The Journey of a Canadian living down South

Apple Science Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:06:00 +0000

This week when we were talking about apples the students and I did an experiment that is still going on. What they had to do was predict what would happen to 3 apples that we hang out on a line and 3 apples that we put in a baggie. Below is their prediction and what the apples looked like when we hung them up. I will have the results on Thursday!

Apple Season at School

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:59:00 +0000

So it's apple season and I gave my students a chance to taste some apples. I thought it was hilarious! They loved the apple jelly and apple butter but most of them did not like the apple cider. I don't understand why. Here are some pictures to enjoy!

My new first grade class

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:31:00 +0000

Hello Friends!!
I think it's time I updated my blog! I'd like to introduce to you.....the 1st grade class of 2010!!!

I am enjoying them!!! I hope to update more than I did last year!

Decorating Gingerbread Men!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:43:00 +0000

This week in school we studied different versions of The Gingerbread Man. So I was asking my kids "Who has decorated a gingerbread man before?" and not to my surprise only 2 of them had. So I decided that I was going to make gingerbread men for them to decorate. Needless to say, making them was a party in itself!! I needed more dough then I thought, and made a mess!! BUT the kids had an AMAZING time making them!!! And when I told them (at the END of the day) they could have 1/2 of it, most of them wanted to take it home, so I put them in gallon ziplock bags and they took them home. Here are some pictures and a video of my kids enjoying themselves!!

A New School Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:56:00 +0000

A new school year has started!!! I am sorry I have not posted in so long, things have been BUSY!! I have a great class of 20 little houligans this year!! 10 boys and 10 girls!! (only 1 of them is Caucasian) the rest are African American, and Hispanic, so yet again, I'm the minority!!! I love them to death, but I wish I had my class from last year!! It is hard to have to "re-train" new kids again, they definitely have their challenges, but I still love them!! Here are a couple pictures of my little "angels!!" I hope more stories and pictures will come.

Before I go, here is one story...I was showing my kids a form to take home, and said "one side is English and the other side is Spanish." one of my little african american girls raises her hand and says "my mom doesn't speak Spanish." I said "well here is the English side", she says "But my mom doesn't speak English either," I said "Well, what does she speak??" She goes "Just normal". I HAD to laugh, and I explained to her that it was English, she was like.... "ooooohhhh!!!"

Field Day!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:24:00 +0000

The school year is winding down with 5 days left. I can't believe how fast time has flown. It has been an amazing year with so many awesome memories. I couldn't have asked for a better first class, yes there were many times when I wanted to kill them, but there were more times when I loved them!!
Today we had field day and the kiddos had a BLAST!!! I remember field day being an all day event growing up, but not now!! Now it is a 2 hour event. I realized today why it was only 2 hours. After field day, the kids were EXHAUSTED and HOT and so was I, but we had an amazing time. They had water games, crab soccer (with a BIG ball) scooter basket ball, tug of war, and volley ball (which didn't work so well). The kids had an awesome time, they all behaved themselves and there were NO injuries!! I found out how strong my class was though....we played tug of war against the other first grade classes, and my class actually won both matches that we played, and I don't think any of the other classes one. I was so proud of them!!! Below are some pictures from the day. ENJOY!!!

Time has Flown!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:27:00 +0000

I can't believe that there are only 28 days left of the school year, it has gone by really fast, and I am so thankful!! It has been an amazing year, a challenge, and a joy. There have been many laughs, and many tears!! I never thought that it would go this fast!! I am sorry I have not updated my blog often, as life has been busy, but I wanted to take some time to update it now! The last few weeks have been busy. My kids got to go on 2 field trips. One was to Max and Ruby, and the other was to a baseball game. The kids LOVED Max and Ruby, and I really enjoyed it too. It was an hour long performance, with lots of music and crowd interaction. It was about 2 little bunnies (a brother and sister) who wanted to put on a play for their grandmother (you can find Max and Ruby on Noggin). They had a great time, and I would definitely do it again next year!!
The following week, my kids had an amazing opportunity to go to a baseball game. Now, they didn't get to go just to go, they had to work for it. The challenge that I gave them was to make sure they did their homework, and read every night!! You would be surprised how hard it was for some kids to turn it in every week!! Now this lasted 8 weeks, so it was a pretty long time. I had 1 child not able to go, and that was a sad day for her, she stayed back to do work...but you live and learn!! Those of us who went had an AMAZING time, and the Lord was soo good!! It was cold all morning, and I thought we'd freeze while we were at the game, but the minute we got their, the sun came out and it warmed up 10 degrees no joke!! So we had a great day, the kids loved their hot dog and RED Hawaiian Punch (yes my kids did stay clean, which was surprising). We all had a great day, and I know that they will remember this for the rest of the year!!
The rest of the year will go by really fast!! I have assessments to give, report cards to do, a classroom to clean, field day to have, and a luau to do!! So it will be a very busy last 28 days, but I am ready for a break!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:32:00 +0000

We had a chance to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday the week of March 3rd and the kids had a BLAST!!! We spent the week reading all about Dr. Seuss and doing different activities. On Monday we read the story "Bartholemew and the Oobleck", and we wrote about it, now most of the kids had never touched Oobleck, before, so what did we do??We MADE it, and the kids ABSOLUTELY loved it!!! On Wednesday, we read "Green Eggs and Ham", we were going to write about it, so in order for the kids to write about, they had to TASTE it, so my mom and I made a batch of green eggs and ham, and it was greeny GOODNESS!!!! But I have to say, I couldn't have done it without my mom. She was here this week, and we got more green food coloring on our fingers then I ever had. All I can say is the kids had a great time, and I know that I will be doing it again next year. Check out some pictures below, and to see the rest, you can click on the picture link to the right. ENJOY!!!

Class Picture

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:26:00 +0000

Here is my first official class picture. These are the kiddos that I have the pleasure of working with every day!!! I love them to death!!!

Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:53:00 +0000

This is what happens when a child eats a fun dip at school!!! I LOVE MY KIDS! We had a Valentine's Day Party on Friday due to the fact that we had no school do it 2 inches of snow!! The kids had a great time!! The kids got to do a math activity with conversation hearts and LOVED it, then we had cupcakes and the kids handed out their valentines. I have never seen so much candy at Valentine's in my life. It's just like Halloween, with goodie bags full of candy. Needless to say the kids LOVED it!! Here are some pictures!! Enjoy!!!

Chica

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:27:00 +0000

Here is a video of my sister's dog Chica after her bath! Enjoy!!!

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:56:00 +0000

It has been a VERY long time since I have written, so I wanted to write a quick update. First and foremost I want to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and encouragement, these last few weeks have been a tornado of events, and I am glad that things are starting to go back to normal. I don't want to go into the details, but I'd be happy to share with those who want to know. I am still LOVING teaching, and I LOVE my kids, I am so glad that I moved to North Carolina, and I don't think I will be moving back any time soon. Since I Have come back, I have started taking Swing Dancing Lessons with people from my class, they are SO much fun, and I am excited to pursue swing dancing, it is good exercise, and it's something that I love doing, so it's my fun activity every week.

Today was a memorable day for me ;) this was the first snow day of the 2007-2008 school year and it's a JOKE!!! They were calling for snow, sleet, and rain yesterday and we were under a winter storm warning, nothing had hit the ground yet, but at 9:00last night, they decided that they should cancel school!!! I was blown away, in CT they don't cancel school unless it is a nor'easter or something, so I was tickled. This image is what I woke up to this morning!!

My friend called me this morning and said the roads were just wet, they weren't even bad!! I have a feeling that tomorrow there will be a delay because it will all freeze over, and the roads will become icy and slippery.
Anyways that a QUICK update on my life, now that life has started to settle down, I will try to update my blog a little bit more regularly. If you look on my pictures, I will post some pictures from Christmas at the Enns' residents for your viewing pleasure!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:29:00 +0000

So this year, I got to have Thanksgiving at my apartment for the first time!! My mom and dad came for the week and we had a great time!! My parents came in on Sunday night and stayed until Saturday morning. The nice thing was I only had to work 2 days that week, so we had some relaxing times together. Monday mom came to school with me, and the kids were SOO excited!!! They love having Mrs. Enns in the classroom, I think that my mom could have been a teacher because she was AWESOME!!! On Monday, mom decided that she would take over the thanksgiving craft and painted the kids hands to make turkeys. I wish that I had pictures becuase she was so good, the kids hands and the table stayed cleane!!! I would NEVER be able to do that. So I worked 2 days and then we chilled!!! We did go shopping on black Friday (a little bit), picked out a table Christmas Tree, watched movies, played games, and CUT, CUT, CUT. I am positive that we cut things centers out for school for about 3 hours, but I'm glad that I didn't have to do it all on my own!! Thanksgiving went out without a hitch. I really wasn't sure that we could actually cook a Thanksgiving dinner in my small kitchen, but hey, my mom can do MIRACLES!!!! We had Churkey (that's what our name for our dinner) and it was SOOOO good. We could find a Turkey that was small enough for the 3 of us, so we had chicken instead (hense the name churkey), and I LOVED IT!! With that chicken we had the works, potatoes, stuffing, corn, wine, YUMMY!! And with Thanksiving dinner comes LEFTOVERS!!! That's right, mom stocked me up. I had a caserole with the potatoes and chiecken etc... AND she made me soup. I love having them here becuase they leave me with more food than I had when they came. It's GREAT!!! So to say the least I really enjoyed having Thanksgiving with the parents. We had a great time, and I hope that we can do it next year (but who knows!!)

My First Field Trip!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:14:00 +0000

So today we had our first field trip of the year!!! I have to say we had an AWESOME time and the best part was, there were no problems!! No one got hurt, and we left nobody at the museum (we did leave an Aide at the school though woops)!!! I was sick all week last week, and this was the first day I felt back to normal which was PERFECT timing, because today I needed all of the energy that I could muster. We took our kids to the Winston-Salem Science Museum, and the kids had an absolute riot!! They learned about the 3 Little Pigs, they climbed Jack's Beanstalk, they went shopping at Food Lion, they made Krispy Kreme Donuts, they played in alphabet land, played in books land, and built some cool things, all in a matter of 2.5 hours!!! To say the least it was VERY busy. The kids had the most amazing time, and they were very tired when we got back to school, so not a whole lot got done when we got back, but that's OK, they learned a TON in the museum. Below are a few pictures of the day, and if you look at my other pictures, there are some more. These are the kiddos that I spend every day with. I love them to death, and I wouldn't trade them for the world!!! They are the greatest class, and I am so blessed to have them in my life!

The Start of Something New

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:45:00 +0000

I have had people ask me, "What's going on?" "We don't hear from you?" "How is life?" Since it is hard to communicate with a lot of people, I figured this might be the easiest way to communicate....a blog. I had a blog before, but I didn't like it, now I am going to try this one...we will see how it goes.

I can't say that the last 2 months of my life have been fun, I can't say that they have been easy. There are times when I have had a great time, and have loved life, but there have been MANY times, when I have wanted to give up and come back to Connecticut. I know that this is where the Lord has me, and I know that He has me here for a purpose.

Life has been a transition, I have had to find a new church, find a new community, and meet new co-workers. My church is great, although I do have to say Walnut Hill will always be my home. I LOVED going to Core, and I miss it like crazy. I found a church that has a service like Core, and I do enjoy going to that, but the service is big, so there's not the community aspect of it. I have also found a Bible Fellowship that has my age people. So we do things during the week, and on the weekends, which is a lot of fun. I am still struggling with the relationship, and friendship aspect of it, but I know that will come. I really enjoy being there, but I'm longing to have a few close friends. I left some great friends in CT, and finding new ones down here has been VERY difficult. I know that it will all come in due time, but I just wish that it that time would be NOW!!!

I am a first grade teacher at Easton Elementary School. I have a class of 18, and I am the Minority in my classroom...that's right, there is not one white person in my class, they are all either African American, or Hispanic. I can honestly say, that I have the world's best class. They are AMAZING!!!! I am so blessed to have them in my life, I love them like they are my own. Teaching has been the biggest struggle for me, there are a TON of changes that are going on in my school right now. It's so funny, when you graduate university, you think that you are fully prepared to go into the real world and teach, you are ready for your classroom, and you think that will all be cake. Well let me tell you...that is SOO far from the truth. I feel like I was well prepared, but now I am feeling like I am learning everything all over again. I have some great people that I am working with, but I am still trying to learn things for myself. It is weird when you learn things, and then you realize that you need to take this and teach 18 little 6, 7, and 8 year olds this stuff, and you wonder HOW?!?!? It's just not going to work. I was talking to my aunt who is a teacher, and told her that I need my own administrative assistant. I feel that there is SOO much stuff to do every day, and you NEVER get it all done. I have been at school until 5 or 6 most days since school started. I JUST now finished cleaning out all of the CRAP from the old teacher who used to teach in my room, she decided that since she was going to a new school, that she didn't need to clean anything up!!! So I was left with that job, and didn't do it until a couple of days ago, 3 BIG garbage bags full of CRAP got thrown into the dumpsters, I couldn't believe it!!!! Needless to say, after this week was done, I was ready for a break, and that's just what I got....

Ryan, Katie, and Bennett were vacationing in Hilton Head, and stopped to see me on their way home, and we had an AMAZING time. I LOVED playing with and spoiling my nephew, he is the CUTEST thing in the world....I tried to convince him to stay with me, last night, but then I decided he needed to stay with mom and dad. We had a great time Sunday just hanging out and being together. It was nice seeing some familiar faces.

I am hoping that I will be better at this than other blogs, but maybe I will so that those far away can still feel connected to my life.

Here are some pics from Sunday.