Thursday, November 17, 2011

Tis' the season to be thankful.

I have been blessed with the most thoughtful (thoughtfullest?) family and friends.  Who understand that it's the little things that mean the most, and can have the biggest impact.  Who are there with warm hugs, lasagna dinners, encouraging texts, who let me win in words with friends, send funny videos, and knit cozy socks... even if they don't see the significance.  They are the best.  Today I recieved a very special piece of mail, a simple gift... yet touched my heart. 


"She will watch the old house
where she once lived and wandered,
and the people who loved her inside.
All cats love Heaven,
they know the way there,
they know where the angel cats fly.
They'll run past the stars
and the moon and the sun..
..to curl up with God in the sky."
-Cynthia Rylant





Love you Phoebie McNoebie Screobie Marie Kazanowski. 
And you too Aunt Vicki.
Thank you!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A long time coming.

I intended to blog about this awhile ago, but with parent teacher conferences and the worst cold in the universe, I'm a little behind. 

Before I begin, I owe all of the credit to this project to pinterest and my mother.  She is the crafty one.  I like to think of myself as more of the obnoxious entertainer, who tunes in for the fun parts.. then I somehow get distracted with the piddly boring parts- but nonetheless, my mom has a lot of patience with me.  But look at the scarf we made!




This is probably the most idiot proof DIY project out there.  Basically, get a HUGE t-shirt.  The larger the better.  Cut off small strips from the bottom, and stretch them out as far as possible.  (That was my job.)  Magically, they coil around themselves into little tubes.  Gather five, and attach with a flower.  Double loop and voila!  A scarf!  



 

In other news: I think it's time to start rehearsing our parts again Mason!
It's getting cold outside!!






Saturday, November 5, 2011

Guess what I use as a bean bag chair? A raisin.

I have been adding books to my amazon wish list left and right these days.  (Anyone need a Christmas gift idea?)  Through all of the blogs and browsing, I have found a ton of books that I NEED to own.  (Yes mom, NEED). As a celebratory reward for finishing grades today, I let myself parooze at B&N.  Not only did I get my hands on some of the books I had been reading about, but also stumbled upon this gem:

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me

Yes, a picture book about one of my favorite YouTube superstars: Marcel the Shell with Shoes on.  Please if you have not seen this, take the next three minutes of your life to do so:

 

Hilarious!  And of course, I had to purchase it.  This is just one of those books that makes me happy!  :) 

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Happy Day!

Last week, I got wonderful news that I had recieved a grant I had written for books in the classroom.  Of course it was a big production with a lady coming in with a balloon and me turning bright red.  I think the ten year olds dreams were squashed when they realized the money was actually not going to be put towards a pizza party, but I think they will be excited with some of the books our classroom will be recieving in the upcoming weeks. 

Here are a few books that will be gracing the shelves soon:

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor

The Dust Bowl Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster

We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart

Rosa (Caldecott Honor Book)


Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover))

Christmas is coming early to Room 209!! 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Fatty!

So this week, we wrapped up our unit on nutrition!  As a way to wrap up/jet on to measurement... I decided to try the fat test with my kids.  This is a lesson I found somewhere out in blogland.  (If someone could tell me where that would be great!) 

Each child brings in a small sample of any kind of snack they want.  Which is basically like the best thing in the world for a ten year old.  And, to make that better, they had to bring it November 1st... the day after Halloween.  So you can imagine the kind of food that rolled in.  I asked the kids what would happen when we put the food on the bags and left it for 24 hours, and heard all sorts of responses:

"It will mold!"
"There will be cockroaches!"
"It will turn brown!"
"Ewwwwwwww"
"but... can we still eat it?!"

We also ranked the foods, whether they were healthy choices or not.  We set out all of our bags, and let the magic happen:



The next day, there was A LOT to look at! 
Yuck!  From here, we had to calculate the amount of grease that was left on the bag.  We had all sorts of measurements going.  Some were using transparencies to outline the stain and calculate the area, others were using a string to measure the perimeter of the stain... which led to great conversation about fat AND measurment.  Viola!


And I don't think I can ever eat a cheese puff again.  WOOF!