Make a Difference Monday: Week Two!

Last week, a friend of mine {Her blog is here} started posting "Make a Difference Monday" challenges.  I am doing my best to take her challenge and I am passing it along to you!  

So, without further ado...

Week two's challenge!

"Write three (or more) notes of encouragement and leave them one of two places: tucked conspicuously between books at your local bookstore, or on windsheild wipers in a parking lot.  The choice is up to you! OR... you could do both. :)"

Have fun being an echo of the Creator! 

An underestimated letter...

Letters... I have been teaching through the alphabet with my students and we've done some pretty fun things so far.  When I realized that yesterday was going to be the letter V I thought "oh great. Worst letter ever! What in the world can you do with that letter?" 

As a first year teacher, I am always searching for ideas and this day was no different.  I began my search thinking about how "un-fun" I expected this day to be.  But, Praise the LORD there are some wonderful websites and blogs out there that help keep my classroom fun!  One of my favorite sites for ideas is the Preschool Express (especially the "individual letter activities" in "Alphabet Station").  

Anyway, after looking through several different sites, blogs, and pinterest (of course) I came up with a plan.  

We made Vampire Bats (we use Zoo Phonics and this is the animal for this letter)

We talked about Volcanoes and how they "erupt".  We made a big volcano out of play dough and (with some baking soda and vinegar) witnessed an eruption!  

We also talked about Vegetables. We played a game where one student would look at the picture of a vegetable and describe it to the class trying to get them to guess it.  

It turned out to be one of my favorite days!  The kids had a BLAST! 

Now I know, I LOVE the letter V! :)

 

You'll have to forgive my pictures... I forgot my camera and had to take them on my phone and I don't have a fancy phone with a nice camera. :)

An Award?!?! for me?

It is Christmas break for me, and I am loving every minute of it.  I have also been out of town for most of it! My husband and I visited my parents for Christmas (in Normal, IL... Believe it. I really grew up there.) Then we headed down to Atlanta, Georgia for the Passion 2012.  It's a HUGE christian conference for 18-25 year olds and I felt so refreshed afterward! 

So anyway, this brings me back to today.  I was checking through all my emails and things (since I haven't in a while) and found out I have been nominated for an award... TWICE!  

Apparently there are some lovely ladies out there, who found my blog and think it's worth reading.

There are 3 things that I am supposed to do since I have accepted this award.

#1. Thank the person that nominated you with a link back to them. 

Well, I am so very thankful to Julie at Loving and Learning in Pre-K and Tessa at Spotlight on Kindergarten. They have some great stuff on their blogs, so please check them out!

#2. Tell 7 things about yourself.

Here goes nothing...

1. I have been married for almost 8 months now... and yes, I love married life.

2. We moved to Michigan last May. I was a little nervous about Michigan winters, but have yet to see much snow. :) Can't complain.

3. I teach pre-k to my small but wonderful group of 7! Love them.

4. My husband is the Children's Ministry Director at our church which means I get to work with kids on Sundays and Wednesdays too!  I love it!

5. I love ice cream and there is always room for it in my stomach.

6. I am a HUGE fan of dark chocolate.

7. I love my new Cricut and sewing machine and wish I could craft all the time!

#3. Pass this award on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they've received an award!

Wow!  15?!?!  hmmmm.... how about some new and then some of my old favorites.

1. 2 Teaching Mommies

2. From Kindergarten with Love

3. Mrs. Karen's Preschool Ideas

4. Always Keep HeART

5. an aroma of my Savior

6. Melyssa with a "Y"

7. My Front Porch Looking In

8. Kindergarten Korner

Going back to Preschool

I know I sort of dropped off the planet for the last couple months and I will try to fill you in soon... The short story?  

{I got married in May and am now a "MRS"...}   

{My husband and I spent the summer working at camp in Michigan. He also did an internship at a church here too.}

{At the end of the summer, Jerrod became the full-time "Children's Ministry Director", and I became the Preschool Teacher at camp.}  

This brings you basically up to date, and to the reason for my post today... I have never taught Preschool officially (although I've worked with kids of all ages for years!), but so far it has been going pretty well, I think.  My mom has been a HUGE help with ideas and advice, since she is teaching K-3 this year and has experience in K-4 as well.  It is perfect because I have 3 and 4 year olds in my class!  

Here is a little peek at some fun things I've done so far... 

 This is my "seasonal" bulletin board.  I'm planning on changing it throughout the year. This is how we started off the year...

This is what my "seasonal" board looks like now.  The kids made the apples and leaves (yes, I know the leaves are huge).  The paper bag owl in the corner was inspired by my friend at An Aroma of My Savior.  The kids loved making them, and they all turned out adorable wish I could show you all of them!

Well, just thought I'd catch you up on life... I figure if I start somewhere I'll probably get back to doing this a little more, and I'm sure I'll have ideas and funny stories to share this year!

The Gospel is Simple...

So I was thinking back on the first half of my student teaching... What have I not shared that I want to share?  So here's the highlights I thought of...


I did a project in Bible with my students.  The unit was on missions and evangelism so I taught them the wordless book, and then they had to make a wordless book and share the gospel with a classmate who would evaluate them. I loved the conversations I had with them as they discussed each color I was teaching them.  I cannot describe what it was like to walk around the room and hear them sharing the gospel.  It was AMAZING!  I couldn't help but think of how cool it is that the gospel is simple enough for a child to not only understand but be able to share it!  Not only did they have fun with this project, but one of my students told me she wanted to use the wordless book she made to share the gospel with her Grandpa.  That is what it's all about!


Another think I did in Bible, was have my wonderful fiancé come in and talk about his growing up as a missionary kid in Brazil.  He did an exceptional job!  The students LOVED all the things he brought that they could touch (and a few things to taste ;)  They asked him all kinds of questions and it was so cool to know that they were enjoying hearing about missions and just having fun.  The best part was after he left when some of my girls came up to me and said "He is so cute!" "You guys are so adorable together!" It got better when one of the girls asked me a couple days later if I was going to tell Jerrod that she thinks he's cute.  I told her that I already did.  She got embarrassed, but still wanted to know what he said.  I said "He just laughed."  She turned a nice shade of pink after that! Gotta love 5th grade! :)

Another memorable moment was my last day with my 5th graders... They threw me a little going away party.  They made me all kinds of cards and little gifts.  It was priceless.  The best part was at the very end.  Before they went home they all gathered around me, put there hands on me, and prayed for me.  It was awesome!  Some of the best things they prayed were that I'd be safe, that I'd come back to visit them, that my new class would appreciate me, and that since I can't teach all the kids in the world that I'd be able to enjoy my new class(I can't imagine teaching all the kids in the world!).  They also told me that they would be praying for me in the next few weeks.  I know they are such prayer warriors that they will not forget and will be praying every single day! :)  How cool is that?!?!


What a blessing they were to me.  I think it just goes to show that God can use anything (and anyone!) to teach us valuable lessons.  Thank you, Lord for 5th graders!

My Prayer Warriors...

Ok, so I started student teaching last Monday.  I am in a fifth grade class and I am loving it!  My teacher is great, and the kids are pretty good too.  It’s looking like a pretty fun seven weeks.  I’ve also been challenged already this week, and that’s what I want to share. 

            Being in this class has really challenged me about prayer.  My kids are prayer warriors and every day I look forward to hearing them pray.  Each morning we start the day with a devotional, and then the teacher prays and in the middle of her prayer she says something like “Lord, these 5^th graders have some things they’d like to pray about…” and then the kids start popcorn praying.  They each pray for their own requests.  It is so cool!  It saves time on taking prayer requests and it is so cool to hear it.  There’s at least ten if not more requests that they pray about every day.  They have such tender hearts and it is such a challenge to me.  I don’t pray nearly as much as I should, and I really struggle with praying consistently for certain requests.  I can get discouraged or I feel like a broken record praying the same thing over and over again.   I know that I should continue to pray but I struggle with making it a reality.

            I also was challenged with prayer by watching my teacher.  On Friday one of the girls came into class after recess and was worried about her brother who had gotten hurt earlier that day.  The first thing my teacher said was “Well, lets pray for him then we’ll call your mom and see how he’s doing.”  There were a couple of kids around us to the few of us sat there and prayed for a min.  It was such a challenge to me that not only was her first response to pray, but she was teaching here students in that moment to go to prayer first in tough situations. 

            Those were the things that hit me last week, and I am sure there is more to come.  I thank God for the great class and teacher that he has blessed me with!