The Espinoza Family Blog

Today I was back in the classroom with Isabel. I haven’t been in the class since back in September! Terrible!…I know. In October, I had signed up but Isabel was out sick the day I had signed up for and then in November, all the days were filled up. So as soon as I saw the sheet and I knew when Isabel’s special helper day was I signed up fast! Enjoy!

The morning started out with prayer and then several minutes of several kids just telling a story. All the kids seemed to be in very talkative moods today!

Isabel led the class for the pledge of the American Flag, Christian Flag, and Bible. She also got to point out all the new colors, shapes, and letters for the month of December on the new bulletin board. Afterward, we moved over to the tables to work on the letter of the day: I, which is for inchworm and igloo.

Working hard on cutting out the letter “I”.

Doing such a good job, girls.

Since Isabel was the special helper today, she got to choose a “special friend” to sit with her at the special helper table. Isabel choose Anika, both so focused on getting that letter “I” cut out.

This is Isabel’s letter “I” (I know it looks like a “T”), for inchworm.

Letter “I” is for igloo, too. Ms. Calvert is helping write names on igloo’s.

Working very hard on getting all those little marshmallows on those igloo’s.

Anika finished her igloo very quickly, which left Isabel with a bowl full of marshmallows all to herself! I think she likes this fun craft; she likes eating those marshmallows!

Mrs. “W” is helping make sure they get those marshmallows on really good.

Isabel’s finished igloo. So cute!

Afterward, it was time for show and tell. For show and tell, Isabel bought Lula! Isabel did a great job during show and tell. She spoke up nice and loud for all to hear her. She answered all the questions that everyone asked about her Lula. “Do you sleep with it?” and “Is it your very special toy?”, there were other questions but I couldn’t hear all of them.

The problem, that I saw, came when she had to pick someone to ask her a question about Lula. She still isn’t getting the names of the other kids, she only can remember a few of them (I’m not any better, I get the girls confused on who’s who!). So we are going to have to practice that. With 14 girls in the class it shouldn’t be that hard. Right?!

After show and tell time, we headed out to recess. Then back to the classroom for snack time before heading to chapel. For snack, Isabel brought Fig Newton cookies, string cheese and juice. Before heading to chapel, while the kids waited for the slower eaters, they sang songs on the circle time rug. Isabel picked the 3 monkeys song.

Then it was time to head over to chapel. During chapel, we (along with other classes) heard the story of the Christmas star and it’s importance in the birth of Jesus. Then all the kids practiced their Christmas program songs, for the school Christmas program that is coming up on the 16th. They sound so good!

By the time we got back to the classroom from chapel it was time to go home. We had a closing prayer, all the kids thanked me for helping today, and then the day was over. It was great fun and went by so fast! I will have to sign up again when I see that sign-up sheet!

Today was supposed to be Isabel’s special helper day but earlier in the month, Mrs. W pulled me aside and asked if we could postpone her day because one of the other students hadn’t had a special helper day and was going to be gone the majority of December. I said that was more then fine! So her special helper day will be on Wednesday, December 1st.

Today, Isabel said, she didn’t have a good day…

One of the other girls asked for something that Isabel had picked up off the floor and when Isabel handed it to her, the girl made a “mean face” at Isabel. Later when the same girl bumped into Isabel by accident she said excuse me. I told Isabel, that she didn’t have to be upset by the “mean face”, and that even though someone is “mean” to you, you should not be “mean” to them or make “mean faces”. I said that maybe, the other girl wasn’t having a good day today, and the she still needs to be nice. We need to be thankful for our friends, even when they are mean and make “mean faces” at us.

However, sometime, during free play a few of the boys wanted to play with something Isabel was playing with and were asking her “not very nicely”, she said, to have it. I think all the kids were in a bit of a grumpy moody today, after being out of school all last week due to the snow and Thanksgiving. Hopefully by Wednesday things will be back to normal and everyone can get along.

The special helper today was Dany. He brought a black, white, and orange penguin and a brown puppy for show and tell. The puppy had a bone, a bottle, and a carriage. For snack they had a strawberry, grapes, a cookie, and juice.

Yesterday, Gino and Isabel worked hard together to get a little snowman built in the front yard. It’s been 5 days since the snow landed and I didn’t think they would actually get one together. Enjoy!

Getting some rocks…

Trying to get the rocks to stay…

Meet “Snow, the snowman”.

Isabel had a lot of fun (I think Gino did too!) and later when we noticed “Snow” laying on the grass. She said, “Momma, Snow is taking a nap.” Thankfully, the rain returned over night and melted the remaining snow away, so today there was only a small pile of “Snow” remained. I hope now that the snow has melted Isabel can get back to school on Monday. She has missed being with her new friends but I’ve been keeping her busy. Today we worked on a snowman that won’t ever melt…until tomorrow.

School was cancelled again today due to the weather.

It got down to 9° last night!
More clouds moving in tonight with more snow expected tomorrow.

No school today due to the weather…snow! We awoke yesterday to a covering of white before we went to church. After church it was mostly melted but later in the day it began to snow and continued into the night. Enjoy!

Before we headed outside, I took some shots of the neighborhood. This is looking west.

Looking south.

Does she look like she’s having fun?

She got me!

Having fun in the snow.

Cold rosy cheeks, nose, fingers, and toes!

Today was a fun day for Isabel. One of the Daddies came and told the class about what he does in the fire department. He had a really loud hat, she said but he turned it down. Some of the class got to wear his hat, coat, and boots but Isabel said she didn’t want to try them on. He told the class what to do when your house was on fire. If you can’t go out the door, go to the window and someone will come and help you out. If a fire truck comes on your street, stay out of the road and in your yard because the fire truck could run you over. She got to practice how to stop, drop, and roll, she didn’t roll very good, she said.

Isabel with all her goodies from her goodie bag!
(the turkey ring is from the special helper)

Isabel turkey puppet, that she colored, cut out, and pasted to the bag all by herself.
(We didn’t think so…Gino thought it was a turtle and I thought it was a dinosaur!)

Today, she talked with Deven, Makayla, and Zachary. They practiced singing their Christmas songs for the program next month. The special helper today was Emily and it was her birthday today! They sang Happy birthday to her. For show and tell, Emily brought a pink hamster (not real). The hamster, who’s name was Pinky, had 2 houses, a summer home and a winter home and a ball. For snack they had breakfast bars that were blueberry, chocolate chip, oatmeal. They even had cupcakes with turkey rings on them (see the above picture) to celebrate too! Isabel said, she was really messy with her cupcake and everyone was laughing at her.

After school, she dove right into her goodie bag and started coloring pages and doing the other activities in her fireman color book.

Thank you fireman!
You keep us safe and help us out when their is a fire at home or school!