Finally Friday Jan. 30

Overheard the past couple days ... "Do not walk through the vomit." (Seriously? That needs to be a direction?) "This place is all coming to the future" (re new tech)
Have a great weekend! Click through for embedded stuff!


Didn't make it to the actual Pinterest party but I saw this one go through my feed and was reminded of how much I like it. Wish we could give one to every 4th grader.



I made a Christmas one and it was pretty easy. This Valentine's Day version is cute. And I always actually meant to make one in white/black/orange.



Success during #makermornings. Though ours wasn't heart shaped.



I love these. And their packaging is the loveliest I've ever seen. Almost didn't want to open it to get at the star.



I want.

This Week We've Been

Reading Blizzard, by John Rocco. I took a few pics from the book with an iPad camera and put them in Dropbox (to distribute to all of our iPads). The first grade kids practiced using Shadow Puppet EDU to sequence the pics. We also tried recording their retellings but they didn't turn out too well cause all of them were recording at once. Loads of background noise. Plus they only got to hear the story the one time. Still, the teachers liked the app and the kids didn't do too badly with it so I think we'll see it again.







On a totally unrelated note we read parts of Creature Features in Kinder and tried Chatter Pix just up at the front with a couple volunteers. Eventually we'll have them try it individually, after they've seen it a few times with different books. And we finish getting the covers on the iPads!

#IMWAYR end of January

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.

I wrote a bit on Goodreads for three of the four. For Convergence there will be a post next week. Shorter than even the short Goodreads ... Wollstonecraft Agency is fun ... but I like Theodosia or Enola Holmes better. We shall see. after further installments. Dreaming was just ... awful. And Port Chicago ... wow. Sad story. I listened to the audiobook which was well done but sort of feel like I missed out on photos and primary source documents and such.

I'm listening to Lincoln on the commute. Young Houdini and Red Rising I just need to FINISH. Started Nightmares last night ... we'll see how it goes. Jeff Mack is coming to our school in May so I'm talking him up. Alex Rider is always fun. All the Truth just sounded interesting. And Story Thieves has been on my list for a while.

And I should get to Woven as it actually sounds quite good and the author's sister invited me to a little book launch party she was having.

On Sunday Jan. 23

Click through for original sources. And big OOPS. I thought I finished/posted this on Friday. Shows you how being behind gets you in trouble. Organized bloggers bave posts ready to go ahead of time.



I love this color combo.


I wish there was a way to get this to work at school. Right now it doesn't because it is tied to a user's G+ account. But think of what they could build! Never run out of a color or size? And stop finding Legos on the floor every single day? ;)



Next week's MakerMorning Lego challenge? Albeit one that will cause mess? Only have a few plates, though. Hmmm.



I totally want the owl necklace. *offtoorder*

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

These are Instagram repeats. Two fun books.


And a MakerMorning experiment ... Earthquake!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

#IMWAYR (Almost) Jan.19

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.


Last week I read these. Steve Jenkins always has good stuff. As does John Rocco.

And since I never did get a post written up last week I have to say I loved Lockwood & Co. #2 The Whispering Skull. More Lockwood, ASAP! Hunchback will fill in for at least a couple books.

I received Demon's Heart as a gift from the author's sister-in-law. It's actually much better than the title (or cover, really) make it sound. Give it a chance if you like fantasy! It is the beginning of a series so we'll have to wait to get full closure for the next title. But, this one was a fun ride while it lasted.


I want very much to get a copy of the new middle grade Wollstonecraft Detective Agency Case of the Missing Moonstone. And I just found out yesterday about a new YA title called Woven that is being released on Tuesday. It looks interesting and I know the sister of one of the authors. (Funny. Two ... "connections" in one post. Never known anyone published before. And still don't, actually ... just know family members.)

Finally Friday Jan. 16

Remember to click through to the original sources if you don't see them in your readers. And have a great weekend! I live large. Think I'm going to bed early again.

This made me laugh.



Started a third grade ... it's not tutoring cause they are already strong. It's more ... well, I'll write more about it later. First half is reading, second half is steam. I showed them Caine's Arcade and then we started building "something." They had some great ideas but ... it's like they thought they could finish something in 10 minutes? So I need to rethink my explanations. I biffed it in many ways this week with poor third grade. Thought they could answer eight questions and create a nine slide Haiku Deck in 4 hours. My bad. I see now but I didn't before. We used to make PSA videos so I thought this would be easier ... but that was more the writing they were used to. As succinct as Haiku Deck is ... they needed more time. I will still share when they are done cause the works in progress are pretty cool. I just feel bad I so misjudged. Anyway. Point being the group and the MAKING.



Gotta work on this one. I still want people to like me.



Also started Maker Mornings (7:15-7:45 ... you'll get more info once our TCEA presentation is done!). I see this one in our future.



Is this funny or kind of annoying? I don't look like I'm going to break someone's knees. Ever, even when I know they haven't even tried to look for it. Let's go with he's being silly. Cause Calvin is just to funny to be annoyed by.