Young Writers!

Tonight we got to celebrate our young writers in the county.  It is always heartening to see the theatre filled for a non-athletic event!  Writers being encouraged and rewarded is such an important thing.
So, my two winners were in the Kindergarten Poetry category.  We work on them at school and it takes about a week of 1/2 hour lessons to get poems out of them.  Rhyming they have down cold, but rhythm takes a bit of work!  I choose the top 5 or 6 pieces and then let other teachers read them to get the top two, which I enter into the contest.  All of the rest (as well as the two winners) will be sent to the Dominion Post to be published on their Kids Info page.  Everybody gets some glory.
Here are the two winning poems:

Pretty Snow Girl

I like snow girls

Nice and tall.

I stack her up.

It takes three balls.

She looks good.

Will she fall?

She has a scarf.

It is pink.

She is pretty.

That's what I think.

-Dalaynie    2nd place

Hibernation

In their cozy bed

Bears are sleeping.

Eyes are closed.

Nobody is peeking.

All winter they sleep

Under the snow

Soft and deep.

-Austyn     1st place

Here are the proud poets and their equally proud teacher!  Yep.  These are the moments that matter.

Arrrghh! Sigh...

Today was one of those days when I am 127% sure that retirement is the right thing at the right time for me.  Administrators and other non-classroom folks who think they know what is happening in my classroom and then proceed to mess with it without bothering to find out can get on my last sane nerve.  Got a new kid...who has spent about 6 weeks being homeschooled due to conflicts in his first classroom...with behavior issues.
I was told that he was placed in my room, ignoring established procedure, because I don't have any "problem" children.  What?!?!?!  Once again, doing my job well has come back to bite me in the butt.  Because we handle our children within the classroom, the powers that be assume I don't have any problems. 
Whatever.
Then when I went in the other room and saw these lovely jewels made especially for me by some of my sweetie pies, I knew again that I am, and have been, where I belong...

Something to match every outfit!

 This one is from one of my little guys who presented it, all aglow and said,

"I think it used to be my mom's, but she's gone now."

Perhaps my love affair with child crafted jewelry began with this necklace from my niece, Chelsea, who is graduating from the Art Institute of Charlotte this spring! 

So, the balance works out.  When the powers that be conflict with the love that is...LOVE wins!



Age Old Dilemma Solved

Even though we had snow 2 days last week and I am firmly convinced that we will have more, people have started talking about vacations and beaches and bathing suits. There are a very few things I would rather think about or discuss than me and bathing suits!
But that was before I discovered this clever solution...camouflage bathing suits!


Who knew? If you can't see me in my camo, then I don't have to worry about you seeing me...problem solved. Let's go to the beach!
Leave it to Cabela's to think of everything!
Are you smiling?

Spring Snow

Sunday into Monday, we got a lovely spring snow. When I went out Monday morning, in my snowman dress, to go to work, there were about 4 inches of snow and the birds were singing! One of life's lovlinesses! I also, this weekend, got to make invitations to our new Arts Council Board of Directors and chose a rebirth, renewal and possibilities theme. See the lovely crocus flowers...



I am so happy with how they turned out...pretty, huh? And I see on accuweather that we have a winter warning for up to 6" of heavy snow Thursday night into Friday! Snowman dress...again!

Hope you, too, are enjoying the wild spring weather...

Tiny Crazy Wooliness...

I just finished this one while listening to one of the best finishes of all time in Mountaineer basketball!
I am trying to learn some fun stitches.  The whole thing is only 4x4ish...tiny quilt...

Still much to learn, but it seems like a good start.

Whimsical Wooliness

Here are a few of my woolies...

Started out pretty primitive and still like that look a lot!

Some day I will have a whole series for each month.  This is January and below is April.

Front...

...and back.  Sold these on a teddy bear they got to keep, too.

A bird in the hand is....dinner!

Beautiful antique button.

And a cover for my Kindle. 

Looking forward to much more time for this after I retire!

Konichiwa

As part of our continuing year long theme of Oceans and Islands, we are visiting Japan for now.  First thing today we did a map and a flag.  We discussed the geography of Japan and how it causes them to live crowded.  (We will do a physical space activity on the carpet on Monday as a review...crowding more people into the same space.)  We discussed the Land of the Rising Sun and how much easier it is to color their flag than ours.
Then the real fun began.  The two main activities for today were scrolls for a tokonoma area with some original haiku and kimono dolls made from the ever popular and oh so handy toilet paper rolls.  I hope you aren't getting tired of the pictures, because it seems like there are more and more...maybe we just have too much fun!  Anyway, here are today's photos.

Bulletin board before...

 ...and after.  Notice the kid's art on the after?

 I was so excited when one little girl came to me with the 1st two lines done and had used morn instead of morning because she needed one less syllable...but then she thought that spar would be better than sparkling since I was so happy with morn instead of morning...they do want to please! 

Here are my other two favorite haiku:

The leaves grow in Spring

They look like raindrops in trees

But the sun is out

Flowers like to bloom

In springtime, flowers have buds

They smell like perfume

Working together on their haiku.

Counting syllables with me.

Starting our origami Samurai helmets.

Cute warriors.

Cute warriors.

Cute warriors.

Cute warriors.

What?  You gotta be kidding? 
No.  Really.  I made this hat without using my hands!

4:10 on a Friday afternoon.  Were you having this much fun?