1st Grade Love

Remember that Writer's suitcase post that I wrote a while back? Well little did I know that I would find love notes in my comment jar. I have a feeling that this little girl doesn't know that I periodically read through them.

"I like your picture and I like you! That is secret ok?"

And then it gets more serious: "I love you and your picture....kiss."

Oh boy....I guess boys don't have cooties just yet.

Non-fiction has never been more interesting...

I wish I could remember how I learned stuff as a kid. I wish I could remember if my teachers got all freakishly excited about teaching different units looking more "enthused" about the material than their young audience. I wonder if they walked around with a clipboard, eager to jot down our responses to reading..."ooooh!" "Cool!" "No way!", and then couldn't wait to share them with us afterward. I wonder if reading time was "alive" in my classroom when I was first learning how to read. I hope that my students could say that it is in ours... We are currently in the midst of a non-fiction unit, both in reading and writing. We began with all of the conventions that help you read non-fiction (labels, table of contents, captions, close-ups, cutaways, etc.) and then moved on to taking those skills toward their own "research". They are all working hard at their own non-fiction book (about a topic of their choice). It is quite the task, but they are doing great!

As we learned each convention, the students kept their own "Conventions notebook" to find examples throughout real text. I had some special helpers draw our mini anchor charts for everyone to see.

The students were in full discovery mode as they continued to share "I found another comparison!" or "look at all these labels!" I thought I would just display them instead of closing their findings and shoving them back on the shelf.

Many times young kids (or all kids for that matter) struggle with non-fiction books because the text is too difficult. I decided to print off some tricky pieces of information from books in our classroom library and put them in our "Wait...what?" cup (that is usually the sound you make when you get to a tricky sentence).

The kids then turn "eye to eye and knee to knee" and share how they think they could make the sentence more simple. We bring all of our ideas together and come up with a better piece of information. This helps them to infer deeper meanings...and also take notes without copying straight from the text.

When we are reading non-fiction all together, I thought I would use the FQR chart (Fact, Question, and Response) that I have seen in some resource books. The kids have fun helping me by being the "note-taker" and records the students thoughts. Note to self: "Invisible" pens work great to have the other students occupied while the "note-taker" is writing. "We are all taking notes together!"

Grillin'.

The heat's turned off, the flowers are blooming, and the Evans' are barbequing! We thought that with the weather warming up, we would bring out the grill for some company we had over the other night. Little did we know that it would take almost an hour to heat up the coal and then cook the burgers but hey, it was worth it! Now that the grill is out, it is only a matter of time before our hammocks, picnic blankets, and flip-flops begin to show themselves.

I was so proud of my man...look at him go.

We were so overanxious about barbequing that we totally forgot to buy rolls for the hamburgers! Kind of an important piece huh? Luckily one of the ladies that was coming over was a super woman and just whipped some up like an hour and a half before she came. What a blessing...and they were delicious!

Street waffles...yum.

As Dave and I were off walking through the city enjoying the beautiful sunny day, we thought we would pop in to McDonald's to get some breakfast. On our way back home with full and content bellies, it was then that I noticed them....waffles. I just couldn't resist. Not only were they sweet tasting, convenient, and 3 kuai but they were fresh! I couldn't get over it. Waddling home with one hand holding the waffles and the other comforting my full belly was the picture of how I "enjoyed" this treat. It was soooo worth it.

Food & books

What a liberating feeling to have a break without pressing projects or frequent visits to the school. Not that the grading is done or I don't have things to decorate and organize, but it can wait. I actually had time to just...rest (kind of what a real "break" should be like, huh?). If I could put two words to characterize our spring break it would have to be food and books. For a couple hours each morning, Dave and I would just stay snuggled up on the couch with our noses in a book (or books...I'm an A.D.D reader). When we weren't reading or taking random trips, we were most likely at a new restaurant of some sort with friends. We had the most delicious food this week...what a luxury! Little did we realize that both of the best meals were Japanese, but hey...they were both so good.

Here we are with Andy and Diana at a nice Japanese restaurant in town. This food was to die for! Mouth watering steak, shrimp, seasoned chicken, mushrooms with beef.....yuuuummm!

And look! I thought that we were supposed to sit "Indian-style", but our feet hide under the floor....how cool!

And then hibachi....with all the newly married couples. There are more of us, we are just stretched out all around this humongous table.

Steak, chicken, vegetables, fried rice...couldn't get better.

Dave and I headed out to a popular fast food place this morning. They sell a breakfast food called "Youtiaos" (basically funnel cake without the powdered sugar). Soooo goood!

But this is what I'd rather do instead....he started it.

This afternoon I headed out shopping with some ladies....we had to make a tasty pit stop first of course. Fruit smoothies!

Strawberry, blueberry & mango....yum

Cute moments

If I earned a penny for every time my students said/did something hysterical, I would be pretty rich. I should have had a notebook titled "Kid Quotes" at the beginning of the year to just record them all. I was able to document a few of the moments that were in writing...everything else depends on my memory (which usually fails me an hour after the moment). Before our science unit on Materials & Objects, I had the students work together in groups to make a KWL chart (What they Know, what they Want to know, and the what they Learned would be later). According to one of my students, his knowledge of materials and objects was that squirrels were made of meat. He even drew a picture with a label! At least that wasn't his question, because I am definitely not talking about the properties and materials of animals...

For our writer's suitcase that has been going home each weekend, one precious girl decided to paste some of the wallpaper from her new house into our writer's notebook. The students take the whole week to fill our comment jar, and I decided to read a few of them. Here's one (from the same student as above)..."I like the way you put the wallpaper in the journal (It feels good!)". I love how kids talk to each other....especially these two. They are both American in a sea of Korean students so they have a natural draw and bond to each other. I find it hard not to laugh at their interactions at times. One time when he was telling her some fascinating information about dolphins, he proceeded to act out how they can stick their noses 1 inch from your face. Boy was she startled! I just walked away laughing to myself I almost cried.

A six hour adventure to the border...

Friday Morning:

Dave: "Hey hon...do you want to go somewhere for spring break?"

Lauren: "Are you sure? It starts tomorrow! Do you think we'll have time?"

Dave: "Oh sure, I'll just run and get tickets today....let's go see the border of China and North Korea!"

Lauren: "OOOOokkkk (brief hesitation)...sounds like fun!"

And we were off to Dandong....marveling at the spontaneity of it, and looking forward to the adventure of our riverfront hotel, two days of exploring and seeing what we could of North Korea (museums, mountains, boat rides, etc).

Here we are on the train super excited for our adventure together!

And then we got off the train:

Dave: "OOhhhh....no..."

Lauren: "What? Did you forget something on the train"

Dave: "The passports are at home......"

Lauren: "Ohhh.....that means..."

Dave: "no hotel...."

Luckily, we were able to keep good spirits about it and quickly searched for a ride back that evening. Since the next train was leaving at 12:00 and it was already 11:00, we decided to take a bus back at 6:30 that evening. We left our luggage with the bus station and were off to cram it all in one day! Good thing Dandong is a small city...a verymanageable trip for just one day...just not ideal. We had to cut our sight-seeing in half, yet were able to see the main attractions....the border itself and a boat ride in Korean waters. We were thrilled!

Since we didn't have a hotel room to crash in when our feet were throbbing, this SPR shop was our resting place. Good food, good coffee and great atmosphere!

Here is a shot of North Korea. Interesting to see a ferris wheel in the background. Wonder if anyone rides that thing?

We had our own personal speedboat for a good 20 minutes! Let's just say, we got up close and personal with the "other side".

Note to self: Don't look through binoculars when your on rocky waters going a very fast speed. I think I bruised my cheekbone!

China behind us An old steam shovel that hasn't been used in the states for decades....wonder if the Koreans use it....

The entrance to the bridge that was bombed by Americans during the Korean war.

It was so interesting to see the contrast of countries. Looking over to one side, it is dark and dismal with not much going on. And over here in Dandong, they had bands playing, kites flying, and people laughing. I wonder if they are envious of the joy.

It was so neat to watch this guy paint characters on the ground. If you didn't look long enough, what he wrote evaporated in a matter of minutes!

And to end the day, we treated our twisted back and shin splints with a 20 kuai massage (that's like $3.00)...it was fabulous.

And then filled our tummies before hopping on the train! What a day!

Hopefully we can make it back to Dandong again to see the museum and hike a well known mountain. But through it all, He provided! We felt so blessed by how everything worked out...and we sure did save a lot of money :)