Fun Friday link up

Today is technically Tuesday, but I am giving myself some slack, since school has been totally crazy!
I really wanted to share the 2 fun things we did last week. I'm linking up with Teaching Fourth for Fun Friday.

First off, we went on a nature walk to the near by protected forest. Here we are walking, all 34 students, 2 teachers and 2 assistants. We were identify leaves in the forest.

Then we made some apple art using crayon resist. The students had to draw and color two apples with crayon. They also were allowed to add some fairies or goblins into the pictures. Then we used water colors for the background. Oh boy, I forgot what a whole class art lesson is like! I was tired afterwards. 

Just on a side note, I have to do list in my binder. I printed it Sunday night, and it was full in 24hours......really??? I guess I will use the back side to finish up this week :(

Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop

YEAH! How fun is this? I am super excited about finding new bloggers out in blogland.
And really, who wouldn't be??

Thanks to Third Grade is the Place for Me for staring this fun linky.

Here are the questions that need to be answered:
    1.  what state you are in

    2.  your current teaching position

    3.  your teaching experience

    4.  when you started blogging

    5.  share a blogging tip / blogging resource

1. I currently live outside the United States, in Finland. 

2. I have been rotating from first to second. This autumn I start with a new group of firsties!!! I'm super excited!

3. This is going to my 6th year teaching at my current school. My first year I taught 6th, and then from there jumped to first and have loved lower elementary ever since!!

4. Last summer, in August, I started my blog to help document my teaching. I had been somewhat active. Mostly stalking than blogging myself. 
5. Please comment on other blogs. When doing a linky, I like to do as Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade said "Rule of Three". Look at the 2 in front of your link and then come back and look at the one behind yours...  and COMMENT on all three.


Join in the fun! 

Awards and 4 on 4th

HOLY MOLY.... I have been given another award! Oh, how sweet is this???? (VERY!)

This big puffy heart "Thank You" goes out to Linda at Kinder Doodles for the Versatile Blogger award and again the One Lovely Blog award . I have got some serious homework, looking for more lovely blogs! Someone out in blog land will be receiving awards in the near future.

Today I got together with some other American's to celebrate our 4th of July today. No fireworks here, but good food and conversation is always a win!

And speaking of the 4th, I stumbled onto 4 on the Fourth from Ms. M's Blog. The idea behind this linky it to share 4 things your going to try for the first time in your class this coming school year. This inspired me right away, and I quickly knew of 4 new things I am going to try. You still have 3 days to join in the fun!

1) Flexible start for first grade: We have an new city initiative called Flexible Start. The basic idea is that you and your coworker/s must teach ALL of the new first graders coming to school for the first 5 weeks together.
The idea is that we must cooperate together and we get to work in smaller groups getting to know all the first graders, before we split them into their own class groups after the 5 week period.
This will be my first year trying it out, and it really sounds neat! 

2) Jolly Phonics: I have ordered the Jolly Phonics materials to teach in first grade this year. I had a chance in the spring to visit another English school which was using these materials. I am excited to get started and teaching the alphabet!

3) Core Statements: Well I don't have to do this, but I want to touch on it this year for sure. I will post for the students the standards for some lessons this year. I think often we don't give the students enough information about what their role it at school. I hope this gives the first graders some concrete ideas about their daily learning.

4) Character development: I have ordered from Scholastic the Build a Caring Classroom kit. It comes with 6 books, poster and teacher book. I think those first graders need some guidance in the early years to help them grow and deal with life situations in a positive way.

I will surely blog about these in the autumn.

One last note for today:

I like Farley's rule of 3. I am going to apply this rule to other linky parties. I just think it is super nice to write comments to others!

A Day in my Shoes Linky Party

Today I am linking up with Ingles 360 to celebrate A Day in My Shoes. Click below to join in the fun! *Update* This is brought to you by TBA. Go check it out to find more ways to share your ideas!
Happy International Blog Hopping Day!







These summer days sure are lazy and finally starting to warm up. I don't need to wear wool socks every morning/evening (I'm always cold). Tomorrow I am suppose to pick up from the library 3 more novels to read. But I haven't found time to finish the one I am reading now (and the blogging doesn't help :P).

Here is a snip it of                         A Day in My Shoes

In the autumn, I am feeling fresh and get up at 6.00. By spring, I'm barely up before 7.00. Between getting myself ready, I have to get our children ready too.

7.30-8.00 - Walk to school, about 5 minutes walk. Drop off kids and go to class. Get a few things ready for the day. Or if hubby takes the kids, then I leave by 7.00 to get some things done at school.

8.30 - 13.30 or 14.30 - So basically the school system is different over here. There is no 8.00 to 15.00 schedule for the students. It is more like a high school schedule with different number of lessons each day.

Over here students are only allowed to attend school for 24 lessons a week in lower elementary (each lesson is 45 minutes), plus lunch and two recess breaks. Some days they start at 9.20, and some days end at 12.00 for them. They might only go to school for 3 lessons and lunch (8.30-12.00).

My days are then broken down depending on which lessons we have that day. And by the way, I am required to teach everything including PE and music. Luckily they hired another lower grade teacher that had music as a major and I have never had to teach music! Phew....that could have been a disaster!!

Craziest thing I can't get use to is that WE ONLY HAVE 3 LESSONS OF MATH A WEEK. That is 3 - 45minute lessons as week. Jeez...

Now since I don't only teach my own class, I have more lessons to fill up my week and I teach later into the day. I teach English to the other first grade class and usually still a few more hours of something else. Last year I had to teach 3rd grade science. Next year I am teaching 3rd grade handcraft.

After 14.30 - I am then organizing for the next day or meeting with other teachers, just like the rest of you.

16.00 - I used to leave at 17.00, but I try to leave by 16.00 so that I can spend time with my fab family. So then pick up the kids, walk home, and do dinner/homework/hobbies/chores/etc. This autumn I am going to sign up for Zumba!!! Mommy needs a hobby too, right? Or is cleaning the home a hobby????

Speaking of shoes....we wear inside shoes at school. Basically, take off your outside shoes and switch when inside. This isn't a must for teachers, but it is for kids. Anyways, I need to find myself a new pair of inside shoes this autumn. I will be shopping for a pair of plain, black, comfortable flats.

For the time being, these are my fav summer shoes!! Aren't they summery and cute??

Top 3 things

Simply 2nd Resources is having a linking party.





1. Use my clever board.
Here we don't have SMART boards, we have Clever boards. Up until now it has been pretty much a white board. I occasionally use it for reading a story and playing math games. I also need to get a step stool for the students, so they can reach up higher on the board.

2.  Centers
Last year my centers were hit and miss. I didn't always remember to change them for the beginning of the week. I also didn't enforce that students stay at a center for an amount of time, so you know what they did when they were done. What can I now do? while I was trying to work with other students. This I need to really figure out.

3. Sing
Last year I had an end of the day song, and then added a few songs here and there through out the year. I would like to sing more this year as well. They really do enjoy it!