things matter.

This morning as I was getting out of my car, a tiny baby Gold-Dust Day Gecko feel onto my car chair while I was trying to get all the bags that I brought to school out. I couldn't figure out where it fell from and I felt so bad, because it looked like it was in a bad place...but I couldn't leave it in my car because I knew that it was going to get really hot fast, since it's been hot lately, and I couldn't leave it on top of my car coz I didn't want a bird to come by and eat it! So picked it up, and it didn't struggle at all and let me pick it up. I really want one of these beautiful geckos as a pet! They are so beautiful, but I couldn't bare to put suck a beautiful creature in captive when it can be free and so I decided to bring it into my classroom and put it in a safe place where it can recuperate with no outside factors giving it trouble.

I decided to place it on one of my coral pieces that grace my classroom window sill. I figured the sun will give it it's energy back, but it wasn't directly in the sun that it would bake. Also, the little keiki couldn't get to it, and it was in a safe place.

As I was talking to a parents, I saw that it had perked up a lot and was running up my class window!

I hope that this little one grows to be big and that it is okay! My niece came into my classroom as it scrambled up my window and out to where ever it wants to go.

I don't know what happened to this little guy, but I was happy to see that it had a chance in the big scary world! All things matter...including this little gecko!

When I got home I gasped in surprise when I saw this beautiful postcard waiting for me in my mailbox!

This beautiful postcard with fun stamps came to me all the way from France from a young lady who is so sweet! Her message to me was so thoughtful and lovely! I like nice people and I'm so glad that she took the time to find such a perfect postcard just for me! I love this addition to my postcard collection, that's for sure!

Open House.

Although I tell myself right before (pre)school starts for the new school year,  I just have to survive the first month before things start to settle down with a more consistent routine and the keiki are more used to the fact that they are in school, the first month is always so exhausting. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally. Week two down.

The first week was exhausting because first weeks always are. The second week was exhausting because I am still in the process of trying to get to know the new keiki, trying to help them with the transition that school is a sure thing, trying to work out the kinks...and also trying to make sure everything is perfect for open house.

We had our open house (for parents only) yesterday, and although it went real well, I am so tired.

The introduction cover for my open house welcome packet.

What I believe is the most important handout in my welcome packet.

I am very proud of my classroom--the layout, the management, the way that it is organized--but whenever I feel like someone is going to come into my classroom and judge and criticize it, I start to get all anxious and wonder if it is "good enough." Thus, the nervous wreck in work myself into leading up to open house. I have never had a "bad experience" with anyone saying that my classroom was not to their liking, but I think the reason why I get myself so worked up is because this is my passion. I put my everything in what I do, and it just hurts just thinking that maybe, maybe, a parent might walk into my room and tell me that they don't want their child in my room for whatever reason. Teachers, I can take...I have a reason why for everything in my classroom, and we can agree to disagree...but parents, that's something different for me because I want to make sure that everything is "good enough" for their most prized possessions. I know that if they don't like it, they can always choose to go somewhere else...but I would hope that they like...

...and like I said earlier...everything went great for open house. I have students that are enrolled but aren't starting until later (they are in the process of moving here still, or they are not yet 2 years old) and their parents still came and I was happy that they did. I had a really good turn out this year, and I liked how nearly all my parents where there, because I want them to be comfortable with me and what and how I interact with their children. And I am so blessed and happy to say that I have a great bunch of parents this year. :)

(I sent home these All-About Me Robots on the first day of school and asked the parents to do them with their children at home and bring them back so that I can display them for open house. Not everyone did one, but the majority did...and it was a fun way to get to know the children. :) I did one to so that the parents can read about me to! :))

...see! I worry about nothing when it comes to open house...and even though I tell myself that every year...I'm keeping it real. Teachers get nervous too. :)

When I got home, late, I saw that I receive a postcard in the mail and a book from a friend that was left in my porch shelf! :) 

I have the most awesomest friends! :) My friend had stopped by my house to drop this book off that she found at a bookstore. She know how much I love paper airplanes and so when she saw this book, she decided to get it for me. When I called her up to thank her, she told me that she had forgotten that it was my open house tonight, so she just left the book by my door so that I can smile when I get home. I have such thoughtful friends...and I can't wait to try out some of the airplanes! :)

I got a postcard from Netherland...Amsterdam to be exact...and I absolutely love how it's a postcard filled with pictures of the beautiful place where its from. I especially love the castles, flowers, and blue sky pictures! When I went to the postcrosser's profile, it was blank and it didn't really say much about the person on the postcard either, but that's okay...I am still very thankful for the thoughtful and picture-filled postcard!

"I'd rather have a passport filled with stamps than a house filled with stuff."

I made it!

I made it! It is the end of the week and I am still alive and I still love my preschool job! :) I have to say that it was a hard week to get through: emotionally, physically, mentally. But I am still here and I survived the first week of school. This next week now I have to concentrate on getting Open House ready...oh my. I can't wait until this first month is over (school-wise).

As I was changing out the water in my pineapples on my windowsill in my classroom, I was surprised to fine a pineapple flower in one of the pineapple!

I have to admit that I was in denial at first because I know that it takes a while for the pineapple to grow it's fruit...but no, there it is! I am soo happy and my keiki loved seeing it!

When I got home I was in for another surprise! I got another postcard!

This time it is a postcard from Germany! This postcard took 9 days to get to me from a small town in Germany North Rhine Westphalia.

I know that I say this nearly every time that I get a postcard, but I really do love receiving all these postcards from around the world! It's so exciting and I love how friendly everyone is! :)

Jitters.

Yes, I have the jitters. I always have "first day jitters" no matter how many years I have been teaching, I always get nervous on the first day of school. And to make matters worse, we have not one day that we consider first day, but we have TWO "first day's" because since we do part time at our school, my Monday/Wednesday/Friday class is different from my Tuesday/Thursday class. I do have one child who is full time and comes every day...and he was with me during the summer so that makes it somewhat easier...but other than that, I have the jitters for sure! I know that I am a good teacher, its just that initial meeting of the parents and their keiki that makes me nervous because for the most part these kids have never been in a childcare environment and the parents could be first timers and it makes them more nervous...which makes me nervous, but I can't really show it. But I know that everything will be good. :)

But I did finish my classroom! I still have places that I was not able to organize, but my class is ready for first day!

I had put the cots out to make sure that there was enough space for napping without the children being too close to each other. That is very important to me! I want the children to sleep, not play with each other...but there is my classroom! I am not sure that I am feeling black paper any longer though! I know that either during Christmas or just next year I am going with white bulletin paper. But it does look nice and I am happy with it. :)

I did down size my window garden though. I have 5 pineapples, an avocado tree and a Jade succulent plant with a few nests up for display. I love the pineapple plants! I love the smell of pineapple and the kids love it to! :)

When I got home, I got the notification that one of my postcards made it to its destination and so I was able to send another one out.

In all caps this young lady hinted that she loved turtles so I decided to send her a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. I hope that she likes it! :) This postcard was sent to New Jersey...so another fellow USA postcrosser. :)

Here is a picture at what my desk looks like right now...

Yep, I am busy trying to do lesson planning for this month and writing down and typing up everything that I need to do before the first day of school tomorrow! So that is what I am going to do right now. :)

Pray for me and the little kids that walk through my door tomorrow!

Working hard.

This week is Teacher Work Week. It's the week that we get as teachers to fix our classroom and start on our lesson plans for this coming up year. A week? I wish that we could have more than a week, but I am very appreciative for this week. But I do have to say that I feel like I put in more hours on this week for this job than I do on a normal preschool work day. Oh well, that could just be me and how particular I want my room. :)

The first thing that I wanted to do was get all the painting that I needed to get done. And I did a lot of painting! The first thing that I wanted to do was this "easy" job of repainting this toy shelf for the kids. I also plan on putting the fish tanks on this...and don't get me wrong, I am all up for the primary colors, but this...this was something that needed to change. 

I started off with painting the outside black and then then inside the cubbies a sea foam color. I love that color combination! I really love the ending product!

I think that it matches my room sooo much better and I get match it better in the future. The red was just too bright! Because of the humidity it took a long time for this baby to dry! I did a lot of painting this year. I chalkboard painted my door with a trim of this same sea foam color. And I also made four chalk board's to hang around my room.

I hate when my classroom is a mess and I have to admit I was going into anxiety mode during this process! It took forever to take down the bulletin paper because I didn't just want to rip it down and throw it away, it was still good paper and so I wanted to save it all and cut it into smaller pieces to recycle it for artwork.

I decided to use black as the main color for the bulletin boards and it made me sooo frustrated because the boarders that I wanted were out of stock at all the teacher stores here on the island (a down side to living a small island...) but I made due and used chevron strips and polka dots that I had used last year in a different pattern.

Once I had all my bulletin paper up with the boarders I felt like I could now start on the other things that I wanted to do...the details and accents. And most importantly setting up the classroom management part of the room. It frustrates me if there is no order or the management is off in my class.

Oh but first...look at my black mollies and (one guppy) their babies! Aren't the babies SOOOO cute! I love my fish. :)

I love laminating EVERYTHING! I wish that our school had a bigger laminater, but that's okay, because for now I can use my personal one. It gets what I need done, done. :)

Order. See, I like order...:)

Their cubby tags are super cute! I love the accept pieces that I chose for this year...I love the "cutesy" things with adorable faces!

Although, I do like this part of the year where I can redo my room and get back with organizing everything and implement new things...it very time consuming trying to get everything done for the first day of school...and I have to say that at the end of the day I am extremely exhausted...

When I got home I was excited to get a postcard in the mail. :)

The postcard was from 17 year old Katerina and she is from Czech Republic. It had a very sweet message on back about how she knows someone here in Hawai'i and she had met him at a camp where she gave her life to God. That was awesome to hear! On my postcrossing profile, I had mentioned that I love God and I was glad that she was comfortable enough to let me know about that amazing decision that she made.

I also think that stamps that she used are super adoreable and cute...bunnies! You can't go wrong with bunnies! :)

Well, I hope that I'll be able to finish what I need to get done for my classroom by Monday! I'm sure I will, I mean, it does look a lot better than it did in the beginning of the week! :)

School Valentine's "Day"

Today was the day that we celebrated Valentine's Day at the preschool. I did something little for yesterdays keiki's but today we did a little more...since Valentine's Day is on Sunday, we just celebrated today for the kids. We don't have school on Monday, and so by the time it was Tuesday it would be way passed Valentine's Day...so that's why.

This whole week we talked about what it means to "Love"...your parents, your friends, your pets, your world...and just how to show it and not only did I help them make Valentine's for each other...we did plenty of Valentine's Craft work...which turned out pretty cute! I got some of my ideas from the ever wonderful pinterest...and then tweeked them to be more appropriate for my age group, and other projects I just had in my repertoire of craft/art work.

I also had the children make a print of their hand so that we can make a "valentine" for their parents. Overall, even though it was a SUPER long week...it was also a week filled with fun for the keikis. Wait, what am I saying...EVERY DAY is a fun day with my keikis! :)

Two of my favorite crafts that I did with the keikis were the "Bee Mine" and the "Love monsters!" They turned out SOOO cute! All their craft work turned out super cute! But these two where my favorite!

 

Here is my little Love Monster that I made...but I think my kids did a WAY better job than I did!



 
  
  

 Oh my goodness! I wish that I could post them all, they are just all so darn cute! The kids picked their own color out...I showed them mine...but I let them glue everything and they decided where to put their own pieces...and I loved how they turned out! Oh my goodness, my keikis are my lil Love Monsters! So full of love...and such cute little monsters! :)

 

 

  

Their bee's also turned out super cute as well! I was getting tired of all the pinks, whites, reds, and purple colors that we were using so I asked them which bug they wanted to do for something like "Love Bug"...and they all wanted to do a bee...and so a bee we made! :) And I think they turned out so amazingly cute! My kids LOVE LOVE doing arts and crafts! I usually just leave a table with all kine of different art materials that they can use however they want to use it...appropriately (unfortunately, they are not allowed to draw on the walls, floors, etc.). I usually cover the whole table with scratch paper or newspaper that they can do free art with...but I also have several guided art projects that we do A DAY...they LOVE creating...and I am all up for it! I also love how my class LOVES to sing. I wonder where they got that from! :)

Today we only had time to do one guided craft work because I filled the day with a lot of games and of course we HAD to have our Valentines Marching Parade! :) The craft was a cute one that the kids made for their parents...

 

I had forgotten to take a pictures of the kids work...and they had taken them all home for their parents, so I was left with this one. The one that I made for my lil DollGirl. I adore that saying..."I love you to the moon and back!" It just makes my heart so happy. :)

My sister had read the book "Guess How Much I Love you" by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram where it says that phrase. Now my lil DollGirl likes to do this thing where she calls you to come closer and she whispers in your ear, "I love you to the ocean, to the sand, to the tree"...just random things that she sees at the moment...and you have to say one back to her too. I love it so much and I hope that she never stops that. Even though sometimes, it's questionable..."Aunty, I love you to the door, to the light, to the rubbish can!" Really?! Rubbish can!? Oh well, she loves me. :)

The Valentine that I had the kids help me make for their parents was this:



I like doing handprint keepsakes for the parents and I would laminate it. I know that I am a sentimental person...and so I can just imagine that whenever I have my own child that I would have a keepsake of how tiny my little ones hand was so long ago.

The poem that I placed on it goes like this:



It was a simple project for them and I hope that they liked it. I know that I did. :)

And last but not least, my TA (who is THE BEST Teacher's Assistant EVER!) and I couldn't let the children leave without a little Valentine from us...so we gave them this:

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees! It has such a lesson to learn and it's just a fun book that has rhythm and rhyme...and it's just a good book to read over and over again and again! And I love sweatheart candies...so I had to give them just a little of that...and their own little valentine card.

It was a good day today. Long...extremely hyper-active, and non-stopped paced...but a very good day indeed. :)

"We can all DANCE when we find MUSIC that we love."

 -Giles Andreae