My New Life as a K4 Teacher

For those of you who may not know, Dan and I moved to Florida 2 months ago, for a job he got as a youth pastor at a wonderful church in Jacksonville.  

For me, this meant that I was back on the job hunt.  I am very blessed, because I found two great jobs right away.  The first, is teaching ballet and jazz ballet to 3-4 and 5-7 year olds.  This is SO much fun, and I'm really enjoying the fact that I've found my way back to my childhood love like this.

My second, and "real" job is as a K4 VPK teacher.  I work at a wonderful Christian Private school, called Seacoast Christian Academy.  (The VPK program is public though.)  It's also such a blessing, the school is only a 20 minute walk away from our apartment.  This is very convenient, because right now we only have one car (oh yeah, and because I don't have my license yet - shut up!)
 This position incorporates EVERYTHING that I love to do.  Most importantly teaching.  Not to mention that it's my favorite age group!  I also am constantly needing to be creative, coming up with fun new activities and art projects.  We also have Bible time, which is straight up my alley, as well as music and movement.  Did I mention that I was made for this job!!???

Also, you know I'm coming up with cute, topic-related snacks!

So, this blog is going to take a slight new direction.  I will still be posting about my latest baking/crafting/cooking/pinterest conquests, however most of the time they will have to do with things we're doing in class.

Two weeks ago was pet week.  Oh my, don't even get me started!!!  Give me a topic, and watch me go crazy!

First, I painted a paw print on my big toe.

I used a paw shaped puncher on painter's tape, stuck that on my toe, painted over it and, voila - paw print toes!!!

Because of my love of scrapbooking, and my love for my doggie, Bella, I have a giant paw print stamp.

At the end of the day, all my kids got to go home with "paws for hands".

They were crazy about them!  I loved it, because the parents got to see exactly what our topic was, the kids loved them, and I got to be the cool teacher. :)

Now, on Fridays I've been trying to have a special snack, one that ties in with the topic.  In Ohio I learned about "puppy chow".  It involves peanut butter, so I wasn't sure I'd be a fan, but it was surprisingly good.   I found a recipe on momswhothink.com.  This snack is so simple, so cute, and very yummy!

It calls for:

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
9 cups Chex cereal (any flavor)
3 cups powdered sugar

You melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips together.  Then, you pour it over the 9 cups of Chex cereal, and make sure it all get coated really well.  Next, you put (portions of) it in a ziplock bag, pour some powdered sugar in it, seal the bag, and shake it- shake it like a polaroid picture.  Once you've gotten powdered sugar on all of it, put it in a bowl, and serve it up!

It was so adorable, and thankfully I knew none of my kids were allergic to peanut butter, so I didn't have to modify the recipe.  I was so excited to have brought in such a cool and different snack!

That same day we made cat and dog ears (they had to cut out either triangles for the cats or ovals for the dogs), and they wore them while they had their "puppy chow".

SO, that was pet week!  The next week was farm week.  Wait till you see what they made... I'll give you a hint!  They're pink and go "oink"!