I'm dreaming of Wisconsin

Hey everyone,

I can't believe that in 2 1/2 weeks I will be home with all of you. I can hardly contain my excitement! It has been the most wonderful 4 months of my life. I have experienced things that can never be replaced in my memories. I am so blessed and thankful to have this opportunity and no matter how hard each day may be I am still loving my life.... I think that's whats most important. This week I worked super hard to get my room ready for my itinerant principal, who is coming to observe me Monday-Wednesday this coming week. Our theme is Winter Wonderland and I think my room looks like one so far!

Trying to get a picture of the whole gym got Wanda (the kindergarten teacher on the right) Rob, (the one in the middle), is Dianna's husband and Dianna who isn't looking at the camera and will probably hate me for posting this!

 Thanksgiving was a good time! We all went up to the school gym to have dinner with the entire village. There was a ton of food and it was good to see everyone.

Rachel and I all prettied up

 On Saturday we had a teacher thanksgiving at Steve and Wanda's house. All the teachers were there and we had amazing food and desserts! Our bellies were very full! There was a basketball tournament all weekend so we ended up going up to watch that most nights. The people of Elim get so excited about basketball. It's fun to see them getting so excited about something! We had a good time cheering the teams on as well!

Roommates <3

This week was a wonderful week up at Head Start. My kids were so well behaved and just ready to learn and have fun. I couldn't stop smiling. It did feel good when Friday finally arrived though! As always, being a teacher makes you exhausted and it's nice to relax on the weekends.

Andrew painting away

Making a daytime scene

Aiden

Isaac

 My mentor Lori was up here this week also. She observed and helped out in the classroom. She is such a wonderful person to have around. She is so helpful and fun to be around. I am thankful that I have her support! It's nice to have someone's imput.. especially someone who knows and has experience. That is what I need to hear the most... suggestions from people who know and are willing to help me through my first year of teaching.  Our theme this week was Good Morning Good Night. The kids learned a lot about opposites and about daytime and nighttime. It's so funny to hear their answers when we do our morning message. Usually they just shout out the first thing that comes to mind. For example, I might ask them a question like, "what is something that you do during the day" one kid might answer "go to school!" while another one shouts out "the sun" its frustrating at times but in the end, you just have to laugh and be happy that they are at least participating, even if they don't have the slightest clue what the question was to begin with. These kids really crack me up.

The boys playing with their animals

 I had a funny moment in the library this week when I was working on things. A child came up to me with a book and said, "look it's the book Titanic. I love that movie. There's this guy, with long hair, who loves this girl and the guys falls off the ship and ... real frozen he was." I

Tatiana dressed up all pretty

 couldn't help but laugh. The way some of them say things is just too funny. But, I find myself talking just like them. I guess if you are here for 4 months its bound to happen and certain words and sayings like the word "real" become normal to you in your everyday sentences.... its very odd. But, language is a very hard thing to control.

The bulletin board I made. I made reindeer from the cricut machine and also cut out trees and letters. It looks great!

 So I stated previously that I worked hard on getting my room presentable for our winter/ Christmas theme. It took some time but we did it! Some things didn't turn out the greatest, but I think overall the classroom looks great. We have snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and the kids made sun catchers that are also on the ceiling.

The candy cane hut

 They love doing art so much! The kids decorated and colored candy canes to put on our candy cane hut and they love walking underneath it. Adults have to duck to go under it, but it's still fun for us too! I just love pre-school land.. it's a wonderful place to be.

you can kind of get a view of the ceiling

 It snowed in Elim last night but we only got about an inch or so. It snowed a little bit during the day today, but not enough to accumulate. The weather has been cold but really it doesn't seem all that bad to me. The mornings are the worst when I'm walking and my legs and cheeks

get really cold. Tomorrow is suppose to be -6 or something for a low. I hope it's sunny out so we can go walking on the ice. I saw a four-wheeler and a truck out there yesterday. Must mean that it's really frozen over! It's scary when it snows too because you can't see the ice and you don't really know what you're walking on. There was people going way out to sea so I think we'll be safe out there.. (don't worry)Well, its about that time that I think I need to go to bed. I drank a cup of coffee a couple hours ago so I'll probably have trouble falling asleep.. maybe I'll watch some netflix. This is my last blog until I go home to Wisconsin. I AM SO EXCITED! (can you tell ) haha 
Love you all,
Sammy