December Begins

December began with a visit from the traveling dentist.  He came to talk with them about brushing skills and to make them excited to come get their teeth cleaned.  Many of these kids are missing teeth already, and many have silver fillings.  At Head Start, we have the kids brush their teeth three times during school, after each meal.  We also apply fluoride at the beginning of the year.

The three's class came into to our room to listen to the dentist.

The four's class.

Christine helping Chris, the traveling dentist, show how to brush the fish's teeth.

Kawerak Head Start Teachers
Left: Flora, Nora, Mary T., Alma

On Friday, I had a chance to explore pomegranates with the kids.  We looked at the outside, felt it, smelled it, listened to it.  Then we made guesses to what would be inside.

Kobe showing off the pomegranate from my grandma.

 Then we cut into it.  Immediately it begin dripping bright red juice from the cut.  The kids were tasting it.  Then we looking inside at all the seeds.  We talked about how with pomegranates we eat the seeds. We pulled the fruit apart and were amazed by how many seeds were in the fruit.

Zach showing off the seeds inside when we cut it open.

 At snack time, we pulled the seeds out the the pomegranate and ate them with our muffins (the kids were putting the seeds in the muffin before taking bites) and carrots.

Christine with the pomegranate seeds at snack time.

 On November 29, my mentor, Morgan, came for a visit.  His visits are special because he makes dinner for us.  Katie and Sara have hosted the dinner the last two months so this month we hosted the dinner.  He made us enchilladas.  We provide the meat (moose meat that we cooked in the Crockpot and then pulled apart) and he brought he main ingredients.  They were really good!

My mentor, Morgan, making moose-meat enchilladas for our meeting dinner.  

Over the weekend, (December 2-4) we had a storm.  Friday and Saturday had blizzard warnings.  Saturday and Sunday the wind was blowing so hard the house was shaking.  Nathan and I think the wind was stronger than it was for the "snowicane".  The storm brought in warmer temperatures.  The temperature rose from 8 below earlier that week to 34 on Saturday.  We had freezing rain that covered our windows (it looked cool), but we now have a layer of ice on top of everything.  The higher temperatures also mean that we will be getting some more snow.

I was sick with something Friday through Sunday and today I lost my voice.  Hopefully, I will have most of it back tomorrow for school.  Only 6 more teaching days until Christmas Break!  We also got a new student yesterday for a total of 20 kids.