7 Months in a Day...

Soo... I've been a little busy... actually, that's the understatement of the century.  Really... I've hardly had time to breathe, let alone blog.  It's spring break though, so I decided that I deserved to let myself do some things that I've been wanting to do for so long... like catch up on my blog.  It's not much of a catch up, but at least when my kids look back at our blog, there won't be a whole year of their lives missing.  So here's to Spring Break and Blogging!

Cell Model Project...

This was one of the best and craziest projects that I tried this year.  I had all the students bring in salt dough that they made at home to create a model of a cell.  Holy Cow! I was totally unprepared for what they would bring in.  I just assumed that they would all know that the dough should be the consistency of play dough.  I had so much dough that was literally oozing through my fingers.  I spent the first project work day kneading over 10 lbs of flour into all the runny dough to make it moldable (my arm was so sore that night). After we made it through that disaster... it actually turned out great. I had pizza boxes donated for each of the kids to create their model in (an idea that I got from an amazing teacher). The kids did such a fantastic job on their projects!

Human Body Projects...

7th grade science has been so much fun!  The life sciences are what got me so into science when I was in middle school.  It has been awesome to share with my students all the fun, exciting things that I loved learning about in 7th grade.  They did such an awesome job on their human body group projects, I just had to snap a few pictures...

 This was by far my favorite project!  I was trying so hard not to laugh while they were presenting it...

 These guys blew me away with their creativity.  

I kept this one as an example for next year's students...

By far the most abstract project... they even had a piece of candy that actually went through the digestive system... 

  This group was hilarious.  They argued constantly about what they were doing, started over three times in class, and ended up coming to school on presentation day with an entirely different project than they had the previous day.  In the end, their project turned out pretty great...

Projects are actually my favorite and least favorite thing to do in my class.  The kids love them... they get the freedom to express what they know in the way that is best for them.  On the other hand, I have to cede control to them - it can get a bit chaotic, but in the end I'm always glad that we did it...

Ana Turns 9...

For Ana's 9th birthday, instead of having a party she chose to invite one of her friends to go on a special outing to the Children's Museum.  It was so fun to watch these girls enjoy doing things that kids their age should be doing.. 

  

  

 We finished off the night with a trip to good ol' McD's...

Happy Birthday Ana.  You will always be my little girl... matter how old you get.

New Skates...

Ana and Sophie are absolutely positive that they are destined to be ice skaters.  So... Aunt MiMi gave them both ice skates for Christmas.  Over winter break I took the kids downtown to break in their new blades.  It was such a great time...

They were so cute helping Sophie get the hang of it... 

 Hayden took off like a rocket.  He now claims that he wants to play hockey...

  It took Ana a bit longer to get comfortable... but only only a bit...

 I love my kids...

 After skating we took a little jaunt around the 16th Street Mall...

 Hayden thought it was hilarious to try to find spaces where he could hide and scare his sisters.  It was pretty funny, but Ana didn't think so...

The Free Mall Ride is one of my kids favorite things to do downtown, they like to pick spots to hop on and off the bus.  It's fun to let them choose where ever they want to go, especially because I don't have to worry about parking a car each time we stop...

This was one of my favorite days of the 2013...

The Wedding...

Rob's brother, Chase, got married over Christmas break.  The kids were so excited to be a part of the celebration.  Once again, I have more pics from my camera to post, but here's a couple that I had on my phone of Sophie...

Sparkle...

The 2013 Christmas season, Sparkle joined our family to the delight of our children...  

I sure hope she comes back next year...

Halloween 2013...

So... all the pictures that I'm posting today are coming from my phone.  I have a ton more on my camera, but it's at school.  So for now, here is the one picture I have of Halloween.  My sister Ana stopped by to visit on her way to Minnesota.  The kids were thrilled to have their cousins join them for their school's Fall Festival...

The Venom Lab...

About the same time that I was envisioning the possibilities for my classroom, Rob was doing the same for is Venom Lab.  This is the day that we put together the caging system for the 75 rattle snakes that moved in August 2013...

 Per the regulations from the Department of Wildlife, Rob had to construct a building within his warehouse to house the snakes...

This was awhile later, the first time that I got up the courage to watch Rob work with the snakes.  Here he is with an albino rattle snake...

My First Classroom...

I took some pictures of my classroom the day that I first saw it.  I wanted to remember the excitement (and fear) I felt as I envisioned and anticipated the experiences that would happen here....

 My desk before Mr. Marks moved all his stuff downstairs...

It's been months since this day. The experiences that have occurred in this room surpassed anything that I could have imagined... good and bad.  They have been crazy, hilarious, extremely difficult, and totally unforgettable...