Peace

I found this video this morning as I was looking for ideas for a lesson. Watch it I think you'll enjoy it.

Snow Drops!

Maybe there is hope for spring. It wasn't very nice to spend all most a week in warm, sunny Mexico and then get hit with -10 degrees when I touched down in Denver last week. Not nice at all! But this morning I found these beautiful little flowers poking up through last years fall leaves. Maybe spring is coming. There is always hope.

Zamma

In Mayan Zamma means the place where the sun rises. Or at least that is what our guide told us. I think I like Zamma better than Tulum.











Our guide also said that they think there are older ruins under some of the areas like this one. Rather than start digging things up they want to bring in machines that have sonar to check if there is anything under neath.



Our guide old us several interesting things about Zamma. In this cave he said there was a fresh water spring where the Mayans got their drinking water.

I Ran Away From Home and Found the Sun!

Because of all the stress that I have been going through I threatening my principal that I was going to run away to Mexico and not come back. Well... my husband and I ran away! We had a wonderful time. It was warm, sunny, and most important NO SNOW!!! The downside was I had to come back to the white stuff and VERY COLD. When I left home last week the temperature was in the low 20's but coming back Denver was at least -10 degrees and when I landed at the airport in Utah it was 10 degrees. Yes I know other places have been colder but when I left Mexico it was between 70 and 80 degrees.

I don't swim so I didn't spend much time at the beach or at the pool. Well I do swim but I do it on the bottom of the pool. I sink like a rock! I've always had a problem getting my head out of the water.

Another reason for staying out of the sun is that skin cancer runs in my family. In my teens my summer tan, that I worked on all summer religiously, looked more like most peoples summer tan that had faded in the winter. I gave up!

I do like sitting in the shade by the pool or the beach with a good book or some kind of hand work. Unfortunately I found it difficult to find a peaceful place to sit and enjoy the outdoors. From about ten in the morning until the bar closed at 6 p.m. there always seemed to be a loud rude group of drunk Americans making total fools of themselves. There were other groups French or Russian drinking by the pool but they seemed to be having intelligent conversations, or at least that's what it sounded like even though I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying.

Paper Dolls

Several months ago I bought some fabric with paper dolls all over them. After mounting them on some kind of very stiff backing I've started cutting them out. Now all I need are for some little girls or boys to come and visit their Granny. Hint! Hint!

Winnie the Pooh Birthday

January 18th is A. A. Milne's birthday. If I were in school I would have a Pooh Party. I would have the children bring their favorite O'l Bear or stuffed animal. In the past I've had the children read with their bear, measure body parts, then graph the measurements. I've also had the children write stories about their bear. I have made hats for the children out of newspapers and then march around the room ending up in the office to the music "Teddy Bear Picnic." We also would have Teddy Grams for a snack.

100 Random Acts of Kindness

I usually start this project earlier in the year. This year has been rather difficult on many levels. This past week I started collecting “Random Acts of Kindness” from my students. The acts can be just about anything (walking quietly in the hall, helping another student, sitting quietly, or paying attention during a group less, etc.). About the only thing I require is the students cannot tell on themself, somebody else needs to report their act of kindness. I make a poster and each time an act of kindness is reported to me I write or if I am busy and can’t stop right then I have the student write the child’s name on the heart and it is glued on the poster. In the beginning until things get going I'm usually the only one reporting.

I organize the hearts in rows of 5’s or 10’s depending on the size of paper I have available. When there are 10 hearts on the poster I circle them. It helps the children learn place value and makes it easier to count the hearts. I like to end the project somewhere around the 100th day of school but, as in the case this year, we will be working on the chart until we have reached 100 Random Acts of Kindness.