Snowmen in Thailand on April 27th......

 So for Christmas my sister sent me a "Snowman Cake Pop Kit" and I was so excited! I love snow and miss it a lot! I also love cake! Life got busy and I was waiting for the perfect time to make the cake pops...and today we decided was the day! Josh loves to make things, so he wanted to help and it is always more fun to bake with someone! We went right to work on this 100 degree day....

Josh so excited to be making snowmen....

 We were suppose to melt these chips down to make the frosting, but either we did something wrong or the trip across the ocean plus the hot weather made it not work (I pick the weather and travel). Anyway we made our own frosting to cover the snowmen....

see they are looking pretty good....

Kind of ran out of frosting, but thought they looked like
snowmen that would be around in April

The colored frosting that came in the kit also was a little stiff....so they didn't turn out quite like we had hoped, haha, Oh and remember it was 100 out with no central air conditioning....so they were melting just a little...

When people are trying to sell you stuff here often they will say "same, same" when they don't have exactly what you are looking for...so the saying "Same, same...but different" is used a lot. It fits perfect here....

Look at the box and then look at our snowmen....see... "Same, same....but different!" haha

Don't judge a snowman cake pop by it's frosting....they still tasted GOOD!

Thanks- N, J, D, R, L, B, E family!

Reading Celebration

The whole month we had a reading challenge for the students. This year the students each made a goal of how many books that they thought they could read in the 27 days we had before our celebration. We added up all their individual goals (with no names) to make a grade goal and then a total Elementary school goal. I personally was shocked at how large our goal ended up being for the month. The total for students and teachers (just under 200 people) was 2,620 books!

The students were going to read to earn money for a bilingual school here in Thailand. If we reached our goal the amount would be matched and if we passed our goal there would be even more money to give to The School of Promise’s library. The students worked so hard and ended up reading 2,827 books! One of our hopes was to encourage the students to work together and do something for others. It was so encouraging to me as I heard many students talk about wanting to reach the goal to help the other school, etc. I am praising the Lord for the changes I have seen in their attitudes as they think of others.

Some of the best things said were....

"I have been reading SO much this month" -second grader who struggles with reading
"We already met our grade goal, but we need to make the school goal" -sixth grade students
"I love being a book worm"- second grader to mom
"I love reading these books"- sixth grade students- who were reading Dr. Seuss books :)
(the 6th graders had read 50+ books that were over 400 pages and met their goal of 224 with books over 70 pages...but they were trying so hard to help the school reach the their goal that they were enjoying some easy, short books during recesses :))
"Do all the students know that we need to each read a book a night to reach our goal"- students asked- two days before the reading celebration

Reading Celebration after parade...

Giving School of Promise their gift

And another gift for the School of Promise!

To learn more about the School of Promise go to their website at:

http://www.hopeinternationalschools.org/schoolofpromise/

Book Character Parade

Fern and Ms Frizzle! What fun we have working together in the
Elementary library!

Noah and the Ark....amazing 6th grade teachers!

Miss Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson is Missing and characters
from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

My roommate as the mouse in If you give a Mouse a Cookie

office staff, principal, art teacher, music teacher, and Korean teacher!

Pajama Story Time- BUGS

We had a very fun Pajama Story Time one evening in March. I believe that we had about 40 K-2nd graders join us for 75 minutes of fun and learning....

Last year we had a Nate the Great mystery theme....this year it was all about insects and bugs :)

When the students first arrived they could either read books about BUGS and/or make some insect crafts.

Learning about bugs in our pajamas....

My friend, a wonderful 7th grade teacher, spent the evening
with my K-2nd grade students making bugs...

hanging out and reading on the beanbags....

My TA and friend from way back in Brasil also spent the
evening helping make caterpillars (his mom was there too)

working hard finishing them up....

After much fun it was story time with one of our moms and we got our bug snacks ready!

We all had lots to share about BUGS!!!

One "body" for each student with some eyes, spots, legs, and antennas

getting creative with the bug parts...

So much fun was had by ALL thanks to my helpers- couldn't have done it without those 5 

(2 were not pictured...)

Staff Appreciation Dinner

Every year the parents and students at school serve us an amazing lunch (or dinner for those of us that call it that...). They also always have a theme and decorate amazingly! This year's theme was dinner on a cruise ship and each table was decorated with things from a different country. You got to pick your "destination."

Waiting to "board the ship"

Our music teacher is always prepared and excited for any new adventure!

I sat at the Brasil table...it was quite a popular destination,
because of ..... GINA!

My friend, Gina, who I have known since my Brasil days went all out
in decorating the Brasil table. We had warm Pao de Queijo and
even Brazilian coffee straight from there! We said "thank you"
with Brazilian coffee beans :)

The "captain" was trying to remove us from the ship or something...

Ready for our next trip...

Crazy friends...

Bulletin Boards for March

Bulletin boards for Reading Month :)

We had a HUGE reading goal for the month of March! The students wrote down how many books they thought they could read and we added them all up for a school goal. The goal was 2,620 books!!! We have around 180 students in the elementary! We reached our goal and passed it :) 

More about the reading challenge in another post.... now back to bulletin boards...

A reminder for the students of the goal

Keeping track of the books read....over 800 at the time the photo was taken
(each shelf represented "100 books")

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

Great quote....read a book :)