i woke up to a snow day

building a snowman is harder than i remember.

buddy the snowman.

sometimes, my job is not so cool

i hate kids. they are carriers of disease.

i am never more than 3 meters away from someone infected with something; ringworm, lice, chicken pox, cold, flu, throwing up, pink eye...

i have ringworm. again. i get to twice daily, slather jock itch cream on a red ring the size of a 20p on my arm.

it was only a matter of time, there are at least 6 children at any one time in my class who are festered with it and i would guess that only 2/6 are actually being treated properly for it. and of course i get it, i cannot get away from the little buggers. 21 four year olds are constantly around me - under me, beside me, climbing me, clinging to me, dancing near me, walking into me, sitting on me, coughing and/or sneezing in my mouth/face. that last one happens more than you'd think.

i count myself lucky i've never had nits, that would be the worst. but ring worm is a close second in the scale of horrible gross-ness.

6 geese a laying

it's not christmas until little children act out the nativity story. i love my class.

5 go-old rings

here's an easy cookie/sweet recipe for children to make this holiday season. chocolate reindeer!

melt some chocolate and spoon it onto grease proof paper in a round shape.

then add a cherry nose, chocolate ears and eyes and licorice antlers.

a partridge in a pear tree

look what we made!


this is the craft to end all crafts. it took us a full 4 days where we did nothing but this and played with lego...but every one of my 21 kids has their very own snowman sweet jar.

2 balloons, 1 layer of paper mache, 1 layer of plaster cast, 1 super thick layer of pva glue and white paint.

what did you do at work this week? i bet i win!

happy pancake day.

yes indeed, shrove tuesday is upon us, before you know it will be easter. wasn't it just christmas? i hope you all are eating pancakes for dinner tonight! i have eaten pancakes 3 times today. nice. i'm certainly gaining the taste for british pancakes - bascially a crepe with lots of lemon and sugar.

i have some cute pictures of the kids flipping pancakes...but i left my camera at school, so you'll just have to wait for the cuteness.

chirstmas is all about the kids

this is the first year i've had my own class for the christmas period (as i floated around the other classes for the first term in past years). so this is the first year where i've been able to decorate my own classroom. my mission: to make it look like santa has thrown up over everything.

this was the first task...paint the windows!

edible bonfire; a step-by-step guide

happy bonfire night...yesterday.




rip up a bag of marshmallows and break up a pack of biscuits.






talk to the children about what happens when we add heat to a large bar of chocolate, they won't actually listen to you as they are consumed by the task of ripping the marshmallows and breaking up the biscuits.






mix the melted chocolate with the marshmallows and biscuits, ensuring all hands are in laps as the chocolate is hot. allow to cool for a few hours.







be a tricksy teacher and cut up the hardened goo, add some tissue paper flames and viola! you have a chocolate bonfire!








warm your hands on the flames.








or just start eating.







once the sugar is coursing through your system, dance the afternoon away to cbeebies karaoke.

edible seaside: a step by step guide

i was proclaimed the 'best teacher ever' today all because we made an edible seaside.




we made the blue jelly yesterday and let it set in the fridge overnight....







we crushed up some digestive biscuits really finely to make the sand...







we mashed up the set jelly to give our ocean a 'choppy' appearance....







we carefully pushed our beach to one side and spooned on the sea...








we then squelched the sea into place, with our fingers of course...







we then added jelly fish and jelly people...








some of us had a little difficulty opening our cocktail parasols...








and then we were done...








all that was left to do was tuck in!!

Minuscule - The ladybug

i think i'm getting an ulcer from stress. to avoid thinking about my house fiasco i find amusement any way i can. there's a commercial around at the moment that uses the old school sesame street song ladybug's picnic. since the topic at school is minibeasts i thought it'd be fun to teach it to my kids. they love it.

but as i was searching for the song i came across the most wonderful little animations called minuscule. if you have 10 minutes watch some of them. the insect race has my kids gripped in delight. they've wanted to watch it every day for 2 weeks and still cheer at the end for the winner. i think snails dream and zzzelpin are my favourites but picnic is pretty great too. they are complete amusement for young and old.

i have an owie

this may look small and blurry and insignificant but let me assure you, the pain is great!



one of my children asked me to open their watercolour paint pot. so i did. and it ripped off my thumb nail. do you know how hard it is not to cry in front of a room of 4 year olds while blood is pouring from your thumb? do you know how had it is to not freak out and keep calm while the top of your thumb nail is hanging off? ouch!

last week i gave myself a blister the size of a nickel from sharpening pencils (and got pencil shavings in the popped blister, might i add). and this week i loose some nail.

i'm not impressed.

i have survived

my first week of school is done. i am so very tired. i forget all the little routines you take for granted at the end of the year that need to be taught at the beginning. like where to put your lunch box and where to hang your jumper and how to flush the toilet and what to do if someone steals your crayon. the answer is not to punch them, by the way.

i had 17 lovely 4 year olds enter my life on monday as well as 2 not so lovely 4 year olds. 2 girls are reading at an age 7 level while 2 others are able to do addition, subtraction and count and write to 100. 1 boy is so useless that i'm not sure if i'm capable of teaching him anything while another has never even picked up a pencil before and cannot recognize his own name. 2 girls haven't stopped crying since monday while 3 children have already told me they love me. this is going to be a fun school year.

another little surprise this year is that i am mentoring someone. i found out on friday that i was getting a student teacher on monday and it has so far proven to be quite fun. i'm teaching someone how to teach! ME! the canadian that isn't even technically qualified to teach in the UK is preparing a man to enter the world of education. it's all a bit bizarre. my deputy head and headteacher choose me for this as well, so i'm feeling quite chuffed with myself. his name is matt and he's with me for the term. during the 4 weeks after half term he basically teaches everything so i get to sit around and play with the kids. sweet! this is definitely going to be a fun school year.

the end is near

one more week of school.

just one more week.

having to be at school until the end of july is just plain mean.

guess what happened to me the other day

4/5/6 year olds really enjoy giving teachers hugs - especially when they have left over lunch or snot dripping down their face, it is a fact i have come to terms with. 5 year olds are also bosom height, another fact of life i have come to accept. they give me a hug, and they are in danger of getting smothered if they don't turn their heads to the side.

a 5 year old (who, i'm sure, is the love child of the halifax bank man over there ----->) ran up to me on the playground. i was wearing a button up shirt. he goes in for the cuddle but instead of being sensible and releasing the hug....he gives me a motorboat. the urban dictionary defines a motorboat as,

v. int. The act of pushing one's face in between two ample breasts, and rocking one's head side to side very rapidly while making a vigorous, lip-vibrating "brrr" sound.

but it gets worse! as i stare down at him in shocked horror, he sticks his tongue in between my buttons and licks me! that's the sort of thing that could get a girl fired! i rapidly pushed the giggling youngster away whilst exclaiming, "GET OFF!" i almost added 'you bloody little git' but i controled myself.

that was a fun moment i'll cherish for a long while.

what did you give up for lent?

every year, around this time, i feel the pull of my catholic school upbringing. usually the approaching holy week would be enough, but in the middle of lent there is a partial solar eclipse over london. how can i not believe in god?

my class and i played outside from 10:30 untill lunch in the hopes that the clouds would break and i'd get to glimpse the eclipse. but alas, it was not to be.

three cheers for the scabs!

every school in my area was closed today because of the strike, except mine. do you know why? because a variety of our teaching assistants, cleaners, and personelle are scabs!

although, they were fighting for their pensions and retirment age so we probably should have been more supportive.

but my class have too many egg/bunny/chicken/crucifiction crafts to get done by friday. we can't have a day off.