6 year old teachers...

"Wait, your kids know what schema means? Do they know any other big words?"

"Well...funny you should ask..."

And that's how it all began....having my kids teach the 10th grade English class that is. I had no idea that a little bit of sharing would provoke our principal to ask if they could share with the big kids! Once I told them, they were so excited that they just ran with it. With preparation of only one reading class, my kids excitedly brainstormed what to say, made posters to help teach, planned questions to "quiz" them at the end, and then made bookmarks to help them remember what they learned! I was so impressed with them! Here are a few of their materials...wish I could post the pictures of them actually presenting it.

The "Plan"

Here are the bookmarks that they so thoughtfully decorated for them.

And of course the posters. The first one is representing stamina with a marathon runner making it all the way to the end of the race.

And "Schema-man"....love it.

It was so precious to hear their sigh of proud relief at the end..."Phew! I was so nervous!" (as they are clutching their little throats). Drama queens at six...but boy, were they adorable!

Moving snapshots....

"Look at that! Quick, grab the camera!"...one of the most common (frantic) quotes on our van rides to school. The only problem is that by the time I fumble through the bottom of my bag and turn my camera on, the moment has passed by. Luckily I was able to snag a few interesting sights on our seemingly "normal" ride into work.

The street "sweeper" a.k.a "dust cloud maker". Those brooms attached to the back are the literal brooms that the human street sweepers use...killing six birds with one stone...

It's hard to see, but there is a truck carrying a tree twice it's size. It's almost as big as the tree at the Rockefeller center during christmas time!And then there are the "hospitalized trees"...all injected with some sort of I.V. All of the trees on this one strip have tubes connected to them with little bags hanging. It's quite the sight.These next two are a bit blurry, but for obvious reasons...both of us are moving! While we have never been stopped by goats, we sure do see a lot of them in traffic alongside of us :).

Now I always sit on the bus with camera in hand ;)

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