the end is bittersweet...

last wednesday was my last day of my first year teaching in LA.  did you get all that ;o).  believe it or not, i found my job on none other than craig's list!  the job was such a blessing, and i was sad to see my girls go on the last day.  these are a few things i'll miss over the summer...

i love you wanda.  this was a running joke in ry and i's house.  this little one was actually trying to tell me "i love you one day i went to my mommy's work."  haha!

this is a self-portrait of one of my favorite little people ever.  we'll call her minnie mouse, because she believes with everything in her that minnie mouse is her middle name.  she also believed me when i told her i could hear the thoughts in her mind.

me: how'd you figure that out, did you do it in your head?
m.m.: yea, how do you know that?
me: because i can hear what you're thinking.
m.m: (looking at me deadpan)... WHAT??

don't worry, i finally told her i was kidding ;o).

i'm not sure there's another job where you get love notes at the end of the day.  it melts my heart!!

i wanted to make the girls a little end of the year gift since they were oh so special.  i got the idea here.  thanks to my great hubs for helping me design the card!

i'll miss the girls this summer, but i have a feeling the beach may ease my pain ;o).

first graders are funny.

i realize there is no way this story can be as funny as it actually was at the time, but i need to write it to forever lock it in my memory.  on the carpet for calendar, a funny little friend we'll call 't' says- "mrs. t remember when your hair was so long? what happened??" i proceed to launch into the story of how i got a bad haircut at a salon and had to get it fixed, the only way to do this- cutting it all off.  each girl then wants to tell a story about their hair, or their mother's hair or their babysitter's hair... you get the picture.  then a precious little hand is raised quietly so i call on student 's'.  's' says "once my mother took me to the salon and she told the person to give me long layers.  the person didn't give me any layers, but my mother was in a hurry so we had to go.  supercuts... not so super." the delivery was so impeccable, and she was so dead serious.  i started laughing hysterically which caused a complete uproar.  kinda funny the things you chat about when you teach all girls!

another funny moment... student 't' and i are very close.  as in she thinks i'm like her mother or something.  she pushes the button on my phone to light up the screen, and this picture comes up-

't' says- "is that you and your husband?"
me- ".... what??? that's my husband and my GRANDMA!"

haha, no better job in the world!!

field trip!

my class and i had our first field trip!  we went to travel town in griffith park.  it's a free park with old trains that kids can go in and check out.  any more than the hour and a half we spent here would have been too much, but hey when your school day is three hours, your field trips are short!  what a different experience, parents get to drive the girls... way less hassle (and money) than a bus!  the girls and i had a great time getting out of the classroom!

the car i rode in got back to school first, so this was the girls' idea of playing a trick on the rest of the girls when they came in...

and i can't do a post about my class without including my favorite red head...

 

a few of my favorite malka-isms...

mrs. t: who knows what reply means?

malka: it's french for answer.

mrs. t: really?

mrs. t: what is a pouch?

malka: it's something a baby kangaroo stays in until it is ready to do proper kangaroo jumps!

mrs. t: proper, huh?

lord i love these little 6 year old girls :).

mlk jr., the first grade perspective.

oh how i love these precious 6 year old girls.  we read our weekly news magazine (for kids), and this week's was all about mlk jr. and what he did for our country.  one of the main points brought up in the magazine was how black people had to sit in the back of the bus, and that laws were unfair to black people.  that is when malka felt the need to put in her perspective... "it's good that law changed because in coach buses the comfiest seats are in the back, and that wouldn't be fair to white people."  hahaha, in what other job can you have conversations as amazing as these?!

i had to include this picture! unfortunately i've had lots of sick kiddos and this is what happens when your school doesn't have  a nurse ;).

the wondrous world of first grade.

so i promise a blog is coming soon about ryan's birthday.  i'm done with school (master's school that is) next wednesday, so i'll have lots of time for more in-depth and interesting blog posts.  until then, this will have to do.  here is a quote from one of my favorite 6 year olds!

after one student has finished up a science project she shared with the class...

malka (my most favorite petite, deep red-headed 6 year old)- i have two things to say.

mrs. t- ok go ahead.

malka- 1. i love your outfit. 2. some people don't like to know how the experiment happened because they like the mystery about it.

mrs. t- hahaha.

first grade quote of the day

as the girls were working we were just having a casual conversation...

mrs. t:  the thing is when you're talking so much it makes it hard to listen.

esther: yeah i see this man when i come to school and he is dirty and he doesn't have a job because he didn't listen.

mrs. t: yup.