Monday Musings (on a Tuesday)

I didn't want to post twice in one day because I did an impromptu linky party after a shopping spree with the TpT sale.  So, you get Monday Musings on a Tuesday.  I didn't think you would mind.

#14

You can buy some pretty strange things over here. I think this is because they import a lot of the world's "dollar store" items.  I found these little socks for chair legs - beats those old tennis balls to quiet sound but you'd need waaay too many packages for a classroom!

#15

Clear as mud?  Don't worry if it takes you a minute to figure it out, it took me a minute as well. Boys wear white and girls wear black if they are wearing the traditional clothing.

#16

I think I mentioned spelling mistakes before.  I found this one around the corner from my school. Spotting the errors always manages to make me laugh.

#17

Yes, that is correct.  It says 43.6 liters at 1.72 a liter.  This is in dirhams but it translates to filling up your gas tank for about 20 bucks. This is an advantage in living in an oil-rich country.

#18

This is a local fast food place.  Very local.  The arrow is pointing out one of its finer features, the fly trap, which looks to be directly over the microwave.  No need for a health inspector here!  The sad thing is that I went to this place a few times and never noticed until I shared the picture with a family member in the States.  Now I'll just say ew and move on.

I hope you enjoyed learning some tidbits about life in the UAE.  Leave me a comment so I know I'm not talking to myself every week.  Although I think I'd do that anyway and pretend I was talking to the baby so people wouldn't think I was completely out of my mind.  Is there something you'd like to see for next week's Monday Musings?  An aspect about life in the Sahara you're really curious about?  Let me know and I'll try to answer your questions.

Join Me in the Huge TpT Sale and What's in My Cart Linky

It's a Cyber Monday sale over at TpT until tomorrow!  I'm putting my whole store on sale for 20% off.

It's a great time to pick up some of my newly revised products such as this ABC Letter Font Sort. I've also revised my Kwanzaa books just in time for your Holidays Around the World Units!  And if your needing some help with Parent Teacher Conferences, make sure to check out my Parent Guides to the Common Core and my Parent Sight Word Book.

 

In the meantime I'm doing my own wishlist shopping.  Here's what's in my cart.  A special thank you to Speech Room News for hosting this linky.  I love to know what others are buying.  It's a little like looking in someone's medicine cabinet. ;)

First let me just say "My name is Susan and I have the beginnings of a teacher creator problem." Maybe I can find a support group?

Teaching in the Tongass - Super cute pioneer clipart that I plan to use for my Historical Fiction Unit.

Whimsy Clips - 

Whimsy Workshop

Doodle Oven - Just found them and their stuff looks so cute!

This is just a small sampling of the things in my cart. I wish I could say I was going to snatch up some more resources for my class but I'm not.  I'm at a "No Worksheet" school - so no copies either! Which is pretty sad because I've had my eye on these for a long time.  Now I might just buy them because they are fairly ingenious and I might use them someday...and I like Cara Carroll's products.

Now, what's in your cart? Anything I absolutely, positively must get before the sale is over?

I'm a Guest Blogger!

I'm super excited and incredibly fortunate to have teamed up with Anne from Common Core Connection to be her very first guest blogger!  It was my first time being a guest blogger as well and I think we pulled it off. :)

Head on over to her site and show some love.  Let me know how you like the post.  Hopefully you can use the lesson in your own classroom.  After completing this activity for two days, I moved the materials into the math center so students could continue exploring comparing numbers.

Just click on the picture to go to her blog and check it out.

Have a wonderful day!

Five for Friday Time!

I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

How fun are these masks?  A student brought them in for a gift but the class wasn't able to take them home until this week.  I love how it makes crazy hair.  So cute!

The UAE might not recognize Thanksgiving as a holiday (no time off for me!) but it does conveniently fall close to their National Day (sort of like Independence Day).  This means the kiddos got to have a party on Thursday.  They celebrated with candy (of course) and someone brought in another cake.  I think this makes cake number 4 since October.

The students practiced for the Thursday National Day celebrations for two weeks.  All specials were cancelled so the students could practice, practice, practice.  Remember this is a kindergarten school.  By practice I mean they were yelled at....oh well.  The day of the performance they looked super cute. Even if you couldn't tell they practiced their little butts off for DAYS.  Then last minute (day before) a note goes home saying parents are not allowed to come to the celebration...but they came anyway. Confused? Yes. But this kind of thing is normal here... This picture is not my class.  I did not get  a picture of them and their cute pom-pom routine because my co-teacher forced had me on recording duty during their performance.  I won't tell you she stood there empty handed while I held a camera AND a phone and tried to record for myself. 

Happy Turkey Day (a day late)! I celebrated, as usual, with friends since my family is what feels like a billion miles away.  I did call my sister but she was up in the mountains and had no cell reception.  But I left her a lovely voice mail and she said she cried happy tears when she listened to it. This year my husband couldn't get the night off of work so I took the baby and drove up to Abu Dhabi for dinner. It was nice being with old and new friends.

It was a crazy, crazy week (aren't they all)?  So rather than bore you with a picture of data assessment or some such thing (not much quality teaching this week with the celebration practices), I will tell you that my fifth thing is my 3 month old (almost 4 - sniff) learned to suck her thumb this week.  I brought her home from daycare and caught her in the act.  Adorable!

Monday Musings

UAE Life

#9

You can find many of your favorite Stateside restaurants and fast food chains here.  In my case this is exciting because it means I won't starve (I am a very picky eater).  

#10

The UAE is a very wealthy country.  Why not spend your wealth at the gold ATM?

#11

There is amazing architecture here.  This is the famous Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi and the Emirates Palace (once specifically for presidents and ambassadors - now a hotel for everyone).

#12

Why, yes, this is a pool party at the Hilton Hotel.  Not quite what I signed up for when I was staying there.  This is not the same pool party where I met my husband.

#13

The UAE is a strange country. It is small and unique.  Things happen here all the time that you just can't explain.  Instead you learn to go with the flow.  It makes life easier that way.  Case in point:  the picture above is a LIVE fish - one was given to every kindergartner in my class.  Really.  I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

So now I am going to go *try* to get some schoolwork done.  Or bake some blueberry muffins and dinner rolls from scratch (I need to test the recipe before Thanksgiving!).  Then I will work on school related things.  I hope.  We'll see...