Celebration Saturday | Reflections on the Teche

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Celebrating Nothing but Poetry

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Canva, Douglas Florian, nothing poems, student poetry, Today's Little Ditty on January 30, 2016| 16 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Catherine at Reading to the Core

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

Over at Today’s Little Ditty, Michelle has posted the wrap-up of nothing poems from this month’s ditty challenge posted by Douglas Florian. I have a poem in the collection.

I challenged my students by sharing Diane Mayr’s nothing poem. She used anaphora, a repeated line, “Nothing, but…” This prompt generated a lot of thought. I was excited by the results.

Today, I have a dual post: I celebrate the nothing poems my students created and add them to the Poetry Friday Ditty collection. The digital images were created on Canva.

Love this nature nothing poem from Andrew, 3rd grade.

Lynzee loves the songs of nightingales, 1st grade.

Nothing poem by Kaiden, 5th grade

Kielan’s poem is about a classmate, Erin.

Nothing but rainbow narwhals

Nothing but rainbow butterfly unicorn kittens

Nothing but unicorns

Nothing but love

Nothing but a helpful heart

Nothing but imagination

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Celebrating Cats

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged cats, Pamela Hodges on January 23, 2016| 7 Comments »

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

I live with a household of pets. I would have it no other way. There’s my constant companion and love of my life, Charlie, part poodle, part schnauzer, perfect mix of the sweetest dog ever.

But today I am celebrating cats. We have three, one diva Mimi who lives inside, and two outside coulee cats Buzz and Bill.

In the fall, my Facebook/blogging friend, Pamela Hodges posted that she was creating an adult coloring book of cats. She wanted cat rescue stories and pictures. Of course, I was in with my diva cat Mimi. She was found in a tree. Her mother had rescued her litter from a flood and taken them all up a tree. When she came to us, she was tiny and the most perfect picture of a tuxedo cat. She even has a perfect bow-tie mustache.

In the process of living with us (or despite us), she has turned into quite the queen. She is actually mean to strangers. She will hiss, bite, scratch if anyone tries to pet her. But she loves me. She will sleep right on top of me. I think she likes that I accept her for exactly who she is.

Pamela had read my posts about the upcoming wedding of my middle daughter, so for her coloring book, she drew Mimi in a wedding gown. Mimi was not at all flattered. Even when we explained to her that she is now famous.

Color the Cats is available on Amazon.

Mimi as a bride

I brought Color the Cats to school and allowed each of my students to pick a favorite. I copied them and for a Friday treat, they could color them. (No one chose Mimi, but I haven’t told her yet.)

Coloring by Emily. “Color the Cats” by Pamela Hodges

Bill and Buzz are famous, too. They are the subject of a bumper sticker we had custom-made at Vistaprint.

Our two outside cats are brothers. They were rescued from a neighbor’s home. Their mother had them under my friend’s house, then she was hit by a car. These little orphans have total opposite personalities. Bill is effeminate with a high-pitched whiney cry that is like fingernails on a chalkboard. He cries all the time. He will go to every window begging to be let in. While Buzz is chill-man. He is big and round and content. He looks at Bill with disdain.

This is Buzz. Be Buzz.

My husband created a family slogan, “Be Buzz. Not Bill.” He loves family things that no one can really quite get. (We used to place a large Santa frog sign in our yard at Christmas.)

Appropriate that you can see cat paw prints on the bumper along with the family bumper sticker.

Celebrate cats. Be Buzz.

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Celebrating Reading Aloud

Posted in Books, Celebration Saturday, tagged Crenshaw, Fish in a Tree, Global Read Aloud, read aloud on January 9, 2016| 14 Comments »

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

photo by Margaret Gibson Simon enhanced on Picmonkey

With the selection of my OLW, Presence, I thought about my classroom(s) and how I could be more present there. At the beginning of the school year, I wanted to make reading aloud an every day occurrence. It is a challenge with my teaching situation because I have students in different grades rotating in and out. With my morning group, I realized that most days we were all there at 10:30 AM, and they leave between 10:50 and 11:00, so Read Aloud became constant on the schedule.

This week we finished Fish in a Treeby Lynda Mullaly Hunt, the middle-grade Global Read Aloud choice. Being so closely involved with a book, so intimate, my voice cracked through the whole last chapter. I think I cried not only because Ally had triumphed, but also because I was looking out at the wide eyes of my students and feeling their love for Ally, too. When we finished, before I knew it, Emily had written a quote and taped it to the wall, “Nothing is Impossible. The very word says, I’m Possible!”

I have had more trouble getting a time to read aloud with my afternoon group, so this week I made it a priority. All work stopped at 2:40 and we read until 3:00. I started Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate. I loved it when Noah said, “Mrs. Simon, can we watch Crenshaw?” Isn’t that what read aloud is all about? Watching a book together.

Today, I celebrate special moments with my students to be truly present.

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Celebrating Simple Joys

Posted in Books, Celebration Saturday, tagged #celebratelu, CYBILS award, simple joys, Star Wars on January 2, 2016| 7 Comments »

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

I had the privilege of being a round one judge for the CYBILS awards for poetry. Here is our list of finalists.

Sunset by Margaret Gibson Simon, all rights reserved.

For Christmas, I got a new digital camera, Sony a6000. This week while I was at New Castle Lake with my parents in Mississippi, I took this sunset picture. My plan for 2016 is to take more pictures and share them here. Images inspire me in many ways. Some, like this one, speak of quiet and being present with the light.

New Year’s Day with my husband was nothing special and everything special. He built a fire. It was a perfect fire-in-the-fireplace day, wet and cold. I put Pandora on the Roku (a gift from the children) and undecorated. Taking down the decorations can be a chore, but yesterday I actually enjoyed the process–wrapping each ornament in soft tissue paper worn with time and nesting the creche figures back into their boxes.

We cooked a meal together, black-eyed peas, cabbage, sweet potatoes, bread, and baked chicken. Sitting together at the kitchen table felt sacred to me. We rarely take this kind of time just to simply be with each other.

Then we went to see Star Wars! My heart was racing the whole time. As others have said, it is a must-see. Fond memories of the first Star Wars. Masterfully done.

My wish for 2016 for you and for me: An appreciation of the simple joys in life!

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Celebrating Christmas Classroom

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Creativity, tagged Main Street New Iberia, Margaret George on December 19, 2015| 6 Comments »

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

The last week before Christmas break is a bit like the end of school, exciting, crazy, rushed, and long all at the same time. On Tuesday, my students had a visitor. What a treat! Margaret George is a local artist. She designed a window on Main Street that was full of little things kids love. So I asked her if she would come and paint ornaments with my students.

Artists like Margaret live in their imagination, so they can be scattered and perhaps a bit unorganized. But not Margaret George. She arrived early. She had a box full of supplies that included a glitter globe. She even brought cups for water, plates for paint, and an ornament tree to hang them on as they dried. She thought of everything.

My students gathered around the table and were engrossed in paint and artful play for two hours. Margaret bought glittery gold reindeer ornaments at the Dollar Store. She covered the glitter with white gesso paint. This gave the students a new surface to paint on. And she brought glitter that made the ornaments look like they were covered in sugar. Today I celebrate the gifts of a local artist, sparkly glitter, and the magical days before Christmas.

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Celebrating Creativity and Caroline Starr Rose

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged Caroline Starr Rose, Gelli plate art on December 12, 2015| 7 Comments »

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

Celebrating Easy Art and Creativity: I was doing some shopping at A&E gallery when I saw Marcie. I asked her if we could get together to do gel printing for Christmas stuff. She put it all together last weekend and four of us met at the gallery to play with our gel print plates. This is such a fun and easy way to create art. On the gelli plate (they were original made with real gelatin), you squirt and roll out paint. Then you can press in a stencil or even grab a paper towel roll and print circles. Place the paper down and pull up. There you have it. I designed gift tags, note cards, and tissue paper.

The mess of creative play with gel printing.

Gel printed tissue paper

Celebrating Skype Author Visit: My students were beyond excited about their Skype visit with author Caroline Starr Rose. She set up her computer outside a Starbucks in Albuquerque because she had roofers at her house. She looked a little red-nosed from the chill, but all worked fine. (I was especially happy the technology worked.)

Caroline Starr Rose wrote May B and Blue Birds, both historical fiction verse novels, and Over in the Wetlands, a picture book about the creatures in the wetlands surviving a hurricane. Her writing is lyrical and beautiful. But we messed up in preparing for her visit. I read aloud Over in the Wetlands as well as parts of May B and Blue Birds, but we didn’t read the Author’s Note. She gave them a quiz. Let me just say that gifted kids are not accustomed to failing quizzes. They didn’t do too well on her wetlands quiz, but they learned a lot.

They were inspired to be creative with their thank you notes.

Creative thank you note from Kielan

Emily reproduced the cover of “Over in the Wetlands” in her drawing.

Lani made her a construction paper purse using a star symbol for “Starr.”

I celebrate the creativity of playing with art. My students “get” this sense of play as well. I love that. I am grateful to authors like Caroline Starr Rose who inspire with good literature and generosity of spirit.

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Celebrating Full House, Full Fridge, and Full Hearts

Posted in Celebration Saturday, tagged family, satsumas, Thanksgiving 2015 on November 28, 2015| 6 Comments »

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

Morning walk in the park, a great egret in Devil’s Pond.

My house is full: three daughters, one fiancé, one sister, one brother-in-law, one niece, one nephew, two dogs, three cats.

My fridge is full: turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, Brussels sprouts, salad, pumpkin cake, and a big pot of gumbo.

My heart is full: card games, laughter, stories, tiny hats, satsuma rum, dog hugs, cooking, cleaning, Venti latte, “whose phone is this?”, laughing, hugs, smiles, photos, swinging on the rope, harvesting satsumas, canoeing on the bayou.

I celebrate this wonderful full house that fills my heart with health, love, and peace.

My nephew Jack climbs into the satsuma tree to harvest.

My son-in-law-to-be learns the way to my heart is with coffee from Starbucks.

Sisters enjoy the feast.

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Gratitiude

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Gratitude, Writing, tagged art lessons, Kimberley Griffiths Little, One Little Word, teaching gifted on November 7, 2015| 7 Comments »

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

On this gloomy Saturday morning, I was drinking my coffee and reading blog posts. Each one added wisdom to my thinking. And I still wasn’t sure what to write today. One blog post suggested that I just open up the page and begin. Another suggested using the month of November to think about gratitude. So here I am, opening the window of a post and writing what I am grateful for this week.

New students: I was apprehensive, as always, to receive new students. This happens in my class around this time of year because the evaluators have finished testing young referrals. This week, I welcomed 4 new gifted students. These new kiddos are so excited to be in the gifted class that they are eager and ready. They love that we blog. They each wrote their first post. “And what? We can read whatever we want!” One new guy read 4 Seymour Simon books this week!

My other students have embraced the new ones, and, so far, so good, we are becoming a new community of learners.

Authors: I love authors, and meeting them face to face is such a thrill. Last weekend I attended the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. Right before the tornado warning closed down the festival, I met Kimberley Griffiths Little. We had a great conversation. She signed a card for one of my students who loves her books. We talked about connections and writing and hugged as friends.

Student authors: Also at the Book Festival, I had the privilege of leading an awards ceremony for the winners of the Louisiana Letters about Literature and our state writing contest LA Writes! Seeing wide-eyed proud writers dressed in their best, listening to their little voices read their winning pieces, and sharing in the love of reading and writing filled me with joy and gratitude.

Jacob with his award

Two of my students placed first in their divisions, Vannisa and Jacob. Neither of them could attend the ceremony because of the weather, so I gave them their packets at school.

Art Lessons and Reaching: My One Little Word for this year is Reach. I’ve dabbled in art for years. When my mother gave me a nice check for my birthday, I decided to reach and commit to a series of art lessons. We meet once a week for an hour. (I always wish for more time.) At first I was very frustrated. I was not feeling successful. This was a huge learning curve as well as a good lesson for me as a teacher. Finally, after eight lessons, I received some wonderful feedback from my instructor. He said he sees a unique style emerging. Wow! That’s so cool! I celebrate Reaching and becoming the artist I want to be. As in writing, I am discovering you must practice, practice, practice to improve. There is No. Other. Way.

Blue heron

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GRA and Random Acts of Kindness

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Digital Learning, Gratitude, Writing, tagged #GRAFIAT, #GRARAC, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Fish in a Tree, Global Read Aloud, kindness on November 1, 2015| 3 Comments »

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Participating in the Global Read Aloud has changed the tone in my classroom. As I’ve mentioned before, we are reading Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. The story is realistic and takes place in a 6th grade classroom where there are all types of kids, the cut-up, the bully, the follower, the smart one, and Ally who believes she is dumb. My students are getting a good long look at these characters. They talk about them as if they know them. We are starting to even use them as labels, “Don’t be a Shay.” (Shay is the smart-aleck bully.)

This week was Global Read Aloud Random Acts of Kindness week. We watched a video from Amy Krouse Rosenthall, an author whose book is also part of Global Read Aloud. In her video, she does kindness pranks by leaving a box of Ding Dongs at random houses, ringing the doorbell, and running away. My kids loved this idea. They wanted to do it to the teachers, Teacher Pranks.

One student brought in two containers of rocks from Walmart. Her idea came from Cynthia Lord, to write a word message on each rock. They wrote words like love, brave, kindness, etc. on each rock. I brought in brown lunch bags, and with the help of the art teacher, they decorated them. We also had candy and made a batch of lavender bath salts using Epsom Salt. Would you like to get a gift bag like this? My kids made their Halloween party into a Kindness party. They even managed to be sneaky without being crazy.

Bath salts: Epsom salt, food coloring, and lavender scent.

Kindness rocks

Last week we wrote Fib poems. I posted about them here. I invite any class reading Fish in a Tree to write Fib poems about the characters and add it to our padlet.

If you have written a recent Digital Literacy post, please leave a link.

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Celebrating Field Trip Fun

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Writing, tagged Aquarium of the Americas, field trip on October 24, 2015| 5 Comments »

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

The Aquarium of the Americas, New Orleans, Louisiana

My students started a count down 6 weeks ago when they first heard we were going on a field trip. The day finally arrived. We boarded a charter bus at 7 AM and headed toward New Orleans.

First stop, the aquarium. They wandered among sharks and jellyfish and even touched a stingray. We watched the feeding of the penguins. We decided to buy a new class pet, a penguin named Ernie after the oldest penguin at the Aquarium.

While we were having lunch, the best daughter in the world walked from her office and brought me an iced latte. A double treat, a chance to give her a kiss and the caffeine that is much needed to sustain a day long field trip.

It’s right about here that one of my students decided to run through the water fountain. I really did not think ahead on this one. I didn’t think I needed to explain to gifted students that water makes you wet. He had to sit in his wet clothes in the Imax theater. A colleague,who was trying her best to calm my anger, told me this would be a logical consequence. (I am now able to see the humor of it all.)

The Imax movie told us the story of Hurricane Katrina. I did end up with one student clinging to me. It was intense. We must tune in the loss of wetlands in our state. This movie was visual proof.

Our last stop was the Insectarium. Here we enjoyed eating bugs. Yes! They were full of protein and covered in flavors.

The butterfly garden was magical. Two butterflies landed on Emily. Now Emily’s usual mode of transportation is running, hopping, skipping, but here in the warm garden, she slowed down and held out her arm. One of these friendly butterflies stayed on her hand for a while. A little miracle.

This morning I am celebrating a full day of adventure, fun, and learning. On the bus trip home, I announced a quiz bowl competition. The Audubon Nature Institute provided resources for educators. We printed out a scavenger hunt for the kids. On the bus, we awarded points for answers. My team didn’t win, but I plan to reward them anyway. All in all it was a great day!

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