It's already JUNE! My last day of teaching, before the summer school session begins on July 6, is Friday the 25th and I'm really looking forward already to that day. For now, I'm enjoying this month....it's one of my faves...mainly because the daylight lasts until about 9 pm in eastern New York where I live...and in enjoying the start of this month, I'm finding some special blessings God brought my way this past week. I share these FIVE FAVES by linking up at Susanne's blog with other people who are intentional about giving thanks.
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| A Mother's Day gift from my youngest girl |
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Claire with Kyss (her dog "cousin")
at Uncle Pete and Aunt Kathy's home
southern MA |
- SMILES! Last week sometime, when I came home from work, and before Claire left for work, she gave me the mug pictured above. She said "Happy belated Mother's Day". She knew I had been wanting an UNH mug. I love it. It actually brought a huge smile to my face because it holds FOUR regular cups of coffee!! It's HUGE! I told her it will be my weekend mug as I'm known to drink a lot of morning coffee on the weekends. (and yes, I used it Saturday morning!) And this photo taken by Dave when he and Claire visited the south shore of MA where my inlaws live (they went for part of the Memorial Day weekend) brought a huge smile to my face. This is Dave's brother (Uncle Peter) and his wife's (Aunt Kathy) new Bernese Mountain puppy Kyss. Peter and Kathy live about a mile from my in-laws. I think Kyss is bigger than Claire! I'm thankful they had the time with Dave's folks and I'm thankful for special gifts.
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| Agricola |
- GAME DAY! Memorial Day afternoon was gloomy although the rain had stopped that morning. Dave had bought a new board game in Portsmouth the previous weekend so we finally had a "Date day" at home to play this game. He got it all set up (took an hour to learn how to play and set up!) and then I joined him. He won but I was not far behind him. It's a blast and much less time consuming that Settlers of Catan or Carcassone. (We own both). This one only has 14 rounds and it goes quickly. We have more to learn if more people join us. You can read about the game here. I'm thankful we had a fun afternoon together...we really needed it.
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| Purple irises |
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| my tea rose bush which was planted in 1997! |
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| Wildflowers in my backyard |
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mama mourning dove with 2 babies
in our cherry tree close to the house |
- BLOSSOMS AND BIRDS: So many of my perennials have blossomed so nicely this spring. The tea rose bush I show above actually has almost every rose bud bloomed on it now since I took this pic. And my other, smaller rose bush which has dark orange/peach roses on it is in full bloom. My irises ( I have a few more on the south side of the house...youre looking at the front/west side) bloomed while we were in NH and for some reason I lost many bulbs....probably due to Mr Squirrel who also took some of my tulip bulbs last Oct. I have wildflowers in the backyard as I love them and we don't treat the lawns with chemicals so they grow well. And in the tree you can see mama dove poking her head out. 2 of the 3 eggs hatched and I was able to see hte babies one day after work but I didn't get too close with the phone as I didn't want to scare them. I don't think you can see them in the photo. I'm thankful for spring flowers and new life!
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| A fave walking path |
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| fave trees on the walking path |
- AFTER WORK WALKS! Each day this week (except yesterday) I've been able to power walk after work or dinner. Monday I power walked for 2 miles at a very brisk pace throughout my neighborhood and the adjoining one. Tuesday I power walked after dinner in the neighborhood, but I was more leisurely in my pace and only had time for about 1.5 miles. And Wednesday, I did a combo of fast paced/slower pace (my knee was bothering me) at one of the town parks for a little over a mile (it started to get very cloudy and looked like rain was coming in). I love the paths at The Crossings. And the way the trees look in the Spring makes my heart happy and thankful for what our Creator has given us.
- LEARNING WITH LANGUAGE: I have 6 students (usually just 5 at a time) who are in my circle group each day (circle is where we work on listening/attending, communication/language/speech, cognitive skills, fine motor skills and reasoning/thinking skills). This month I'm focusing on some of Eric Carle books and the past week has seen me reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I can get about 2-3 weeks worth of awesome lessons from this book. This week was our compare and share week. I brought in all the fruits from the book and we "taste tested" them and then made graphs depicting which students liked which fruits and then they were able to communicate to me which fruit was their favorite. We also played a "what's on my plate" game and they chose 3 of their favorite healthy foods from the book to glue on, and then chose 1 junk food. They all loved this activity and I'm thankful I get to teach this group who love learning through whole language activities. Due to confidentiality and IEP laws, I cannot share the photos with you. But there were many happy smiles after they ate watermelon!!
that wraps up this first week of June and some of the blessings that came my way. Every day has blessings...I just happened to choose FIVE of my FAVES!
Have a blessed weekend!
7 comments:
Hi Faith. I love your Faves this week. That is such a great mug your daughter gave you for Mother's Day. I know you will enjoy that for many years to come. Cute picture of Claire and Kyss. The game looks fun and I think I am going to look for that one - Charly and I enjoy games, but don't play them much. Maybe a new one is just what we need! So glad you have a been able to get out and walk and that you had that fun food activity with your students. I can tell you are a great, dedicated teacher. I love the pictures of your plans, as well as that Mourning Dove and her babies in your tree. Hope you have a good Friday. I will answer your email soon. See you later!
I love your caterpillar book lesson with fruit I might use that at the Library where I am getting ready for summer reading. Have a great week .
It's nice having a peek into your backyard:) The rose is beautiful. That mug is awesome! A perfect way to celebrate the weekend. My brother has three 'bernies' -- they are the cutest, like big teddy bears. Our schools are already out for the summer. The disadvantage is that they will start up again mid-August, which is way too early in my opinion. It's so hot for the students and teachers, with many of our older schools not having AC.
Enjoy the weekend and that cool mug!!
That's a nice Mother's Day present. Sounds like the lessons went really well. It's nice to be on the final countdown for the last month of school. That sounds like an interesting game. Glad you had that time together. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't like games, though he'll join in sometimes when the whole family is here and we're playing something short. Pretty flowers!
I approve of that huge coffee mug! This morning we drank our second cup on the patio in the shade before it got too hot.
Hurray for getting in all those walks! We haven't been out much this week for walks because of rain. And now today it's really hot. But---does working in the garden count as exercise?
My younger daughter has a Berner! (used to have two) We love Berners. They're great dogs. And yes, they can weigh as much or more as I do.
Enjoy your weekend!
Wow if that's a puppy just how big is it going to get? lol. How lovely to have birds nesting in your tree. I hope they all survive. That mug sounds enormous - 4 cups! My problem would be the tea would be cold before I could drink it all. Hope your knee is feeling better. I love The Hungry Caterpillar story, as do the grandsons. Sounds like you made some great lessons from it. Your summer break is even closer now. Hope you've had a good weekend.
That mug is HUGE! Enjoy every sip! The doggy is so cute! Nice that you were able to visit family. Love all the flower picks. Are the wild flowers Sweet Williams? We love the Hungry Caterpillar here too! What a great idea to taste test the fruits thru the book and then graph them. I'm going to steal that idea.
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