This was copied over from my other blog. It was originally written on March 10, so all the time references are not correct, but you'll get the point. :)
Where have I been this week? (In case you were wondering.) Well, let's just say that next week is my spring break (WOO!), which makes this midterms week... Enough said. Actually mine hasn't been too bad. Only one true midterm. I had one 2 weeks ago. I just have had a lot on my plate this week, with trying to finish observations and going to meetings and such. For example, Tuesday went something like this: wake up early, finish homework, go to class, go to chapel, go to class, grab lunch for the road, eat on way to Mom's school, do observations, race back to school, go to class.
Wednesday: wake early, class, grab lunch for the road, race to Andrews to finish Kinder observations, hop in car and RACE to NW to finish observations in Mom's class (for 25 minutes- sooo worth the drive- ha!), hop in car, attempt to change into old clothes in car in parking lot, funny story. Janitor comes out with stuff for dumpster and walks up next to my car when I have my pants off.
Thankfully, he didn't notice that b/c I pulled my coat down over my lap, waved to him, and drove away. Haha! I finished pulling my pants on as I pulled away. Then I parked, raced to Loew-Bren, ran down the stairs, hid around the corner, whipped my dress shirt off, pulled on old t-shirt, dropped bag outside classroom, and made a lovely entrance into class 10 minutes late. Not a problem, though, b/c I had told my prof I'd be late with the observations. It was art day, which is why I had to be in old clothes. Then I had to attend the mock interviews for Kappa Delta Pi (education sorority thing I'm in) last night. Then Christa and I sat in her truck and talked for an hour afterwards. People were looking at us weird as they walked by. Lol. The windows were all fogged up from our talking since it was so stinkin' cold outside. Haha!
I thought I'd share my latest bulletin boards with you.
Here is my one for my Early Childhood unit. Our group's theme is the Five Senses. I am in charge of all the lessons for the Smell Day. I made the flower to represent good smells. Then I was going to make a trash bag to represent bad smells, but Mom had the brilliant idea to just put an actual garbage bag up there. It was even a vanilla-scented one. Haha. Then there were pictures I printed out (and Mom and Jen cut out) of various smells, good and bad. The kids would go up and sort the smells and tack them to either the flower or the garbage bag. Mom and Jen came and helped me put it up for a little while. They are the best!
Then at the bottom of the board, I have little cups with actual scents in them. I had to get creative with a couple of them. It was actually really fun to do! So at first, since this IS for kindergarten after all, the pictures of each scent would remain stapled right above the correct cup. That way the kids could see what each of those items would smell like. Once they had that down, then I would take the pictures down, and they would have to match them to the proper scent.
Here is what I had for that: sweet pea body spray (that I can't wear), vinegar, coffee, vanilla...
I had a cotton ball soaked in the body spray, a cotton ball soaked in vinegar, coffee grounds, and a cotton ball soaked in vanilla extract....cinnamon, lemons, and sugar cookies.
The cinnamon cup just had ground cinnamon in it. The lemon cup was originally a cotton ball soaked in lemon juice, but then I added lemon soap the next day (before I put the board up) to give it more scent. And for the last one, I took my sugar cookie candle and carve out some of it to use. Lol.Here is so you can see into the cup of coffee grounds.
I put this bulletin board up last Tuesday and took it down Monday of this week.
This was my bulletin board for Differentiated Instruction. I put it up last Friday afternoon/evening. After class got out that day, I went to the model classroom to get started on this. I tried to print out the pictures I had taken that day in my kindergarten class, but the computers in the model classroom wouldn't take my memory card. So I ran upstairs to the computer lab to try it out there. That worked! While I was upstairs transferring the pics to my jump drive so I could print them downstairs, I ran into Rebekah. That was perfect b/c I was supposed to meet her at 3:30 across campus for me to explain an assignment to her. So we just did that right there so I wouldn't have to run over there and turn around and come back. I ended up sitting there and guiding her through the whole thing. (I needed people to do an online Moodle class that I had created for my technology class.) Then I raced back downstairs when we finished just after 4 to print and cut out the pictures, print my other stuff, attempt to glue everything to backgrounds with cheap glue that didn't stick. I cut something too small and had to reprint it... It was one thing after another. I was racing as fast as I possibly could b/c the library closed at 5 and I had to laminate before it closed! I panicked when I almost had everything glued down b/c I remembered that the lamination doesn't work right if the glue is wet still. But too late to think of that! So at 15 to 5:00, I ended up slapping down the rest of the stuff, grabbing everything, and running out the door. I remembered some paper I had left behind, ran back and got it, then tore over to the library. I was sweating and almost in an asthma attack when I arrived at the library. They almost wouldn't let me laminate! But then they took pity on me and did. WHEW!
Well, while I was laminating, I remembered that I hadn't picked up the papers to grade from the science hall yet! And they close the offices at 5! So as soon as my lamination was ready, I paid for it, grabbed it, and sprinted out the door at 4:59. I tore over to the science hall with my coat and trail of lamination flapping behind me. Oh what a sight!
I JUST made it in to grab the papers before they locked the doors. Thank you, Jesus! I had prayed the whole race over. Then I ran back to Loew-Brenn to attempt to get the bulletin board up b/c I was supposed to meet friends for dinner at 5:30. As I was sweating bullets, cutting stuff out as fast as I could with crappy scissors, I realized there was no way I'd make it to dinner at that time. And I didn't know what time they closed Loew for the weekend, so I texted Rebekah and asked if we could push dinner back. She was sweet and said we could.
As I was panicking, trying to get my darn letters stapled to the board, centered and in a straight line, Mom called to see if they could come eat dinner with me. She heard how stressed out I was and saved me by dropping by to help me get it up! Thank you, Mom!! She helped me take my off-centered letters down and get them back up properly. Then we worked together to plan the rest of the layout and get it up. Then she drove me across campus to the DC to meet my friends, who were waiting on me just after 6. Ay yi yi! I hadn't been to my dorm room since that morning, so I was pooped by the time we finished dinner! Oh, and Mom, Dad, and Jen sat at a separate table so they wouldn't bother my friends and I. Haha!
The bulletin board behind that whole saga... (It really isn't all slanted like the picture looks)
And then finally, here is the item I made to go up on the calendar wall. I punched out 5 circles of each of the 6 colors. Then I home-laminated them by hand, which took awhile b/c I wouldn't be able to get those little pieces through the laminator without looking like a dork, having to blow them through. Then they are stuck to the white paper with the removable tack stuff. That way we can do lots of different patterns with it when I have my own class!
I need to take pictures of a couple other things I've made. Oh, and when I get my art projects from Wednesday's class back tomorrow, I'll share pictures and directions of those in case you want to do them with your kiddos. Oh, and I never took pictures of everything I made for my elementary art for educators class last year. Whew, lots to share still. But for tonight, I'm done. :)
Then we had to have people write on the envelopes under her name c/o Jean or Mark so she knew it wasn't for her to open and so we knew which person to give it to. Then since I see her each day at school, she comes to our house many evenings a week, and I see her each weekend at church, she had plenty of opportunities to give us the mail! I collected it all at school so that way Mom and Dad wouldn't find it. We had to be sneaky about some of it when she would bring it to the house with her to give to me. She would slip it to me behind the couch or something. Haha. Then some people just gave us their envelopes directly to us at church or sent it through the currier to Jen at school. We had to be sneaky at church, too. So that big ole purse that some of you teased me about came in mighty handy for hiding envelopes! 
We were happy they felt loved. 
Thankfully, Jen and I were able to cover up what he said and move the conversation in a new direction. Lol. 
Alrighty then!
We gently told him that MIGHT not be quite the right message to send to Mom on her Mother's Day. We then explained that horrific was like the word "horror." Not a good thing. Terrific WAS a good answer, though, for letter T. Lol.
