Pickle Week 2012

We finished our 2nd day of state testing! Hooray!! My little fourth graders worked so hard this morning. Tomorrow we tackle the Math portion of the test, then we will be FINISHED! They are as glad as I am. To celebrate the end of testing AND because we have one more full week of school, my sweet class and I will be participating in Pickle Week 2012 which will be May 17- 28. I know what you must be thinking: There's a week devoted to pickles?? The answer is YES! I mean, who doesn't think this is a nifty idea?? Now, I didn't just magically find this out. I owe the credit to my fellow teacher friends. 

Next week my class will be learning all about pickles: where they come from, how they are made, the different types of pickles. They will even learn about their birth month pickle (seriously, there's a pickle for each month of the year. Now for the best part: Kool-Aid Pickles. I like Kool-Aid, and I like pickles. So imagine my surprise and happiness when I was given a recipe for Kool-Aid Pickles or Koolickles as the recipe calls them. In order to make these happen you need a few things:

1 gallon jar of pickles 

(obviously, from the pictures you will see I could not find a 1 gallon jar of pickles in Wal Mart....this is why I HATE Wal Mart....but that's another story for another day)

1 pound of sugar

1 packet of unsweetened Cherry Kool-Aid

(it calls for Cherry, but I couldn't find regular Cherry, and sometimes I like to deviate from the recipe so I bought Black Cherry.)

Drain the pickle juice into another container.

 Pour the packet of Kool-Aid into the container of pickle juice.

Add the sugar to the liquid.

Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Pour liquid back into pickle jars or jar...depending on which you find. There will be a little liquid left over. Just make sure it covers the top of the pickles.

 Put the top on those jars, and put them in the fridge for about a week (this is what I was told).

Voila! Koolickles!

P.S.- The leftover liquid is sitting in my freezer to make pickle-cisicles per the boyfriend's request. I've never heard of these things, but apparently they are good according to his stories about having them at the baseball fields. I'll find out tomorrow.

P.P.S- Pickle juice is also good for stopping hiccups. FYI.

Peace, Love, and Happy Pickle Week!!!!

Dress Shopping and BFFFL Time

I should be getting ready for school, but I really had the urge to blog. This morning I am more excited than usual. No, not just because it's Friday, but at 3:20 this afternoon I'm hitting the road to go here

to visit this pretty friend of mine in the pretty green and white dress.

I am so excited to see her and I'm counting down the hours. She is my wonderful Best Friend Forever For Life or BFFFL as we say it. She is also getting MARRIED in May to another one of my friends, and I'm so very happy for her. Aside from not seeing her in about a month and a half (the main reason for the weekend trip), we're also going to pick out bridesmaid dresses (another important event of the weekend).  I am also delivering her engagement pictures that we took in June. She's probably more excited about that than seeing me......kidding. She's excited about seeing her BFFFL, but I'm pretty sure the excitement for seeing her pictures are next to that.

It's about 6:00, and I should be getting ready for a fun filled Friday with my precious 4th graders!

LK

Adventures in Teaching

I'm a teacher. It looks weird even when I type it. I can't believe it, but I'm already into my 3rd week as a first year teacher. It's going by faster than I could imagine. I have 22 little 4th graders, who have already captured my heart. I am quickly learning how different my students are from one another. I'm seeing first hand their success and their struggles. Student teaching prepared me material and ethics wise, but in all honesty, nothing prepares a first year teacher to be in charge of her very own classroom. I am so grateful that God has placed me with such a wonderful group of students. The first week was great, as was the second week. There were a few rocky places, but we worked together as a class to smooth them out. Just like it's their first time to be in 4th grade, it's my first year to teach, so we learn together. I am now emerged in the lesson planning, paper grading, pencil sharpening first part of the school year, with so much more to come. I look forward to each and every day with my students, even on the hectic days. They are precious to me and I can't wait to see how each of them shines throughout the year.

Thanks to Pinterest, I have stumbled upon quite a few teacher blogs. I love blogging, even though I haven't been as avid of a blogger as I have wanted to be. Hopefully that will change now that I am in week 3 of the school year. Each of these teacher blogs offer something unique, whether it's classroom management 101 or decorating your classroom on a tight budget. There are fun activity sheets and penny pinching ways to do fun things in the classroom. Seriously, if you're a teacher (Or know one!) check these blogs out. I've put a button to each of them on the sidebar of my blog! Enjoy!

Happy Teaching!
Laura Kate