Bloggy Friends

I love my bloggy friends!

So true - especially in the bloggy world

Meg from FourthGradeStudio is suntanning on an island somewhere nice and warm and asked me to be her interviewee for a post tomorrow (Friday). It was fun to answer her questions even though I know I rambled quite a bit. However, if you want to know a bit more about me you could pop over to the Studio tomorrow :)

Meg does the most awesome work in her classroom so while you're there make sure you read her posts about Fractions! There are 16 of them and they are incredible!!

I also decided to have a "just because" sale - so everything is 20% at my TpT store from the 4th to the 6th April :)

(NB: TpT will be down for a couple of hours for planned maintenance at 1 a.m. ET on the 4th - so just be aware of that :) )

April in the Making

Heya - I found this fun linky while taking a break from TpT-ing :) It's called This Month in the Making and is sponsored by Mrs. Kelly's Klass.

I'm just going to cut and paste the rules right here so you all know what to do should you feel like joining in:)

So... my month in the making...

April Favorite:

Definitely that I'm on Spring break for the first two weeks of it. :) I love having the time to sit around in my pajamas, read interesting blog posts, watch my puppies snoozing on the sofas, watch oldie goldie movies - so much fun!! And I just LOVE the weather at this time of the year - sunny but cool and so spring-like!

    


April in my Classroom:

This term we begin our big unit on the Aztecs so the classroom has been stripped down to nothingness once again and we will begin building the Aztec civilization on the bulletin boards - and in fact all over the room. I tell my children constantly that the classroom displays are their responsibility - they have to produce or we'll have an empty, boring classroom. Without fail they rise to the challenge! I'm still not sure how we'll approach the topic this year - we may build a full-size Aztec house, an enormous temple, a miniature empire... the possibilities are endless :)

April Must Have:

I am totally stuck on this one! Honestly I can't think of any "must haves". I am pretty content with my life at the moment. Perhaps some "motivation" would be nice. Wish it could be sold in pill form so I could motivate myself to get out there and exercise!!

This'll work :)

April Make It:

Aha - now this is easier! I have just finished a Math unit yesterday and it is in my store! I am very pleased with myself. I still have huge plans to work on (and hopefully finish) several other partially completed units but at least I've done one. :)

Find it here

and it has a fun project in it that I blogged about on Money Matters way back in February.

I would also really like to make these as an Earth Day activity. Not sure if I can borrow the PTA ovens but I am going to check into it. These are just so pretty!!

They're melted crayons turned into
new crayons - recycling for Earth
Day :)

April Goal:

I am (and this is a DEFINITE) going into school to clean out the black hole (otherwise known as a resource cupboard) behind my desk. By the time school starts I should have a beautifully organized cupboard with neat little boxes of Math center activities etc. I need a place to store all my glittery Math gems plus endless center activities that right now are sprawling all over miscellaneous surfaces.

These need a home!

To keep myself accountable I will post about it when it's done :)

Head on over to Mrs. Kelly's Klass and read some of the other posts!

Can Fairy Tales be True?

Oh man, I wish we were at school today to do the Wonder of the Day from Wonderopolis!!

It's such a great title: Can Fairy Tales Be True?

and just look at the fabulous photo to get everyone's attention!!

I just adore doors in trees. I used to spend hours as a child looking for fairy houses and doors in trees. Specifically doors in trees after I read The Valley of Song by Elizabeth Goudge.

This book is out of print now and my copy, given to me by my mom when I was 10 years old for Christmas, is sadly battered but it is the NICEST story. A real "feel good" story. Elizabeth Goudge also wrote The Little White Horse which has been made into a (in my opinion) dreadful movie called The Secret of Moonacre. It's totally not what I read in the book! Such a shame!

Anyway this all sparked some fairy house hunting on Pinterest which then led me to one of my other favourite activities - dolls houses. I love dolls houses! There is something magical about a miniature world. I found these two fabulous houses made by a miniaturist in the UK - a copy of Brambly Hedge and a copy of Bag End, Bilbo Baggins house! They are incredibly brilliant - I've put the links here in case anyone else is as fascinated as I am by miniatures. I made a 4 foot tall doll house for my daughter once (which I loved doing - and really, it was my dolls house, not hers!) but it was nothing compared to these works of art!

Brambly Hedge House

Hobbit House

Awesome, aren't they? I was thinking it would be fun to have a dolls house or a mouse house or a fairy house in the classroom but I don't know if my class would actually like it.

Next term we start our big project on the Aztec civilization and they all want to make Aztec houses (last year we made a miniature 4 foot by 4 foot diorama of Tenochtitlan, complete with temple, houses, people, tiny pots, gardens and even weaving looms which was very successful - I must see if I can find photos of it at school!) Perhaps I could introduce them to the art of dolls houses in a different way :)

Anybody else out there like miniatures? Or have you used them in the classroom?

First Day of Spring Break

Well, it's not really the first day but it felt like it because it's a Monday and I was at home all day!

It was a beautiful day - sunny, cool, just perfect spring weather :) And I had a most productive time - slept in nice and late :), had a leisurely breakfast, fed the dogs, took hubby to the hospital for an MRI and sat reading a mystery novel while I waited for him, came home and had lunch and worked (yes, actually ceased procrastinating and worked!) on a TpT unit, played with the dogs for a bit, went Pinteresting and Facebooking and emailed my mom and aunt, had a bag of chips and fed the dogs again...

It was a GORGEOUS day!! Now I'm going to get into pjs and watch Thoroughly Modern Millie ( I  love Julie Andrews!! Has anyone seen this? It's an oldie for sure!! Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing as well!)

Can I just tell you all how much I LOVE holidays?

Tomorrow I'm going to add a walk to all of the above (except I'll skip the MRI and bag of chips :) ) And maybe choose another movie for the evening... Sound of Music perhaps :)...

...and I promised myself I'd go into school and start sorting through Math supplies but I think Wednesday will do for that :)

Ok, off to enjoy the flapper era. :)

Blue Skies, a Beach and a Kite

 Here's something to warm up all of you in colder climates :) We spent our afternoon on the beach trying to get the kites up (and failing dismally - they kept nose-diving into the ocean). Beautiful weather although you can see by the sweaters that we still consider it to be a little chilly. :)

There's supposed to be a kite somewhere in
this photo but I can't see it. Perhaps it had
already gone down by the time I clicked.

This kite went down as well!

These two just gave up trying to fly
their kite and posed instead :)

This was the first day of my holiday - I'm already feeling better. :)

Holiday Time :)

School ended today at noon! Two weeks of glorious holiday time - I am so excited!!

To start the holiday I am going to sleep in tomorrow and then go to my dad's house to celebrate our Good Friday (it's a public holiday here) with hot cross buns and fish cakes and hopefully a log fire (cause it is supposed to drop to a freezing 59 degrees here tomorrow!!) Don't know about the traditional kite flying because it is really windy - and while a little wind is good too much may mean the kites snapping and flying out to sea.

This is a traditional kite - not mine
although I have made them in the past :)

For a three and a half day week this feels like it's been a very long one. I haven't been feeling very well (nice spring cold!); the kiddies have been super excited by their concert (3 days of performances) and the upcoming holiday; co-workers are tired and we've all been a little over-sensitive in the staff room. It'll be nice to have a break and go back refreshed and ready for work again. :)

In between concerts I squeezed in some review with equivalent fractions - we played with fraction strips and fraction circles and plastic eggs.

Yesterday I gave the kids a Problem of the Day egg hunt - I hid their POTD in a plastic egg in the classroom (it was pretty amazing to see how keen they were to find it!) then they had to solve the problem and come to me for the next clue. Two eggs for each child were hidden in the library - but they had to use their library research skills to first find the eggs and then answer the question on the clue (most of them were to locate an author or a title in the library :) ) They weren't allowed to ask the librarian for any help and they weren't allowed to help each other. Most of them found their treats and came back quickly but a couple of children really don't know the library that well!!

To finish up the week we had our Rainforest ice cream sundaes for the entire year group today - delicious (I had 2 cups!) - and then we shaving creamed our desks so they are super clean and smooth and have fresh new name tags on them for the start of the new term. :) This term we managed to keep the bathroom clean and only one child got shaving cream on her clothes and they were (relatively) quiet. By next term they'll be pros! :)

Then we handed out reports and headed for the ramp. :)

So now I have 2 weeks of time to plan and get organized. I am going into an empty school next week with the firm intention of emptying the shelves behind my desk, organizing all my resources and redoing the Math shelf so that it is tidy and efficient - and I have to find places for all my sparkly counting gems. But first I'm going to enjoy Easter and have a couple of days to just vegetate.

Happy Easter to all of you.

The Noun Game

I love these Let's Get Acquainted Linkys that Flying into First Grade is hosting. :)

This week you simply list your favorite person, place, thing and animal.

Person:

No contest here - it's definitely my husband :) We're best friends and he's stuck by me through thick and thin during 25 years of marriage. He even tolerates my dogs inside the house - now that's true love :) And of course I can't forget my children - my son is 24 now and my daughter is 22. They're good kids!!

My son and daughter-in-law

My daughter and her boyfriend

Place:

Again, no contest. Scotland is the place I love more than anywhere else. My mom lives in Aberdeen and I visit every summer. I love hiking in the mountains, staying in remote glens in cute little cottages, hanging out in Aberdeen and walking the railway trail with my mom, visiting castles and garden centers and having tea and scones and shortbread and... the ultimate Scottish treat... tablet!! (Kind of like vanilla fudge - highly addictive and LOADED with sugar!) The plan is to move to Scotland permanently in 2014 but since we've already moved the date once I'm not getting my hopes up until it looks more certain. One day though, that's for sure!

This is the view from the house
I'm intending to live in one day!

My mom enjoying the snow :)

Thing:

Well, this is really things, plural. I love my books! Specifically I love my collection of old school stories like the Chalet School series, the Drina series - and the 1920s and 1930s mysteries written by authors like Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, Patricia Wentworth and Dorothy Sayers to name a few. I treat myself to a couple of out of print books every year for my birthday and since they are usually British authors (and not available in the US) I ship them to my mom and then have a great time in the summer opening my boxes and indulging in nostalgic read-athons.

Animal:

I love my dogs - Bear the boxer and Panda the border collie/cattle dog cross. Panda is a bit hyper but is just beginning to settle down now that she is almost 2 years old. Bear is 5 now and is very sedate - she is the cutest dog I have ever had and I've had a lot of dogs in my life :)

Bear when she was a baby :)

Bear just loved Panda when we first
got her :)

So there you go - my set of nouns :) You know, I was thinking this would make a very good grammar review class blog post for my kiddies. I think I'm going to borrow the idea for next term :)