Treasure found

I ummed and aahed about whether I was going to do this post or not, it is not teacher related and is completely about my personal life.  In the end I wrote this 3 times and deleted it twice, so if you are reading this I got through writing it.
I have been a bit MIA this last week because I made a very unplanned trip to a little outback town in Queensland, it was 2 plane flights and a 4 1/2 hour drive.

Why would I go to such lengths you may ask? Well to meet my "new" eldest sister.....46 years ago my parents were forced to adopt out their first child, unmarried mothers were not given much choice back then. They later married and had 4 more children, but for the last 20 years or more they have been looking for each other, last week we found her, 3 days later we were all on a plane to meet her and her family.  I cannot begin to describe the joy when we all met, it is amazing to look into the face of a person you have never met and instantly know they are family and they are a part of you.  The next amazing thing is the overwhelming love that bubbles up inside you.

When I look at these pictures it just feels like she has always been there.

 The first meeting of Mum, Dad and daughter

 The family together at last

Sisters... from left, my younger sister, me, my older sister, my eldest sister, the only one missing is my youngest brother who unfortunately could not get there.

I can tell you right now, there was NO denying she is part of our family, I see each of us in her face, mannerisms and the way she talks.  

Again I know this is more about my personal story, but when I started this blog I started it for me and this last week was such an amazing experience for all of us I just could not keep it in.

The most wonderful thing is that when we found her, we also gained 2 granddaughters/nieces and 2 great grandchildren.....that makes me a great Aunt......I am preferring Awesome Aunt, makes me feel less old :)

Anyway that is the wonderful reason why I have been a bit out of touch and I am so happy to have this wonderful person in my life now.

I want to say a big thank you to my bloggy friends who went through this with me, you know who you are and I am thankful everyday that I had your support.

I have read many blog posts about people who are thinking about adoption or are currently in the process of adopting.  I need to say that although we haven't had the chance to meet here adoptive family we are so thankful that they brought her up in a loving family.  

So I will finish this post with a big thank you to those people who adopt with love in their heart, you are very special people.

Randomness and a bargain

So I am on an unscheduled, not planned, spur of the moment family trip in outback Queensland for a sort of family reunion.....really random....
Well the purpose of this is to let you know that while I had a 6 hour stop in the airport it gave me time to update a file and start on a new file.  I will be uploading the updated file as soon as I have reliable internet....could be a few days.  So if you have already bought my Higher or Lower pack keep an eye out for the updated file in the next couple of days, if you haven't check out my post here to see how it works in the classroom.

It may or may not look exactly like this....I may change part of it....maybe.

Well because of the unplanned family reunion I was a bit out of the loop with the previous fabulous blog hop for the amaaaazzzing Kinder deal with educents.....I might have had a broken link that I did not fix in time....maybe.

So if you haven't already checked it out make sure you go and take a look!  There are 24 files that cover a huge range of the Curriculum, ready for you to use!  Just click on the educents logo to go directly to that amazing bundle, or click here to see the post with the fixed link in the blog hop

Great Kinder deal with Educents

Kindergarten teachers... are you tired?  {Silly question right!}  

Well... we know this time of year can be exhausting and yet you still need great resources to keep your students engaged in learning and so I am very excited to share this amazing opportunity for you to stock up with Educents!

Over 1400 pages of activities for literacy, math, and even a little social studies!

 From my store you will get That Cat- A beginner reader  I know you will love it because not only do you get a classroom copy of the reader but also a smaller student copy, some extra printable extension activities and a PowerPoint version to use on an Interactive Whiteboard or at individual computers.

But that's just one product.  With this bundle you get 24 products from some other amazing sellers as well!  So we have linked up blog hop style for you to see what's included in this great bundle from Educents!  So hop on to the next blog to see what else is included!

If you love what you see as much as I do, go ahead and head on over to Educents to stock up!  

  

Five for Friday

Whew, what a busy week this has been!  I am linking up with Doodlebugs Five for Friday linky.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day in Australia and my class has been making these beautiful portraits of their Dad's with a lovely list of what Dad likes on the back.  We laminated them and then put some silvery ribbon on it to hang.

I can't remember where I got this template for these super cool coffee mug cards but the kiddos loved making them to go with our Fathers poem coasters (which I forgot to take a photo of!!!)

                                     

We made these cool flip books to go with our Looking up at Trees paintings.

The kiddos had to think of 4 adjectives to describe their paining then write the adjective on the flip part and the noun it was describing on the inside part.  So it would read "When I look up I see.....green (flip) leaves etc.  The last line had to have trees in it.  I love how they worked on these and they loved making the flippy book!  

I got some fantastic news this week that made my heart smile and dance.

I finished this little baby that is an update of an ollldd file, look out for it soon!

Well, your turn to link up!

Five For Friday

Woohoo!  This is the second week I have managed to link up :)

This was the view out of the window of the office of our Support Teacher who I was subbing for on Tuesday.  Nice view huh.  I really covered some miles that day working with kids from Prep to Year 5.

I finished this pack!

and my kids really enjoyed using it!

 We created this piece of awesome art, titled Looking up at Trees

My addiction......

Technically this is from Saturday, but thought I would include it because it is the first nice sunny day we have had all week!  The dogs really enjoyed the run on the beach and so did the kids.  Our black brindle boy is called Sully after the monster in Monsters Inc because he looks quite scary but is a sooky softie really.  Our red female is called Bella, they love to play with the kids.

Just click on the Five for Friday pic for the link to link up!  Enjoy your weekend 

Guest blogging

If you are looking for me today I am a guest over at Tonya's Treats for Teachers blog for her Friday Freebie series.

 Hop on over to check out my post and freebie!

Looking up at trees....

Hi friends and welcome to my new followers!  I hope you enjoy stopping in here often!

Today I wanted to show you an art lesson I have done today with my year 2's.  We have been talking about lines and perspective.  So I showed them this picture I found on Pinterest (click on the pic for the pin address)

 Unfortunately we couldn't go outside because it is FREEZING here and it rained today which made the ground icky...also I did not want to hear back from parents that I was irresponsible....I just do not need that.

We discussed the size of the trunk near the edge of the photo and the size of the trunk as it got taller.  We also talked about how you can see some individual leaves and then some that look like a green mass.

Then it was their turn to produce a piece of art titled "Looking up at Trees"  They had to draw in the trunks and the sky and then use their thumbs to mix some yellow and blue paint to create a green shade, they repeated this process throughout the painting to create different hues.  Then they used thumbprints to make the leaves.  Here are a few for your perusal....

I love them!  

I plan on doing a poem to go with them using adjectives for students to show their understanding of how to use adjectives.  

Speaking of adjectives it has been a focus for my students the last couple of weeks and to help students explore the different types of adjectives I created this sorting activity.  Here is a sneak peek before it goes up in my store.....soon......

I can't wait to share their poems with you!  Hopefully they will be ready by next week!  Have to go the hubs is making fruit cake and I sense disaster...