Sunday, May 15, 2016

Lions and Tigers (No Bears), Oh My!

Lion and Tiger Paper Plate Craft | Apples to Applique

Recently we finished up a unit on wild animals; always a favorite with young children! We did some shared writing, listing wild animals on one side of the SmartBoard and pets on the other. The kids were very creative coming up with all kinds of different animals. One of my kiddos was excited to add "tapir" to the list of wild animals, saying it is his favorite animal. He knows all about it, where it lives, what it eats, etc. Keep in mind I teach Pre-K, so this is astounding!

Another student was sad that we wouldn't add "dinosaur" to the list of pets. He insists he has a pet dinosaur. We also hesitated over adding that to wild animals, since dinosaurs aren't around anymore. After some confusion and discussion, we decided that we were really talking about animals we could likely see in a zoo, although that answer didn't really satisfy anyone.

What did satisfy all of us was this darling craft! The kiddos got to choose between a lion and a tiger, which added some great oral language about colors and stripes and what on earth a "mane" is. One kid called it the lion's beard, and I liked that description. Kids have such a way of putting things.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Headed to South Africa!

I am so excited to announce that I have the opportunity to travel to South Africa this summer! I am going on a trip called Women of Strength with the missions organization Amor. I will be working with women from all over the world to build homes and minister to children who have lost their parents to AIDS.

I have taken 6 missions trips with Amor before, to Juarez Mexico, Puerto Peñasco Mexico, and the San Carlos Apache Reservation. I absolutely love working with Amor, because of their focus on providing sustainable change for the people they minister to. They partner with local churches in order to have the biggest impact possible.

I've never gone somewhere as far away as Africa, and I'm excited and a little nervous. Because of airfare, this trip is significantly more expensive than my previous trips. I still have a long way to go with my fundraising, so I'm asking everyone to share this link and to please consider supporting me as I minister to the beautiful people of South Africa.

You can give directly here:
https://www.amor.org/support-amber-hock

Thanks for your support and prayers!