A wedding out our window...

I feel a bit under dressed. I stand here with my unshowered desheveled hair and pajamas only to see that there is quite the celebration right outside our window! I assumed that it was a traditional Chinese wedding with all the red clothing, the hanging box, and dancing dragons in the front. As they played their music and marched around the apartment, I ran back and forth like a little kid thinking they were going to throw me candy. When they were nearing the back of our apartment, I got so caught up in hanging out the window (1st floor by the way) to catch it on video, that I didn't even realize the group of people just staring at me. Once I realized, I thought to myself "Oh there is never a moment we Americans don't get stared at". But then I suddenly rememebered my attire. My hair....is sticking up everywhere.....my face...still has imprints of the bedsheet.....my clothes.....mixmatching with holes! Yikes! That's what they are staring at! Well, I still think it was worth it for the video I was able to capture. Wish it wouldn't take an eternity to upload.

Noodle Dancing

At first glance, it appeared to be an aproned man performing a ribbon dance. Yet amidst the cheering and applaud you discover this stretching/flinging/twirling thing to be one long noodle! An edible one at that, soon to be dropped into a boiling pot in the center of the table. This my friends, was quite the experience...dinner WAS the show!

We were out celebrating at an upscale hotpot restaurant for a friend's birthday. I have never been waited on with such persistency in my life. Personal aprons for the "noodle splash-back" hot rags that were promptly delivered when yours got cold, people stationed in the bathrooms to lotion your hands, and even a free ticket to get your nails done while you were waiting! While we enjoyed being waited on hand and foot, we were entertained by the noodle dancing and laughter with good friends. What a joy it was to all get out together again....it's been way too long.

This guy is getting ready to wind up and trick Amber and Rachael....look at their faces in this picture (this is before he decides to fling the noodle inches from their eyes).

And this is after he flung it right in front of them....and I captured it! We laughed at this picture for quite some time after that moment.

Laughing about something....not sure what....most likely something to do with noodles.

Now that I got out and socialized, its back to the books to prepare for the last and final stretch of the year...the 4th quarter! There will be many adjustments come Monday when my classes will be much larger than before. I have to keep telling myself "If I could do 20 students last year, I can handle it for just one quarter now."

When being "cheap" kicks you in the rear...

I knew this moment would come. The moment when past shopping decisions would start coming back to humor me. Back when I was getting the classroom decorated, I was out getting pillows made. I was told that it would be wise to purchase the actual pillow inserts, but I realized that I could just buy the fuzz stuff for a 1/4 of the price! Who wouldn't go for a deal like that? A year and a half later, I realized why I should have listened to the market ladies.

Closely hung winter jackets + LICE outbreak = washing everything with fabric in your classroom!

Even though we only have one student with lice in our classroom, I spent the whole afternoon "de-stuffing" all eight pillows. Carpets are shampooed and everything else is in the wash machine. Hopefully we can get rid of this fast!

I'll have a lot of fun come Monday morning trying to shove all of this back in each pillow. Just look at the pile of bags I have to work with!

Maybe the markets are not always trying to rip you off....maybe there is quite a bit of wisdom in how they sell you stuff. Noted for later trips ;)

Homeade Lasagna = Teamwork

Like mentioned before....people motivate me.

To put it in the perspective of my kitchen, I find this pattern of positive energy everytime someone is either cooking with me or working nearby. The other day, Dave and I were making lasagna together and it was so fun (and I am pretty sure he felt the same way)! We were tagteaming it the whole way, and were able to knock out the steps in 1/2 the time. I worked on the homeade lasagna noodles while Dave worked away at the meat and sauce. By the time we were both done, we just sat there in our glorified exhaustion waiting for our dinner to cook. Oh the joys of working together!

Thanks Emily for your lasagna noodle recipe! They were so good that Dave and I just sat there eating them raw :)

Pure satisfaction :)

The only thing is that with just the two of us, we are stuck eating lasagna for the week.

A Scrapbook of Comprehension

It is always so entertaining to watch how students interpret their understanding. It could be as small as knowing how rain effects the Earth to big things like how changes works together to create order. I have simply fallen in love with the idea of using journals for every subject. This opens the doors for creating an interactive notebook with responses, quick assessments, and it is much easier to grade their work since it is always in the same place! If it's a cute little foldable, they just glue it in, and then have lined paper to write a quick response. The cool thing is that it acts as a keepsake for them (they love looking back on all that they have learned). In one particular subject, I use a bunch of different comprehension responses to see how they are understanding the lesson...take a peek!

Illustrate & Label

Sometimes after sharing a story, I might say "Okay, I want you to cut up this paper and re-create the scene, label the important parts, and then respond how this story is like you!"

Comparing Characters & Places

Sometimes I might just have them compare and contrast two different characters that we have already reviewed. This student chose Samson and Gideon (they were both "heros").

Story Sequence

Sometimes I have them create a window where they need to include "First, then, next, and finally" to create a sequence of what happened in the story that day. Labels, simple sentence, and illustrations need to be included. This was one student's account for what happened after they took Samson away:

First the Philistines took him away!

Then they chained him to a building.

Next he was forgiven and got his strength back!

Finally he broke the building (that had the Philistines in it) and Samson died!

Character Analysis

And sometimes I have them choose two characters that we learned and write about them in the 1st person. They need to include who they are, why they are important, and some other interesting facts about his/her story.

If it is too hard to read, here is his interpretation of these two characters:

Ruth

Hi. My name is Ruth. In my past, a man named Boaz left me lots of wheat when I was gleaning. What became of me you ask? I got married to Boaz and had baby Obed.

Samson

Hey. I'm Samson. As a Nazarite, I am very strong! My enemies are the Philistines. I wish I could kill someone with a tree. In the end I will die.

I wish I had thought of this idea at the beginning of the year! At least I can begin anew next year :)

I miss my real clothes....

From pajama day last Friday and Dr. Seuss day on Wednesday to Pirate day this Friday, I am getting confused about who I am anymore! "You get to be just plain old you on Monday!" were my parting with my students as they left the school "Arrghing" their way out the door. The reason for the extra jewelry, scarves, belts, and boots was because the Elementary had the chance to watch the first showing of the MS/HS play "Treasure Island". I had helped out a bit with props, so I knew the story line and saw different scenes, but boy was I in for an impressed shock! Those students did a fabulous job! Their fight scenes, monologues, and acting abilities just left me with so much appreciation for those directors. My good friend Julie had the vision for the drama program at this school, and she has gone over and above the community's expectations...both times (last year with Secret Garden as well). I commend you for all of your hard work, and your perseverance as you stuck it out even while you were drained from work and being pregnant. Phew...superwoman I tell ya.

Here are some pic's of our pirate gear before the day started....Dave forgot his bandanna so his "look" didn't get captured.

Looking forward to Monday....normal work clothes ;)

Dr. Seuss's Birthday!

Today was Dr. Suess's birthday! With parades, stories, rhymes, movies, games, crafts, and costumes, we celebrated this day like no other! The only down side of letting the kids have a time of their life was how exhausting it was for the teachers...but hey, they had fun and that's what counts. Before the event even started, I found myself marveling at the sheer talent of this one tailor we know. I wanted to dress up like "Daisy-Head Mayzie" yet didn't have time to go get any of the fabric or make detailed measurements. I simply printed a picture and said I wanted the same thing. I could not believe how accurate it was! Take a look...

The only down side is that it is still winter here...transporting through the hallways was a bit frigid.

Good friends of mine (Rachael and Amber) dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Don't they look awesome?

"I'm inferring..."

I love when little kids use big words. It's an added bonus when they even use it in the proper context. Throughout the year as I have been teaching different comprehension strategies, several "big" words kept popping up...prediction, connection, schema, mental image, stamina, etc. The new 1st grade word is "inference" (basically giving clues and facts to a prediction). The hysterical part is how much my students get into it. One of them even said "Mrs. Evans! It's like a math problem! Your schema + clues in the story = an inference!" They use it all day long now..."Mrs. Evans, I'm inferring that we are going to put a new poem in our journals because my schema tells me we do it every Tuesday, and I see the clue on my desk!" What a group worth teaching to, huh?

On one of our doors, we have started an "inferring challenge". I have put a bunch of riddles on the door, and they have to "infer" what animal is, and then tell me why. It has been simply precious to see what they have already put.

We won't reveal them all until the challenge is over!

"I'm inferring it is a platypus. Something tells me it is a platypus (I don't know what it is)"

"I'm inferring it is an octopus. I think it's a octopus because of my schema"

I wish I could post actual pictures of my kids...I captured them at random times throughout the day going over to that door to "make an inference". Love love love this job...

The beauty of Northern China...in winter.

This past weekend, Dave and I said goodbye to each other at 7:00am and didn't reunite until 6:00ish. I must say it was a bit wierd knowing that we were both in Shenyang, just doing different things. I was helping my good friend Julie with the "Treasure Island" play coming up this weekend while Dave explored the mountains with some friends. Little did he know that in February there would still be massive waterfalls that were frozen all the way through...how beautiful! A friend of his was able to capture the beauty that they saw on their hike...simply breathtaking.

As Josh would say... "Big Dave"

"Medium Dave"

"Little Dave" and HUGE waterfall!

While we do enjoy the winter, I am seriously looking for flowers to bloom and the green grass to come through the frozen ground.

It all goes downhill from here...

So I'm officially in my "hobby" groove. Buttons...check. Zippers...check. Thread...check. Sewing tools...check. Lots and lots of fabric...check. Looks like I'm ready to go! This past weekend, I searched through all of the piles of scraps searching for assorted fabrics I could use for future projects (shirts, skirts, bags, who knows?). For less than $15 dollars I got over 20 pieces of fabric to work with! Now I just have to choose one and go with it....that's the hardest part...so many to choose from.

I felt like it was one big joyous pile of leaves...I worked hard to get that all together!

My new little sewing area...and my organized fabrics.

Dave went out and helped me get a collapsable work table. It's just perfect!

Trying to scrunch/ruffle this fabric.....it's tricker than it looks.

Wish me luck with some more sewing endeavors! Thank you for all of you who have been cheering me on ;)