Finally Friday May 30

If this ed tech-er blogged more regularly you would already know her name because she is THE AWESOME-EST! Follow her blog so you can catch posts when the come.



If we really could get one for every classroom I wonder if it would help all the books claimed lost "I put it on the back table." Or at least help with the spills all over the hallway.



OK, it's just weird. Ron Weasley can auto-tune sing.



Dear Nutella, Please don't be so tasty.



Now if someone could just help me figure out a way to ... sort of lock them down? So I don't have to put them out/pick them up every single day? Then I'd think that person was the coolest.



Have a great weekend!

TBT There is a Bird on Your Head and #bookshifting

Here's a TBT post. I didn't make up this idea but I don't remember where I saw it. We did it last year.

... Messy, quick, out of focus and not very well framed shots. But this is one of our most favorite of all time Mo Willems' books. And actually maybe Ms. O's favorite.

Steps
1) Cut out lots of strips of colored brown paper. Fan about 9 or 10 in a pinwheel and tape/glue together.

2) Trace the pigeon pattern on a piece of gray paper folded in half. Google Pigeon finger puppet, increase that 150%, and use that outline.

3) Color the SIDES of the bowl brown. NOT the inside or bottom (at least we found the tape didn't stick as well when there was crayon on those parts ... but we were using inexpensive, terrible for the environment styrofoam).

4) Have kids cut out the pigeon. Remind them to NOT cut along the fold on the head.

5) Draw or paste on eyes and beak. Add any special things you like (you can't see in the pic ... but there are several birds wearing GO SPURS GO jerseys!). Fold the bottom edges out of the bird just a bit in order to make a flat surface to attach to the nest.

6) Attach the nest to the the inside of bowl. Add any more strips you like. Sort of fold/crumple the edges of the paper pinwheel around the bowl.

7) Attach the bird to the bottom of the bowl.

8 Attach the headband. We used bits of stretchy elastic. Make sure you have enough! And if you have a little guy sporting a faux hawk ... well, he'll have to wait to wear his.

And nope. You don't get a pic of me wearing a bird on my head because DARN, we had to scavenge the last bit of elastic.


Didn't do it this year because I'm on the couch with an ice pack. See my not funny first attempt at a someecard. :P

Bad Blogger & #ReadingRainbow

Who doesn't remember to take any pictures. I do like our newly genrified shelves. The kids that have noticed (we closed for checkout as of Friday ... have had kids browsing or working on finishing up projects but no checkout) seem to like them, too. The real "test" will be next year.

But the last several days have been taken up with tech inventory (:X) and making what preparations I can for our "renovation." The construction guys came this morning and did a bunch of measuring and asking me some questions. But then they left when I went down to another hallway to check on a laptop cart. I told them I'd be back in less than 10 minutes but they still left.
So I still have 1)NO idea when they are starting all of this building of walls and moving of circ desk and installation of a "presentation station." 2)NO idea what I'm supposed to do to get ready. 3)NO materials to get ready (boxes, packing tape, etc). 4)NO idea when they will be done. And 5)NO idea of how much shelving we will have. If we just push our current shelves up against the wall? We're losing 55% of our shelves. I'm getting really tired of weeding.

So anyway. We have the kids through Thursday of next week. Then a couple days of doing what I can to get ready. Only one with my assistant. I know, I'm lucky to even have one. Then two days of half-day "flipped classroom" academy. I know how to do it. Just need someone to MAKE me do it. ;) Then two days of tech camp where I'm teaching Google Your LMC and a photo-editing class. Then a day with Kylene Beers. How sad but all I can remember is "it's something to do with literacy. The presentation looked good." Then a plane for COLORADO!

 I just discovered this blog last night. It's so awesome I can hardly stand it. Go and follow her. But please come back and visit here sometimes, too, K? ;)

 Oh, and if you are at all able PLEASE BACK LEVAR BURTON'S KICKSTARTER TO BRING BACK READING RAINBOW!

Finally Friday May 23

Made it! Some dumb stuff still waiting for me when we go back to school on Tuesday but oh well. Too many people making too much noise in the library to stay late and get it done. Anyway. Click through for any embedded content. And Happy Memorial Day!




This is pretty awesome. I want to try making one but the rocks in my yard are too full of holes. Plus I'm a perfectionist and when my shading doesn't look right I get mad. Maybe a summer MondayMadeIt anyway. We'll see. :P



Because it made me laugh. #truth



I would like this pin EVEN MORE if it had Sherlock on it. A girl can dream, right?



I hate this. And love it. All at the same time.
Angie O's pin on Pinterest.


Math brain. I don't have one so I have to work on this as well.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

I never showed when my mom finished it, did I?









Pretty awesome. :) Oh, and one of my oldest friends sent me this for my birthday.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

P is for ...

Gary Paulsen. How Angel Peterson Got His Name is hilarious (pushes elementary boundaries just a bit but I still have a copy). And then of course Hatchet and all his others.

Ellen Potter's Spilling Ink. Your young writers need this one. Her other books are also fun but that is my favorite.

Hanoch Piven's My Dog Is as Smelly as Dirty Socks and My Best Friend Is as Sharp as a Pencil. If you don't have them already your figurative language lessons NEED them. The app is kind of fun as an additional activity but it's not free and it's not a Must Buy app. Fun if you have the $. Not a Must. Books YES. App ... no.

Sara Pennypacker's Clementine character. Too cute. And her additions to the Flat Stanley.


Have you read this one?
The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts by Richard Peck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Laughed so hard we cried.




Anne Perry. NOT a kids author but one of my favorite grown up historical mystery writing authors. Imagine my surprise when years into my fandom I learned of her ... past. Anyway. Don't understand but still love her books.

And Elizabeth Peters (otherwise known as Barbara Michaels and Barbara Mertz). She died last year. Sad. How did I miss that until looking for her webpage link for this post? Apparently she'd fought cancer pretty quietly for quite some time. Anyway. Sad for her family and for all of us who loved her character Amelia Peabody!

Wow. Douglas Preston. Most of my favorite grown-up authors have "P" last names.


And Piggie (and Elephant) PAR-TAY.

Now I'm sad I did not hold a Piggie and Elephant Dance party this year.


Oh and I know I bragged in the last alphabet post but here is a "P" and she is adorable. HER HAIR IS EPIC. I missed a couple earlier on. Might have to come back and show them off again. I have 10 nieces and nephews. 4 married siblings with kids and all. ;)

#IMWAYR & #bookaday Rumblings

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.


So the last couple weeks are not going down in the epistles of history as great reading weeks for me. More of ... come home so wiped out I sit down on the couch and fall asleep. IS THAT MY AGE SHOWING? No. It's my lack of fitness commitment showing. You get more reading in when you are also exercising so you're not a slow-moving blob. #SummerGoalNumberOne Get back to the gym.

#SummerGoalNumberTwo? Of course. #BOOKADAY Next week's post will be a lot of "there are all the books I already know I want to read but of course for every book I finish I will add five more to the TBR list." Also "Wait! I forgot about this book!" I am almost as excited to finish that post as anything. Fun to concentrate on titles and making plans. Actually will still have school for a few more days and then all the post PD days. But who cares we're calling summer and #bookaday so close!

This week? Just these two.

Danger was more fun. Humming Room had more beautifully written lines. Click on the pic to go to my Goodreads shelf. Though I didn't write a whole lot more about them there there. Some, though. ;)


My age gets one year older today. OFFICIALLY and not just like every other day. It's a ... scary birthday with a 0 on the end. I took a mental health day so I'm off to celebrate. Or hide. Really I have no idea what I will do but it seemed like the thing to do.

Happy Reading!