I didn't get around to posting this video from last year, but this is Sam calling the Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve 2011. He was SO excited! Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/pF7ALi3EKhE
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Sam's Sports
Sam played soccer Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 on a small team my brother-in-law coached (my brother-in-law was out of town the day of pictures, so the guy in red was Sam's teammate's dad). Sam got to play on the same team as two of his cousins which was a lot of fun. Their team name was White Lightening.
Sam was SO excited to get his trophy at the end of the season.
Over the summer, Sam tried out T-Ball. Sam and I love playing baseball together, so he was really happy to play on a team. His team was called the Purple Lasers.
Another activity Sam did during the summer was taking several sessions of swimming lessons at the rec center. This is a picture of Sam practicing at our pool.
Sam started soccer again this fall and will continue with this team next spring. This team is named The Cheetahs. I love watching kids this age play!
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Yearbook Pictures
Comparing Sam's kindergarten picture with his 1st grade picture, I think he's changed quite a bit. Me, on the other hand, not so much other than frizzier hair. Here are our yearbook pictures from last year and this year.
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| Kindergarten--2011-2012 |
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| First Grade--2012-2013 |
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| 1st year teaching kindergarten--2011-2012 |
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| 2nd year teaching kindergarten--2012-2013 |
Sunday, November 04, 2012
Sam's Evolution of Dance
Sam has always liked to dance.
Here is a video of him dancing to Grandma Valerie's cell phone when he was about 18 months old.
Here is a video of Sam dancing to the Beatles when we lived in Washington. Sam was about 3 years old.
Here's another fun one of the three of us dancing to one of Sam's favorite songs when we lived in Washington.
And one last video of Sam today.
Here is a video of him dancing to Grandma Valerie's cell phone when he was about 18 months old.
Here is a video of Sam dancing to the Beatles when we lived in Washington. Sam was about 3 years old.
Here's another fun one of the three of us dancing to one of Sam's favorite songs when we lived in Washington.
And one last video of Sam today.
Kindergarten to 1st Grade
If this blog is supposedly chronicling our life, I have left out quite a bit of the details. I get busy, I don't make the time, or maybe I'm just lazy. In any case, my goal while I have a few weeks off of school while we're off-track is to get this blog caught up with some of the things we've been doing.
I never posted pictures from Sam's kindergarten graduation. My classes practiced so hard and did a fantastic job with all of their songs. Here is a picture of Sam and my morning class.
Here is a fun video of some of their performance. The last song is my favorite.
Sam's last day of kindergarten was June 1st. Because we are now a year-round school, his first day of 1st grade was July 25th. Here are his clothes all laid out the night before.
And here he is the morning of his first day of 1st grade.
I never posted pictures from Sam's kindergarten graduation. My classes practiced so hard and did a fantastic job with all of their songs. Here is a picture of Sam and my morning class.
Here is a fun video of some of their performance. The last song is my favorite.
Sam's last day of kindergarten was June 1st. Because we are now a year-round school, his first day of 1st grade was July 25th. Here are his clothes all laid out the night before.
And here he is the morning of his first day of 1st grade.
Sunday, July 01, 2012
What I Did During My Summer Break
This summer I am teaching two French immersion summer camps. The first one was last week and was for students in junior high and high school who were interested in having an immersion experience. I taught the camp with four other teachers from our school district (we spoke 100% in French the entire week), and we had about 30 kids (who we encouraged to speak as much French as possible). We had a wonderful time together and I'm really glad I signed up to teach this.
We started each morning with a typical French food (pain au chocolat, croissants, yogart and fruit, baguettes and French cheeses, couscous) and then we'd break out into three sessions of class time to teach them basic skills and vocabulary. In the afternoon we did more hands-on, whole-group activities. We did lots of fun activities such as making homemade icecream in ziplock bags, making and shooting off rockets, making and eating quiche and crepes, doing yoga, playing typical French field games (boules), listening to and acting out stories, singing songs, playing charades, listening to and watching French music videos, and more. Friday we went on a field trip to Bruges to order Belgian waffles in French. Chris and Sam met us there to meet the group and to enjoy the waffles. So good! We hopped back on the school bus and headed up to the zoo. Once there the kids did a scavanger hunt by reading clues in French to find all the animals. At the end of the fieldtrip we went to Pierre's Country Bakery to order lunch again in French. The kids had the choice of getting un sandwich au fromage, un sandwich au jambon, or de la quiche. The teachers got to order off the regular menu, so we all tried the croque madame which I had never had the chance of trying in France. It was pretty tasty!
We had such a wide range of levels--one girl's parents are French so she was close to fluent, and three others were pretty proficient who I never heard speak a word of English. A few had never set foot in a French classroom. Most of them had at least one year of French class, but could not speak or understand much. I think the best thing that happened this week was to see the kids at the beginning of the week confused and frustrated that they didn't understand, and then to see them begin to relax and go with the flow realizing that they can still communicate and understand the general meaning of what's being said without understanding every single word. I think that's huge in language acquisition!
Our French camp and the Spanish camp that was also using the building were both featured in two news stories. One was in the Standard-Examiner and you can read the story by clicking here. I was intereviewed and quoted in that story. And then KSL did a very short radio story you can find by clicking here. If you clik on the audio on the left side of the story, you can hear me teaching a song in French to the kids.
In about a week I will begin teaching a second French immersion camp. This one is for 1st and 2nd graders from our school who will be entering our immersion program next year. Since most of their peers will have had French last year, the district wanted to provide a "boot camp" so they are not completely lost when the start this coming school year. I'm excited to teach this one since most of what I plan can be used again with my kindergarteners when school starts later this month.
I have been in love with the French language since the 7th grade, and I am so happy that I get to teach it! I known I've said this before, but I have my dream job!
We started each morning with a typical French food (pain au chocolat, croissants, yogart and fruit, baguettes and French cheeses, couscous) and then we'd break out into three sessions of class time to teach them basic skills and vocabulary. In the afternoon we did more hands-on, whole-group activities. We did lots of fun activities such as making homemade icecream in ziplock bags, making and shooting off rockets, making and eating quiche and crepes, doing yoga, playing typical French field games (boules), listening to and acting out stories, singing songs, playing charades, listening to and watching French music videos, and more. Friday we went on a field trip to Bruges to order Belgian waffles in French. Chris and Sam met us there to meet the group and to enjoy the waffles. So good! We hopped back on the school bus and headed up to the zoo. Once there the kids did a scavanger hunt by reading clues in French to find all the animals. At the end of the fieldtrip we went to Pierre's Country Bakery to order lunch again in French. The kids had the choice of getting un sandwich au fromage, un sandwich au jambon, or de la quiche. The teachers got to order off the regular menu, so we all tried the croque madame which I had never had the chance of trying in France. It was pretty tasty!
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| Pictures taken from the Standard-Examiner newspaper article about our camp. |
We had such a wide range of levels--one girl's parents are French so she was close to fluent, and three others were pretty proficient who I never heard speak a word of English. A few had never set foot in a French classroom. Most of them had at least one year of French class, but could not speak or understand much. I think the best thing that happened this week was to see the kids at the beginning of the week confused and frustrated that they didn't understand, and then to see them begin to relax and go with the flow realizing that they can still communicate and understand the general meaning of what's being said without understanding every single word. I think that's huge in language acquisition!
Our French camp and the Spanish camp that was also using the building were both featured in two news stories. One was in the Standard-Examiner and you can read the story by clicking here. I was intereviewed and quoted in that story. And then KSL did a very short radio story you can find by clicking here. If you clik on the audio on the left side of the story, you can hear me teaching a song in French to the kids.
In about a week I will begin teaching a second French immersion camp. This one is for 1st and 2nd graders from our school who will be entering our immersion program next year. Since most of their peers will have had French last year, the district wanted to provide a "boot camp" so they are not completely lost when the start this coming school year. I'm excited to teach this one since most of what I plan can be used again with my kindergarteners when school starts later this month.
I have been in love with the French language since the 7th grade, and I am so happy that I get to teach it! I known I've said this before, but I have my dream job!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Nine More School Days and Counting...
The countdown has begun, and summer is almost here! We finished up all our end-of-year testing last week, and now I'm working on getting report cards done. While working on putting together our grade-level slideshow for our kindergarten graduation program, I was scanning my class pictures and thought I'd share my cute kids with you all (or in other words, I am procrastinating my work again).
Here is my morning class. Sam is on the middle row, third child from the right. The guy standing next to me is one of my aides. My other aide wasn't there on picture day. The man on the right is our principal.
This is my afternoon class. I have 28 kids in each class. In this second picture you can see me wearing my "French Necklace" which is the visual cue for the kids that it is French time.
My summer will be very short this year for a couple reasons. First, I will be teaching a couple week-long immersion boot camps for kids entering the program as well as working on translating some lesson plans to help the district kindergarten teachers. And second, we are transitioning to a year-round schedule since our enrollment is so high, so I will begin teaching towards the end of July.
Somehow I made it through my first year as a kindergarten teacher. People often ask which I prefer teaching, middle school or kindergarten, and it's really hard for me to compare the two because they are both so incredibly different. In some ways I think teaching elementary school is more work, but that could be because all of my training was in secondary ed. I do, however, love my job very much and am excited for next year now that I have one year under my belt.
Here is my morning class. Sam is on the middle row, third child from the right. The guy standing next to me is one of my aides. My other aide wasn't there on picture day. The man on the right is our principal.
This is my afternoon class. I have 28 kids in each class. In this second picture you can see me wearing my "French Necklace" which is the visual cue for the kids that it is French time.
My summer will be very short this year for a couple reasons. First, I will be teaching a couple week-long immersion boot camps for kids entering the program as well as working on translating some lesson plans to help the district kindergarten teachers. And second, we are transitioning to a year-round schedule since our enrollment is so high, so I will begin teaching towards the end of July.
Somehow I made it through my first year as a kindergarten teacher. People often ask which I prefer teaching, middle school or kindergarten, and it's really hard for me to compare the two because they are both so incredibly different. In some ways I think teaching elementary school is more work, but that could be because all of my training was in secondary ed. I do, however, love my job very much and am excited for next year now that I have one year under my belt.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
December to Early April
Here are some pictures of the past few months (this is what happens when I am stalling to prepare my YW lesson and also not wanting to work on school stuff...).
My cute hubby. I'm pretty sure this is a picture Sam took.
Sam got this shirt for Christmas. He loves Angry Birds.
Sam and I celebrated Chinese New Years (Chris had to work that night). One of my friends served a mission in Hong Kong and brought back all sorts of fun stuff.
Grandma had a birthday, shout hooray! Sam wanted to take her on a date as his present to her, so he decided to take her to Chuck E. Cheese's. He bought her a toy spider with the tickets he won.
I didn't take any pictures of the wedding festivities. I had to steal these ones off Facebook (thanks Denise!). Sam was the ring bearer, and as soon as other people post pictures, I'll steal those too! :)
A couple weeks later, Kierstin and Trevor had an open house in Bountiful. Sam had a good time with the photo booth. My favorite is the middle/bottom picture.
Also in March, Sam went on his first motorcycle ride with Zeb.
The three of us colored some Easter eggs.
Next week in school Sam will be the Star of the Week. While we were putting together his poster about himself, he insisted that I take a picture of him playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii and showing off his Lego Star Wars book. Although you can't see it in the picture, he is also wearing a Lego Star Wars T-shirt. He's a bit obsessed (though almost every other boy in class includes those same things on their Star of the Week posters, so he's not alone).
December 2011
Our annual Christmas play--I think we were the three wisemen.
My cute hubby. I'm pretty sure this is a picture Sam took.
Sam got this shirt for Christmas. He loves Angry Birds.
January 2012
Christopher makes the BEST cookies in the world! Sam is a baker in training.
Sam and I celebrated Chinese New Years (Chris had to work that night). One of my friends served a mission in Hong Kong and brought back all sorts of fun stuff.
February 2012
I went to St. George for a weekend with some dear friends. I love these women! Two of us ran the Run Like A Girl 5k. I've discovered that although I do not like running, I really enjoy running races. Too bad you usually have to train to run races (on the other hand, I've never ran anything more than a 5k and those are so short you don't really have to train).
Grandma had a birthday, shout hooray! Sam wanted to take her on a date as his present to her, so he decided to take her to Chuck E. Cheese's. He bought her a toy spider with the tickets he won.
March 2012
Cute Kierstin and Trevor got married down in Zion National Park. Another dear friend who is currently living in southern California made the trip over and met us there. While Christopher and I were setting up for the wedding and the reception, Sam got to go play with Ben, Kai, and Anna--some of his favorite people.
I didn't take any pictures of the wedding festivities. I had to steal these ones off Facebook (thanks Denise!). Sam was the ring bearer, and as soon as other people post pictures, I'll steal those too! :)
A couple weeks later, Kierstin and Trevor had an open house in Bountiful. Sam had a good time with the photo booth. My favorite is the middle/bottom picture.
Also in March, Sam went on his first motorcycle ride with Zeb.
April 2012
Sam and I had a fantastic spring break! We slept in, played at a few parks, had some play dates, checked out the new City Creek Center, went to the zoo, and spent time with relatives who were in town for the wedding stuff.
The three of us colored some Easter eggs.
Next week in school Sam will be the Star of the Week. While we were putting together his poster about himself, he insisted that I take a picture of him playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii and showing off his Lego Star Wars book. Although you can't see it in the picture, he is also wearing a Lego Star Wars T-shirt. He's a bit obsessed (though almost every other boy in class includes those same things on their Star of the Week posters, so he's not alone).
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