St. Nicholas Day

Here in Austria, and I think much of Europe, St. Nicholas Day is celebrated December 6th.  Now I know that Santa Claus and St. Nicholas are different, but to celebrate with my Kinder we make moveable Santa Claus'.  Here is a cute 3rd grader and his Santa Claus.  Can you figure out what he forgot to put on his Santa?  I laughed pretty hard!  Please know that this was not on purpose just a formality when the Santa character was put together!  :)

Santa is missing something.  Can you figure out what it is?

Physics of Sound: Sound Vibrations

In science we are learning about Sound vibrations.  It is a lot of fun!  They kids are thoroughly enjoying this unit and I think they wish it could last forever.  I am excited that they are learning and remembering all of the vocabulary they are being inundated with!

Wow!  That is sooo cool!  I can hear the tuning fork and my heart beeping.

Can you hear it?

What does the vibration do to the ball?

The vibration makes the ping pong ball bounce or "dance" as the Kinder called it!  

A day with the Cardenas Family

Recently, one of our ICSV families invited Carrie and me over to spend a Saturday with them.  It was a wonderful time.  We hiked through the forrest to find an elusive pond, ate a lot of yummy food, and stopped at a cute bakery/coffee shop to warm up from our hike.  All in all it was a wonderful day!

Hiking to the pond

They wanted to know if they could swim!  It was freezing!

Carrie and me at the beautiful pond!

Waiting patiently for his piece of chocolate cake!

Very yummy and warm!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time with friends to celebrate this Thanksgiving!  Here are some fun pics to illustrate the previous sentence:

We started the morning with making yummy cinnamon rolls!

Amanda enjoying her scrumptious (nut-free) cinnamon roll.

The turkey (obviously)!

The full dinner guests.

The very full tiny fridge after the Thanksgiving feast!

The Grandpa

Many of you may not know that I play the clarinet.  I do not consider myself fantastic but I do truly enjoy playing.  Since coming to Vienna I have also discovered that I love giving clarinet lessons.  It is a lot of fun and a wonderful ending to a sometimes hard day.  Today, during my Wednesday clarinet lesson, we were practicing several songs and techniques over and over to help my young clarinetist hear how the songs are supposed to sound.  At one point he stops playing and says, "Mine is a grandpa and yours is a man."

That is all he said.

I was stumped.

I sat there for a minute and went through everything I could think of that would explain why he was talking about a grandpa and a man.  Finally, I turned to him and said, "what?"  He then says that his clarinet sounds like an old clarinet that isn't working well and mine sounds younger like the man.  HAHA!  He is correct.  The clarinet he is playing on does sound feeble and old and mine apparently does sound robust and younger!  Ha!  It still makes me giggle!  I hope it gave you a smile today as well!  Blessings!

The Joy of Laughter!

Recently our elementary ELL (English Language Learner) teacher captured a video of one of my cute little ones.  This little one LOVES to laugh and brings so much joy and sunshine into each day.  I am blessed to have her in my class.  Pray with me that all of the ICSV staff that work with her, will have the correct words to help lead her and her family to the wonderful knowledge and acceptance of the Lord in their lives.  Click on the link to see a video of this cute one!  Click here to see this 3rd grade cute one!

Memory Verse Madness...

To help my students learn their memory verse we do a memory verse race each week.  We each cut apart our memory verse and then mix it up in a big pile on our desk.  Then I turn on the timer  and the kiddos see how fast they can put it together.  They have a blast trying to see how quickly they can put it together and see if they can beat their previous time.  They always say, "This is so much fun Miss Brunker!  Can we do it again?!"

I can write on the window?!

Are you kidding, Miss Brunker, you're going to let us write on the window?  That was the response my kiddos gave me when I told them that after they finished their assignment they could practice their spelling words by writing them on the window.  Even after they had the 'Miss Brunker approved window writing markers' and were writing on the wall of windows in our classroom, they kept looking at me to receive reassuring nods that yes, it is okay!  They are so cute and it is now the funnest way to learn their spelling words and memory verse ever (as they say!).  Enjoy the pictures!

The faces of third grade

Aren't they cute?!  I love spending my time with these 14 smarty pants!

  

     The darling girls!

The Amazing boys!

Second Grade at ICSV

Welcome to the wonderful world of 2nd grade!  Here are some pictures to show the 10 cuties that are in Miss Schreffler's class.

The entire cute bunch.

The handsome grade 2 boys.

The lovely girls!

A Unique Fashion Accessory

Here's a cute one:

Here's the "normal" way to wear a lanyard pass while traveling to and from the bathroom:

Here's how this cute one came walking into the classroom with the lanyard pass!  A new fashion statement I guess!  She was laughing so hard when I took this photo that it took several tries but her cuteness still shines through!  Priceless!  :)  Just an ordinary day in grade 3!!

A story of the headlines...

A recent conversation during computer class:

"Can we wear the headlines Miss Schreffler?"
"What?  You mean headphones?  Why?  There's no sound with what you are doing."
"I know, they look cool!"

The cool ones!

A cute one!

another cute one!

We shall see what new adventures occur as a result of the classroom teachers teaching their own computer classes this year!  We are in for a lot of funny moments!

One of these things is not like the other...

Actually we are all wearing the same color patterns but I am simply vertically challenged!  We laughed pretty hard when we saw each person come down the stairs from staff devotions dressed fairly similar.  Great minds think alike I guess.  :)

A friend came to visit...

I was surprised one morning by hearing my name called and then turning around to find one of my students holding a turtle!   Meet Still...

Still, the Turtle, named as such because he holds very still.

and his owners!

Proud owners of Still!


I think Still truly enjoyed his day in 3rd grade!  It was a blast to have him visit and I hope he brings along some hand sanitizer next time!  :)

First two weeks of school...some observations

The new name of our school: International Christian School of Vienna.  Such a strong name to reflect our true international identity.

1. Our kiddos make us smile and we missed their laughter over the summer.
2. These kids are HILARIOUS!  Their observations on life and school are pretty funny!
3. The transition from 2nd grade to 3rd grade seems to be a huge jump and the parents are a bit overwhelmed!
4. We forgot how tired teaching makes us!
5. In second and third grade we have 25 students (11 and 14 respectively) and they are from 16 different countries!  We are blessed to be reaching so many nations with the love of the Lord!

September 1, 2010...

we've been:
Buying: quinoa
Considering: the movie for movie night next Friday
Cooking: stuffed bell peppers and halved potatoes
Eating: cantaloupe and almonds (not at the same time)
Googleing : paper piecing patterns
Learning: all about diabetes as one of Amanda's students has it
Listening:  Sabrina
Loving: gerber daisies
Planning: what to make for movie night dinner next Friday and what to give to parents for Back To School Night
Reading: books about mammals, books by Ken Gire, and books by C.S. Lewis
Watching: Singin' in the Rain and Sabrina
Wearing: long sleeves
Wishing: that migraine headaches wouldn't ever make their appearance
Thankful: for sewing buddies, game buddies, and friends
Writing:  referrals for struggling students to receive extra help
Hoping: that it will warm up slightly.  There is a fine line between comfortable cool and flat out cold and we have most certainly crossed the line here in Vienna!  

Computer glitch...

Due to a computer glitch I was supposed to teach a high school class of this...

while simultaneously teaching this today

Never a dull moment I tell you!  I was wondering how that was going to work and luckily I was rescued and left to teach my cute "little ones" as they are often called by older "big" ones!  

The Lord loves to bring a smile to my face!  

Blessings!

A surprise in the box...

Google image boxes not the real boxes that arrived today!

The containter arrived today.  This means that all of our curriculum and supplies that we ordered in March finally arrived at school.  This also means that many of us showed up outside to unload, sort, and inventory all of the items.  Carrie and I were inventory buddies.  We finished our first set of boxes from Oriental Trading and then moved on to a box of randomness and a few things were missing in those boxes.  When we finished with that order, we moved on to the one sitting next to us.  It was a lone box that no one was touching and it was a pretty silver color.  So, we, being the diligent inventory control people that we are, start opening the box to inventory it.  While opening it we discuss that it is a strange box and "isn't it a pretty silver color".  When we get it open we are a bit surprised to discover newspaper as the filler for the box and then we see a black plastic trash bag.  At this moment I start to smell something familiar and my brain is trying to connect the smell as I look down the inventory sheet and discovered that inside the box should be fetal pigs for the biology class to dissect.  I quickly tell Carrie, "STOP, there are fetal pigs inside" as she is starting to attempt to open the black trash bag.   Carrie promptly gets this horrified look on her face and jumps back!  I then started laughing so hard I about had an asthma attack and we went to find someone else to inventory that box.  I am still giggling as I type this!  Hehe!

German success... no matter how small

Hello or God's Greeting

So today, while walking with a group of friends to the U-bahn to go home from school, I heard this statement from a mother to her family... "Kindergarten ist nächste Woche."  I immediately, without thinking, turn to my friends and happily announce, "Hey guess what?!  Kindergarten is next week!"  Well, had I thought about it I would have realized that my friends probably didn't hear this statement from the mom and I just sounded random and weird by suddenly and excitedly repeating it translated.  Nonetheless, I was happy that I had German language success today regardless how small and dorky I sounded!  It is most certainly the little things that matter!  hehe

Official Vienna residents...

Visiting friends this summer

As of August 14th we've been:
Buying: new yearly transportation passes - we were then asked for our pass while on the u-bahn so it was very handy to have the new ones!  We were also able to pick up our new Schluesselkraft Visas and insurance cards.  Yay!
Considering: that there is A LOT of work to be done in our classrooms before the first day of school which is next Monday.  Anyone want to come help??!  :)
Cooking: Buckeye balls and potato salad
Eating: yummy ribs at the staff BBQ
Googleing : the difference between wakeboards and skimboards
Learning: it is going to take a while for our brains to turn on to German and that we have a lot to do and not enough time to get it all done
Listening:  Fee thanks to Chante and friends' stories of their summer adventures
Loving: our own beds they are as comfy as marshmallows
Planning: what order I need to do things to try and make a miracle happen before next Monday!
Reading: a women's devotional and a book about a small town doctor
Watching: Gilmore Girls and Chuck
Wearing: slip resistant Tevas that will help my toe heal
Wishing: that jetlag would pass quickly and there were more hours in the day
Thankful: for supporters and words of love and encouragement
Writing:  lesson plan ideas - specifically month-by-month phonics ideas 
Hoping: that the new staff at ICSV transition well and know that we care about them