family – travelteachlove

Geysers, Puffins and Dunkin Donuts

February 9, 2017 No Comments

A few years ago my family and I took a Baltic Cruise out of Denmark. Before setting sail though we made a stop over in Iceland. Iceland in August, wonderful right?! Long, long days of sunlight, warm summer weather and the tail end of the puffin season, we were in for a real treat. Well, at least two of these facts were true. We had endless days of sunlight for our short stay and we were treated to puffin sightings not far off the coast by boat. The summer weather though, didn’t seem to get the memo that it was […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies, Travel

Holidays Around The World

December 15, 2016 2 Comments

Starting next week my students will begin a big journey traveling around the world. And while we will be doing this trip virtually, since a teacher salary is not quite enough to buy a class set of multi country plane tickets, I know students will love it. At each country we stop at along the way we will take a close look at how people from that country celebrate the holidays. These are some of my favorite lessons to do with studnets and this year it will be even better. This year in addition to readings, videos, doing a few […]

Classroom Connection, Food, Travel

Fall Foods Near and Far

September 27, 2016 1 Comment

Fall has finally arrived! Besides the onset of cooler weather, wearing cozy sweaters and acclimating oneself to back to school routines, there is my favorite fall tradition of going apple picking. What made this fall even better was hearing from my family in Finland. They may not have gone apple picking, but they were gathering food as only the Finns can do. Back in the States, it doesn’t matter where I go, all that matters is that each fall I find a weekend to go and fill a bag with more apples than I could ever possibly consume on my own. […]

Classroom Connection, Travel

Family Connections

September 23, 2016 1 Comment

This week in school my students read a informational text about family. During our readings of the selection we took a close look at the family to better understand and learn more about them. We asked questions like, what kinds of things do they like to do? How many people are in their family? What hobbies do the people in the family have? There was so many great points to look at and compare to students’ own families. This story was also a perfect opportunity for me to make a connection to global learning. How could I do this? Well, I […]

Travel

Quest for Mölkky

July 12, 2016 2 Comments

There are many things I loved about my time in Finland, and learning about the game Molkky was definitely one of them. One evening when we were staying with our family they suggested we play Mölkky. As we sat at dinner they tried to explain this summer garden game to us. Like bowling, but with no ball, I was having trouble envisioning it. Once it was all set up it became clear and just as they had described it. Veikka volunteered to keep score for us, and after setting up we were ready to get started. Nancy began with a bang, […]

Travel

Driving the Finnish Archipelago

July 10, 2016 No Comments

On one of our last days in Turku, our family drove us around the beautiful archipelago around Turku. Skies had cleared from the day before so we had great weather for seeing the sights. We had to set out early (5:30) so we could make the first ferry, but with coffee, tea and other munchies packed we were ready to tackle the day. It was interesting to drive out of the city and into more rural areas surrounding Turku. We even saw five moose grazing out in the distance at one point! After an hour of driving we reached the […]

Travel

Finnish Life

July 5, 2016 No Comments

It has been a few days since my sister and I arrived to Turku where our family lives and already I am in love. We are so fortunate to have relatives that live in such a beautiful area of Finland. It has been great spending time with family and getting to experience a bit of Finnish life. Here are some of my favorite things about life in Turku. Midnight sun: Even though the sun goes down technically around 10:45 pm, it doesn’t really ever become fully dark in summertime here in Turku. It’s great! Days become much longer without it […]

Travel

A Walk Through Time, Family History

June 20, 2016 1 Comment

Our trip to Finland where we will get to meet our Finnish relatives (eek so excited!) is coming up in just a week. I can’t believe it is almost here! In preparation for the trip, this past weekend I took a little walk back in time through old pictures, letters, documents, and family stories. My family went to visit Teravainen relatives that live in New Hampshire who hold all the family history documents. We wanted to see what they had and decide what to bring with us to Finland. It was a blast getting together, chit chatting and catching up. We […]

Travel

First Time For Everything, Hostel Stay in Helsinki

March 15, 2016 6 Comments

Well, I went ahead and did it. The other day I officially booked my flight to Helsinki and back home from Munich for my summer adventure. June can’t come fast enough! I am so excited to spend a few weeks exploring Finland, where my great grandparents came from, and then set out to see a few other places in Europe. Even better, my sister and I will get to spend some quality time getting to know relatives we have in Turku! But before we meet our relatives, and before my sister arrives in Helsinki, I have decided to take a […]