Celebration Saturday

Archive for the ‘Celebration Saturday’ Category

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged #GRAFIAT, Fish in a Tree, Global Read Aloud, Padlet, Voxer on October 17, 2015| 5 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

“Give yourself the kind of care you would insist on for someone you love.” My Enneathought of the Day. I needed to hear this. I have taken a few naps this week and feeling guilty about it, my body insisted on it. With this advice from the masters, I feel better knowing that I listened and obeyed my body’s needs.

I am celebrating Global Read Aloud! I celebrate the power of reading aloud in the classroom. It does so much to build a community of readers. We are reading Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s Fish in a Tree. My students are gifted. Many of them read early and quickly advanced to a higher reading level. Ally, the main character, is dyslexic. She cannot read. My students have a hard time understanding this. All the more reason we should be reading about it as a community.

Jacob, 2nd grade, said, “If she can talk, why can’t she read?” Ah! He is slowly understanding that his ability is a gift.

We are joining a larger community of readers on Voxer. We are listening to responses from classes in Illinois, California, and Ohio. How fun is that!

And because my students want the chance to Vox, they are being better listeners and writing their notices and wonders. If they write and share, then they get to record their message for others to hear. Powerful learning going on!

Emily sketched her idea of Ally’s head.

My students are also sharing on Padlet. This week they read embarrassing moments and shared their own. Click here to see the padlet.

I am loving these connections and look forward to our reading together over the next weeks. Send me a message if you would like to join in.

My satsuma tree

Celebrate fall: The satsumas are ripe, juicy, and yummy. I love free fruit!

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Celebrating Magic

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, tagged Magic Matt on October 10, 2015| 6 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Magic Matt visits

Magic Matt visited me this week. He was on fall break from his private school. I have been missing him in my class, but I know this move was the best thing for him. I couldn’t believe how much he’s grown, both in stature and maturity. (Not to mention his voice has changed.)

Matthew had to bring along his latest magic trick. (I wrote about his magic in this post.) He took out a rubiks cube and asked me to “mess with it.” Then he put it into a brown bag and took out a completed one. But, of course, he said, “You know that I have two in my bag. Not such a great trick, huh?” Then he proceeded to mess up the completed one just exactly like the one I had messed up, side by side. OMG!

He continued to do more amazing things with the rubiks cube. I asked if he could come back on Friday to my other school and do a show for them. They were amazed as I was at the many tricks he showed them. He is also hilarious and entertaining as he flashes the cards or the cube. You are trying so hard to keep up with his banter that you lose track of what his hands are doing.

I celebrate keeping this connection with my former student as well as the development and celebration of a talent. Matthew practices tirelessly on his skills. In addition to meeting the rigors of his new school, he is also finding a new audience for his amazing talent. I am so proud of him. Does it show?

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Celebrating Fall Chalk-a-bration

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, Chubby Carrier, fall poems, Malala Yousafzai, Zydeco on October 3, 2015| 10 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Fall is in the air…Whew Hoo! Morning temperatures almost require a jacket. Yesterday morning one of my students exclaimed, “It’s freezing!” I laughed. Because after daily temps in the 90’s, the 60’s feel like freezing.

The sugarcane is at its tallest. I drive to school through walls of tall sugarcane. Soon it will be harvested and the fields burned and the scent of sweet smoke will make fall-scented wind.

My students love the end of the month Chalkabration time. We pulled out the colorful fall colors and chalked poems. We had been discussing imagery in writing, so I was pleased to see imagery in their writing.

My husband and I love to dance. Thursday night we actually skipped our dance lesson to go dancing. One of our favorite bands was playing. The night was perfect. The crowd was amazed by the young rubboard player. She was incredible, dancing and playing along in beat with the band.

Chubby Carrier

A shout out to my blogging friend, Holly Mueller. She wrote about her students responding to Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize speech with a hashtag. We watched the speech this week. My students were enthralled. They created hashtags and wrote passionately about her influence.

My hashtag is #inspirational because Malala gives the best advice in my point of view. Here are some of my tough questions and the answers to them. My first question is ”Why should girls go to school?” This is a question that Malala asked. I would say that the answer to this question is: girls should go to school because they should be and hopefully will be treated like every one else in humanity!!! Why do they even need a reason to go to school???? WE GIRLS MATTER!!! –Lani

#TakeALeap

“We have already taken many steps. Now, it is time to take a leap.” Malala believes that we have a done a lot to fight for children’s right to education. She believes that this should be the last time to fight for education. Every child deserves this because we are the next generation in the world and we can’t make it great if we can’t simply go to school to learn. –Vannisa

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Celebrating Dot Day!

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged International Dot Day, Peter Reynolds on September 18, 2015| 22 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty.

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

This is a dual posting for Poetry Friday and Celebration Saturday because this week we celebrated Dot Day. What a great week we had!

On Tuesday, Sept. 15th, my students have come to expect Dot Day. It’s a tradition in my gifted classroom. And every year gets better. A friend of mine made me a Dot Day skirt, a felt poodle skirt full of dots.

I received a text from a former student with the greeting, “Happy International Dot Day!” Thanks to Peter Reynolds for writing The Dot and for establishing Dot Day, a day to celebrate creativity, resilience, and empathy. Did you know there’s a Dot Day song?

We shared our enthusiasm on Wednesday with Mrs. Rogers’ first grade class. Two students shared the reading of the book and everyone danced to the song. Then the first graders decorated coffee filters with markers. I brought a spray bottle, so each gifted student sprayed their group’s dots. We had so much fun. Their teacher, Mrs. Rogers, invited us back on Friday. Her kids had made thank you drawings and wanted to perform the song for us. They had been practicing. The smile never left my face.

My kids want to do another activity with them. One suggested Chalk-a-bration. More to come!

Back in our classroom, I started a document with this line, “A blank canvas stares at me.” I invited the students to add a line to our class Dot poem. Then I put it all together in this Animoto video. I think it will make you smile!

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Celebrating Reading too much

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged middle grade books, reading, young adult books on September 12, 2015| 15 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Photo Credit: Linda Jordan on Flickr

Is there ever a time when you read too much? I teach at two schools. I insist on silent reading, so I have a book going at each school. At one school, I am reading Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana. Along with Armani and her family, I am suffering through Hurricane Katrina with a family trapped in their attic watching the water rise. Cynthia Rylant’s The Islander is our second read aloud this year. This book takes us to an island in Northwest Canada. There’s a hurricane and the boy searches for injured animals to rescue. This is a beautiful read aloud book because the chapters are short and keep the students wanting to know more. There is a bit of magic and strong symbolism. (You can get it for a penny on Amazon.)

At my other school, I am reading the new chapters for Wonder, Auggie and Me. Currently I am reading Shingaling, the Charlotte chapter, and getting angry about the mean girls of middle school.

Sunny Side Up came in the mail yesterday, and I finished it in one sitting. Can you imagine that such a difficult issue like drug abuse is dealt with in a graphic novel? Lots of talk around this book in the kidlitosphere. Read this wonderful post by Caroline Starr Rose on Nerdy Book Club.

By my bed is Everything, Everything, a heartbreaking young adult love story about a girl who cannot leave her home due to illness, the modern “girl in a bubble.”

And with the commemoration of 9/11, I have been reading post after post about the bravery, the tragedy, the sadness. This post from Bernadette broke my heart again with the bravery of one woman who did what she had to do to save lives.

Reading can take you to many different places. I celebrate reading, but I think I may take a break. I don’t think my heart can take anymore.

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Reaching

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Chalk-a-bration, Teaching, tagged Caroline Star Rose, One Little Word, rainbows, Reach on September 5, 2015| 9 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

My one little word for 2015 is Reach. I was determined to reach with my writing. Take it to the next level. Well, this week came rejection. I hear from other authors that this is expected, normal, and we must power through, but it sent me into a slump. Because of Ruth’s invitation to celebrate each Saturday, I am climbing back up the tree and reaching out again.

I celebrate dancing! Friday night I’m tired, but I said yes to his invitation to go Cajun dancing. We only danced three songs, but we left smiling.

I celebrate rainbows. This week I’ve seen rainbows on two consecutive mornings on the way to school. One morning I pulled over and took pictures, the rainbow in the west, the glowing sun in the east.

Morning rainbow

Sunrise

I celebrate authors I admire. I received a signed copy of Over in the Wetlands, a beautiful book by Caroline Starr Rose about the place I live. She captured the magic of the wetlands, along with the fearful hurricane and the peace and rebirth that follows. She sent bookmarks and stickers for my students. I celebrate making connections with authors.

Over in the Wetlands by Caroline Starr Rose

In the midst of a rough week of state pretesting, I celebrate Chalkabration. We went outside in the South Louisiana heat and chalked up the sidewalks with poetry inspired by Laura Purdie Salas’s book Catch Your Breath: Writing Poignant Poetry.

Chalking poetry

This invitation to Celebrate each week helps me to see that there is much to rejoice. Rejection is small. Reaching is big. What are you celebrating today?

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Celebrating Learning Communities

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged birthdays, games, heroes, project based learning on August 29, 2015| 6 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Last week I celebrated the hard work of planning a new learning community, our 6th grade enrichment project. We call these special Wednesdays, “WOW” as in “Way out Wednesdays,” and this week was WOW! We have an amazing group of students who enthusiastically mingled and became fast friends. One of our teachers had the brilliant idea of grouping them by what they like to do (computer, art, writing a play, building/crafting), and these groups built their own super hero. One group did a Powerpoint, another a play. The art group created a poster, and the craft group built a costume. This was one of those situations a teacher dreams about. All the students on task and completely self-directed. I celebrate this new learning community and have high expectations for the products they will create.

Super Hero costume: Cop Copter!

My classes are becoming places of safety, learning, and fun. Yesterday we celebrated two birthdays. It delights me that the wish that my students have for their birthday celebrations is the apple peeler. I have an old turn style apple peeler. They each get a turn to peel their own apples. Kielan brought in cookies to share. She created a scavenger hunt that included book titles. And she chose a poetry writing activity from Laura Purdie Salas’s book Catch Your Breath. This is what I call a literary birthday celebration.

While every other day of the week is focused on reading and writing, Fridays are fun! In my other classroom (I teach at two schools), we celebrated completing the week’s assignments with game day. Don’t tell my students, but the games are all educational. They don’t know that. They just think it’s fun. As it should be!

Game Day: Building with the game Brain Builders, challenging and fun!

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Celebrating Hard Work

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Writing, tagged gifted education, hard work on August 22, 2015| 7 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

This was the second week of school here in South Louisiana. We started the hard work of teaching and learning. I celebrate that my students and I began the process of reading and writing together. Having my students move from recreational reading to reading for meaning is not an easy task. While I want them to have free reading time, and I’m determined to build this into our time together, I also want them to become critical readers. This is hard work. We will find value in this hard work together.

I celebrate the hard work of my daughter, Maggie. She is a public defender in a nearby parish. This week she had a trial, only her second one. She worked long hours and talked through the case with her father and grandmother and, while I didn’t understand all the lingo, I enjoyed this hard and gratifying work. In the end, the prosecuter dismissed the case. Maggie received lots of kudos from her colleagues. My mother-in-law is so proud when she gets calls from others in the business saying what an impressive lawyer Maggie is. There can be joy in hard work when you care about the work you do, and Maggie is one of the most caring people I know.

I celebrate the hard work of my gifted team. We will be starting our 6th grade enrichment project this week. We are all putting in extra time to research and prepare. This year we are planning to participate in the Unsung Hero Project by the Lowell Milken Foundation. This is an amazing project, and I look forward to instilling the joy of discovery and the satisfaction of hard work with our students this year.

What hard work are you celebrating today?

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Celebrating an Engagement

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged engagement, journal decorating, Prayer Shawl Ministry on August 15, 2015| 7 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Last weekend my daughter, Katherine, and her boyfriend, Wayne, came home for the weekend to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary and my birthday. Or, at least, that’s what Katherine told me was the reason for their visit. On Sunday morning my husband and I did our usual things. He went running, and I was walking Charlie. When I came into the kitchen, Wayne was there. He asked me, “Is Mr. Jeff up yet?”

“Yes, he’s running. Is there something you want to talk to him about?” I grinned. He knew I knew. Wayne offered to show me the ring. I was shaking and a little teary.

This was a “long run” day, so by the time Jeff returned from running, Katherine was up, so Wayne did not have a chance to talk to him.

Before I left for church, I told Jeff that Wayne wanted to talk to him. The talk did not happen, so after church Jeff just called Wayne on the phone. They made their manners, so to speak. Jeff offered our blessing.

We enjoyed a lunch with them at Jefferson Island Cafe. After lunch, Wayne said he wanted to walk around some more. Jeff and I left, and I prayed that Wayne would propose right there, in the very place they plan to have the wedding. He did.

Katherine is very happy and so are we. There will be a wedding sometime in the fall of 2016.

Katherine and Wayne with an Asian statue on Jefferson Island.

I also celebrate the recovery of my mother-in-law. One of my prayer shawl ministry friends made this beautiful shawl for her. Minga (her grandma name) had surgery in July for spinal stenosis. Her pain has been greatly reduced and her activity levels increased.

Anne with prayer shawl

This was our first full week of school. We started class on Tuesday, my birthday. I brought cookies and watermelon, so we had a party on the first day. We decorated our journals this week. I used my birthday cards to cover mine. The hand painted one is by my sister, Beth. I love that I will be able to enjoy her art work all year long.

I appreciate joining the Celebration Saturday each week. I feel like my world is larger with all of my virtual friends reading and celebrating with me.

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Celebrating August

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, tagged Dr. Seuss, Heidi Mordhorst, Laura Purdie Salas, summer poem swap on August 8, 2015| 12 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

August oppresses me. I know I shouldn’t let it. But the heat and heaviness of the air gets to me. Yesterday was my anniversary. I’ve been married an amazing 33 years to the best guy in the whole world, but I was in no mood to celebrate. I was hot and tired. But then this came: a package and a poem.

Heidi Mordhorst sent me a poem. We are exchanging in the Summer Poem Swap designed by Tabatha Yeatts. Heidi visited Greece this summer. We had a connection because I went on a trip there 4 years ago. The image captures the amazing blue of the Aegean Sea. And her poem captures the magic. Thanks, Heidi, for lifting my soul.

Laura Purdie Salas is one of my favorite poets and teachers. She has a great website and has published a number of teacher aids for writing poetry with students. I can’t wait to share this newest publication with my students. Catch Your Breath: Writing Poignant Poetry.

School started this week. I haven’t started pulling my students yet, but I saw them and hugged them in the hallway. I love having this kind of connection with my kids. I teach them year after year, so our relationship strengthens each year.

At one of my schools, the year theme is reading and books. We all wore Dr. Seuss t-shirts on the first day. I love the quote on the back. Reading is magic. I strive again this year to open this magic door for my students.