Spring is here!
I've been getting quite behind on my blog updates. Rather than bringing you all back a month in time to catch up, I'll just make this one a summary of what's been happening.
First, thank you to all of you who sent birthday messages! John made sure my day was special. My kids did their best to make the day special as well:) I recieved many fun and interesting gifts that they had either made or found....some examples are: an origami colorful ball, a decorated hard boiled egg, stuffed animals, cards, boquets of flowers (even roses), etc. They enjoyed having dirt pudding for my "birthday treat"...gummie worms being their favorite part.
John suprised me with a guitar! I've been teaching myself online - so far so good. A dream of mine for a long time has been to learn to play the guitar. My college roomates suffered through my beginning "teach myself lessons" sophomore year...which I gave up after I could only play Amazing Grace by plucking strings. This time it's going to happen! haha





To celebrate Easter, my kids had a scavenger egg hunt. I made clues for them to run around outside finding eggs and one of the moms created amazing treasures for each of them at the end of the hunt. They had so much fun!

























Last weekend we went on a "Employee Field Trip" to a nearby city known for it's beautiful river. It was interesting...not necessarily the most beautiful, but we all still had a lot of fun wondering around the tourist city.






Don't forget to check John's blog....he's much better at udpating!:) from-shanghai@blogspot.com

Fieldtrip to the zoo

Friday we had our elementary field trip to the zoo. Now, some of you might think - how fun, a day at the zoo without teaching....but what you may be forgetting is - I needed to take my 20 first graders with me to the zoo:) It was a fun filled day at the zoo, let me just say that. I came to the realization that kids are no longer impressed by zoo animals. Maybe the zoo is overdone with the parents, or maybe the kids just never get to eat snacks at home? I'm not sure, but at least every 5 minutes, at times, every minute, I had kids telling me how hungry they were, how they wanted to buy a snack, or they were giving me their random goodies from the backpack - most of which went right into my backpack and are still there. Lunches and snacks are a little different here. One of my kid's mom packed me a lunch of sushi and egg salad sandwhiches - loved it! That along with all the other parts of everyone elses lunches they kept giving me - I was set. Once we finally got lunch and buying snacks out of the way the kids enjoyed seeing the animals. Some of the animals though didn't look happy - therefore it wasn't always fun to look at them...more sad...especially when they would be eating the garbage that others had thrown in. Didn't see any "No Feeding the Animals" signs around - so you can imagine what was inside the cages. All in all, the kids had a great day - and that's what matters! I even lucked out with a leg massage on the way home after the 5 hours of walking.

Science Fair

Last week our Elementary school had its Science Fair. These first graders worked hard - and found many ways to help the environment. I even accomplished to show them how to make plastic without using natural resources (oil...maybe you all knew that - I didn't)...it only blew up once at home, testing it before showing the class. Thankfully it went smoothly in the classroom. We also helped clean the environment and started collecting toys and clothes (reusing) to donate to a nearby orphanage. I have quite the toy collection in my room:)

My class never ceases to amaze me - it's been so exciting to see their growth this school year. I now know the joy of a first grade teacher....hard work....but soooo rewarding!