Fee-fi-fo-fum!

When I put out the word that I needed help with a Jack and the Beanstalk costume, I had not one but two offers of help. "Of course! This looks like a fun project. When do you need it by?" Umm, next week. (Did I mention I am lucky to have The Most Awesome Friends a person could ask for? Though, they do serve as enablers of my personal brand of insanity . . .)

That's right. It's costume time again. Family Literacy Night is Wednesday night, and the theme this year is fairytales. Each room will offer a fairytale read-aloud and an associated hands-on activity. I did some fast thinking and snatched up "Jack and the Beanstalk," to be paired with stalk measuring and seed planting activities. Mmm, science and literature. My favorite!

Mrs. D (Mistress of Procurement that she is) procured green and brown paper for fashioning said beanstalk and snack-size plastic cups for seed planting. Almost done. . . . Then our principal mentioned at the faculty meeting last week that she was expecting everyone to be in costume for this event. Uh, oh.

Google to the rescue! I found this kids' costume and figured it would be both inexpensive and "quick" to make a Ms.S-sized version. As I was pondering where to acquire green beanstalk tights at this time of year (Is there a season for opaque green tights?), I suddenly remembered that I already own a very old pair of green tights (having kept them way beyond any obvious usefulness). Even more impressive, I was actually able to locate them! Savers vindicated, once again!

"If it's somethin' weird and it won't look good, Who ya gonna call?"

I turned to a friend (dare I say, just as crazy as I?) who dressed her family as the characters from Charlotte's Web for Halloween. Having fashioned from tights Charlotte's octo-legs and Templeton's tail, she qualifies as an expert. With what should I stuff them, dear Liza, dear Liza? 

"You can have my stuffing. Come quick! I'm home alone! (and I'm supposed to be cleaning.)"
Ah, timing is everything. The choice between beanstalk production and house-cleaning is clear!

I rushed over, green tights in hand, and--after a few unpublishable jokes and a longer-than-I-care-to-admit period of time cutting and sewing tights--I am now the proud owner of an almost-there set of beanstalks and a brown burlap Jack tunic.

Note to self: Shirts have seams, and seams consume fabric. Oops!

Long Term Investment

"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Maria Montessori would have agreed vehemently with this statement. She believed that "Establishing lasting peace is the work of education," that changing the way we educate children is the key to a peaceful future. Peaceful problem solving will probably never be on The Test, but it will be evident in the citizens we raise to shepherd our future.

This afternoon, I sat on the stoop outside our building with a child who had dissolved into loud, angry tears. Angry feelings are OK, but loud, disruptive noises in the classroom are not. I quietly reminded him that I was ready to listen to words when he was ready to use them--and then waited. A fifth grader came out to empty a bucket of dust rags and dirty water from their Friday classroom cleaning. He asked what was wrong with the child, and I explained that he was angry and why.

The fifth grader nodded knowingly and said to the child, "Come here. I have something that will help you with your anger." (No kidding: those words.) My second grader walked over, and the fifth grader gently and patiently instructed him to take one of the wet rags and squeeze as hard as he could, dripping the water into the bucket.

This simple scene illustrates so much of what we're trying to accomplish in Montessori programs. This is why we group the children together with multiple ages--so that the older children can serve as role models, providing wisdom and leadership for the younger children. This is why we work so hard at peaceful problem solving--because one day they get it! And that will make all the difference.

Know when to fold 'em!

This month's pen pal letters are letters and envelopes in one! Using an origimi letterfold technique I learned passing notes in middle school (Mrs. D claims never to have done this), we folded the letters into envelopes.

Testing. Testing. Testing . . .

We are in the midst of six long days of Stanford testing. Too long.

Having repositioned all the desks into rows has me feeling discombobulated, and reading script after testing script is numbing my brain. But I've had some time to contemplate the "stuff" teachers find themselves doing, completely outside the realm of assigned duties.

Today's was a doozy. As I administered the Listening portion of the test, rushing around to check that each of 26 first graders bubbled something (and just one something) next to the appropriate question number, Mrs. C gestured urgently in the direction of one of the children. I looked over and then desperately wished I hadn't.

The child had vomited all over himself and his test booklet. Every year during the TAKS, I live in fear of this moment: vomit on a test booklet. A puke test must be bagged, tagged, and reported as a testing irregularity. And someone (I prayed it was not me--turns out it is the Testing Coordinator) must transfer the child's bubbled answers from the barf booklet into a non-barf booklet. (And you thought that someone who threw up on a test booklet would be finished with testing? Naive little pretties.)

The other children remained surprisingly calm. ("Can you hear me now?") I, however, have the gag reflex of a mama bird. Trying very hard not to make a bad situation worse, I summoned a monitor from the hallway who kindly took the child to the nurse and then buzzed the office to let them know we needed a custodian, stat! Moments later, as I attempted to wipe off the worst of the yuck with giant wads of paper towel, our heroic but somewhat harried Testing Coordinator swept in with The Bag in which to preserve the puke test. (Is there performance pay for that?)

After the hubbub subsided, we took a brief break, regrouped, and soldiered on.


Note to self: Do not become a testing coordinator--EVER.
. . . Do you suppose there is a Chief Officer in Charge of receiving the state's vomit tests?

Chicken Soup with Rice

In January
it's so nice
while slipping
on the sliding ice
to sip hot chicken soup with rice.

Sipping once
sipping twice
sipping chicken soup with rice.

Happy New Year!

Today, we marked the new year by constructing 2010 with golden beads. As we did so, we skip-counted by tens to check our accuracy.





It is dramatic and fun to solve the problem of what to do when we come to the end of our thousand chain. Now what? This year, it was a first grader who got that “Ah, ha!” look on her face and suggested we borrow a second thousand chain from the classroom next door.




We also enjoyed lessons on A.D. & B.C., the history of the Gregorian calendar, and the months' names.

The year I completed my Montessori training was the first year that required a second thousand chain. This year, we added a ten bar. It’s hard to believe that much time has passed. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I celebrated “the new millennium” with college friends in Boston, hoping that the Y2K Bug would not obliterate civilization as we knew it.

The first graders I worked with that first year are now 16! Those little people can drive! Abby, who, one cold winter day, dissolved into tears because her mother made her wear her “Puffyman Sweater.” And Taylor, whose zipper got irreparably stuck after he zipped himself—knees, arms, torso, and all--into his hoodie jacket, so that only his feet and head protruded. (We had to use scissors to release him from the jacket so that he could walk again!) Anna and Katie, who cheerfully worked non-stop, writing lengthy stories and completing volumes of research. And Julio, whose reading took off after we reeled him in with non-fiction books on topics like sharks and big cats.

Surely, they have no idea how much they taught me.

I told you once
I told you twice
all seasons
of the year
are nice
for eating
chicken soup with rice!
--Maurice Sendak


What We're Reading:
Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months by Maurice Sendak