Wisdom for Wednesday-Praises of God

Welcome to another week of:

Last weekend, I was invited by a friend of mine to go listen to Priscilla Shirer.  She is an excellent speaker if you have never heard her.....I would recommend going to see her if she is ever close to your town.  Anyways, I ended up purchasing one of her books called Can We Talk?   I have started to do the book study and Oh  boy has it opened my eyes and makes me see that I have a lot of work to do.  :-)

This was one of the quotes that she had in the book and it is so true.  Every word that we speak should make God happy and pleased.  Unfortunately, I know that if I look at every word that comes from me, it wouldn't always please God.  For example:  Complaining........I have to admit I do this whether it be I'm tired, don't feel good today etc......if my mouth is full of all of that there is no room left for God's praises.  There are always those little things (speaking for myself) that can easily fill our mouths that will take away from God's praises.  I want God to be pleased with what he hears from me.  My question to myself this week after every day is: What did my mouth contain most frequently:  God's praises or criticism/judgement and complaining?  I'm working on it leaning towards God's praises on a daily basis.

James 3:8-11 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

Hope you have a great day!

Duck or Rabbit? Great Opinion Writing Piece

On our grade card in first grade we are to have the kids write an opinion piece and give them a grade for it.  I was so excited when I came across this Duck or Rabbit opinion writing idea at First Grade Fairytales.  The kids listened to the book Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal which I was glad to find on youtube since I didn't have the actual book yet.  

In the story, there are 2 characters and one believes it is a duck while the other believe it is a rabbit.  They discuss reasons why they think it is a duck or rabbit throughout the book.   It is a very cute book.  When we finished the book, the kids had to decide what they first thought it was and then they got to color their duck/rabbit to look like a duck or rabbit.  Then they had to write their opinions as to why they thought it was a duck or a rabbit.  They had a lot of fun with this and they turned out really cute.  Check them out:

I had the majority of them say it was a rabbit.  Only a few thought it was a duck.  

Have a great day!

The MOST Honest, Random Five for Friday

Good morning!

I apologize ahead of time for this very random, yet very honest post. This week as I was thinking ahead to my blog post, I really struggled with coming up with any sort of useful teaching tips or information for you. 

So in all honesty, I am surviving people. 

Just surviving. 

We have three weeks left of school and everything is crazy with resignations, hirings, activities, and students who have already "turned their thinkers off." Add to that my attempt to prepare the K-2 students for their Spring program, Hats!, and I have been sick for two weeks and taking Mucinex around the clock. 

Survival, ok?

These first two pictures go together...

This is the second bird in two days I have found in my driveway. The first one was not this pretty, but when I saw this bluejay I was bummed.

Please forgive me. I am not a cat lover. We are just not cat people (sorry, Kristi!). However, we have a constant supply of cats around our home because they live in our barn. See below:

I don't mind a couple of cats in the barn. Really, I don't. Because it helps with some other pesky problems, you know? 

But please, cats, stop killing my birds. That I do mind! Especially a pretty bluejay. Blue is my favorite color.

Normally, by now we have a mama fox move in to have her babies. That kind of clears out the cats for awhile. But no mama fox this year…which means the cats are multiplying…

P.S. My daughter's new truck…even trade for an old Blazer we had. Benefit of hubby being an auto-tech at a dealership. It is not crooked, the ground is… She is excited. And she can even see over the steering wheel and reach the pedals.

Harley's the short one. :-)

Speaking of Harley, she won an award for writing an essay "What the Pledge of Allegiance Means to Me." We knew she got 2nd at the local ELKS lodge, but it was a surprise that her essay went on to win 2nd in the division and 1st in state! Pretty cool. 

She got $125 gift card to Wal-Mart--which I confiscated to go toward the cost of repairs to a borrowed, broken saxophone. 

Long story. 

Yes, I felt bad taking her winnings. 

However, she has no other $$$ and needed a lesson in following the rules of caring for an instrument.

 Harley is in track, so I've been spending some time at track meets. We have two this next week to add to our busy schedule.

Chaz is obviously not in track. But he got that brace opened up this week and can now put some weight on his knee. I can't believe it has been six weeks since surgery. Four more to go with the brace… He has actually lost 15 pounds (of muscle). :-( I guess that is not uncommon, but I'm not used to him being so scrawny.

He really was excited--just not about Mom taking his picture.

Finally, just so you know I am still trying to teach my class. 

We started our plants unit with some beans in wet paper towels. The kids don't think they are going to grow. I can't wait to see their faces when these babies sprout!

Thanks for sticking with me for Five for Friday!

Wishing you a dead-bird-free week!

Wisdom for Wednesday - Praying for Others

Hi there. Thanks for stopping by!

A little background...this quote refers to when we're praying for others, often when they are going through a trial. Take a peek.

Let me start by saying I don't think any of us can know why someone is going through a difficult time and we should not assume it is the result of sin or some type of punishment from God (we're going through Job on Wednesday nights at church, his 'friends' were quite good at this...an example of how we should not be). 

Anyway, I do think the things we go through in life can *all* be used by God for our good. This quote stood out to me specifically as I was thinking about my own children. Even as teenagers, they go through difficult times...my son's injury, for example. 

As a mom, I want to fix things and often my prayers go along those same lines when I pray for them. This is a great reminder for me to instead be praying that they will draw closer to the Lord through the trials they face--not necessarily that they will be rescued from whatever it is.

I guess it is a good reminder of how to pray for others--and even ourselves!

Prefixes and Classroom Dojo

Today we worked on the prefixes re- and un-.  I always like introducing it by having the students act it out for me. This morning I told the kids that I would be needing a helper and of course they all love to help so all hands went up!  :-)  I picked a helper and had him bring up his backpack.  I then told him to unpack his bag and when he was done, I told him to repack it and I did this several times (he was a great sport about it but I think he was getting a little tired toward the end LOL!).  The kids then had to tell me what they thought the re- and un- prefix meant and they were able to tell me right away what the meanings of them were.  Here is my great sport! 

We have a little over a month left of school and the weather has been nice.  Therefore, it is that time of year when sometimes the kids may need a little more motivation to keep up their hard work.  I decided to incorporate Classroom Dojo.

If you aren't familiar with it, it is a great classroom management tool that is free and it encourages good behaviors.  I used it today along with my behavior clip chart.  The kids earn points for following the rules (that simple).  Then they can lose points for not following the rules.  The cool part about it is that when you give a point to a student the computer makes a ding that they know is for something good.  When a point is taken away it makes a different ding and they know that someone needs to make a better choice (that little ding was amazing.....it was so quick and every kid made sure they were doing the right thing when they heard it).   The kids were so excited about it and were excited to see how many points they earned.  After showing their points to them, I saw them doing the silent cheer and happy dance!  Check them out!

At the end of the day, I pulled up a graph that Classroom Dojo shows that shows the percentage of how they did in class.  It breaks it down by each rule.  We talked about what rules got a lot of positive points and what rules lost the most points.  Many students told me as they left that they were going to try to be the top point earner tomorrow.  :-)

If you haven't seen Classroom Dojo, make sure you check it out.  It is very easy to use and has very clear directions as well. 

Have a great day!

Reading Stories and Writing Biographies

Hey there! 

It feels like it has been forever since I posted...that could be because I missed my Friday post last week. We had a ladies conference at church that kept me busy. 

I'm back today to catch you up on a few things going on around here before I race off to my children's band concert. It is definitely that time of year when the days and evenings are just crammed with activities! Yikes! 

We were supposed to have "Farm Day" this afternoon, but we were rained out. :-( 

So...I thought it was the perfect day to visit the computer lab. 

You see, earlier this week we had interviewed classmates and wrote a biography in our journals. It was time for the final draft.

Here we are practicing our interview skills.

They were so excited to type their biographies! Before we headed to the lab, I explained that they would need to really listen and follow my directions exactly. If they failed to do so, I would become annoyed and I would want to quit. Ha!

This class is absolutely amazing! I just can't say enough good things about them. They did a great job, and we only had one student move another student's folder to an unknown location by mistake. Hee hee. I call it a success! We'll have to finish typing next week.

We have also reading our basal stories differently the last few weeks. I like to do this at the end of the year to keep things exciting and secretly work on learning to cooperate with one another. 

I take each story and type up the questions from the teacher's manual. The groups then read the story and take turns being the teacher by asking the comprehension questions. We discuss the importance of getting along with each other and make sure there are no "hogs or bumps on the log." They are getting pretty good at working together. It is fun to watch!

That's all I have for today! I'm off to the band concert. Both my kids play...my son is playing piano in the jazz band for the first time. He's talked non-stop about it for weeks (and if you knew my son that in itself would tell you how excited he is--he is not a talker)!

Have a great weekend!

Wisdom for Wednesday-Enjoy the Little Things

Welcome to this week's:

I recently lost my babysitter that I had since I was a baby.  She was 90 years old and I had stayed in touch with her throughout all these years.  She had a very special place in my heart.  After her funeral, I was visiting with her daughters and another friend of mine that had her as a babysitter as well and we were talking about various memories that we had of her and what we were going to miss.  It is amazing how the littlest things we take for granted are things that we remember and tend to miss the most.  The smallest things seemed to be the most memorable things!  For example, we all remembered how she taught each of us to play various card games and we loved sitting down and playing those games with her.  Something so little, but meant so much to all of us.  So, remember to enjoy those daily things that may seem to have little meaning today.....because someday you may look back on them and realize they had a greater importance in your life!

Have a great day!