Miss Ongna, the Hippo Hunter

Can I take a moment to brag a little? I have been bragging to my fellow teachers and my roommate, so why not just keep it going a bit and brag to you too!

My students finished up their 5 paragraph "essays" on Friday! 5 paragraphs! With indentation, proper punctuation, and introductory and concluding paragraphs. As they were writing and I was helping them edit, I was geeking out. I'm pretty sure they thought I was having a spazz attack because all I could keep saying was, "I am so excited!! You are doing so well! This is awesome!" There may have also been some excited hand motions in there...

The wonderful essays my students wrote!

I have worked on hitting writing hard this year because I think it is a completed neglected skill in today's world. 2nd grade is such a wonderful year because kids are just starting to be able to work on their own and are making that transition from learning to read to reading to learn. I look for ways to include a writing project in each of my subject areas.
My students this year have surprised me at how they have taken a project I have had in mind and done it 10 times better than I was anticipating, such as the essays! It is fun to get to see students develop through the year and go from barely being able to write 1 paragraph to writing multiple. I would also like to add on that these students' abilities to write so well comes not from me being a great teacher, but from them having a wonderful God-given gift to learn and show what they have learned in a most marvelous way! I am in no way bragging about my own abilities, only about my students'!

We have not only done more structured writing in school, but have done some fun writing times as well. I have this wonderful book that has the beginning of a silly story and the students need to finish it. My students love them and break out into cheers when I hand one out. The kids can spend 10 minutes writing and fill up the front and back of the paper. No complaints about that here! Here is a story one of my students wrote that even included me as a character. I guess that's the risk you run teaching young students...being included in a story as a hippo hunter! I think that may actually be illegal in real life...

Either way, this story started out with a boy and his family having problems with hippopotamuses in their house and the students takes it from there:

"One day a girl named Miss Ongna rang the doorbell. She said, "I'm here to destroy or get rid of that hippopotamus!" She went to the trap and took out some bait for it. Then snap! She was in the hippo's tummy. She went bang bang with her fists and gum trapped her. "No!" said Kirk. So Kirk got a fishing rod and for Miss Ongna out. The hippos then said goodbye and Miss Ongna was homeless, so she lived with the 2nd graders and they lived happily ever after! The End."

Back to the grind!

Routine is what most people thrive on, especially kids, most especially me! Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, fun random events, and other rather interrupted and spontaneous things, but when it comes down to the day-to-day, I LOVE me some routine!

When January rolls around, I know that I am ready after the craziness of the holidays to get back to the normal routine of school. We've been in school for a bit already and have been cruising on! So much has happened already! I also discovered some pictures from before Christmas too. I'll be giving you an update through all my pictures I came upon.

 

For a lesson on evaporation, I had my students "paint" my chalkboard. By paint I mean use water with paint brushes! After I explained the activity, the students looked at me, shocked, and said, "Really?!" We discussed and observed and learned all about evaporation! 

On this day, I snagged some laptops and got my students working on a website, scholastic.com. This website has TONS of resources for teachers, students, and parents. I found a cool little program called "Story Starters" that has fun little prompts to making your own story. A great way for the students to have fun writing and work on using a computer! 

These two pictures are from our class Christmas party. Look at all that red and green! So adorable! For my students' presents this past year, I made them letter pillows again, the first letter of their first name. They are also holding the sock snowmen they made that day! They were super cute. Such a fun time of the year!

These next three pictures are from a science lesson on the moon's phases. I snagged the idea from the 5th/6th grade teacher at my school who posted it on Facebook after finding the idea on the internet. The students carved the various phases into oreos, then labeled them and put their "moons" into the correct order. We resisted and only ate a few of our leftovers! A yummy science lesson!

I was talking with a coworker the other day and said to her, "Teaching is the only profession that you can dress up looking absolutely ridiculous and crazy and people will tell you you are awesome at your job!" On this day our school had tropical day...in the middle of January. We dressed up in our warm weather gear and pretended we were near a beach!

 

Speaking of dressing up all crazy like, here is another picture! Last week we hit a milestone, 90 days completed in school--half way through! In 2nd grade, we celebrated by dressing up in halves, naturally. I had waaaaay too much fun with this! My students also greatly enjoyed it. Lots of PJ's! We had some snacks, watched some Magic School Bus, and enjoyed walking around school in our crazy outfits! I also decorated our door with streamers, which you can see in the background. Who doesn't love running through streamers every time they walk through a door?!

 

A sister from anotha motha!

Happiest New Year to you! I have spent my first few days of 2013 flying back to Pittsburgh, having my car not start, thus scrambling to school in my cousin's car, all to get to school, late nonetheless, to whirl around all day to try and remember where we left off and clean up all the remnants of Christmas. My stuff is thrown all over my house and I whipped up a can of tomato soup this morning for lunch at school today, seeing as there is no other food in the house other than frozen fish and a few dozen cans of black beans.

As you can see, I am off to a great start in 2013! If someone knows how to be better at this life stuff, please come and give me a personal tutorial.

In other, happier news, I had the most fantastic of breaks. One of the reasons for this and why I always love coming home is because of my dear friend, Kimberly Ingelse.

I'll give you a brief history lesson: Kim and I have been friends for literally our entire lives. I don't remember not knowing her. We grew up going to the same church and school, and, fun fact, we are also 3rd cousins! Our families are also good friends with each other. I have frequented the Voskuil household quite often throughout the years and continue to do so, even though their kids have left! Hope you don't mind Tim and Tammy!

Anywho, Kim and I have gone through grade school, the awkward middle school years, and high school together, sharing tons of crazy and ridiculous memories. Once college came and we started to go to different schools in different states, we always remained good friends and have continued to do so though we've been separated by hundreds of miles the past 6 years.

Each time I come home we always get together as much as we can and it as though we haven't been apart. We go shopping, craft, watch movies, eat junk good, and drink wine. We also laugh--a lot. We know just what joke or movie quote will get the other going. We also poke fun of each other for everything! She is one of those amazing people that can simply make you happy just by being around her. She is so dedicated to her family and friends and is truly such a caring and loving person. Kim is also hilarious. A pretty stellar combination if you ask me!

It is not lost on me how huge of a blessing it is to have a friend that I have known my entire life and that I can continue to be so close with, even when distant from each other location wise. She has gotten me though some tough times and I cannot imagine my life without her in it.  I'll get random texts from her with a simple quote or a voicemail with a hilarious story on it, either of which can just make my day. Kim is a best friend and really, another sister to me. I love her dearly and I am so thankful for our awesome friendship!