Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

It’s Saturday; time to reflect on the goodness of the week. Thanks to Ruth we have a place to share at Ruth Ayres Writes.

ONE
Community: I hosted Poetry Friday yesterday. It’s always fun to see who shares poems, originals, and poetry books. Yesterday didn’t disappoint.

TWO
Perseverance: Nothing like awaking early this morning, adding a late entry to Poetry Friday, and clicking something which causes all your work to dissapear. So I needed to persevere and rewrite my Poetry Friday post.

THREE
Friendship: This week, I was able to have lunch dates with friends. The end of summer means catching up with friends in a leisurely way.

FOUR
Students and Parents: Thursday evening we had our annual back-to-school bar-b-que. It was so great to reconnect with families after summer break. Students meet their teachers for the coming year.

FIVE
Poems: I received a poem in the mail this week from Margaret Simon. (plan to share next Friday). The Summer Poetry Swap was a great way to be connected to community and keep writing.

What are you celebrating?

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Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

Each week, many hater at Ruth Ayres Writes to celebrate our week.

ONE
Thirty Days of Student Poetry
Here are some more to share for today:

TWO

Spring Break. It’s been a good break and I am a bit sad to say good-bye. Will relish today and tomorrow.

THREE 

Time with grand girl.  I visited her school and I taught poetry to the class.  Then after afterschool, she decided to be a “therapist”  after I told her “9 YO girls are perplexing.”  She created a “waiting room.” We also discussed how my husband forgets to lock his car every night. Her advice was to put a sticky note by the door to remind him:)

Snacks and water are provided at this office.

FOUR

This guest post for Author Amok: http://authoramok.blogspot.com/2014/04/source-poems-we-are-waiting-pantoum.html I love pantuoms.

FIVE

My friends from college.  I have had three great phone calls regarding our summer plans this week. These women are my sisters.

Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

Time to celebrate the week.  More celebrations at Ruth Ayres Writes.

ONE

Monday! Our second day with Susan Blackaby, author.  She spent the day teaching students how to write a five-line poem.

      

This was a group poem from Kindergarten.  And she will be back next Thursday for a final writing day.

TWO

A sign of spring.  I spied these on my way into school this week.

THREE

The dad who volunteered to help the school play with the sound system.  The biggest problem with the school play is the sound system.  No one can ever hear us very well as we have limited mics for all the speakers.

FOUR

Working with kinders to write their own five-line poem.  I modeled the poem and then they wrote their own. It’s so exciting to see the ranges of writers; those who struggle with letters to those who get it!

  

FIVE

Our first five-day week since the beginning of January.  Plus my asthma has subsided and I finally worked out this morning.

Five.Five

And I started the SOLSC 2014 challenge to write every day in March at Deowriter.

Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

It’s Saturday.  Time to write about the good things in life and share at Ruth Ayres Writes.

ONE

Getting back to school. My snow wish came true, we had two snow days this week. Our Tuesday two-hour late became another day because our parking lot was treacherous (we don’t have to make it up as we were one of three schools in the same predicament).  It was a pleasure returning to school even if only for two days as Friday was part of the Presidents’ Day weekend. February is a wacky month with Presidents’ Day weekend and conference.  Throw in snow days, you wonder if you’ll ever get any teaching finished.

TWO

Co-workers who step in to help you out.  My partner with the  PRE-K story hour read the books for me this week due to an asthma flare-up  and loss of voice. Truly a gift for me to not have to read.

THREE

   

The beginning of a three-day author visit with Susan Blackaby.  Her latest book, BROWNIE GROUNDHOG AND THE WINTRY SURPRISE is the best.  Susan will be working with students on where ideas come from and how to elaborate and find the just right word during her time with us.

FOUR

  

I was invited to talk with students at another elementary school about my little haiku book,

SOLACE IN NATURE.  Plus some of the bought my book!

FIVE

My online conversation with Diane Mayr about haiku and the haiga she shared for Poetry Friday.

FIVE.FIVE

How could i miss this?  CYBILS Winners announced and the fabulous Forest Had a Song: Poems by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater was selected for poetry.

What are you celebrating?

Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

As always, I am grateful to Ruth Ayres’ blog for providing a place to celebrate.

ONE

Author and story-teller, Dawn Prochovnic, came to our PreK Story Time.  She taught us sign language for the colors and shared her book, See the Colors.  We had a great time and I know the colors in sign language now.

TWO

Cupcakes!
Wednesday was my birthday.  Cupcake on the left was from a second grader who is my birthday twin.  The right cupcake is from PTA.  So very thoughtful! And delicious.

THREE

The Super Bowl and our School Spirit Day.  Friendly rivalry.  Brandi, on the left, is in New York to cheer the Seahawks to victory.  She’s soaking it all in.  Deb, on the right, secretly hopes that the Hawks win but she had to show here Bronco love.

FOUR

Winner!  I retweeted a tweet of MrJohnShu. and minutes later I had won a signed copy of this book:

It arrived in the mail today!  Woohoo!

FIVE

An email from another teacher librarian colleague asking me to do an author visit with her after school reading club with Solace in Nature, my photography and haiku book.  What an honor.

What are you celebrating?

Celebrate: Five Star Things About This Week

 

Hooray for Saturday!  Hooray for celebrations.  More can be found at Ruth Ayres’ blog.

ONE

Making progress on my re-shelving project in the library. It’s providing interest in the kid because the books are not in the normal places.

TWO

 

Reading the CYBILS’ Graphic Novel Finalists.  A judge needed to leave because of a family emergency.  These for for both elementary and young adult.

THREE

Try-outs for the school play!! I have about fifty students trying out for Mowgli: Boy of the Jungle.

FOUR

Sunshine! After several weeks of an inversion and socked in fog, I am happy to see the sun.

FIVE

A kinder told me that an “author paints words”.  Another kinder wondered why the mouse didn’t just burrow out of the deep, deep hole in the book, Oh, No! by Candice Fleming.

What are you celebrating?

Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

Oh it’s been a grand week.  One year ends and new one begins.

1. My New Year’s Eve was filled with a wild rumpus of grand girls, five, eight, and nine.

Playing Uno,Hunting Zombies, Banging Pots and Pans

Precious time together.

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2. The CYBILS Finalists announced.

3. Finished reading The Faith Club by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner.  Onto The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.

4. The sun and blue skies appeared in-between dense fog this week.

                                                                                                        This pic is of the Fremont Bridge as the fog is lifting.

5. Tea with a friend at Steven Smith Tea.  This is a little tucked away secret. Don’t you just love the packaging?

Head over to Ruth Ayre Writes to see what others are celebrating.

Celebrate: Five Star Things About Week

With school not in session, time is more relaxed. Thanks to Ruth Ayres for providing a space for us to celebrate our lives.

1. Christmas Eve with family. Listening to my oldest grandgirl discover the differences between the book Coraline and the movie, Coraline. I gave her the book for Christmas.
2. Quiet Christmas with just husband and pooches.
3. Time to read.
4. Being able to prepare soup and brownies to take to friends whose Christmas was shattered by the untimely death of their daughter.
5. The Poetry CYBILS finalists have been decided. I can’t wait until Wednesday, January 1, 2014 for them to be announced. The poetry nominees were abundant in goodness and quality this year.

Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

First morning of winter break. Grand girl is still asleep as is my husband and the two dogs. Before I make the sugar cookie dough, time to celebrate the week.

1. Read Week. Third through fifth grade students choose tables and peruse the book boxes, find a couple of books, and read for library time. It’s a time to sample something they might not try. They have the option of taking it with them. One boy was disgruntled with the choices so I handed him Greg Pincus’ The 14 Fibs of Greg K. He loved it and took it with him.

2. Fifth grade Colonial Trades Project. Each fifth grade researches a Colonial trade. They write about the trade and create a model. The library becomes a museum of sorts to display them for other classes.

3. Meeting with a group of Russian and Ukrainian parents plus the ELL teacher. They are a group called Natural Leaders which is an outreach to engage parent involvement. They have chosen the library as a focus as many of the Russian language books are too difficult. They wrote a grant to the PTA for books and it was approved!

4. Speaking of grant approvals…I received a grant to beef up my series collection and a grant to bring author, Susan Blackaby to Silver Star for three days in February.

5. Christmas break is here. My tree is finally up. Yesterday, a first grader brought me a gift to “Mrs. Library.” I didn’t want open the package because I loved the label. Santa dropped off a gift card so I am going to purchase a couple books for the library.

Head over to Ruth Ayres for more celebrations.

Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

1. The week did not start well. My friend and former colleague died of brain cancer. But the response from the online community of writers with poems made the list especially this ONE.

2. Preschool Read and Play continues to grow and we have consistency with families who attend. We now have bells and shakers for music. This week the local public librarian presented the program.

3. My friend, Barbara, came to spend the day with me. We student taught together. I had no license so she was my driver to school. She stepped in to read when I had to help a student.

4. Our School Showcase on Tuesday evening. We gave away over 500 pieces of pizza! Some many families came to hear the band, orchestra, choir, and to see what was happening in the classrooms.
5. The annual present exchange at my friend, Carol’s home. Carol is a retired teacher librarian. We have known each other for over 28 years. She gathers the people from all parts of her life for an evening. There’s food, drinks, and holiday adornments which we all must wear. This year we shared stories from Christmas past. My favorite was the woman who was raised in Hong Kong and what she would do in Christmas Day with her Catholic dad. How they would go to service, then out to the villages to see friends, and finally to a bakery. Her mother, a Buddhist, stayed home.

My friend, Carol.

My adornments.

More celebrations can be found at Ruth Ayres. What are you celebrating?