Sing-a-long Blizzards

Yesterday was my first Holiday Sing-a-long. This is a big event at my school each year. Each grade level in the school prepares two songs that they will sing for the rest of the school. We sit in a really big circle around the gym and take turns singing. At the end, Santa comes to visit, and the principal read them a story in his pajamas because they had done so well for their fundraiser.
Well, as much fun as this sounds, it made me a little nervous. That was mostly because I had to have both of my kindergarten classes come in the morning at the same time. Check out those ratios--- 46 five year olds: 1 teacher. Luckily, I was able to get a couple of parent volunteers to help out, but even so, that's a lot of five year olds to fit into my classroom.
So, the singing went great, even though a few of my children chose to wear their reindeer antlers upside down on their heads like a pair of construction paper side burns. I think that made it all the more endearing.
The best part of the whole program though definitely had to be the bathroom breaks. You see, they had our class in the corner of the gym where the only possible way to easily exit would be through the door leading to the outside. That's fine most of the time. Only yesterday, we just happened to be having blizzard like conditions out there, with wind blowing the snow into big drifts and flying it in your face and such. So, imagine a five year old and his teacher hopping through snow drifts just to go to the bathroom. One little boy asked me, "Why is there a blizzard out here Miss Parrish?" So I told him, "Well, that's what happens when you have to go to the bathroom during the holiday sing-a-long. Sometimes you have to run through a blizzard."
Luckily, I only did this twice. After that, I told any child that had to go to the bathroom, "Yes, you may go, but only if you're willing to run through a blizzard to get there." "Oh, you can hold it?" "Great!"

Smiles

This morning I was making my copies in the copy room when I had a visitor show up. If you want to, you can take a guess at who it was, but I don't think you'll have to guess very hard. That's right-- it was Nathan!!

He stood there in the doorway holding flowers. Not just any flowers though. They were my favorite kind- tulips. I love tulips. I think that they just seem so good and clean and pure. And these ones were red, perfect for celebrating the birth of the Savior.

If he was looking for a smile on my face, he got it. As a nice additional bonus, he also got smiles from a lot of other people as well. As we walked down the hallway back to my classroom, it was fun to watch as people would see Nathan, see the flowers, and then would smile. It made a lot of people's day!

I don't have a mom

Christmas is almost here, and in kindergarten, we are getting ready for the great Holiday Sing-a-long on Friday. We have been practicing our songs, and they are sounding great! In preparation of this big event, today we invited any parents that would like to to come hear the children sing in class. However, some of the children were concerned that their parents weren't going to come, even though we talked about how this was a practice and they didn't need to come. So, to make them feel better, I told them, "That's okay, my mom's not coming either."
The whole class seemed to answer to that at once, "You don't have a mom!"
I assured them that I did- every one has a mom.
And expecting that to make sense to them, I was surprised to hear them come back again, "Silly teacher, you don't have a mom!"

That's right-- no mom for me. No wonder she wasn't there to hear me sing.

Give Me a White Christmas!

One of my students went to Mexico for Christmas. She is going to be gone for three weeks. The best part is, the person who told me was not her mother, and it was not her. I found this out from a first grader on the playground.... and then her mother called the next day. It's amazing what you can learn at recess. The kids in her class asked me where she was today, so I told them that she went to Mexico. This started an interesting conversation with one of my students, Loi.
"Cheacher, why did she go to Mexico?"
"Her family went to Mexico to celebrate Christmas with her family."
"There's no snow in Mexico."
"That's right, Loi."
"What the?"

Christmas without snow? Do they even bother to celebrate Christmas without snow? I just don't know. The best part is, Loi's family is from Samoa... land of the white Christmases.

The pictures I put up are from my backyard. If all winter days could be this beautiful, I think I'd like winter more.

I've Been Found!

Well, it's official... my blog has been found. In the past six weeks or so, I have put up a number of entries about Nathan, and felt totally comfortable writing absolutely anything I wanted to about him, since he wasn't reading it. Well, I guess that's changed, but I will try to convince myself that it didn't really happen--- just so I can keep writing my true thoughts and feelings. Try. It's like being observed... I'm being watched!



So, this past week was Sinterklaas, and what an awesome Sinterklaas it was! I love Sinterklaas! In my family, we have this wonderful tradition, where all of the gifts that we give at Sinterklaas are either service gifts or cheap... meaning dollar store cheap. This rule was invented with the intent to encourage us, as family members, to be more service oriented. It has resulted instead, in a lot of gag gifts. The best part is, in order to give a gift, you have to write a poem about why you are giving it. Unfortunately, this year I ran a little short on time, and therefore, I didn't get my poems finished. My other family members, however, did a fabulous job!
Nathan came along to my house for Sinterklaas, and as part of Sinterklaas, he was given a gift by Chelsea and her boyfriend, Robert. They had decided that it is too confusing to have so many Nathans in the family, and so we needed to change Nathan's name. So, they gave him a file folder, with a name change application in it, informing him that until his name is changed, his default name is now Rick. My family called him Rick for the rest of the weekend...and will probably continue to do so until he really does fill out the form and return it to my sister.
So, maybe I shouldn't worry at all about what I'm writing on this blog about Nathan... it's just Rick that's reading it anyway. ;)

True Love

About a month ago, my friend Tiffany (another one of the awesome teachers at my school) e-mailed to ask me when they would get to meet Nathan. I e-mailed her back and said, "I'm not sure when you'll meet Nathan... but if things keep going well, there will probably be a day where I convince him to come and volunteer in kindergarten. Now that's true love." Her e-mail back simply said, "Ha! Yes that is!!!!!!!!"

Well, today was the day! Nathan volunteered for the whole morning session of kindergarten. I had him write down kindergarten spotlights, play letter games and math games with the kids, and then he got to join with the kids in center time. I'm glad he could stay for center time. Let's be honest, it's the best part of the day! Right now, my dramatic play area is set up as an airport. We have a ticket station (the children have to write out their own destinations on their tickets), a large map, suitcases, and our own "airplane," complete with seats for a pilot, copilot, and four passengers.
Today, there were four boys sent to the airport, and Nathan chose to join those four boys for the time of their life. I don't know if there really is anything much cuter than a grown man playing with children.... nope, can't think of much. I think the thing that I took the most delight in seeing was the complete adoration on the boys' faces. They were thrilled.

Scattergory Tag

Hia tagged me... so here I go...
SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks! Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things. Nothing made up! You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Alisa
BOY NAME: Adam Aaron Alexander
GIRL NAME: Annalisa Angelique
OCCUPATION: Actress
COLOR: Aqua
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: An Applique
BEVERAGE: Apple Juice
FOOD: Almonds
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Aftershave
A PLACE: Albuquerque
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Anesthesiologist Appointment
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Act now for this limited time offer!