Lock- In Fun!!

This year, I decided to do something crazy! My favorite thing about AWANA when I was in AWANA was our annual lock-in. We could stay up all night, and we got to say a bunch of sections. So, this year, I planned a lock-in for our AWANA kids!

We had some awesome worship services, handbook time, a mega relay, lots of snacks, game room time, manis and pedis, and a special visit from Mr. Budgy and Mrs. Judy. Their daughter and son-in-law are missionaries in Indonesia, so they presented a video to our kids about what it's like in Indonesia. They also gave each child a coin from Indonesia and a peice of durian candy. Now, i will say durian is a flavor that I feel everyone should experience at some point in their life. I've yet to sample it because I cannot get past the smell of natural gas.... I hear it tastes about the same... GROSS! Mr. Budgy even taught us a few Indonesian words!

The night was a lot of fun, but I was ready to see 8 a.m.!! I only managed to snap a few pictures of the evening, so here they are...

Our preacher's wife, Dawn, painting nails!

The boys playing a little basketball....

Mrs. Bradi painting more nails...

And now it's Mrs.Sarah's turn...

This was the only segment of the evening that I remembered to take pictures... hopefully I can gather a few more pictures of the night from some of the other adults!

Moor Door Decor- Spring Break Edition

I do actually have other things to blog about, but this is more fun... After spring break, I will blog about Disney!! For March, I wanted something springy, and I wanted to incorperate a little Disney into the door since I will be making magic at Disney World over spring break : )

I am in love with quotes these days... I find that most of the time other people can state think 10 times better than I can, so i have decided to just let them say it best. With that said, I try to let quotes inspire my door themes. For March, I found that easy. Walt Disney once said, "There is more treasure in a book than in all the pirate's loot on treasure island." I used this quote to inspire this little mural....

***i will be the first to admit that these ideas are much better in my head. i am inpatient, so i work quickly. this creates numerous flaws in the design compared to the image i pictured.....

This is a view of the entire door... Treasure Island

The inspiration...

Mickey in our ship... the kids named is U.S.S. Rice, but you can barely see that.

The tree on the island... poor tree. let's just say palm trees are not my specialty.

The treasure chest..... since Walt Disney says there is more treasure in books, the kids made jewels with their favorite book titles on them. So here you have a treasure chest of awesome books.  They had a lot of fun doing this.

A close up of the jewels.

Have a great spring break! I will make a little magic for everyone out there!!

More Door Decor - Mardi Gras Style :)

I think my favorite thing is decorating my door each month. For February, I left up my "Be Cool- Read" design until mid month. Somewhere between the flu and jury duty, I found time to get into the Mardi Gras spirit. Here are a few pictures of the "Lassiz le Bon Temps Rouler with a good book" door.

This is a view of the entire door -- masks, beads, festive colors, boa looking border.

A close up of the sign.... in case you do not know,

 "laissez le bon temps rouler" means "let the good times roll."

A close up of the border... I thought the polka dot resembled Mardi Gras beads.

I also had a banner in the hall from Oriental Trading that said, "Happy Mardi Gras: WCES 5th Grade."

After enjoying a parade at school, a month of King Cake, and a two day vacation from school, it's back to the real world. Mardi Gras holiday is officially over. Today is Ash Wednesday. Lent starts today, which is a time of sacrifice. Even though I am not Catholic, I think I will be taking part in Lent. Giving up something you really want for 40 days seems like it could lead to a lot of good. Now I need to quickly decide what I will be sacrificing during Lent.

5th Grade

It's been so long since I have blogged on 5th grade life.... That's probably because 5th grade life keeps me pretty busy.

Each month, I try to have a theme on my door... Yes, I do teach 5th grade and not kindergarten, but I promise that the kids like the door being decorated just as much in 5th grade as they do in kindergarten.... and, it's therapy for me.


Here are the themes I have used thus far this year.

August - I chose a theme that was store bought... it was a cutesy social network type of theme. I bought it from reallygoodstuff.com. If you're a teacher, and you haven't heard of that website, you should make yourself familiar with it!!

September means the start of football, so of course I had a football themed door. Unfortunately, I cannot find the picture I took of that door. The theme was "kicking a touchdown for reading," since I teach reading. It was adorned with sample reading questions on the skills we were covering in September.

During October, I had fun!!! I found some super cute ideas online, and I made them my own. The door theme was "We are Batty About Books." For an art project, the kids made bats out of coffee filters and they were attached to the door below....

If a door was not enough, I also decorated the hallway... we do not have any bulletin boards that I can use, so I use my door, the hallway, and the extra white board as bulletin boards. 

This is our bulletin board for October--- "Witch books have you read?" The kids wrote book reviews on the stories they were reading during October.

October is also Red Ribbon Week, so I decorated the hallways with Drug Free posters for the occasion. 

Because I was sooooo busy during October, I failed to get a new bulletin board up during November :( 

However, I made the time during December!! The #1 thing I was taught in education school was the power of being able to beg, borrow, and steal.... For December, I used that knowledge and stole a super cute Christmas door from Emily Babb at louisianabrideblog.com (if you do not follow her blog, you should)

The kids traced and cut out their hands, and I glued them to the predecorated door. It was really fun, and the kids liked seeing their hands on the board. 

This year, I have become obsessed with window clings... how silly... 

January!! "Be Cool- Read" I love my snowmen and snowflakes-- perfect for January's wintery conditions! 

February also has a lot going on!! This month, my door will be decorated in Mardi Gras (Laizzes le Bon Temp Roulez), the math teacher is decorating in Valentine's, and the Social Studies/Science teacher will do Black History. March is a secret :)

April will have something to do with MCT2 and Spring, and May will be MCT2!! 

Other than door decorating, we have been doing a lot of reading in 5th grade! We read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry last semester along with smaller things in between. It was a tough read for us, with a lot of interruptions. We are in the middle of reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham right now, and it is their most favorite book ever!! After we finish the Watsons, we will read Locomotion (my favorite)!! 

Well, that is all I have right now! It you are interested in donating money to a great website that benefits students, check out donorschoose.org.

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers : )  

It goes without saying...

I've been busy, and I have neglected my poor blog.

A (or a few) new blog post will be delivered this weekend, I promise!



Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers :)

AWANA- August and September

We have had an unbelievably amazing year thus far in AWANA!! God has truly blessed us with an amazing staff and an awesome group of kids! Here are a few pictures of what AWANA has looked like this year! We are looking forward to GREAT rest of the year!! Do you know a 2 yr. old- 6th Grade aged child? We would love to have them join us in AWANA! It takes place on Wednesday evenings from 5:45- 7:30. The OASIS opens at 5:15 on Wednesdays!!

This year, we added a corporate worship service for all of the groups. This is a picture taken in August during the worship service portion. 

In August, we were pleased to have The Leckie Family come and speak about their journey as foreign missionaries. 

Dr. Leckie showing some pictures.

The Sparks won the award for bringing the most visitors. They received a pizza party. Here are a few shots from that party.

In September, Jason Russell told us about Salvation by cutting a piece of paper. After worship, he went around to each group to allow the kids to cut their paper to make a cross. Here he is working with the Sparks. 

This is a picture taken from T&T game time!! 

Now I have two videos to share. 

This is a video that was taken in the Puggles Room.... They have a lot of fun, and the Puggles know their songs!! 

This video was taken during Cubbies game time--- this goes to show that AWANA is not only for kids, adults like it too : )

AWANA Girly Day

Once each semester we try to have a day just for the boys to hang out, and one day just for the girls to hang out. This semester, I decided to have full girly day for the girls! The girls enjoyed girly time at camp, so I thought it would go over well for AWANA too. It did! We had a super fun day, full of manicures, facials, make-up, and hair doing. It was so much fun! We ended the event by talking about the things that make you a beautiful person on the inside! If you want a play-by-play of the devotion, see Rileigh Walters. She was all ears and can tell you all about being modest!! Here are a few pictures from all of the girly fun (Thank you, Brandi for taking the pictures for me)!! 

The view from the front door.

One of the little princesses....

The girls all getting seated for devotion time...

Devotion time...

Facial time!! 

A boys only day is in the planning stage!!