Day in a Sentence

On this three day weekend celebrating Casimir Pulaski, I am appreciating an extra day for catching up.

Check out this week's Day in a Sentence challenge at Kevin's Meandering Mind .

Slice of Life Story Challenge 2009

Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers are hosting the 2nd Slice of Life Story Challenge. The challenge is to write about a slice of each day in March. I would like to give it a try. I will see if I can squeeze a few more writing moments into 31 days. Maybe it will help daily writing to become a habit.

Day in a Sentence

The challenge this week is to limit the week to only 3 words! Check out the results here at Anne's website.

My 3 words...

BIG dinosaur project!

Buying Books

I have partially completed part 1 of Amy's 2009 Book Challenge. I went to the book store and bought a book... for myself...for fun. It is grave surprise by Charlaine Harris. It happens to be the second in a series so I may need to read the first book before reading this one.

Now, for some reflections -
It was/is really difficult for me to go to the book store and buy a book - for me - for pleasure reading. This was my second trip with this challenge in mind! I actively use the library and I buy books at used book sales, garage sales or used book stores. I have always thought that this was environmentally friendly. I believe that this is a personal issue with frugality and being raised not to buy presents for myself. I can buy books that I love or want to read more than once. For example, I waited to read the first 3 Harry Potter books until friends had finished them and I could borrow them. I bought books 4-7 soon after their release. ( Number 6 had to stay in the trunk until I finished a big grad school project!)

I have no trouble buying books for my classroom. I believe that part of this is the book's length. I can stand in the bookstore and read a whole picture book and know if I love it and/or how I can use it. (I bought 3 on this trip!)

I have no trouble buying books for gifts and do so often.

Now the dilemma -
I obviously read all the time and do want to support the work of authors. This has given me a dilemma to ponder that I had never considered before.

Day in a Sentence

Patriotic feelings swell in the midst of Lincoln's 200th Birthday Celebration.

My picture shows Lincoln in Post-It Notes created by Chris Killham and displayed in the windows on the bridge that spans Jefferson Street.

All the excitement was contagious living in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois. I even was rerouted through the mall parking lot when the Presidential motorcade (Obama, not Lincoln) went by. That certainly doesn't happen very often.

Here is President Lincoln dressed for his birthday at Lincoln Library. (The city library where I checked out an armload of dinosaur books for an upcoming project, not the Presidential Library.)


And one more of Lincoln's home decorated for the celebration. It is only a block from Lincoln Library.

Happy 200th Abraham Lincoln!

Image from The Library of Congress on Flickr.


Last night, I attended Let Freedom Sing! with some friends. This citywide musical celebration was organized to honor President Lincoln's 200th Birthday. We blew into the Prairie Capital Convention Center on a cold night wind. The feeling inside was of warm excitement. The seats began to fill. Preconcert music began to fill the air and musicians began to parade by to take their places. A sea of colored robes from area churches and colored shirts from area schools flowed into the chairs at the front. Instruments marched by as the Springfield High School band and the Illinois Youth Symphony joined the Illinois Symphony orchestra. Jerry Lambert provided a welcome and the show began. Patriotic fever filled the air as the color guard brought in the American flag followed by our national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. The music was wonderful and included many opportunities for the audience to participate. We sang an impromptu Happy Birthday to President Lincoln prior to his reading of the Gettysburg Address while the Symphony provided accompanying music. Finally, Abraham Lincoln borrowed the baton from Karen Lynne Deal and proceeded to enthusiastically direct all the musicians in the final song of the evening. It was a wonderful combination of church and state to honor a great President.

Check out the cool picture of Lincoln's spotlighted home.

Skating

Laura hosts the 15 Words or Less Poem Challenge each week. This time I only used 15 words but I also wrote 2 poems. Check out this week's frozen picture and other fun poems at her site.




Come...
You're the first.
Skates on.
Push off.
G-L-I-D-E
Smoothly over
A frozen reflection pool.


Words skate
Across the page
Gliding from
My pen.
Thoughts recorded.
Memories saved.
Stories shared.

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge - February

Happy Birthday Meg Cabot! (February 1)

This month I read Size 12 is Not Fat by Ms. Cabot. I read this one all this afternoon. The main character, Heather Wells, is a residence hall assistant that lives with her ex-boyfriend's brother, a detective. Her topsy-turvy life becomes more interesting when some of the residents are murdered! Now I guess I need to look for Size 14 is Not Fat Either.


Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

A Math Challenge

The challenge was to find as many ways as possible to make 100¢. The students could work alone or with a partner. They needed to organize their work. They could only use quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.




Everybody spread out and got right to work. (One student was sent to the hall to work. One pair had to return to their seats for off-task behavior. Two of the three unfocused students did end up with a product.)




Several examples of completed work are shown here. No one found all of the possiblities and no one used a strategy for organizing their work to make sure all the answers were found. It would be an interesting followup discussion.



In an ideal world, this kind of exploration would be a normal part of the math routine. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to fully integrate it yet. But....I haven't given up!

Day in a Sentence on Stixy

This week Kevin has challenged us to add our Day/Week in a Sentence contribution to Stixy. This is a fun site that works like a bulletin board. Check it out here .

My contribution this week: A math challenge keeps almost all my second graders engaged!

I am wondering if this could be a good place for some staff collaboration. For example, we are currently challenged to integrate productive talk experiences into our daily instruction. Could Stixy be a good place to share/celebrate ideas? Unfortunately, it is currently blocked by the district. I am wondering why.