I'm Writing Too: October 2016

Monday, October 31, 2016

It's Monday - What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme started by Sheila at Book Journeys and now hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Here are my October books:

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Day of the Week Math

How is it that
the weekend takes at least ten days
to roll around each week?
Yet Tuesday,
Ah, Tuesday,
You show up about every third day.
My day of the week math
is off,
yet again.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

A Service I Provide

There is a day each year where both students' and parents' anxiety is high. In order to alleviate the stress and concern I have taken to providing a service. A week or two prior I explicitly explain to parents what I will be doing. On the day of I share this information with my students and let them know that I have already told their parents of my services. They then line up, alphabetically by last name, and we silently pass through the halls until we arrive in the designated location. The nervous tittering commences as they wait. I position myself, ready to act, and the photographer calls for the first student.

What is this service? I ensure that no stray threads or fluff adorn any child. I check that there are not wrinkles or funny lumps in outfits. All stray hairs are smoothed or moved. Finally, standing over the photographer's shoulder, I entice a true smile from each child. (Culturally a true smile is not always encouraged for photographs. This is taken into account and at least a pleasant look is cajoled.) Ultimately we all feel great relief that we have succeeding in our task, be it in front of - or behind - the camera.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Racetrack Engineer

My jaw hit the ground - or at least what remained of the carpeted floor that still showed amidst her engineering marvel. I gazed at orange racetrack strips elaborately joined in various paths around her room. The more I gazed the more amazed I was. She didn't just set up a racetrack, she had created a masterpiece with interwoven tracks. Some were triggered by a car passing on another track. She had incorporated a loop-de-loop, a jumping ramp, and a banking turn UNDER her bed. Utilizing the space under her bed was not her only strategy for creating more space, she had also put a track through the door of her doll house. I was stunned by all the details. My seven year old had shown her depth of thinking and creativity in the past hour of alone time and didn't want to come down for dinner because she was enthralled. I tried to take a picture, but the scene before me was too vast - I had to utilize an app to piece it all together.

"Mommy, can you help by pressing this button over here? I can't reach to start both cars at the same time, and that is how it is supposed to go."

"Sure!" I responded, carefully making my way to the designated station.

"3, 2, 1, GO!" Came the launch command. I pressed my button and my jaw dropped again.

"Daddy!" I hollered. "Will you please come take a video?!" There was NO WAY I could capture this solely with a photo, no matter how many shots I took or put together.

Parts didn't work the way she had envisioned and as she tinkered my husband and I smiled at one another across this glorious mess of creating wonderment. After a couple more trials we brainstormed a bit, tried a few things, and before it was time for lights out there was success.

Pulling her soft purple blanket up around my daughter I mentioned her being a racetrack engineer.

"No, Mommy, I created her own makerspace!" she proudly told me.