Favorite Ornaments

Every year I love unpacking my Christmas ornaments and rediscovering my favorites. Many of them bring back memories of Christmases past.

Our Starbucks ornaments are definitely a favorite.

This beautiful ornament was given to me by a student my first year of teaching. It's a little hard to see, but it has a crocheted star hanging inside it.

When I did my student teaching a mom had all the students sign this wooden apple for me.

We had to have a monkey on the tree, so I was excited when I found this ornament a couple of years ago.

We got a few of these golden ornaments at a Christmas bazaar in Belgium.

Here's another special one from Belgium.

My family has had these reindeer and bears for as long as I can remember.

A new favorite, in honor of Kirk's favorite football team.

I look forward to seeing what gets added to the collection in the future...

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Yes, Christmas break is finally here! I makes me so happy to be at home all day, especially since it's been snowing all afternoon. Even time spent doing laundry and cleaning doesn't seem too bad when you look out the window and see such a beautiful blanket of snow. It's been accumulating little by little, which has been fun to watch. Let's hope it will stay for Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look a ... Little Like Christmas

Between the usual craziness for me at work and Kirk being sick, we haven't gotten much Christmas decorating and such done. We finally made it out to a local tree farm yesterday to get our Christmas tree. We spent quite a while searching, then found a tree that we liked but the tag had no price on it. We decided to keep looking and come back to that one if we didn't find anything better. After more looking, we were just about to head back to that tree when I spotted one that I really liked. It was small and skinny, but looked good. Finally, two trees down, we found the winner that got cut down and loaded on our Suburban. So far it only has lights on it, but at least I got it that far. Pictures to come soon.

Photo from marthastewart.com

Another Christmasy thing I did last night was bake a batch of Gooey Coconut Dream Bars. I saw them on Martha on Friday and they really are delicious! Plus, they're rich enough that you only need a couple of little bites. Just don't plan on cutting them too soon after you take them out of the oven.

On a totally different note, I sat down to watch one of my favorite shows when I got home from work and got a great surprise. I love watching The Amazing Race and last night was the season finale. The teams were in Moscow and were instructed to fly back to the States, to their final destination of Portland. From there, they had to find Camp Tilikum, where I worked for two summers. It was so cool. Part of the reason I like The Amazing Race is because I'm always hoping that they will go somewhere I have been. I always figured it would be a European destination, though, and not where I went to college. They didn't show much of the camp or anyone that I knew, but it was fun nonetheless, especially since it was so unexpected.

Happy Thanksgiving from South Africa

A student from our school is in South Africa right now visiting her mom's family. Last Wednesday they were at a wildlife preserve that has a live feed you can watch online (Africam.com). They arranged to be there at 9:00am our time so that our school could have an assembly and see them there. They made a big poster wishing us a happy Thanksgiving. It worked out perfectly and was very cool to watch.

Multicultural Museum

On Wednesday my partner teacher and I both brought the souvenirs, crafts, clothing items, and such that we have from around the world to school and made a "museum" for our students. We had small groups of them come walk around and enjoy our collection. Some of them were really fascinated. Our principal was quite impressed with our combined collection. Thank you to those of you who have brought me items from many different places!

"Multicultural Solids"

At this time of year in my class we are studying geometry and doing our "Many Cultures" unit. Last year my partner teacher and I came up with an idea to blend the two with our "Multicultural Solids" project. It was a hit last year and went over very well this year too. Here are a few examples of what my students came up with:







It's always fun to see which countries they choose and how creative they get. Several parents have even commented on how much they enjoyed working on this project. Even better is watching the students share their work with others. We invited the kindergarten and first grade students to visit us. Each students has a buddy or two and loved sharing their creations.

Many Cultures

For our Many Cultures unit at school, we have had guests from several countries visit us. It's great fun to watch the students discover new things about other places. Some of the presentations are in English, and others are in Spanish, which provides another layer of learning.

Luis is a Spanish professor at our local college. He is from Spain and showed the students hats and clothing for several Spanish regions. He was hilarious and everyone loved him.

Sharon lived in Yemen for 13 years but she is from Ireland. She showed us lots of pictures of life in the Middle East. She also dressed up, of course. She even brought frankincense and myrrh for the students to smell.

Martha, our secretary is from Mexico. She taught us about the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. She showed the students some words in their language.

Rosa is our health assistant and is also from Mexico. She showed the students how she makes homemade tortillas with her grandmother's tortilla press.

Still to come, we will have visitors from Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and a Native American.