Birthday in Heaven Cake

Every year we celebrate Papa Dave's Birthday. This was the cake we came up with this year. He loved doing crossword puzzles, so we thought this was a great memory to share on his birthday. 

Fall Canvas Paintings

2nd Annual: A Birthday for Cow Party

We have been reading Jan Thomas's books for quite a few years. Rachel loves all of them. So last year, while reading A Birthday for Cow, we realized that Cow's birthday was October 17th in the book. Naturally, we thought it would be a good reason to celebrate! (https://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2017/10/jan-thomas-book-birthday-party.html) And, we can't just do it once; it is now a tradition the kids look forward to. David wanted to make the cake look a little more like it does in the book, so we used yellow and pink frosting to decorate it.

And, you can't have cow's birthday without turnips! So, we all created turnips in our home makerspace. They all turned out very different, but we had a blast creating them. We can't wait to have our cake tomorrow! 

How Do You Want To Be Remembered?

While we often tell people not to worry about what others think about them, I don’t think we ever stop caring about the impression we are leaving. As an educator, I am constantly thinking about the impression I am leaving on my students and how I can make a greater impact. I think about the things my students will remember about me and whether I am living up to the person they need me to be.

Who then do my students need me to be? While reflecting on that, I came back to what I remembered about my own teachers. I didn’t remember specific lessons, I didn’t remember the day-to-day operations of a school that educators spend so much time focusing on. While I am sure I learned from some well thought out lesson planning, those are not the things I think about when I remember my school experiences. I remember those teachers that did more and took our learning outside of the textbook and gave me unique experiences. I remember going to a campaign dinner for John McCain. I remember going to Detroit to see plays and visit Greektown. I remember all of the plays I was in throughout elementary and high school. I remember building toothpick bridges and the dry-humor jokes my teachers shared. I remember the Michigan fight song, the read aloud books my teachers read, volunteering at too many events to list specifically, and so many other things like this. When it comes down to it, I remember the things the teachers did to make learning more than just the content they needed to cover. It was the experiences they created that helped shape me into the individual I have become and made the teacher I strive to be. I am confident that the students I went to school with can name the specific teachers that match the things on the list I have provided.

So the question is, how can I create those same experiences that will shape my own students into the people they need to be to thrive in this society. I have to keep pushing myself to be more than just the English content teacher. And the more I do, the more I realize that I learn just as much from doing the extra volunteer projects, the extra clubs we create, the outside-the-box experiences I create. These are the things that make teaching the most rewarding profession in the world. So as we get ready to go back to school, I challenge you to ask yourself, how do you want to be remembered? How can you be the person that changes the direction of a student’s life for the better. How can you create the connections for students that will bring them the future they deserve?

I want to be remembered as the teacher that showed students their strengths, showed them how to capitalize on those strengths, provided opportunities for them to connect with individuals that gave them job opportunities, showed them what it means to help their community and take pride in it. I want them to think of me as a positive person that smiled and brought them up when they needed it. I want them to remember me as someone they could come to and knew I would help them and guide them in any way I could.

On the first day of school this year, I am going to challenge my juniors to think about how they want to be remembered. I have asked all of their teachers (from kindergarten to 10th grade) to send me things they think of when they see the names of these students. Then I will use all of the things the teachers send me to create this assignment: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D_yaucrW5yln71_ye8SNXL9uFWVuUikZDb26_awCGbs/edit?usp=sharing

Instead of just focusing on academic and athletic goals (what most students automatically turn to in goal setting), I believe it's important to set character goals as well. But it's not just important for the students to set these goals...adults can benefit from this process just as much.

Unicorn Birthday Party

Rachel decided she wanted a unicorn birthday party two days before her birthday, so we threw this party together pretty quickly and for pretty cheap! 

I found this unicorn stuffed animal at Dollar General for $4. It made a great cake topper and saved me a lot of work by not having to make a fondant one.  

I made the inside of the cake rainbow. 

I bought a tri-fold poster board from Dollar General for $1. I drew the design with pencil, outlined it with black Sharpie, and then painted it with acrylic paint. 

The backdrop is just tablecloth from the dollar store and balloons. I had string lights so we put them behind the tablecloth. 

Streamers decorated the ceiling.

I printed a picture of each of her previous birthdays and put them on cardstock (colors of the rainbow).

I found a unicorn pinata from Dollar General. The kids just caught a bunch of candy at a parade, so I used that to stuff the pinata. :) 

We decorated more with little toy unicorns I found at Dollar General. We hung them with fishing line. We added a banner and some unicorn crossing signs. 

I found the plates, napkins, tablecloth, and cups from Dollar General. 

Unicorn Photo Board

I drew this with pencil first on a tri-fold board I got from the Dollar Tree. I outlined it with black Sharpie, and then I painted it with acrylic paint. 

2nd Annual Christmas in July Party

Christmas in July is something we all look forward to doing in the middle of summer. This year, we had a day full of activities. 

I always try to find holiday tablecloths and supplies in the after-holiday clearance bins for events like this. We also pulled out our Elf photo board for some picture fun while we watched Elf. 

All of the day's activities were placed in these cups. I just hot glued them to a piece of cardboard. Then I attached a square of tissue paper with a rubber band. 

The kids took turns punching out a cup to find the next activity. The only one that was placed specifically was the top on. (That was their Christmas tree waffles for breakfast.)

We made pipe cleaner circuit trees.

We always play this game at my mom and dad's for Christmas. Grandma heard we were celebrating today, so she brought the kids the supplies over to play the oven mitt game. She wraps up treats and little presents with a lot of tape. One person puts on the oven mitts and tries to open the present. Meanwhile, the next person in line takes two die and rolls until they get doubles. As soon as they get doubles, the person unwrapping must stop and pass on the oven mitts. The person that gets the present open gets to keep the present. 

We had Rudolph cheesebread for lunch. 

Christmas tree cinnamon rolls

Decorated cookies

Made light-up canvas paintings

Played a 5-marker challenge with Christmas pictures. Each person closes their eyes and picks out 5 markers. Those are the only colors they can use to color their picture and they must use all 5 colors. 

We had frozen hot chocolate and Rudolph smores. 

We figured out a Christmas sweater logic puzzle, played "Would You Rather" with Christmas statements, and Christmas charades. 

We also made reindeer toothpaste (Combine one Tbsp of yeast with 1/2 cup warm water. In a big plastic ornament, we added about a Tbsp of dish soap, a few drops of food coloring, a few drops of Peppermint essential oil, and 1/3 cup Hydrogen Peroxide (40)--stronger peroxide can be found at a hair care store. Add the yeast mixture to the soap mixture and the reaction will take place.) 

We finished the night watching Elf. 

Winnie the Pooh Photo Board

Winnie the Pooh was my favorite cartoon as a kid, so I was pretty excited to hear about the new movie coming out in August. Today was pretty rainy, so I took advantage of the time indoors and painted a new photo board for the movie Christopher Robin. 

I started by sketching the characters with pencil. Then I outlined the sketch with black Sharpie. 

Using acrylic paint, I painted the characters. Then I cut out the faces with an X-Acto knife. 

Summer STEM Night

Rachel loved our Winter STEM challenge, so we decided to try a summer one. Using the materials in our home makerspace, we made a water slide, a bird's nest, and a tent. Each team made their own creation and then shared the finished designs with the other team.

Baked Apple Hand Pies

These pies are delicious! 

Ingredients:

1 box of refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts) or your could make your own dough

1/4 cup butter

3 medium apples peeled and chopped

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 Tbsp flour

1 egg white

Glaze: 

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

Start by peeling and chopping your apples. Place them in a skillet with the butter, salt, nutmeg, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cook this for about 5 minutes, or until the apples are soft. 

Add the flour. Stir and continue cooking for about a minute. 

Unroll your pie crusts. Using a circular cutter (mine was 6 inches in diameter), make individual circles for the pies. Fill the pie with a scoop of filling. 

Fold the crust over and crimp the edges together with a fork. I also picked the top of the pies with a fork to allow for steam to vent. Place the pies on a mat or parchment paper. Brush each pie with the egg white.  Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. 

When the pies are slightly browned, pull them from the oven. Whisk the powdered sugar and milk in a bowl and spread the glaze over the pies. Place the pies on a piece of parchment paper to cool and let the glaze harden. 

The glaze only takes a couple of minutes to set. These are best warm. 

St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt #6

Well, I am a few months behind on posting...These were our St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt clues this year.

Clue #1: The scavenger hunt starts now.
And the clues will show you how
To get the next spot
And go cold to hot,
So run off towards our chow

Clue #2: Our kitchen needs a little fixing
So it shines when Mom does the mixing
But we need some cash
So where is our stash?
Maybe the movie where a candlestick's singing. (Doesn't quite fit the rhyme scheme, but it works!)

Clue #3: The room in here is a pig sty
It's not fit for a queen or a king guy
So let's clean up the floor.
And then clean some more.
The vacuum is now your bulls-eye.

Clue #4 We always are cleaning our dog's hair.
It's messy but we really don't care.
He's old but he's happy
His mood is never crappy.
And he wants you to find a teddy bear.

Clue #5: Just one more stop on your trek tonight.
Soon you'll be done and it'll be alright.
You'll get gifts in a second
But don't you dare wreck it.
Go and look behind the red brake light.

Incredibles II Photo Board

We decided to make an Incredibles II photo board for the release of the new movie this week. We can't wait to go see it! 

Using this picture as inspiration, I drew the images on a trifold presentation board and painted it with acrylic paint.