Wow! It's Been A LONG Time!

Wow, I can't believe it has been like three weeks since my last post!  We have been in the middle of our kitchen remodel (so close to being done!), my dad had Triple Bypass Surgery (he is recovering well), my Grandma had been ill (she is now better!), it was the end of the trimester, and of course the usual craziness of being a mom and teacher!


So, I am finally able to post...I am not sure when I will EVER be caught up with my Google Reader!  I have over 1,000 blog posts to read....NUTTY, I know, but I do want to miss a thing!


I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their families!  Last week we were very busy learning about the First Thanksgiving and discussing all of the things that we are thankful for!

Here are a few highlights:
                        We baked cornbread using a skillet.

We made pilgrim hats and bracelets to wear as we celebrated Thanksgiving together during lunch in our classroom.  Our bracelets helped us remember the story of the First Thanksgiving.

We created a book about the pilgrims, the Mayflower and Native Americans.

We also made our own butter using whipping cream for our cornbread:

          Each child made Indian corn in the Creation Station:

To go back a few weeks earlier...here are a few projects from studying the letter Cc:

                                             Clifford art project and hats

                                                       Decorating Cupcakes

Sunday School

I like to occassionally share the things that we are doing in Sunday School at my small church. I am the direct and teach the 1st and 2nd graders.  I also bring all of the children together on certain occassions to do whole group activities.

Here are some things that we have done recently.

We had recently studied about Noah's Ark.  We learned about the significance of the rainbow.  We also used an idea from Oriental Trading to make these fun hats.  I have posted about Rainbow Hair in the past.  I used this idea in Sunday School using the theme of "Follow and obey God's Way.

Last week we completed this fall project.  We used torn paper to create the trees.  The bottom portion says:  Fall down on your knees and pray.  God will never leave you. 
 I also did this project with my kindergarteners using a short fall poem where they were able to fill in the sight word "the."  I had these on display for conferences.

Finally, I wanted to share about our participation in Operation Christmas Child.  Individual people/families can fill their own shoeboxes and bring them to church.  A church member then delivers them to a "drop off" location.  They are then shipped to children all over the world that are in need.  Another way we do this is by collecting different items each month.  We begin in July (Christmas in July).  Then, in November (today for us) I have the Sunday School kids 1st grade and up, Catechism kids and the youth help assemble and pack the boxes.  Lifeway Christian Book Store had boxes for free that we could assemble and they worked great!  We also use regular shoeboxes that are wrapped in wrapping paper and the plastic shoeboxes.  Today we packed 36 boxes!  For our small church, we were proud!

O Is For Owls

Wow, I am having a tough time posting like I used to!  It has been so busy at school and with our kitchen remodel...well, it has been hectic!

We made these owls this week for the letter O!  They are made of paper plates!  We sponge painted them and then added eyes, feet and a beak with construction paper.

Here is a picture of what the owls look like before painting them:

This is an activity that we did to practice our sight words!  It is from Fran over at Kindergarten Crayons.  Here is the link to her TPT Store.

I Am So Honored!

Laura from Kindergarten Kraziness has graciously given me the Blog On Fire Award!  I am so honored to be recognized!!!  I just love all of you out there is Blogland!
So, how this works is I am supposed tell 7 things about myself and then give the award to 7 other blogs.  So, here it goes!

1.  I live on a farm.  We raise cattle.

2.  We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel!  We are doing this ourselves and it will take all winter!!

3.  I LOVE to camp with my family.  We are always sad when it is time to put the camper away!

4.  I also have a class blog, Mrs. Bella's Kindergarten Kids.  I share many of the same acitivities and pictures but it is geared toward my students' parents.

5.  My husband's mother was a nurse at the same hospital where I was born.  She was currently pregnant with my future husband as she weighed and measured me right after I was born!  AMAZING!

6.  My family also loves to snow mobile!

7.  I am the director of our Sunday School program and church.  I will occassionally post about our activities!

I nomiate the following blogs!

Kristen's Kindergarten

http://kpoindexter.wordpress.com/

KinderPond

http://kinderpond.blogspot.com/