A Busy October

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written in this! It's almost like it's been a whole month.... ;) I need to write in this more. Here's all that has happened in the last month, in no particular order:

1. I climbed Sleeping Giant twice. The first time was with Sr. Carol Ann and Sr. Hannah, and the second time was with the St. Theresa Parish Youth. Both were wonderful experiences! I love hiking in the wilderness!
2. We attended mini retreat for religious educators. Actually, tonight, Sr. Carol Ann, Sr. Janet and I attended a spiritual talk for music ministers. It was very nice!
3. Speaking of music ministry, I started cantoring at St. Theresa. I have now cantored 4 times. I am enjoying it.
4. Also, the Christian churches in West Kauai recently gathered for a Festival of Praise. The different choirs, music groups, and a keiki (children) dance group all contributed to a wonderful night of worship. Our choir sang "In This Place." One of our band members played a tenor saxophone for one of the verses and it was amazing! It was a Spirit-filled night, and I was edified by all the talent on this small part of the island.
5. This month, we had Fall Break, STAR Testing (reading and math tests that give us instant data of our students' progress), standardized testing, report cards, and parent-teacher conferences. As a first-year teacher, I am happy to have made it through my first round of all that. Everything went well.
6. One of my students had to move back to the Mainland. It's been really hard on the children. We gave her a nice going away party though, and we are keeping in touch with her.
7. St. Marianne was canonized! It is so wonderful how much attention this has been getting on the news. We've been educating the children about her (and learning about her ourselves!) Now Hawaii has two saints: Sts. Damien and Marianne of Molokai.

Now we are getting ready for Halloween. Each year, there is a door decorating contest, and yesterday my students worked on our door. I read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak to them, and then used the following watercolor lesson plan that I found on the internet: http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/01/wild-thing-watercolor-monster.html.

Their watercolor paintings turned out so cute! I am very proud of them! The students who finished early traced some letter-stencils that Sr. Charles Ann had given me and cut them out. A couple of them made trees. This afternoon, one of the moms helped me put everything on the door. The cool thing is that the kids did most of the work. They even voted on the title. They chose "Calling All the Monsters," named after a favorite Disney Channel song of theirs.

I watched the music video. It's kind of like a kids' version of "Thriller": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpoVbmx1qYU

Tomorrow is the "Trunk or Treat," and Wednesday is "Halloween Fun Day." I will write again about these activities!