As I shared a few months ago, I moved from the Edmonds School District (my home for the last 18 years) to the Snohomish School District. I was hired to teach a second grade classroom for the 2014-15 school year in a small school in Snohomish.  I spent many years in a second grade classroom in Edmonds, so I felt totally comfortable with the idea, but my passion is teaching kindergarten.  I hoped that, eventually, a kindergarten spot would open up and I’d be able to move back to teaching the little guys. 

The first day back, for teachers, was Wednesday.  There were meetings, time to work in our rooms, and time to do a little planning with grade level partners.  I didn’t have too much to do in my room (organizing, moving furniture, or creating bulletin boards) because I had spent many, many, many hours over the past few weeks in my classroom.

If you are my friend on Facebook, you saw this picture that my friend Ceres posted about my gigantic mess.  You see, teachers hoard have a lot of stuff – 12 bookshelves and hundreds of boxes to be exact.

That pile wasn’t even ALL of my teacher stuff. I’d already moved a ton of things to my three car garage, where it would wait patiently all summer long.  

Back to Wednesday…

We finished our meetings and I was just packing up for the day when our principal let me know that she was 99% sure that I would be able to make a move to kindergarten.  The previous teacher had moved to a new school.  We needed to hire a new 1st grade teacher to reduce class sizes.  The current first grade teacher (who formerly taught kindergarten) was ok staying in first grade, and this all meant that I could have my dream job!  My principal checked, again, with human resources, and by 6:30 on Wednesday night it was a done deal.

Here’s the catch:

The kindergarten class had to be on the other side of the building.  Hours and hours of work setting up a second grade classroom, and I was going to need to magically transfer my things to a new room and set it up with the needs of kindergarten students in mind.  

Thursday consisted of meetings in the morning, a full half day of cleaning out the room I was planning to move into, Meet the Teacher at 4pm, and then moving an entire classroom after that.  I called in The Help (my family and my friend who totally gets “family status” now).  It took 6 kids and 6 (very strong and helpful) kids – between 4 and 5 hours to complete the move, but my kindergarten class is reading for learning! I can’t even believe it!  I would have taken a picture of the new room, but I was too exhausted to even lift my phone.  My kids rolled into bed close to 11pm and they are really hoping that Mom never moves again. Moving and setting up a classroom is like moving and setting up a small home.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate all of the help.  I could NEVER have done it alone!

Happy Back To School Time!!! 

After a quick introduction in the classroom, I started pulling kids out to the hallway to start sewing with me.  They LOVED sewing!  I’ve gotten pretty good at sewing sideways.  I let the kids sit right in front of the machine and they really do the sewing.  I just make sure to sit right next to them, looking sideways at the machine, and help guide them when they need support.  No one will  be sewing their fingers into the quilt on my watch!!!

Once we had the triangles pieced, the kids started arranging the squares into the Friendship Star.  

It always amazes me the way some kids just “see” how shapes fit together and others really have to work at it.  I’m one of those that really needs to work at it, so I think I’m a bit envious of those people who can quickly make beautiful arrangements with shapes.  I love the conversations the kids have as they are arranging their shapes too.  Working with these little guys just makes me happy!

Once they figured out how to arrange their pieces, we were ready to sew the small blocks into a larger block.

I’m kind of in love with the colors in this quilt!

Some kids talked about how their moms or grandmas sew, and others had never even seen a real sewing machine before.  Some kids talked about the old fashioned foot pedal machines that they had seen in cartoons, and others talked about family members who own multiple machines.  Regardless of kids’ experience sewing, they all had a great time!  There were happy giggles, lots of questions about how the machine works, and lots of kids who were eager to convince their parents to let them sew at home.  One little boy even said, “I’m totally going to ask for one of these for Christmas!”  How cute is that?

Twelve little Friendship blocks are ready to be sewn together.  I’ll be spending my next day off finishing the blocks with kids who were absent, and working with kids to sew the blocks together.

The quilt will be auctioned off at the school auction, in March.  I can’t wait to hear which lucky child will get to take home a quilt made by all of his or her friends!  I think it’s turning out pretty enough that the parents will be excited to have this in their home too!

Happy quilting!

One of my girls described how she made soap with her mom and sisters. I’ve never made soap before, but it sounds like fun.

How cute are these little elf shoes?  

In addition to these cute little creations, several parents went in together on a gift, and I also received many cards, treats, and gift cards to a few of my favorite stores. Oh, and my favorite gift of all was an email I received from our assistant superintendent.  She had been sent an email from one of my parents, who just wanted to share a few things about my teaching and our classroom.  I can’t tell you how much it brightened my day teaching career! I have fabulous students and parents! I feel truly blessed.

Happy Holidays! 

Not too bad, considering I was totally winging it!

I used the scraps to make a few floor pillows for my listening center too.