Teaching the 4th graders

As you may know, I'm planning on majoring in Elementary Education and I'm so excited. I get to apply this January and start classes ( if I'm accepted) next Fall. This means I get to take all my pre-reqs and such right now, including my cool physical science class. For a large part of our lab grade we were assigned specific topics and each partnership got to teach today for 2 hours at a local elementary school for the 4th graders. It was soo much fun! My partner Lauren and I were assigned the different states of water and how heat energy and temperature affect them. We wore cool tie dye shirts with our name tags Lauren made for us and some homemade water drop earrings...mine are colored index cards cut in the shape of a drop and scotch taped to regular earrings haha but it works :)
We've been planning this for weeks and had to do it in front of our class about 2 weeks ago and revise and make more creative and all these things adn today was the real deal. We started out our lesson passing around 3 different balloons, one frozen solid, one as a water balloon and one just blown up (supposed to be water vapor) and let the kids hold them and tell us the differences. We then explained the molecules in each and how far apart they were from each other and then the correlation of that with heat energy and how fast the molecules move in each of the different states and the temperatures at which each state is formed.
Then came the fun part. We had different color masking tape on the ground in various shapes. (the colors of the tape matched the colors of the balloons..) and had the kids pretend to be the water molecules and we had a molecule dance party!!! It was so much fun! When they were a solid they had to stand really close together and barely move at all due to lack of room and as I-the heat energy- touched their shoulders they got to move faster until everyone was touched and they got to change states. They moved to the next biggest shape and and acted like liquid molecules, then the biggest shape and got to dance their craziest. It was so fun to watch them and, when they were too shy to dance themselves, to jump into the shapes and dance with them.
It really made me so so excited to teach in a few years. Ya, a few years. How crazy is that?! If I get into the program I'll be teaching in 3 semesters. I'm so excited. And I was stoked because I want to teach 4th grade so this gave me a good insight into what it might be like :)
Here are some pictures and such. First of my partner and I, my cool outfit, the balloons and our cool shapes for dancing. I couldn't take pictures of the kids cause apparently thats illegal or something but I guess I got what I could haha :)

best day ever.

ok. so I decided to not be such a bum and stay up late only to sleep in late and rush to class every morning. my goal to go to bed and get up earlier didn't go so well as my roommates can testify when my alarm clock went off for an hour yesterday morning (sorry ladies..) but today I was so much more on top of things and I got up at 6 am. ya. be impressed. haha But I felt soo on top of life! I went to my classes and did really well on my presentation (I get to teach a 4th grade class a science lesson I prepared for 2 hours on Nov 11th and today was my run through with my teacher-more details to follow on later days), I made shrimp fettachini andfruit kabobs in my cooking class.. and although I don't like shrimp..it was good. :) and it is soo beautiful right now in Provo. The leaves are so many bright amazing colors and although I drove to school this morning I decided to go on a walk between classes and walked a total of 10 blocks... don't ask. It was just nice jacket weather and I had my Ipod in and life was just PERFECT. I love it! I also made dinner for myself (hamburger hash and green beans) and got some studying in. Tonight. country dancing.

In the words of Brian Reagan... Can life get any better? I submit that it CANNOT! :)

Being a bowling pin...

so this past saturday i was able to be in the BYU homecoming parade. it was a blast. i work at the bowling alley at the bottom of the wilk and we got to walk in the parade as human bowling pins and one human bowling ball. i must say we looked dang good. as it would turn out, we woke up that morning to a mini snow blizzard and since i do not own a white jacket i had to tough the elements and walk in just my few layers of white shirts. it was really fun because occasionally when the parade would get a little boring all us pins would line up in formation and carol, the bowling ball, would run into all of us and we would fall on the ground and all the kids loved it. it was so so much fun. i mean, who gets the chance to walk in their college homecoming parade? and even better than that...who gets to do it as a human bowling pin? only i. :)

california girl through and through

Newest update.
its snowing
and its cold.
and there are still people wearing shorts and sandals on campus!!!
NOT I.
I have been wearing my uggs, high socks, tights, sweats, jeans, mittens, a scarf, about 5 layers of shirts and my coat with my peacoat.
some people say they like the seasons....
I'll stick to california where its warm all the time.
they can have the seasons.

fall time in utah

my roommates marissa, dana and i went up provo canyon to cascade springs this past friday to watch the fall colors change. beforehand we stopped by a farmers market and bought fresh peaches (we figured it was fall-y) and then drove up, enjoyed ourselves and took lots of pictures. it was so so much fun. i love these girls! we always have the time of our lives!