Everything but the Kitchen Sink...Wait They've Got that Too!

Friday afternoon usually finds us dropping by Four Corners to visit the local vegetable stands.  One of the corners features a barely formal outdoor shop where the vendor lays out all manner of treasures from the western world on the ground.  Magazines, books, three ring binders, decades old apple computers - these  items are all displayed and perused by passing customers.  Imagine our delight last week when we discovered that he even had a kitchen sink for sale!

But that's not all.  This week I was shocked to see a man examining a pair of these:

Hmm, what are those doing in Niger?  Of course, I had to get out and ask the vendor how much they were.  He wanted $20 dollars for them.  I'm not even sure that he knew what they were for.  I declined, of course, and opted for the free picture instead!

Cause for Celebration

It's clicking! And that is cause for celebration!

When you start the year with 6 and 7 year olds you sometimes wonder how long it will be before they

...can sit still
...follow directions
...read
...write a complete sentence
...recognize that they've written a complete sentence
...use capitals and punctuation in that sentence
...add
...subtract
...count by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 25s
...count money

and the list could go on and on.

This week as I've been doing some end of quarter evaluation, it's been good to look back and reflect on the growth that has taken place (a good reminder for me especially when my patience has been tested the last couple of weeks!).

It was just about two weeks ago when we pulled out the coins to work on counting money.  I asked one of the second graders a question and with a deer-in-the-headlights look, she asked if she could talk to me privately.  "I don't know how to count money," she whispered.  "Don't worry, honey, that's what we're working on."  After working diligently in small groups with the kids, they took their math test today.  What a joy to celebrate with that student who went from being afraid to being a confident counter of coins!

And that's not all.
They are...
following directions,
reading,
writing paragraphs,
recognizing complete sentences,
mostly using capitals and punctuation,
adding,
subtracting,
counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 25s,
and a whole host of other things.

Now I'm just waiting for them to sit still! :)

Far East Festival

There wasn't enough excitement packed into this week so we had to pack in just a little bit more - the Far East Festival!  Everyone put on their best duds for this banquet.  Here are all the first and second graders all dressed up and posing with the dragon.

Moments before the dragon's mouth was under thorough investigation.

The lovely ladies of Table 12.

Everybody practiced with their chopsticks.  Some were more successful than others.

There was dinner entertainment including a Korean song sung, a fairy tale acted out and we even had a dancing dragon and fireworks, if you can believe that.  There were shreaks and gasps for every firework at my table.  I'm pretty sure they had a good time and won't be forgetting it anytime soon!

Delightfully Diligent Dinosaurs Celebrate 100

Excitement has been building these last few days leading up to the 100th day of school!  One morning meeting found the second graders in particular plying me for information about how we were going to celebrate.  "Do you have anything in your head?," they asked. 

"Why yes, in fact I do.  A brain, eyes, ears...etc. etc."  Make them work for the answers is my philosophy.

"No, no, any ideas in your head." 

"Oh, I'm supposed to have ideas in my head?" and I strung them along a little further until finally, I asked them if they had any ideas in their heads.  A few came up but the one that caught everyone's attention was a Dinosaur Day.  We've been learning about dinosaurs in Science and they wanted to dress up which seemed pretty appropriate since we were celebrating 100 and all things very "old" and so that's how we came to be dressed like dinosaurs and playing with the number 100.

Everybody knows that if you don't want to become extinct you must DINOSIZE!

We had a DINO DOLLAR DIG and tried to pick out exactly 100 pennies.

We had a DINO DASH and tried to be the first to make it to 100.

We made DINO ZEROS - a googol, a number with 100 zeros.

We measured the DINO DISTANCE of 100 cubes and compared it to some dinos we know.

We played DINO Heads or Tails.

We made our own DINO DICTIONARY using the letters of some famous dinosaurs.

We discussed the DIFFICULTIES that having a DINO as a pet might create.

We played DINO DOT to DOT and

some of us even did a DINO DANCE.

When it was all said and done we had even DEVOURED our own DINO cake.

They are a vicious bunch!  Sure hope I survive the next 70 to 80 days.

99

Back by popular demand - Dress like you are 99 years old! 

Nothing like an "old lady" falling over to send the "retirement crowd" into fits of giggles!

For Your Teacher's Entertainment

Remember when you had new spelling words assigned to you each week and you had to do things with them at home such as writing them three times each, putting them in abc order or using them in sentences or a story.  Remember how sometimes that really began to feel quite pointless and you wondered why you had to use all those unrelated words in a story.  Well, I'm here to tell you that it was really all for your teacher's entertainment.  Scratch that!  Your teacher didn't get much entertainment out of seeing that you had written those words three times each but the sentences and stories, now those were quality entertainment.  Case in point, one of the stories my second graders produced as homework this week.

A student wrote an informational piece on driving from a second grade perspective.  This week's spelling words have been underlined.

infor mashoin on driving

1. put your clothes on.
2. close the door.
3. get in the car.
4. Be a glad driver.
5. their is know prize for driving.
6. their will be traffic
I have seen traffic you might have to go through a tanall (tunnel)
now you can become a driver

Some very sage advice.  Wonder if number one is included in the driver's ed manual?

Show Me and I Can Do It (Maybe???)

I guess I must be partly a visual learner because I love to see things in pictures before I do them.  I had no idea that one could find tutorials on how to do just about anything until my friend Elizabeth started posting all the fancy things that she had been making by following tutorials.  So I was inspired to tackle some sewing projects using tutorials.  So here are the two pillows I've produced.  The one on the right has an envelope opening.  The strips of raspberry fabric are leftover from my curtains.  The proportions seem a little off but I wasn't measuring too carefully. Surprise! Surprise!  

I love the pleated pillow on the left.  The tutorial came from here.  I got tired of measuring so it's not the straightest thing in the world.  Plus I couldn't get the tension quite right on the thread.  Thankfully, I could turn all the pleats over so the puckered thread is hidden.  It took a while to make all the pleats but I ironed and sewed while someone was chatting with me so it was the perfect project.

I put a zipper in this project. A first for me so I used this tutorial along with my sewing machine instruction book to help with the changing of the feet.  I would definitely recommend the zipper closure as opposed to the envelope closure.  It just seems to look neater.  So there you have it - I'm moving beyond paper into other areas of craftiness!