Redbud Trees

These are pictures of Redbud trees that I took on an outing last weekend.They are so beautiful growing through the woods along with the dogwoods. To learn more about Redbud trees go here.

Odd Shots Monday

Odd shots is hosted by Katney's Kaboodle.

Last weekend we went for a walk in a beautiful park maintained by the city called Davey Dogwood Park. There are over 200 wooded acres in this and 5 miles of one lane road. At this time of year the dogwoods and redbuds are blooming in abundance. The woods are beautiful with the blooming of these understory trees. Last weekend was also the first weekend of The Dogwood Trails, a local festival that draws many tourists. Thus the photo below.

Normally the scenery wouldn't be marred with these handy dandy items.

Scrumptious Sunday Cookies

For more Scrumptious Sunday visit Mercedes' World!

We just finished reading 3 versions of

"the Gingerbread man" at school

so I thought I'd use this gingerbread man cookie

recipe this week!

Gingerbread Man Cookies

2/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
pinch salt
3/4 cup molasses
1 egg
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Cream together first 6 ingredients. Add egg and mix. Add molasses and mix again.
Mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda in a separate bowl. Sift. Add to the creamed mixture and stir until well blended. Chill 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 F. Roll out dough 1/4 at a time to 1/8" thickness or slightly thicker on a lightly floured board. Cut with a cookie cutter and transfer to a greased (or non stick) cookie sheet.
Repeat with remaining dough. Before baking, decorate with raisins as you like.
Place in oven for 8 - 10 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack
Decorate with any items you wish.

Sky Watch Friday

Visit Tom at Wiggers World for more Sky Watch Friday.

Here are a couple of pictures I took at the beach last summer. I decided to post them because a group of us is going back to the beach again this summer. We just made the deposit on the beach house that is ON the beach. Sugar white sand! Calm and peaceful! We can't wait.

Click on the first one to see the sky ad.

ABC Wednesday J

ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt. Go there to

find more participants in ABC Wednesday or to join!

I had a really hard time coming up with a j for this week. I considered several things but they didn't work out. Finally I thought I'd go downtown and take a picture of the locally owned jewelry store, them thought why not just stay home and take a picture of jewelry. so I did. Here are some of my favorite pieces of Jewelry.

Things I Love About School

Thirteen Things I Love About School

1. The kids
   
2. Things the kids say


3. The progress they make through the year
   
4. notes from the kids
   
5. 22 little smiles all smiled at the same time
   
6. 22 little smiles aimed at me
   
7. kid drawings
   
8. the way these kiddos are ready to share and try
   
9. the willingness they show to help others
   
10. they way they love to hear stories read to them
    
11. my new bigger room -when I moved to 2nd grade I left the room I had been in for 19 years in first grade and moved to the second grade hall, wow!
    
12. the teachers I work with, they are so great, good teachers and good friends
    
13. our principal, she is awesome, and I don't usually use that word
    
14. the small school setting

Spring Break

Last week was Spring Break and boy was I busy. I had a great time. First of all I finished off the little half bath I was redoing, and got some spring cleaning done. Pictures here. I cleared out a little and took stuff to Goodwill. It doesn't look like anything is gone *sigh*. Then on Thursday my sister from Kansas and her family came down for a visit. I hadn't seen her since last summer when she got married and moved to Kansas. We enjoyed catching up, playing games, and spending Easter with family and friends.

We also exchanged our Christmas presents, which we hadn't mailed to each other. We always have a great laugh when we do this. This is because we try to out do each with useless and stupid gifts. We tend to pass some of them back and forth over the years.

Easter at Teresa's house was wonderful as always. We ate, and ate, visited and visited, played with kids, took pictures, and visited more.

Then today David, who had taken the week off, and I went back to work and Sandi and fam went back home. I'm back on a schedule now!

Odd Shots

This is my first picture for Odd shots on Monday. We were walking in the park the afternoon of Easter Sunday viewing the beautiful Dogwood trees when I saw this "stump." It looked pretty odd to me. If you would like to see more Odd shots or join in visit Katney's Kaboodle.

Teachers Salarys

I got this in an email from our school district's Finance Director. We all thought it was funny.

If I had my way I'd pay teachers baby-sitting wages.

I'd only pay them for five hours, not lunch or coffee breaks.

That would be $15.00 a day. Each parent should pay $15

a day for these teachers to babysit their child.

Even if they have more than one child, it’s still a lot cheaper than private daycare.

Now, how many children do they teach every day-maybe 20?

That’s $15×20=$300 a day. But remember they only work 180 days a year!

I’m not going to pay them for vacations! $300×180=$54,000.

(Just an inside observation for anyone who doesn't

know it, teachers DON'T get paid vacations. Salarys are

for the days we are in school but

we have it divided into 12 monthly payments.)

(Just a minute, I think my calculator needs new batteries.)

I know you teachers will say-What about those who have

10 years experience and a Master’s Degree? Well, maybe (to be fair)

we could give them the minimum wage.

We could round that off to about $5 an hour, times five hours,

times 20 children. That’s $500 a day times 180 days.

That’s $90,000….HUH?

Wait a minute, let’s get a little perspective here.

Babysitting wages are too good for these teachers.

Has anyone seen a salary schedule around here?”
~Anonymous~

Sky Watch Friday

Skywatch Friday is hosted by Tom at Wiggers World.

Life Happpens!

Life happens, and it doesn't happen conveniently. You can slide along for months, going about your everyday routine with nothing much happening. Wake up, drink your coffee, tend the animals, go to work, come home, do house work, cook dinner, tend to the animals, watch a little TV or read, go to bed.
Then all of a sudden life just starts happening. Here is what is going on around here:

1. I decided to redo the bathroom and it is finished now, but it took about a week, mainly two weekends, fitting it in around the regular life stuff.

2. My niece, who has started her own photography business, is going to teach me about cameras, so I'm in the process of reading up on good cameras and trying to decide what kind to get. She says the Canon Rebel would be good for me since I just want a good "enthusiasts" camera not a professional. Cameras have come a long way and I am still the point and shoot kind of photographer.

3. My sister, her husband and daughter are coming to visit for 4 days from Kansas. I haven't seen them since last summer when she got married and moved back to Kansas.

4. David's daughter is coming in from Seattle, Washington on April 2 to visit us and her grandmother (her mother's mother) for about a week. She is bringing with her her youngest son, 3 year old Ethan. When she leaves she won't be taking Ethan with her, he is to stay with us and his great-grandmother for 3 or 4 months. We're not really sure why she decided to do this or even if she is going to come back to get him. The two older boys are with their father in Seattle (or there abouts,) who isn't Ethan's father, or I suspect he'd be there too.

So. Life. It goes along smoothly for months on end, then WHAM, a whole big bunch of it lands on your door step. Ya gotta love it. It keeps you from becoming stuck in a rut. I think a three year old will do us a lot of good, really get us out of the old rut.

A Book Meme from The Aged Cat

I was tagged by the Aged Cat to do this book meme, which is right up my alley since I love to read. I'm reading a weird book right now, Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett so it is closest at hand. I've read quite a number of Pratchett's Disc World books and they never fail to make me laugh out loud. I put in a couple of extra sentences, I couldn't help it. The first two sentences were really short anyway.

Here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment here once you post it to your blog so I can come see!

Here are sentences 6 - 10 on page 123 of Moving Pictures:

One Spink, two Spinks. Now get on with it. I want those posters all around the city first thing tomorrow. The artist gave Victor an agonized look he was coming to recognize. Everyone around Dibbler wore them after a while.

This was fun and I enjoyed reading others entries. If you would like to do this with us, please do and let me know so I can go read it!

Childrens Books I Love

Children's Books I Love

Dogzilla by Dave Pilkey The kids in my class love this book and they always beg for re-readings. It has a rating of "Too goofy for adults" so what's not to love? It is full of puns that are just, well, goofy! The author used pictures of his own pets for the illustrations.

Kat Kong by Dave Pilkey Ditto above

"There Are Rocks in My Socks," said the Ox to the Fox by Patricia Thomas I use this book to teach rhythm and rhyme. The children love the pictures and the funny story.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff The kids love this book. I like it a lot and use it for enjoyment as well as predictions. Felicia Bond illustrated it.

The Mitten by Jan Brett Jan Brett is my favorite illustrator of children's books. I have a collection of her books. This one is great for sequencing and I use it for extensions. The kids write what might happen if more animals cam up.


The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett Love the illustrations.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle This is a great story for science and for sequencing. The illustrations are great to discuss the different methods illustrators use to create their pictures. I like anything by Eric Carle - lots of great stories and teaching opportunities.

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister I use this book to start a discussion on friendship and sharing.

Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni This is a great story and I use it when we are practicing measuring
Leo the Late Bloomer by Leo Lionni This is a wonderful book. We read it and discuss how every one is special in their own right among other things. The kids love Leo and relate to him. Lionni has several other books I really like as well.

The Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin This is such a funny book, many re readings are demanded. My kiddos keep a dated diary of school happenings after we read it.

Click, Clack, Moo By Doreen Cronin This is another very funny story by Cronin. Most of the children don't know what a typewriter is! We write letters after reading this a couple of times.

Aunt Flossies's Hats (and Crabcakes Later) by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard This is a wonderful, warm family story with great illustrations. We discuss families, extended families and how families are alike and different. Then they write about a fun memory of a time with their family.

The Lorax by Dr. Suess This is a great book for rhyming, as are all of Dr Suess' books. It goes beyond that to environmental issues.

The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Suess Great for discussing how arguments can get out of hand.

The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomi de Paola I use this when we teach Texas history (The Texas state flower it the Bluebonnet) along with a couple more books from this wonderful author.

Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats We discuss setting, the illustrations, how practicing helps you gain skills, etc. this is a lovely warm story.

I could go on and on. There are so many great children's books. I use lots of them in my class to foster love of reading, model fluency, discuss setting and author's purpose, instruct everything from writing to math to science, to use as art instruction, for retelling, etc.

Sky Watch Friday

Sky Watch Friday is being hosted by Tom at Wiggers World.

Overheard at School

Finally!! It is time for us to adopt a new math program!! We've had the same one for 10 years. Over the last few weeks we have been listening to presentations by several publishing houses about their wonderful programs. I really liked the Harcourt Program we saw today, but the presenter tickled me with with his earnestness and enthusiasm. At one point he said, in an attempt to empress us with the web based components of the series,

"The online test, where you can take the test online, is online." Bless his heart.

ABC Wednesday H

H is for Hero

We did a HEROS unit at school. The heros we studied included such people as Sojourner Truth, Paur Revere, Dr. Mae Jemis, Sally Ride, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, Fredrick Douglas.........



As we studied each person we talked about the qualities they possesed that made them a hero.
The qualities we used were linked to ingredients in a hero sandwich, hoping to help them remember and try to emulate these qualities. The Rolls stood for Ristaker and Responsible. Lettuce for Loyal, Tomato for Thinker, Cheese for Courageous, Salamni for Solver (of problems), Ham for Honest.

Using these qualities we then discussed everyday heros, heros in our lives, and how anyone can be a hero.

See more participants of ABC Wednesday here.

You Cheer Me Up Award

This is such a cool award! I love Lucy. Lots of thanks to Elaine over at Napaboaniya for it. She has a very cool blog, so go visit!



I'd like to pass this award on to Mercedes, Gina, Paulie, Edmund Bear, The Aged Cat, and Susan

Weekend Snapshot

Visit more Weekend Snapshot participants here.

It snowed here on Friday. Enlarged you can see the sky is full of snowflakes.
Pretty amazing here, in March!


Snow on the azalia bushes.

Snow!

It snowed here yesterday! Here in east Texas. It was snowing when I looked out the window a little before 7:00 am and kept on snowing till after 9:30. I was a "little under the weather" so was at home. I napped a lot so don't know exactly when it stopped. It was completely gone by 1.

My father, who is 83, said that when he was a kid here it used to snow 3 or 4 times in the winter with enough snow to play in, make snowmen, have snowball fights, do all the things kids love to do with snow. I found that interesting as we rarely get snow now and when we do it doesn't stick. This snow was very wet so wasn't good snowball snow.


It piled up on the grass and on the vehicles. As you can see it didn't stick on the pavement.
It piled up on this little garden toad. He sure looks cold.

Rusty saw snow for the first time. He sniffed and sniffed. Then he bounced around and played some. Finally, his feet got cold and he ran to the house to get in.