My New Job!

Hello everyone! I have yet to receive a call into work this morning, giving me the perfect opportunity to FINALLY make a blog post!

I have some very exciting news to share: as of Januray 6th I will be a year 4 teacher!!! (equivalent to grade 3 in Canada/US). I am also moving. Tomorrow. Across the country. Mind you, the country isn't huge but I will be travelling about 5 hours to the lovely city of Portsmouth.

Then, on Sunday I am boarding a plane for Canada to come home for Christmas - talk about a busy week!

I am very excited and nervous to have my own classroom. I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to observe in my new class for a few days, all my new students seem very sweet and the staff are all very friendly and helpful. Here is a pic of the front of my new room. (Note the One Direction advent calendar on the floor under the chart paper!)

I'm sure I'll be posting more frequently now that I'm going to be putting resources together for my walls and working on getting my guided reading groups ready (any ideas for guided reading activities would be greatly appreciated!).

Here is my funny story for the week:

I was teaching a year 1 class this week that I've had several times before. While making a frame around their picture of themselves with Santa (he visited them at school last week) I had this conversation with one of my students,

Student: "That's not the real Santa, he has a watch!"

Me: "Santa can't have a watch?"

Student: "No!"

Me: "Why not?"

Student: "Because it makes him look silly."

I couldn't help but laugh because he was so serious about it.

I hope you are all having a great last day(s) at school and that you have a (relatively) stress free holiday!

Funny questions and Grilled Cheese

Hello blogging buddies,

I'm sitting here in my bedroom blogging because I wasn't called into school today *sad face*. Now that I actually have time to write a blog post I thought I would share a few humorous stories. Without further ado here are my top 5 favourite questions I've been asked by my students so far:


5. Do you know Justin Bieber?
4. Do students in Canada really go to school on Saturdays? (I'm not sure where they got this idea from?)
3. Do you have to dig your car out of a snow bank every day?
2. Do you have bears in your backyard?
1. Are you from Canadia?

I'll be sure to add more hilarious questions as they happen. The Canadia one still cracks me up...

Now, onto the grilled cheese. I was out at a pub with my housemate ...enjoying the culture of course... when we got onto the topic of what we were going to eat when we got home. My housemate stated that he was going to 'grille' cheese on toast in the broiler (called a grille here). I of course asked why he didn't just make a grilled cheese. The man had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, he said they 'don't have that here'. So, being the wonderful roommate that I am I took him home and made him some - he was very hesitant and told me that he wasn't sure he was going to like it. A few bites later he looks me in the eyes and says 'How did we not know about this?!'. Long story short, he's had 5 grilled cheese sandwiches this week. You're welcome England.

I hope you are all having much more exciting Monday's than I am! Let me know if you enjoy hearing my silly stories and I will try to include some more.

Worldly Wednesday: Kingston - And Link-Up Interest?

Hello!

It's time for another Worldly Wednesday.

So today I went out for lunch with Lisa from Grade 4 Buzz. We ate some delicious food then we went back to her house so I could meet Cassie the Kitten (as well as Rufus and Abby). They are such cute and sweet kitties! One of our students came by to visit us and the kitten, it was so good to see her, she's such a sweetie. After our little friend left, I was asking Lisa's advice on what to write about for my Worldly Wednesday post this week. She suggested that I should start a link-up so that I can see what all you other bloggers are doing around the world. So what do you think? You could write about the places you've been, the places you're excited to go to, the places on your bucket list, or your own hometown. Share a piece of the world with the blogging community. Please let me know if this is something you might be interested in in the comments.

Today I wanted to share with you some pictures from my hometown, Kingston. These pictures are from a trip Dearest Boyfriend and I took to the sugar bush in March.

Every spring a local conservation area holds Maple Madness, where people are welcome to visit the park (free of charge) and see how maple syrup is made. They have displays that go through history and show how sap collecting started (with the First Nations people) and how it has evolved since. They showed different ways of collecting sap and boiling it down. There is a path that takes you along in chronological order, ending with the most modern methods of sap collecting.

After watching how delicious maple syrup is created you can head on over to the pancake house where you can buy fluffy delicious pancakes slathered with real (fresh!) maple syrup. They are so delicious, plus you get to eat them at one of the picnic tables out in the forest! They also have syrup and maple candies for sale (Dearest Boyfriend being the maple syrup fiend he is had to buy some syrup to bring home!).

I hope you enjoy these pictures from our very (stereotypically) Canadian outing!

There was so much melt water this year that this little stream had expanded into the grass. There is still a tiny bit of snow, but it's mostly all melted.

Dearest Boyfriend on the tractor ride that took us out to the bush. We could have walked, but it was very very muddy.

Taking a look at the hollowed out trees that the First Nations people used to use to collect the sap from the Maple Trees. P.S. I got that purse in Ecuador!

The happy faces of two people who just thoroughly enjoyed some fluffy pancakes with fresh syrup in the middle of the forest. 

The hose system that modern maple syrup makers use to transport sap. The only problem that occurs with this system is that deer will occasionally knock the hoses down and break the line.

Large cauldron that used to be used to boil down sap.

Lots of running water in the spring time.

Sap collecting bucket.

There you have it! I hope you are all having a marvellous Wednesday. If you like the idea of a Worldly Wednesday Link-Up please don't forget to let me know and I'll try to get it up and running for next week! I'm thinking up ideas for a button (I'm not very artistic unfortunately), so check back later this week and I'll try to have something that you can share on your blogs to get the word out!

Check out my previous Worldly Wednesdays to get some more ideas!