Gingerbread Men Cookies.

One thing that I learned about being a teacher is that you have to be flexible and just ignore the lesson plans sometimes. Today, my TA brought in this gingerbread man cookie kit and I went with it! She said that she was laying in bed when she got home after work yesterday and she sat up and said that she was on a mission to find gingerbread cookie kits.

I told her that in my class, I see her as a teacher, not only a TA...not that there is anything wrong with being a TA...I appreciate them, and I let all my TA's know that. They make MY life a lot easier! But I told her that if ever she had an idea that she wanted to do in my class, we can find time to do it...and so when she brought the cookies in...I said, why not?! Lets do it!

The kids loved it. I let them squeeze the icing onto the cookies and sprinkle the sprinkles onto their cookie. The kit had little candy balls that I decided not to give to the children, it seemed as if they could be a chocking hazard. But they still had a lot of fun! :)

Each cookie was different and unique and supper yummy looking! :)

And when my keikis saw that I was trying to take pictures of the cookies that they made, they wanted to put the toy dinosaurs there too. :) I love my keikis. I love making them smile. I love cookies. Not particularly in that order. :)

DIY Advent Calendar.

I think that it is a well-know fact that I love love love stickers and so I decided to make an Advent Calendar using stickers from my sticker collection and also some Christmas stickers that I bought from Target (I just LOVE LOVE the dollar section of Target! You can get some awesome stuff from there, you know! :))

Things needed (to make 1 Advent Calendar--I made two in this post)
3-whole sheets of construction paper (you can choose whatever color you want)
25-5"x3" burlap pockets
ribbon
as many stickers as you want (to fill up the burlap pockets)
tape
a pen
a ruler
scissors 

I first took 3 regular construction paper and cut them in half lengthwise and on one half sheet I marked two inch boxes and then on all of the half sheets I drew a line 1/2 inch from the bottom. (I only need 2 1/2 sheets of construction papers though)

So it ends up looking like this when you are done.

I did the same thing to the green.

So when you are finished with all the measuring, I had them out like this, then I put this part to the side.

Then with any colored ribbon, I put tape on the end and then I....

started lacing the one set of 25 burlap pockets with the color green.

Yay! I'm finally done! I might be easier if you had one of those large craft needles, but I didn't and so the tape on the end helped.

Then I started lacing the other set of 25 burlap pockets.

I continued this until I was done with all the lacing!

Here are the two sets of 25 burlap pockets all laced with their ribbons. Then I put that aside

and brought back the stack of half construction sheets and cut out the rectangles.

Fold where the bottom line is. (For a faster folding experience, use a ruler)

Here are all my green squares all cut and folded.

Then I tested it out to make sure that the rectangular fit in the pocket! It does! :)

The I started to write the countdown on each sheet of paper started with "24 days until Christmas!"

All the way down to Christmas day! :)

So here is another reminder...START at 24 days of Christmas and end at Merry Christmas.

Then you do it all over again with your other set (if you are making two, like I am!)

I then went through my sticker collection and chose stickers that I thought that my niece and nephew might like...

And then placed each sticker where they should go in each pile. (in this case, my nephew had the red cards and my niece has the green cards.)

For me, I paired the red cards with the green ribbon...you can choose whatever colors that you want...

Then stick them in the burlap pockets! Remember to start in the correct side, depending on what side you want the ribbon, on the front or the back...I chose to have the ribbon on the back.

Did that with both sets...

And I thought that I was all done with that part! But....

But I ended up going to Target the next day and saw this adorable Christmas stickers that I HAD To add to the Advent Calendar! :)

Put pieces of the sheets out for the stickers...and

divided the pieces among the two piles so that they had a Christmas themed sticker in each pocket.

(optional) Then I made a count down chart for the keikis to place whichever sticker they wanted on the countdown day. I laminated it so that I can use it again next year and for years to come...

And there it is...my DollGirl's and KaiBoy's Advent/Count Down Calendar for Christmas! I hope that they will like it! I love those two so much...and I love doing things like this for them! :)

Card Making and Family.

I am actually writing this at my sister-in-law's house! Early this morning she asked me if I wanted to come over to hang out. This whole week we have been trying to hang out, but with me getting sick earlier this week and then unforeseen things happening to both her and I we weren't able to hang out until today. She called me this morning asking if I wanted to go to her house just to hang out and do whatever. Right as I was leaving, I remembered that she told me that she had gone to Ben Franklin's so that she can get stuff to get back into scrapbooking. And that's when I had the idea that I wanted to get back into card making! I hadn't done so in such and long time...and I still have some stuff to make some kine of cards!

Well, I called Mandy and asked her if she wanted to do card making with me...or she can work on her scrap booking...and she said yes. So I ended up bringing some of my stuff and we made cards. Like I said, I hadn't done so in such a long time; it felt good to be doing some craft for me...not for the children, but for me. :)

This is the first card that I made...and I'm not too sure that I am very happy with it. But it was the first one that I did in a long time. I mean, I like it...but there is no theme. I was thinking that I was going to make some "Thankful" cards to send and give out next month...and so this was the first one that I did. I think that I might just remove the fall leaves washi tape...and then that should be good. It's not bad after years of no card making!

I kept the inside of the card super simple. (But I had to add the glitter washi! :))

I did nothing to the back. I might go back and change that at a later time.

My second one makes me happy. :) (Did you see what I did there?! :)) I just did this one with no though and just looked through my stickers at what I could do. I like how it turned out.

Still kept it simple on the inside. I have an idea on who to send this one to!

And I had to add a butterfly on the back of it! :)

The last card of the night I made with a cupcake theme in mind. I saw that I had a few cupcake stickers and so I decided to make something with cupcakes. I didn't really have a layout in mind...but I am real happy with the way that this card turned out!

"All you need is love and CUPCAKE." I just love that quote!

I love this washi tape cupcakes! It's so cute and yummy!:)

After Amanda and I finished making our cards, we decided to go to out other sister's house and bring some yummy Bob's pizza and just hang out there. So we went to Bob's pizza...and when I got there it looked like I stepped into school! I saw several of my keiki's there enjoying pizza with their parents and each other. I was able to introduce them to Mandy...and told them that we were on the way to DollGirl's house to go hang out with them. It was cute coz one of the little boys who was there is one of DollGirl's REALLY good friends and he wanted to come with me! I told him that DollGirl will be going to school on Monday and they can play there. It was cute. :)

So we went to go hang out at my sister's for a while. While I was there, I had just relaxed on the couch and when I did that I automatically flipped my hair over the couch to let it hang down...and that's when Kuya Neal was like, "Can I cut you hair?!" and just like that I said "Yes." My sister comes out of the kids room, where she had just put the kids to sleep, and was like "what are you doing?!' I was standing in the kitchen and Kuya Neal was just about to cut my hair! He said that he had never cut long hair like mine before...and I told him, it would be difficult to mess up, since I do have super long hair. Plus, It was only a trim. :) He ended up cutting about 9ish inches off my hair. Where it use to be a few inches below my butt it is more near up the lower-middle of my back. It really does feel a LOT lighter! :)

Mandy and I came back to her house and since her husband (my brother) is off in the mainland for work, I am here sleeping over. We came back and just started talking and then before we knew is it was nearing midnight...and so I said that I was just going to spend the night and then we can grab breakfast tomorrow before she goes to the airport to pick up my brother. So here I am in their guest room writing this post...it was a good day--filled with family, friends...and crafting. :)

TGIF.

It was a rough week. I am so glad that it was a short week. I'm glad that it's finally over. Well, not completely over, but at least the work week is over. I love my job, and I think that as long as I can still say that I love my job at the end of the day, then it's going to be okay. :) Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate long weekends just as much as the next person, but for me that means that "my kids" have not been to school for that much longer and then when they do come in it will be that much more crazier. And it was crazy. I still have a few criers in my class since they all didn't start on the first day of school and some of them this was only their second week of school. Oh, and I have another one starting on Monday. One of the VERY few downfalls of my job is that all the kids do NOT start on the "first day of [official] school." So, it's harder to get on a set schedule when we are constantly [in-consistently] having a new child join my class. It means that I have to start all over again [especially since it's still so near the beginning of the school year!] in teaching them the basics of my classroom. And I have to admit, at times, it does get frustrating when you have to teach the same thing over and over again. I know that for this age, you are suppose to have repetition...over and over and over and over again and again and again. But it's hard when you are trying to help the children adjust to being away from the parents for the first time and trying to get along with people you have never seen before. And when I finally think that we are starting to get there...another child joins and I have to start at square one again. Oh okay, enough venting.

I am so proud of "my kids" Although we do have children joining our class [at what seems like] every other day, there are a few of them that are finally getting it! I have 2 that started with me during the summer, and it's so rewarding to see that they are trying to encourage and help the newer ones learn the class schedule and rules. I have awesome parents. It is always my fear that I might clash with a parent, but this year, I really like my parents and I love how they make it so easy to talk with them. One thing that I do appreciate about living here in Hawai'i is that everyone treats you like family here...and that is how the parents are. I have to remember to keep it professional, but it's so hard when parents encourage their child to give their "Aunty" [me] honi, kisses. And that is a normal thing that it took a LONG time for me to get used to. But I really do love how its so "ohana" like here. And I really like how parents don't only see me as a teacher, but an "aunty" to their keiki.

Yesterday the dustless colored chalk and chalkboard poster board arrived on my doorstop from Amazon and I was super excited to update more of my chalkboards in my class! By the time I was done getting everything I needed to get done during nap time today [a time that I really do value to get "teacher stuff" done!], I only had 20 minutes left to do whatever I wanted. So I decided to chalkboard art my door. The front and the back.

Since the chalkboard poster board on the front of my door was buckling, I decided to buy a new one that was made to be a chalkboard. I think what happened was since I bought a foam poster board and then painted the chalkboard pain on it, the moisture of the paint caused the bucking of the poster board. And so, this one that I got was the same size and is already a chalkboard, so it's flat, and so I switched the buckled one with the flat and I did a fast welcome sign for it.

And then for my door, I used the same font and just wrote and weekend greeting on it. Did I mention how much I love my chalkbaord door?! :) Except for the door knob. It gets sooo sticky and it won't turn and it get REAL hard to open! The thing is that I can't used m other door because the AC is above it and it leaks like no tomorrow and so there is like a constant waterfall coming out of the AC creating a river in front of my door. And it can get dangerous because the kids would try to run in the classroom and slip and fall because the bottom of their feet/shoes are wet. It use to be my front door, but I switched my room around when a pregnant mom (she was nearly 8 months along!) almost slipped and fell and I could NOT have that. That and children falling, I didn't care what anyone was going to say and I switched my classroom around so the back door is not the front door. The only problem was the door knob! I solved that by taping the doorknob...but then that got really frustrating when I kept having to do it because it would come undone and then we would be stuck in the classroom because it's so had to open! So, right before I left for home today, my friend and I....

...took the doorknob off! It was such and old-fashioned doorknob that it was a lot tricky to get off, but we got it off and I couldn't be more happier with my door now! :)

But  am so glad that we have two days of no school to recharge. :)

Here's to the weekend! Whoot! Whoot! :)

Cookies and Ice Cream.

The end of the month is here and I wanted to do something special for my keiki and so I asked my sister if she would make cookie dough for my classroom. Not just one flavor, but 3 flavors. I wanted them in dough form so that we can use the toaster oven to bake the cookies. I wanted them to experience them with all their senses and, no lie, I also wanted to eat the cookies! *laughs* But when my sister brought me the cookie dough, she didn't make only 3 flavors, but FOUR different flavors!

Chocolate chip, MINT chocolate chip, lemon, and coconut cookies! So, I had put all the dough together and had them smell the cookies and try to guess what the flavors where...and then we placed the cookies on the cookie sheet and put them in the toaster oven and we would check them and watch them bake. Each child got 1/4 of each cookie, I was NOT about to give the children all FOUR COOKIES...but they really liked the cookies...and of course, you couldn't have cookies without ice-cream. Well, you can, but where is the fun in that?!

So my friend had showed me a way to make ice-cream using only two ingredients, heavy whipping cream and sweetened condense milk. You mix those two ingredients together with a mixer, and add food coloring...and freeze it! Then you get some super yummy ice-cream!

I had some neon silicone snack container that I used to scoop some of the mixture in and then I let the children add the sprinkles and 3 chocolate chips each...and then we stuck in the freezer and had it for lunch. We were suppose to leave it in the freezer "overnight," but they were hard enough to eat 4 hours later for an after lunch snack. It was so ono and a lot of fun watching the children get excited about making their own treats!