Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Great Cookie Caper


Children took note of the appearance and aroma of the chocolate chip cookies crowded inside their teacher’s green glass jar during some recent first grade learning about observing and describing.

While Mrs. Miller “went next door” to help her colleague with something, another teacher was kind enough to take the first graders on a short trip to the restrooms.

Imagine the astonishment when the students and teacher returned to their classroom to find there was caution tape positioned across the door!  It did not take long for the students to realize the cookies they had been admiring were GONE.  Mrs. Miller was matter-of-fact.  “Detectives, we have a mystery!” 


I’d like to say right here that I was appalled at the number of small friends who immediately accused ME of being the thief! 





At Mrs. Miller’s direction, the detectives collected clipboards, pencils, and a copy of the case file.  









They gathered round to review some of the case specifics.  The setting was established and suspects were identified.  Mrs. Miller and I both claimed alibis but the students continued with their suspicions.  Matthew suggested, “I think Mrs. Miller wanted us to leave. She didn’t really need to go to Mrs. Landis’ room!”  There were no apparent witnesses to the crime though again I was accused of being “nearby the entire time!”  Dr. Lore approached the door but was stopped short by the caution tape and Mrs. Miller’s warning.  “I wouldn’t come in here if I were you….we have a mystery!”





The detectives got to work and began checking for clues.  There were footprints, an empty cookie jar, a canvas bag, some crumbs, a cell phone, and a comb. 






I was amused when a small group of plucky students used their investigation as an opportunity to look inside their teacher’s desk!  Oh, so clever.  







Indictments were flying, most of them in the direction of Mrs. Miller and me.  Both of us were made to place our feet atop the footprint clue.  The glass slipper did not fit my foot, but looked pretty much perfect for Mrs. Miller’s shoe size. 


Mrs. Miller asked her delighted and accusatory students, “Do you think it was me? Do you think I know where the cookies are?” 

She instructed them to head to their desks and to start writing in good sentences about what they think might have happened in the classroom.  They were to use all the clues they discovered as they built their case.  She told them she'd see if she could find where the cookies went while they did their work.

Wait a minute…. It was Mrs. Miller!


As an innocent yet falsely accused observer, I will say Mrs. Miller did not look the least bit remorseful!  

Her lack of repentance was a moot point as her small detectives were quite pleased with the final outcome. I left them writing their sentences with spellbound attention while munching on found cookies.   






Wednesday, April 22, 2015

MOUNTAIN PASS MEMORIES


 I have fond memories of my family’s well-loved Candy Land board game.  I suspect my brain historically revised my preadolescent winnings to be impressively more unshakable than accurate, but I know I felt rather invincible as I played that game with my sister. There was nothing finer than zipping by Lollipop Woods toward the top of the playing board to hop past the Neapolitan ice-cream rafts floating along. I’m not sure anyone even likes those tasteless slabs of pseudo-ice cream…particularly the pale pink strawberry layer. 

Before Hasbro introduced the miserable villain Lord Licorice to the game in the mid-1980s, the only pitfall I recall experiencing was getting stuck in the dreaded Molasses swamp.






Candy Land reminiscing came easily recently when I visited Mrs. Baker’s classroom to view the Edible Landscape entries which were created as part of the Middle School’s recent adjudicated festival entitled, “Showcase!” 






It was a wonderful celebration of the arts.  Performing arts, fine arts, fiber arts and edible arts were all a part of the day. 


Edible Landscape Artists!



Competition guidelines dictated that all items used for the landscape were to be edible.  The only exceptions were the base and underlying support materials.








Luke and Marshall’s creation was even entitled Candy Land, though instead of the wholly arbitrary and often infuriating shortcuts- "rainbow pass and/or gumdrop trail" of my board game days, the boys constructed their bridge of taco shells.








Rabbits were spotted romping in the village scene created by Kate and Elizabeth.









As if we haven’t seen enough winter, snowmen were guarding the nonpareils on the Exploration of Seasons entry.  






This throwback to winter was easily forgiven as the girls gave a nod to summertime with bears in inner tubes bobbing down a river of frosting.  









Awesome Ellie took PINK to a whole new level!





The judging had not yet occurred when I made my morning visit. Some of the little touches on these projects were really great. 



My personal favorite was Sarah’s freshly cultivated Jelly Bean Garden.  Her pleasant crop rested alongside a Lasagna Dream House. Add a little alfredo sauce and it could qualify as MY dream house too.... 

If Sarah has aspirations in that direction, I do believe her future could be bright with Hasbro.  


Mrs. Zaskoda's Early Childhood Class stopped by to see the Edible Landscapes


I think he approves! 



Wednesday, April 15, 2015

A Bowl of Fun

Mrs. Quirk’s class is working its way through a hands-on Foss Science unit entitled, GETTING TO KNOW PAPER. Loving reading and writing as I do, I have a special place in my heart for paper. This special place is reserved for the feel of a fat volume in my hands and will never be usurped by a Kindle or other electronic device masquerading as a book.


The focus question for the science work in kindergarten on the day of my visit was, “How can paper be made strong to form a bowl?” This question was glued onto the top line of science journal pages and was awaiting an answer. 



Most five year old children have experienced the swing of a baseball bat as they attempt to rend a hole in a papier-mâché piñata. But few have experienced the art of hands-on papier-mâché themselves. The class project was to create just this type of bowl.




Having been inundated with visitors to my office during the exact 30 minute period these marvelous bowls were being formed, Kathy Gordon with camera in hand kindly snapped some photos of the process.









By the time I got to the classroom, newly pasted bowls were drying by the window. 

Not wanting to miss their opportunity to share, students were more than eager when I arrived to interview them about their procedure.  Lilly jumped right in.  “We used sticky stuff with paper on top!”  Peyton agreed, showing me the residual paste which was clinging like scales to his already-washed fingers.  


The adhesive was made of flour and water but the students had some other ideas about the paste as they crowded around my legs, practically standing on each other’s feet to tell me the tale.  “It was sauce!” reported Liza, who is surely a marvel in the kitchen.  “Pancake mix!” said another student, with a sly grin.  With no-nonsense determination, Ellie spoke plainly.  “It was disgusting like oatmeal.” Several nearby students with paste-encrusted nails nodded sagely in agreement. 

Mrs. Quirk asked the students to do their word review for me, so they spoke of layering and overlapping the strips of newspaper.  They recalled how their fingers began to feel stiff from all that homemade paste.

















An example of "homemade" paper





Among other paper-related lessons, recent activities included the actual making of paper (one week prior) and discussion about recycling. 








The class created a paper banner which was hung outside the classroom window and looked remarkably like Tibetan prayer flags. The banner was placed outside so the students could see how the structure of the paper was altered when it became wet.  

It was a little less colorful when I snapped the below photo, but amazingly, the kindergarten banner survived the final slushy snowstorm of the season! 




Before they headed out the door to recess, the children generously sang me a snappy classroom tune about WOOD.  The song starts out a little lackluster. “I am wood…I come from a tree...,” but as soon as I began settling in for a nap, the children with a twinkle in their collective eye, launched into catchier lyrics which included “I can be a floor, a door, a big stick, or a toothpick!”  There were tables and chairs involved too, I just couldn't write fast enough because I was distracted by my own toe-tapping. Seriously, if this melody (sung by my awesome KQU friends) was an option for download, I’d add it to my IPod today.



Wednesday, April 8, 2015

FIFTH GRADE SEDER

Our fifth grade classes traditionally celebrate Passover with a ritual feast called a Seder.  For the Jewish people, this meal marks the beginning of the Passover holiday. 





I missed a good deal of the feast, but between nursing duties I did manage some quick stopovers to see what was happening in Mrs. Swartley’s homeroom.  When I arrived the first time, two classroom mothers (Suzanne Gunden and Kym Jagiela) were scurrying about.  



They were preparing food plates, setting tables with items like bowls of salt water, and pouring grape juice. 
They placed 1 plate in the center of each table group.  The plates contained a small bunch of parsley, 1 spoonful of horseradish, 4 pieces of celery, and 4 spoonsful of charoset.



Charoset is a chopped apple salad which traditionally contains fruit, nuts, cinnamon, and wine.  Made by Carter’s mother, it looked delicious! Because the celebration was taking place in an elementary school classroom, there was no wine and there were no nuts! 



The charoset symbolizes the bricks and mortar the Hebrew slaves were made to produce during their time as slaves in Egypt.
In preparation for sharing the meal, classroom teacher Mrs. Swartley read to her students from a book about Passover.  She reviewed the symbolic meaning of each element of the meal.  Showing them examples of a Seder plate, she noted that the item they were seeing in the center of one of the plates was a horseradish root, NOT a carrot. 



Each student had a packet of papers for the celebration.  This was a 5th grade version of the Haggadah, an ancient text containing the Seder order of service which tells the story of Passover.  The students followed along, taking turns reading the passages their teacher highlighted for them.




Unleavened bread symbolizes the speed with which the Jews were made to depart Egypt.  They could not wait for their breads to rise when they were fleeing slavery. The matzo is referred to as both the “bread of affliction” and the “bread of freedom.”  One student from each table group broke the matzo.





Another student was the designated person in charge of pouring, though the “wine” was grape juice and the carafe was a measuring cup.  There is an obligation to drink four cups of wine during the feast. 









At one point during this ritual meal, the storyteller reminds participants about the miraculous salvation of their Jewish ancestors through an enumeration of the ten plagues.  So in the case of our fifth graders, each time Mrs. Swartley named a pestilence, students dipped fingers into “wine”, each relocating a drop of fluid onto to his or her plate.


There was lots of tasting.  I’m not sure why our children can identify the flavor lawn, but one of the students noted that parsley tastes “worse than grass!”




There was a lovely song about God’s kindness. “Dayenu”, the words meaning: It Would Have Been Enough. The singing got a little livelier as the song grew to its finale with a resounding “HEY!”




The students had various shapes and sizes of cushions upon which they “reclined” during the feast.  For the purposes of the Seder, this comfortable position symbolized freedom.  Only free persons are able to relax while servants stand.  I particularly enjoyed Keira’s hot-pink fuzzy pillow.


Whether through touch, taste, sound, or visual experience, I admire the way our teachers work to transform unfamiliar concepts into something wonderfully tangible. Ideas leap from written page to fond memory by means of these unforgettable student experiences.