Joy to Everyone

Celtic Appliques I Have Finished

Celtic Applique Class










Lucy's Celtic Applique wall hanging



Lillie's Celtic Applique wedding quilt


Jon's Celtic Applique wall hanging


Lil's Celtic Applique wall hanging

The Last Flower Fairy!

Over the years I've bought or some my children have purchased flower fairies for me. To day I went to the local store that sells them. I had heard that they were going out of business. When I got there this was the only flower fairy that was left. I was hoping to have one fairy for each grandchild. I'm going to have to see if there is another place where I can purchase fairies in the future.

These are all the other fairies that I have collected over the years. I've looked on the internet for more. I found that several of the fairies that I own have been discontinued.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Each year we have a Rice Krispies Bake Off. Last year it was at Thanksgiving but this years we had it at Christmas. This is the winning entry and I made it!


1 c. creamy peanut butter
1 sm. jar marshmallow creme
1 c. Rice Krispies
1 pkg. almond bark candy coating
Mix peanut butter and marshmallow cream together. Add Rice
Krispies, mix. Let stand overnight. Form into small balls. Chill or freeze
for easier dipping. Dip in melted almond bark cool in refrigerator.

Today I read the book, "Jack the Builder" to my students. Then I had the children build something with only a maximum of 5 blocks. Here are some examples of what they created.

Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Trees

Yesterday afternoon and this morning I had my students frosted sugar cones and turned them into Christmas trees with M&M's and Skittles for decoration. I had our 5th grade buddies come and help. The the Kindergartners and 5th grade buddies had a wonderful time. There was candy, frosting, and sprinkles all over the tables and the floor. It took me over 30 minutes just clean the top layer of glorious goo. Oh! I almost forgot I put the candies in small cups. What ever was left over from decorating the tree the children could share and eat with their buddy. Talk about a sugar high!

"Yea, They May Forget, Yet Will I Not Forget Thee"

Lifting Burdens: The Atonement of Jesus Christ

Living Thanksgiving Daily

What Was I Thinking!!!

I teach Kindergarten. Most days the children in my class are delightful sweet little children. But this past week I have been feeling that my job description has changed. I now herd cats! I nail Jell-O! And I'm being pecked to death by a duck!

What was I thinking when I went into Early Childhood Education?

Oh Happy Day!

I was called into the principal's office today. Boy did I think I was in trouble. Not so! I was just awarded a $454 grant for an "Insta-Learn Reading System" for my classroom. I can't wait to get the order form to the secretary over purchasing.

Good Advice

"...find something that you love so much that when you don’t have to think about anything, that’s what you think about." Henry Eyring

I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?

Well it wasn't popcorn! It was SNOW! I hate snow! I don't care for the hot days of summer but I really hate snow and cold. Oh well, I guess I'll have to deal with it for the next 6-7 months. Yuck!

Fortunately it all melted away, but it started all up again today.

Fireplaces and Pumpkins

Last year my oldest daughter went on a pumpkin kick. I went over to good old Wal-Mart and bought a half yard of several colors of upholstery fabric and made pumpkins out of them. I was able to make about two pumpkins out of each half yard of fabric, one for my daughter and one for me.

This year I put some of them on my upstairs mantel and some on my just finished and hung downstairs mantel. My oldest daughter made the vinyl and wood additions.

Where Has This Secret Been All My Life?

I gave up making cream pies because I could never get the crust to work. This video makes it so easy. I'm going to have to go and try it tonight! YUM!



If you want to know where to get the whole book of pie making go to this link.
http://deseretbook.com/a/i/5046904?s_cid=e6101014_i&utm_source=spotlight&utm_medium=email&utm_term=5046904&utm_content=image&utm_campaign=spotlight

Harvest Party!

What a day this has been. I teach in a year round school and today was our last day of school for three weeks! I'm not excited or anything. Because my track is never in school at Halloween I don't have to have a Halloween party. But we did have a harvest party. We played musical pumpkins. I printed off 26 small pumpkins with a letter of the alphabet written on each. I then taped the pumpkins to the backs of chairs. I then had the children walk about and when the music stopped the children had to find a chair and sit down. I made sure that there were more chairs than children.

Then we went outside, divided into two teams, and rolled pumpkins. It was really fun to hear the children cheer students from both teams at the same time. They didn't if the child they were cheering for was on their team or the other team.

My rules for playing any games in my class are simple.
1. Did you play the game?
2. Did you have fun?
3. Did you learn something?

If you can answer yes to these question you are a winner. Coming in 1st or last doesn't matter. This way everybody can be a winner depending on the attitude of the players.

Math Centers

As I get centers out for the children to "work" on I want to make a photo record of what I have and how the children are doing.

I love this number writing center. The only problem I have with it getting the children to take their papers home at the end of the day.



A couple of weeks ago I read "The Hungry Monsters" to my class. First time I read the poem to the class we just enjoyed the poem. Then I went back with the children and we made a growing pattern using unifix cubes.


I love these pattern books. The children are able to see how the pattern is supposed to look. The only problem is that some of the children like to make guns and knives with the snap cubes. I've had to have the children who forget how to work on this pattern come and sit by me and think about how the center is supposed to be used.


These are farm beads I purchased several years ago. I have the children make patterns with them or I have them sort the beads by color or shape.


These pom poms are fun. I have the children sort them by color or as in the case I have them make patterns with them. Some become rather possessive and children like to pile them up. After spend time sitting next to me while I am working with a small group most get the message that they need to "work" on a center and not play with the center materials.


These sea monsters were left in my room. I have demonstrated how to sort the animals but this year the children have been making huge patterns. I love it!

Mother Goose Olympics 2010

I must have been crazy the day I suggested having another Mother Goose Olympics at school. This time we combined two classes in the morning and three in the afternoon. I'm exhausted. The children had a wonderful time. They kept telling me how fun the Olympics were. We even had a member of the U of U’s football team come and help with the activities in the morning!

We had the children stay about 5 minutes at each activity. It worked out that just about everybody got to go through a given activity at least 2 times each. I'm not sure who laughed more, the students, their parents, or the teachers!

• Jack Be Nimble obstacle course: Line up hula hoops lying flat on the ground about six to ten inches apart, 5 or 6 hoops will do. Have the students jump over and trough the hoops down and back and then the next student until the last one.

• Baa Baa Black Sheep relay: Use a plastic trash bag and have the children hop down the far cone and back. Switch with the next student in line until all done.

• Jack and Jill relay: Dip a paper cup (pail) into a LARGE bucket of water run to the other end (don't spill it) dump the water into another waiting bucket run back and the next one in line does the same. The trick is not to spill water or fall down and break your crown.

• Little Jack Horner/Simple Simon Pie Plate Balancing: Hold a pie plate above the head, run down the course, around a cone, and back handing it off to the next student.

• Hey Diddle Diddle Spoon Race: Each team stands behind its hoop. One team member balances one ball on his/her spoon- without actually touching the ball with his/her hands! They walk as fast as they can to the chair at the far end of the course, around the cone, and back. The child then places the ball into their team's hoop, passes the spoon to the next team member, and sits down.

• Diddle Diddle Dumpling Sock Race: Each team stands behind their chair. The first child on each team puts one large sock on over his/her shoe. They then run down and around the far chair and run back. The runner takes off the large sock and gives it to next person. The child then sits down.

• Mother Goose Waddle Race: The first child places the ball between his/her knees, waddles to the far cone and back -without holding the ball with their hands. The child then passes the ball to the next team member and goes to the end of the line.

We had the children make crowns before the games began. I got my clip art for the crowns from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/?pID=clipart

Update on School Starting!

After two weeks of class with the little darlings I moved my entire classroom this week. Yes, and I also taught class while I was doing the move. 23 years of C.R.A.P. was moved into a smaller classroom. I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF!! I need to organize and dejunk! I also dropped my class numbers to 28 in the morning and 23 in the afternoon. Hopefully that will make things a little easier. My school opened up a new afternoon class and eight of my little darlings moved to the other class. I'm not sure who they are because then names of the students moving that I was verbally told and the names on the list on paper I was given don't exactly match. I'm going to have to wait until Tuesday to find out what is going on. If the paper list is correct I think I might have some very upset parents. I left all of the moving assignments up to the office. I didn't want to be in the middle of that mess. If there are any problems I'll have the office hand them. I had no say in the matter and I'd like to keep it that way.

Oh My @#$%^$##@@!!!

You can fill in your own blanket blanks! School started last week and I have 30 children in each class. That means I'm herding 60 cats total each day. My head hurts and eyes are spinning around. There is a constant “Teacher, Teacher” ringing in my ears. And my backside hurts from all the poking it’s been getting from little people who only come up to my waist. This is insanity! If this keeps up I think I’m going to take a couple of mental health days each month. Never back to back because somebody might catch on to what I’m doing. OR...I think I'll move to Mexico where nobody can find me. I don't speak any Spanish so that will be even better!

Frames in the basement

I need to distress these frames and finish painting the sides. Then the big question....WHERE AM I GOING TO HANG THEM! I've got eleven grandkiddies, soon to be twelve, and these frames are for their pictures.

Adobe Flash Player AAAAAAAAAAAA!

Oh my goodness! My life has been turned upside down and then wrung out. Some how I downloaded a virus from the "Adobe Flash Player" snakes. I have ALL my school files on my computer. If I have a paper copies I'll never find them. I was sick! Well my to my rescue one of my son in laws laid his magic finger on my computer, cleaned everything up, and had an antivirus program download to my computer. Now I just need to get Comcast to stop playing games with their service. We've had a few nasty lightning and rain storms that I think have messed with things. That or everybody on the internet are updating their sites and not in the middle of the night when nobody is trying to look things up.

Whole Brain Teaching: Kindergarten

These Are the Day of the Week

ABC Disco

Hip Hop Alphabet Song

I Can Write My Numbers

Numbers in the Teens

I have just found some really great videos on youtube. Now I just need to figure out how to show them at school. My district has a block on youtube.

My Happy Place

My family has been coming to this valley for almost 100 years. Where else can I have all the stress from the last school year washed away.