100th Day...Super Bowl Style

Today was the 100th day of school. Well actually, it was number 99...BUT...tomorrow my kiddos will be MAP testing, and I can just see them 100% focused when I am dressed like a football superstar and they are all decked out in their gear. So, we celebrated on the 99th day of school. They were totally fine with it, and we did an excellent job at pretending that it was day 100! Onto our 100th Day Celebrations! 

Yesterday, in preparation for the 100th day,  I stayed after school to do a little decorating in the midst of tornado watches, torrential downpour, and some crazy lightning. Ahhh...Life in the south. My sweet mama helped me make some gigantic footballs to hang from the ceiling. I bet the fire marshals would love this...

I am *sure* that they would meet code! My kids were obsessed. They tried to convince me to let them take some home. Hmmm...that could be a great incentive for later. I will keep that in mind.

After I left school, I should have been super worried about the weather, but instead I was determined to find a Ray Lewis jersey. No such luck. So I moved on to plan B, and I made one! 

This and some nice "eye black" {as my boys called it} gave me superstar status! Ha! 

Today on *our* 100th day, we began by watching some highlights of Ray Lewis during our morning work. He has some pretty inspirational speeches on YouTube. The kids were amazed by him which is why our Super Bowl predictions turned out like this...

Obviously, the Ravens are a favorite in our classroom. 

After our predictions were made, we used my Let's Talk Football Unit and began researching what football was like 100 years ago. There is an excellent little video on YouTube that the kids thought was hysterical. We also did a little partner research and worked on Venn Diagrams to use when writing our comparison essays. We found out some pretty cool facts from long ago. I am loving how these turned out! They had some really fabulous writings! I was super impressed!  

How cute are those little football superstars? You can check out more football themed writings in my Let's Talk Football Unit. 

Although we had a lot of fun during writing, I would have to say our math activity was the favorite of the day. We have been working our way through measurement, and today we had a 100th Day Championship Football Throw. They were pumped! We began with the Customary Units Championship, followed by the Metric System Championship. 

The kids each had their own football thanks to one of my cheer moms (not to be confused with dance moms). Those ladies are CAH-RAZY! 

During the competition, they had to throw their football 100 inches, 100 feet, 100 mm and 100 centimeters. We used tape measurers to find the correct distance of each. The kiddos then had to record reflections after each throw. 

I actually had one student who threw his football 100 feet. He was so proud! This was an excellent activity to help the students really understand each unit of measure and begin associating relative lengths with each. 

We had such a fun day together. Now, let's pray they are ready to score some major touchdowns on their MAP test tomorrow! Happy 100th {eh..99th} day, friends! 

Leicester City Defences for the Partizan Game

Here is a tester for the quickly thrown up defences, trenches for the Partizan game. Basically a through earthwork with some wooden planks for cover. This was quite a simple thing to make, a bit of shaped polythene covered in all purpose, ready to use filler glued to a base with the planks being Mr MacDonald's' coffee stirrers. Let me know what you thing, as I have another 35 of them to do after this one. Actually I just recounted and its 36 inches of defences I want as it is six inches in length it is only another five of them to do, but I might increase that to more. Anyway here some pictures of them.

Front

front to the side

Back

Side profile

Some figures to give an idea of scale. The last two figures are actually kneeling.

Put Your Right Heart In

As I've stated here before, in my review of Jake and Lily, if Jerry Spinelli writes them, I read them.  I've laughed out loud during a wrestling match.  I've agonized with a boy dreading his tenth birthday.  I've been the girl who doesn't fit the mold, marching to more than her own drummer, eyes focused on a special star. I've run alongside Maniac and Penn racing for all their worth.

With his newest title Spinelli takes me to a place every reader visits and leaves, never staying.  In Hokey Pokey (Alfred A. Knopf) childhood is described so uniquely readers (myself included) are caught by surprise before being astounded by its brilliance.  In one day the marvelous, fantastical fun of this land is laid before us in all its innocent glory.


All night long Seven Sisters whisper and giggle and then, all together, they rush Orion the Hunter and tickle him, and Orion the Hunter laughs so hard he shakes every star in the sky, not to mention Mooncow, who looses her balance and falls--puh-loop!--into Big Dipper, which tip-tip-tips and dumps Mooncow into Milky Way...

Celestial antics begin the story of Jack as a teeny, tiny remnant of the night lands on his nose whispering it's...time.  He awakens with the belief the world as he knows it, has shifted.  Immediately he realizes his beloved bike, Scramjet, is missing.

Not only has his bike been stolen but it's now in the possession of his worst nightmare, a girl by the name of Jubilee. Sending the mightiest of his Tarzan yells over the land of Hokey Pokey he calls his amigos, LaJo and Dusty.  They quickly mount up and ride to his assistance, united in their determination to reclaim his black and silver stallion, as the day, the quest, the adventure unfolds.

In short chapters Spinelli alternates perspectives between Jack, his friends, Jubilee, a pint-sized bully named Destroyer and brief nods to characters important to Jack's life.  For this is not only a quest but through these chapters we are introduced to a world that never changes, day in and day out it remains the same; a world of dust, a herd of mustang-like bikes, tumbleweed-tossed plains, hills and valleys and places with names like Trucks, Doll Farm, Tantrums, Thousand Puddles, Gorilla Hill or Snuggle Stop.  We meet children of all ages, Newbies, Snotsippers, Gappergums, Sillynillies, Longspitters, Groundhog Chasers, and Big Kids whose lives revolve around all the playful possibilities in Hokey Pokey.  Oh, and one more thing...there are no adults in Hokey Pokey...well, except for the appearance of the Hokey Pokey man at noon every single day, providing each child a snow cone treat of their favorite flavor.

What also becomes readily apparent is this day is not really about reclaiming stolen property, it's about disappearing tattoos, walnut shells that tell stories, a small hut no one can enter, and a track with no train.  Jack's life on this day is topsy-turvy shrouded in mystery; being scared but excited, hanging on but letting go.  No one will admit to the truth of what is happening, whatever that is.  In a final stroke of genius, Spinelli ends the story as it began with whoop and a holler in the starry heavens.


As surely as he is the champion fisherman and we the hungry catch of the day, Jerry Spinelli moves the bait past us, closer and closer each time, until we bite.  He reels us deeper and deeper into the story depths until we are completely hooked. His poetic, descriptive writing, full of nostalgia and true-to-life dialogue, is the irresistible lure.

Here are a couple of passages.

Dusty cries, "She's coming!"
"Off the trail!" barks LaJo.
They cannot see yet but they can hear:  the chittering chain and axles, 
the stone-pocked crunch of rubber, the thief's crazed scream unfurling.  
They can feel the speed, feel it accelerate with every wheelturn, feel the
hill snuffle and grin and stiffen its spine, feel the air split like a snapped
stick as into the bow-bend they lean.
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee---"

Ana Mae goes bananas, apples, kumquats.  She screams, twirls, cartwheels.
This is what Jubilee loves most about bestfriendship:  when something great happens
to one, it happens to both.  She kickstands Hazel and joins the celebration.  
They do their special fingermess handslap, their special shimmyshakejive buttbump.
Ana Mae thrusts her arms toward the bike:
"Yellow?"
"Albert did it!"
More howls.  The girls drop to their knees and bow grandly to the bike as if to
a Supreme Sultan of All.


What Jerry Spinelli has given readers in Hokey Pokey is a gift; the gift of going back in splendid remembrance or of seeing their place in life with greater gratitude.  His use of words is an example to readers of all ages of the potential power of creating a sensory vividness within a story.  I think I'll go bike shopping next week.  And when I find the perfect one, I'm naming it Scramjet.

Follow the link embedded in Jerry Spinelli's name above to his website.  This link is to an interview in which he speaks about Hokey Pokey.

Plot Like Woe Winner

I meant to post this last night and completely forgot! Better late than never, right? 

Thanks to all who entered! Since I was a little late, I will leave the unit at a discounted price until tomorrow. You can check it out by clicking below! 

Now, I must go get ready for the 100th day. Have a great night, y'all! 

Prince Albert's Own Leicester Yeomanry

Here is another one in the series of my Very British Civil War series and these are the Leicester Yeomanry  These chaps have reverted back to their yeomanry uniform hence the blue rather than a khaki uniform and as with a lot of the yeomanry units as they believe in the maxim of being seen and heard.This has led to a lot of rash and some would say reckless charges, with charging tanks being top of the list. Now the regiment has formed a sort of anti tank, tank hunter role with explosive charges being carried by them to put those tanks out of action. Well thats the theory as they have yet to score a hit on a tank since charging at Albanich and bothering a French built Char B, still they hope one day to take a tank out.

Now is reality the regiment was in the throws of being converted into an artillery regiment, actually two regiments, missing out on being mechanised, the regiments were fully converted by 1940, which means the regiment was still an cavalry/horse regiment. So I have converted some the troops over, actually just brought an 18pdr and crew and painted them in the yeomanry's uniform.

These chaps can be found with both the City of Leicester Socialist Council and also with the Duke of Rutland's Edwardite forces. All figures and gun and limber are by Reiver Castings and the gun and limber is excellent and the cavalry and crew being rather nice, not the best sculpts but still very nice, well worth checking out.

Simplicity Supreme

Innovations in technology are changing so rapidly not only is it hard to stay current but it's very exciting.  Along with these innovations in hardware and software, the applications being designed for use on multiple devices are increasing by leaps and bounds.  Some are more complicated than others, providing more options, more sophistication.

When looking for web 2.0 services to use in the classroom, especially at the elementary level, the easier and simpler, the better.  Richard Byrne, educator and blogger at Free Technology for Teachers introduced an application a little more than two years ago called DropMocks.  It crossed my radar in a post on Twitter more recently.

Dropmocks: Create image galleries online: Just drag and drop: dropmocks.com
— Heather Moorefield(@actinginthelib) November 9, 2012

DropMocks is a tool for presenting images in a gallery format.  There is no registration requirement unless you wish to save your work for future editing.  (I'm fairly confident if you use the same computer each time your mocklists are saved in your cookies without registration.) There is no charge for this service either.

While there are other services such as Flickr or Picasa (to name two of many) for sharing and/or editing of images, DropMocks produces results the quickest.  To use this application simply go to the site.

When you arrive, a screen appears asking you to drag your image files to the page.  The only other item on the page appears in the upper left-hand corner; Sign in and Your mocks.

Whether your images are on your desktop or in folders, simply click, drag and drop.  By using your control key you can bring multiple images to the screen at the same time.  Once an image is placed on the DropMocks window another item is added in the upper left-hand corner, a blue button with the word New on it.

An additional feature appears in the right-hand corner.  This box allows you to give your image or collection of images a title.  The small trash can is the option to remove the entire mocklist.  (The small square next to it opens and closes the list.) The x by each image is the deletion feature.  For every mocklist you create a unique URL is generated.  This is the only method for sharing your images with others.

As more images are brought to the window one is displayed front and center as the others fall back, smaller and blurry.  Click on any to move them to the same position. Images can be rearranged in the list be dragging them to new locations.

When selecting Your mocks a drop-down menu lists your titles.  By clicking on any of them you are taken to that mocklist.  Sign in takes you to a screen asking you to allow them access to your Google account for purposes of using your email only.  The New button takes you back to the original screen for the creation of a new mocklist.

I have yet to see an application as easy as DropMocks for creating a gallery of one or many so quickly and simply.  The uses are as endless as your imagination.  It could be used to feature a student of the week, student activities for each week of the year (one shot per day), booktalking genres, Mock Caldecott or Newbery units, highlighting award winning books, student book responses, as a portion of student explorations in any of the subject areas, images for writing prompts or teaching a new skill step by step.

Here is a link to my mocklist titled Caldecott 2013.  I created another titled Newbery 2013 linked here.  Using Jing (reviewed here) I generated another mocklist titled Newbery Award Winners 2013-Websites. 

Let's Talk...FOOTBALL!

Raise your hand if you are a football fan!!! My hand is so not raised. Ha! Basketball, I love! Football...not so much. My husband is not proud. So, will I be watching the Super Bowl?!? Probably not. I do like the commercials, and I typically pull for the team with the coolest outfit (jersey?)...I dunno. 

I know you are asking...then why did you make an entire football writing unit? Well, about that. Our 100th day is Thursday and Super Bowl is this Sunday...so I am definitely going to combine the two. Plus, my kids are all kinds of crazy about football. This year, our 100th day will be all about football and the kids couldn't be more thrilled! They are super pumped that they will be dressing like football stars on Thursday. We will be doing all sorts of measurement activities (our current math unit) centered around a football field {which is 100 yards...I think}. ;)  We will also be researching football 100 years ago and the kids will be working to compare the olden days to current trends. We are also working on capacity, so I thought about doing a Gatorade challenge. You know...who can drink 100 cups of Gatorade in 100 seconds! What do you think? ;) Maybe I should save that activity for another time. 

Anyways, I have put together a little football writing unit that we will be using for our 100th day. It includes 8 different writing prompts and will be perfect for all of your football lovers. Although we are using it for the 100th day and Super Bowl, this unit will work wherever and whenever you would like. Check it out below or by clicking {HERE}! 

I will be back Thursday to share our 100th Day Celebration! Until then, have a great night, friends! 

More of those Bloody Event Cards

After all the great feedback from you chaps here and the lads over at Very British Civil Forum I have finished and finalised the layout of the cards and the sheet. The next thing is to get them printed up on card, a question of what weight to use but I think I will be going with 250gsm. If you chaps know the weight of playing cards card or those used by other games like 7Tv I would be grateful.  So here are the complied layouts.

The Card's Back

The Card's Front

They Are Our World

Without a doubt the most popular and most circulated sections of the library are those focused on animals whether they are wild or domesticated, large or small, or make their homes on land, water or air.  Year after year for decades I have never seen this fascination fade; a curiosity needing to be fed.  I would like to think this kinship does not diminish as people grow up; somewhere deep inside it is waiting to be wakened to the strength it held in days past.

Sometimes all it takes is a pause, a moment of awareness seeing with an acuteness, listening for a new sound or a strange smell carried by the wind.  Sometimes when you least expect it you'll look, see a flash of rust knowing a fox has traveled past or catch the fluttering of wings knowing a hummingbird is near a group of flowers.  Sometimes a book with photographs so stunning in color and detail, poems carefully tucked within the pages, will lift the kinship to new heights.  National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry with favorites from Robert Frost, Jack Prelutsky, Emily Dickinson, and more, 200 poems with photographs that SQUEAK, SOAR, and ROAR! edited by J. Patrick Lewis, U. S. Children's Poet Laureate, is such a book.


Have you ever thought about a day in the life of a giraffe, a porcupine, a whale, or a snail?  At this very moment, each one of them (if they are not asleep) is bustling about, fast or slow, as busy in his day, in her way, as you are in yours.

J. Patrick Lewis introduces readers to this brilliant body of work he selected from a vast array of poetic literature from the past to present.  The chosen names are as mind-boggling as the selections; Carl Sandburg, Valerie Worth, Jane Yolen, Janet S. Wong, Michael J. Rosen, Kristine O'Connell George, William Cowper, Avis Harley, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Arnold Adoff, William Jay Smith, Rudyard Kipling, Douglas Florian, Lilian Moore, Myra Cohn Livingston, Bobbi Katz, and Mary Ann Hoberman to list only a hint of the many notables.  Some of the poems are familiar examples of the poet's work, others are a delightful surprise.

The 160 plus pages of poetic pleasure are divided into headings: Welcome to the World, The Big Ones, The Little Ones, The Winged Ones, The Water Ones, The Strange Ones, The Noisy Ones, The Quiet Ones and Final Thoughts.  Readers are treated to a range of types; free verse, rhyming couplets, shape poems, haiku, or limericks.  One poem flows into another seamlessly as alliteration, simile and metaphor weave words creating a meter, a movement from page to page.

Representation of every form of living creature from the animal kingdom takes readers to the four corners of the world; for brief moments as words are read you enter their space, knowing what they know.  Whether it's Buffalo Dusk, Cow, Grandpa Bear's Lullaby, Mountain Gorilla, Inchworm, Hamster Hide-and Seek, Dust of Snow, The Eagle, Anemone, The Walrus, The Anteater, How to Paint a Zebra, Summertime, The Breed You Need, or from The Law of the Jungle each voice is heard.  It's hard not to imagine the poem was specifically written for the individual photographs; they're so carefully matched.

Microscopic detail, panoramic spreads, a partial page, single page or two, all are pieced together so well it's like watching a movie with the page turn controlling the speed.  Zooming in to see a baby orangutan kissing a parent, catching an elephant mid spiraling spray, a chipmunk cheek packed with a peanut, a snail crawling up a blade of grass, raindrops hanging like diamonds, or zooming out to see an amazing group of hundreds of flamingos gathered to shape the form of a single flamingo, will have readers pausing not only at the wonder to be found in our world but in the skill of those taking these photographs.  Color, composition, perspective and lighting are impeccable.


The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry with favorites from Robert Frost, Jack Prelutsky, Emily Dickinson, and more, 200 poems with photographs that SQUEAK, SOAR, and ROAR! edited by J. Patrick Lewis, U. S. Children's Poet Laureate is an astounding blend of poetry and pictures.  You might have to pace yourself to keep from reading it at one sitting.  Even completed you will want to go back for rereads of your favorite poems or sections.  It will invite further exploration of the animal world and other poems penned by specific authors.

J. Patrick Lewis includes two special pages at the back for those interested in writing their own poems along with a bibliography on the following two pages of resources for wordplay.  A title, poet, first line and subject index are available.  J. Patrick Lewis concludes this volume with a poem of his own titled Make the Earth Your Companion.  A video of his reading this poem with pictures taken from this title can be viewed by following this link.  It's beautiful.

Plot Like Woe! {And a FLASH giveaway}

Happy, happy Monday! By happy, I mean are y'all as tired as I am yet? And/or do your kiddos have spring fever already? Ha! It is that time of year when I start pulling out the "goods" to really get my kiddos MO-TI-VA-TED! Especially since testing is just around the corner. We won't talk about that right now...will we? 

Last week, we finished up our big geometry study. During enrichment time, my kiddos worked on graphing ordered pairs. This is a forth grade standard for the state of SC, but I am all about pushing the limits just a bit here and there! The kiddos were so in love with this boring new little skill. Maybe that had a little something to do with the fact that they were practicing by designing superhero masks and playing a game of battleships! No, no...I am not that creative, but my hubby sure is. We used a unit that he designed for his 5th grade friends. It was perfect in every way. Plus, they were super pumped to find out that they were working on a 5th grade unit. It was a nice way to end a big geometry study! 

Here is a look at an intense game of "Sink the Plot"...

They liked it so much that they have been praying for rain so they can stay inside and play their new favorite game! I would much rather go outside! Indoor recess is not for me! ;) 

If you would like to check this unit out, you can pick it up in my TPT shop! It will be on sale until tomorrow at midnight. Click on any of the pictures below to check it out...

I will also be giving this unit to one lucky reader who has made it this far! All you need to do is follow my Facebook page by clicking {HERE} and leave me one comment below! Don't forget your email address! I will choose a winner tonight at midnight! ;) 

I am off to watch The Bachelor! ;) 

More Event Cards for VBCW

I have listened to what people have say and I have redone and changed the event card for partizan a tad, I hope these are a little better as I have changed the font and also added a Good for you, Green backing, Bad for you, Red backing and Neutral, Grey backing for the card. Please let me know what you think.

The Good

The Bad

And the indifferent, neutral cards

Dont be shy and shout out there about them