Bud, Not Buddy

What we've been reading:  We just finished one of my new favorite novels to teach, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  I found lots of resources online that helped me, but I also just love the themes and morals from this book.  It is all about family, growing up, change, and the Great Depression.

One of the parts of the novel that I think is the funniest is all of Bud Caldwel's Rules and Things.  Bud is such a funny kid, and he is smart and innocent.  He has concocted all sorts of life rules that I typed and printed off for the bulletin board.  I would have loved to have time for the boys to create their own.  Next time I teach this novel I will incorporate this activity.

Names are important.  They are our identity.  Bud's name changes throughout the novel, and he talks about the importance of names.  I stole this idea from Miss Christin.  The boys and I looked up what do our names mean.  They had to create illustrations to go with the meaning.

I found a great pdf with ideas that came from a theater who adapted Bud, Not Buddy for the stage.  I absolutely love comparing different versions of the same story, whether from page to stage or screen. One of the activities in the pdf used the text from the novel to compare to the script.  Then, it asked the students to adapt a different part of the novel into a script.  We took the project a step further and acted and filmed the scene.  Here's the link to our version.

The pdf also had an idea to make rock journals.  I just printed off the page and the boys wrote three important days of their lives on the rocks.  It would be cool to purchase real rocks and have them write with a metallic pen on the rocks the memory.

At the beginning of the novel we created Bud's suitcase together.  We talked about the symbolism behind each object in his suitcase.  Then, I had the boys create their own suitcases.  I asked them what symbolizes them.  They wrote reflections on the back of their suitcases explaining each object.

I loved how this unit turned out.  I hope that I will get to teach this novel again someday.

Con mucho amor.

WWI

What the boys have been creating:  We spent the past month studying WWI.  I do not actually remember learning about this war when I was in middle school or high school, so I had to do some research about what happened.  We studied the key players in the war.  We used timelines to show the sequence of events.  We also talked about why the US joined the war.

To finish our WWI unit, the boys created a video about war strategies.  They included trench foot, being tired from fighting, the bathroom issues, and more.  Here's the link to the video that is posted below.

They also did a timeline and a mind map for their final.  Each one was so different and unique.

At the end of the year I want them to create a mega timeline like they did last year with eight or ten important things from the timeline of US history.  I am hoping these tests and evaluations will help them put together all their thoughts and ideas.

Do you have any WWI ideas or resources?

Con mucho amor.

Pi Day

What we've been eating: Monday was 3/14, a very important day in the math world.  Last year I did not celebrate the day with the boys, but this year Christin did an awesome job leading the morning activities.  I had an interview that morning, so I was unable to attend the whole time.

The kids started off reading this awesome article from Smithsonian Tween Tribune.  They had some neat ideas to help celebrate the day.  Here is their list of ways to celebrate and engage students.

There was a pi contest for who could memorize the most digits of the number.  Andrew got to 28 digits and Lesly memorized 30!

There was also a t-shirt decorating contest.  The kids came up with the most creative designs.  Lesly's t-shirt said "QT Pie" with a picture of a pie on the back.  

I found this article with different pi/math themed movies.  We watched An Invisible Sign which was interesting, different, and connected well with Pi day.  While we watched the movie, we munched on Christin's awesome pies.

It was a fun day to celebrate math.

Con mucho amor.

Superhero Writing

What we've been writing:  My mom got me these awesome superhero word magnets.  I wanted to figure out how to incorporate them into a writing assignment.  We also studied homophones this week.  I combined the two into a fun creative writing assignment.

The boys used the magnets as inspiration for their stories.  They loved making crazy sentences with the words.

Then, they wrote their stories and we also spent a day revising them together.  They were so excited to share what they wrote.  Andrew asked me, "We are sharing these, right?"  Here are their stories.

Avengers by Andrew

The most powerful heroes fight day and night, but what do they do in spring break? They go have fun at the beach or that’s what they thought. As Tony and Widow played volleyball the most unexpected thing happened. Angel and Superman came out flying from nowhere. Tony was astonished and worked fast to get his suit, but then he remembered that he forgot it at home. Angel was fighting Superman one-on-one, but that didn’t last long. Next thing Tony knew was that Angel was thrown at him, and he was knocked out. When he gained consciousness Black Widow and Wolverine were at each other’s throats.

All of the X-men which were made up of Marvel characters were fighting the DC’s. The battle was a hard one… for the X-men. “Those X-men people aren’t that strong and would only get in between us,” Superman announced. “The only X-men guys that put up a fight were Magneto and Wolverine. Like come on, one guy is immortal and the other can move metal with his mind. They’re the only ones that we consider the upper class of Marvel characters.” So with the weaker Marvel characters gone, the battle with DC was to finish that spring.

 (Two weeks later) The battle is still going on with the strongest of both sides still fighting. The fighters on Marvel are the Hulk, Wolverine, Venom, Loki, Magneto, DeadPool, HellBoy, and Thor. And the strongest of DC are Superman, Orion, DarkSeid, Wally West, Hal Jordon, and Doomsday. One after another even they started falling like fly’s. Loki and Thor the gods in Marvel were fighting Orion and Superman the gods in DC. For even the immortals from both sides were tired out. The gods battled it out until superman was thrown into a restaurant and landed into their supplies of mussels. Superman looked at the faces of the terrified people and then got up. He flew up to see the others fighting and with a voice so strong the flour on him came off, he got their attention and then pointed down to the city. Then the four gods looked around and saw the destruction they caused and from that day on they would never fight a war this big again.     

Captain America's Spring Break by Isaac 

Spring break starts and I decide to go relax before I have to fight in the Civil War. I drive to the beach with my brand new t-shirt, and Bucky tags a long with me. My head started hurting so I was too tired to go swim. I lie on the sand and see kids playing with mussels then I close my eyes. Suddenly I open them for a split second. I don’t see Bucky at my side, and I get up as fast as I can. I look around and see that no one is near. I don’t know what to do at first so I call out,

 “Bucky??” Of course no one answers. Just before I know it I hear gun shots nearby, and I grab my shield and take cover behind a lounge chair. Then I see that it’s Bucky so I smile and walk towards him with no fear. Bucky uppercuts my chin and I bite my tongue and fall to the ground bleeding.

 I’m confused. Why would he do such a thing? My tongue hurts so badly, but I manage to look up seeing Bucky with a gun pointing directly at me. Right when he’s about to shoot I lift my shield up and block it. I get up really fast and kick the gun out of his hand. Bucky took out his knife and threw it at my leg. It hit my leg, and it started to sting majorly. I took it out and threw it back, he blocked it with his metal arm and took out another gun and started shooting me. With great speed I lifted my shield up blocking all his shots. I summersaulted into the sand behind a boat on the shore.

Why was Bucky acting so queer? What happened to him? Slowly peeking over the boat I don’t see anyone. I slowly walk towards the exit of the beach, but when I reach the exit, Bucky is standing right there in front of me glaring at me. He punched my face and kicked my chest, and I fell to the ground. Grabbing my aching chest I groaned and managed to say,

“What are you doing?” He got on top of me and started to choke me like a bear. With one his other hand he was stabbing me with his knife on my leg. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t and before I knew it I was…

 “Steve, you okay there?” I opened my eyes, and I looked at Bucky who was looking at me in a strange way. Everything was perfectly fine I looked at my leg, and it was in perfect condition. Looks like I just had some messed up nightmare.

“I’m fine, “I said slowly with a small grin.

A Super Vacation by Joseph

Boom! Hulk crushed an alienbot. Hulk turned his head to the right and was already on his target before a penny could fall out of a pocket. Hulk crushed. Smashed. Crushed. Smashed.  They wouldn’t stop coming. Hulk didn’t want to admit it, but he needed help. He gave a very loud roar, and Thor was smashing bots with Thor. This still wasn’t enough power so Thor called Tony who was in his mansion in his Jacuzzi. Tony quickly put on his armor and flew to help. After a long time all the others superheroes arrived to fight.

A couple hours later the Avengers finally defeated all the bots. Hulk was still ready for some action. Everyone else including Thor was very tired. The Avengers all sat at Stark Industries resting. Hulk was outside at the work out gym. He was carrying 10 tons of metal. Meanwhile the others were relaxing. Tony finally got up and said,

“You know we fight crime too much. We could use a break.”

 Thor got up and said, “What about Hulk? I think we all know Hulk can’t stop smashing.”

Tony replied, “Well, we could always ask if he would want to relax on a big boat. That ought to get him quiet.”

Thor then said, “Well who is going to keep the city protected?”

Tony replied simply and said, “Well I guess I’ll just have to turn on all of my iron man suits and put them on auto pilot.”

Everyone stopped and stared at Tony who was sipping coffee. All of the Avengers said together, “You can do that.”

Tony simply said, “yes” and started telling them about how he has accomplished getting so much power for his suits. Slowly the Avengers left their seats so they wouldn’t have to hear him speak.

A day later the Avengers were on a private cruise. Hulk had his anti-smash room. Thor’s room was near the generator were he kept it powered up. Everyone else was doing their own thing. After a week of vacation Black Widow received a call from Nick Fury. It said that the city was under attack, and the iron men suits have failed. The Avengers rushed to the city of New York, but there was nothing there but ruins.  This is why superheroes can’t waste their time having vacation when on the job. Sadly they’re always on the job.   

How are you incorporating student passions into the classroom?  What are you doing to inspire student writing?

Con mucho amor.

"I have overcome the world."

What I've been making:  I went on a painting spree over the past few weeks.  There are more pages that I have wanted to paint, but I haven't had the time.  First 5 App is doing a series on Leviticus, which has been fascinating.  I have never wanted to read that book of the Bible, but the devotionals make it easy to connect to our lives.  Hopefully in the next few weeks I can start to fill that book of the Bible with paint, stickers, washi tape, prayers, and reflections about God.

John 16:33 is a verse that I drew in my prayer notebook a month or so ago.  I decided to paint in my Bible.  It is one of my favorite pages.

I've finished a few more pages in Nehemiah.  It's my goal to finish all of the pages in the chapter of the Bible.  It has been so neat to study this book of the Bible at church each week.

"And they offered great sacrifices that day an rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced.  And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away."  Nehemiah 12:43

I love that their rejoicing was heard far away...  How powerful.  They were so excited about God and His goodness that they lit up their towns and cities.  They were on fire for Him.  Let's apply that to our lives now.  Are people far away able to tell how much we love the Lord? 

My mom sent me this link to a blog about how to paint watercolor feathers.  I used their instructions to paint Psalm 91.  I also made a copy to give to a couple friends on watercolor paper.  It's amazing to paint on watercolor paper.  It looks so much prettier.

"He will cover you with His feathers.  And under His wings you will find refuge;  His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler."  Pslam 91:4

This week was a week full of prayer.  Praying in Spanish, in English, with small groups, with a larger group, by myself.  I feel God pulling me closer and closer to Him.  This past Saturday I was feeling a little discouraged, but I saw this quote from Lysa Terkeurst that really touched my heart.

I went to the college group at church and we sang this song, No Puedo Callar.  I loved the verses and chorus.  I used the song as inspiration for this creation in my sketchbook.

The lyrics in English read...

Jesus changed my crying into joy

You erased my past

Today I live in the Light

We dance in Your freedom

Your life is in my being

We sing for You

Gloria, oh God

The joy of Your salvation

I cannot keep quiet 

Every Monday I have been going to a women's group at church.  It has been such a joy to get to know the ladies there.  Spending time praying and reading God's word with such wise women is the best way to start my week.  This week I made these little encouraging notes to give to them.  Using my talent for painting and creating to bless the lives of others is fun.

How are you blessing the lives of others?  What is God teaching you?

Con mucho amor.

A Year Down Yonder

What we finished reading:  Last week we finished reading A Year Down Yonder.  It is a sweet squeal to A Long Way from Chicago.  This book is about Mary Alice spending a year at her grandmother's house in the country.  It takes place during the Great Depression and tells the tale of Mary Alice changing in a year.  

This website has a list of fun ideas.  I would have loved to do their suggestion of writing letters back and forth between Mary Alice and her brother/family.  We just don't have enough students in our little class of 3 to do that project.

The project we ended up making was a group calendar.  Each chapter of the novel breaks down what happened in a particular month of the year.  The boys each took two months to illustrate.  They wrote on the back what Mary Alice learned through that chapter.  They struggled a little with the writing part.  They wanted to just write a summary of the chapter, but I challenged them to take it a step deeper and write what the main character learned.

How are you pushing your students to think deeper?

Con mucho amor.  

Stepping up my Math Game - Part II

What I've been teaching:  January was a really crazy month for me, and I felt like I was just barely getting by with my lesson plans and grading.  Math is the subject that I am not super passionate about, so it often is the first to turn "boring."  Here's the link to Part I of improving math class from last semester.

Two weeks ago I decided I need to incorporate more projects and games again.  We started off by playing exponent bingo.  I pulled the idea from Teachers Pay Teachers, but I created my own bingo boards.  The boys love playing games, and this was a great way for them to practice exponents.  I also found this awesome puzzle to use with scientific notation.  If I had more time, I would have loved to incorporate scientific notation with our space unit in Science, but I didn't get around to doing that part.

This week we started Geometry.  I found this blog on Pinterest that I used for inspiration.  We learned about different kind of lines and incorporated them into name drawings.

The next day we studied obtuse, straight, acute, and right angles.  We used yarn to show that we knew the different types of angles.  They make fun decorations in the classroom, and it provides an opportunity for the boys to be creative and use their artistic sides.  I used this yarn idea combined with this paper collage to create the assignment that the boys and I did.

What creative ideas are you using in math?

Con mucho amor.

Create

What I've been making:  Bible journaling has been so revolutionary in my walk with God this year.  I started off super strong with painting in January, but lately I haven't been taking as much time to express myself; however, here are some of my latest creations.

At church we have been learning about Nehemiah over the past month.  I had never read the story before, but it has so many amazing applications for our lives nowadays.  Here are the few pages I have started so far in this book of the Bible. 

The second week of the series Pastor John preached about how we need walls to keep the bad out and doors to let the good into our lives.  Satan will attack our lives, and we need to be prepared and ready to fight.  We also need to hold our weapons while we work - and are we working for the kingdom of God?

The fourth week of the Nehemiah series was very powerful.  The devil is going to use distractions to knocks us down from what we are doing.  If he can't distract us then he will discourage us.  I can so easily identify with those two strategies he uses.  But God is more powerful.  

"Our fight is not with people.  It is against the leaders and powers and the spirits of darkness in this world.  It is against the demon would the works in the heavens."  -Ephesians 6:12

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.  Even though I have been single for the past 24 years on this holiday, I just love celebrating love.  My friend Carla made a beautiful card for her boyfriend using the pattern of the heart from the page above.  I used the pattern as inspiration for this page.  How amazing is it that God's love endures forever...  He will love us more in a single moment than anyone could love us in a lifetime.  

God, please put a desire in my being to absorb Your Precious Word into my heart today.  Use these images, verses, and stories to bring others to read Your Word.  I know it is how You, Father, speak to me.  You know exactly what I need to hear and read, and You reveal it to me through the Bible.  Give others a desire to talk to You.  In Your MIGHTY name I pray, Amen. 

Oren sin cesar

What I've been learning:  PRAY and REST have been my two words for 2016.  One I have been doing really well, and one I have been struggling with lately.

I started prayer journaling September 2014 when I first got to the Dominican Republic.  I bought a basic composition notebook, and used markers, pens, colored pencils, and watercolors to journal praises and petitions to my Heavenly Father.  A couple weeks ago my heart was sad to finish the notebook that begin the transformation in my heart, bringing me closer to Him.  I have another notebook that quickly took its place in my spiritual life.  Not only do I write my prayers, but I also cover the pages in verses, worship songs, and quotes that touch my heart.

It is incredible to look back on past prayers and the miraculous ways God has answered them.  "Never stop praying" from 1 Thessalonians 5:16 has really been a way of life for me since moving to Santiago.  It is really all I can do sometimes.

"And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him."  1 John 5:14-15

I've been trying to incorporate prayer into every aspect of my life, including the ministry at church that I help with, APPS Joven.  I have loved working with the youth group at church, and I have been trying to help instill practices to cover the ministry in prayer.  The first Saturday we spent 20 minutes praying before the group started, I was blown away.  God really answered.  40 young people showed up.  One girl asked, "Is tonight some special night?"  Nope.  Just a normal Saturday youth group.  The difference?  God was there with us.  We went before His throne and asked Him to send the young people that needed to be there.  He did.

Last Saturday I got together with two ladies from church and we spent the morning praying together.  Tears, laughter, and amazement at what God is doing filled our time at the kitchen table with our hands folded and heads bowed.

"Where two or three are gathered, there I will be also."  Matthew 18:20

Are you talking to God?  How is He working in your life?

Con mucho amor.

In a Galaxy Far, Far, Away...

What we've been learning:  We started 2016 with a unit about the planets and outer space.

I saw an idea on Pinterest over the summer to create pillowcases with the periodic table of elements labeled.  Although we weren't going to study chemistry, the idea stuck with me.  I wanted to incorporate decorating a pillowcase in some way.  Christin had special fabric markers that we used, and the boys each brought their own pillowcase to decorate.  They had to label the planets in order and try and draw them to scale-ish.  They turned out so different from each other.

Next, I had planned a super fun travel poster assignment for the boys.  I even spent several days making my own example.  They were each going to pick a planet and research information about the planet.  Then, they were going to make a travel poster convincing us to travel to their planet.  The boys informed me that they already knew about planets and had done a similar project in elementary school.  I felt really disappointed they didn't want to/had already done the project.

I wanted to incorporate art into the space unit.  Last year I felt like I did a better job including art in different assignments, but this year I have not.  As I was search on Pinterest I found this artist, Djuno Tomsni.  He does a nod to the 1970s with these vacation space images.  We created similar pieces of art.  I especially like Andrew's.  He has a family looking at a cable car on a snowy planet.  On the backside, he talked about how the family forgot their coats and wouldn't make that mistake again.  So creative.

The boys also created drawings about what life on space might look like.  I found this website with what communism might look like in outer space.  The images were so creative and detailed.  I remember when I was in elementary school I loved drawing intricate houses and towers and underground living spaces.  If I had more time, I would love to have them write stories to go along with their drawings.

I used the mystery bag pirate hook (blog post about it can be found here) and threw some astronaut food in a brown bag with a question mark on it.  I purchased the food at Michaels, the craft store, over the summer.  I saw it and knew the treat would be perfect for my boys.

The bags caught their attention as they spent several days guessing the contents.  Once they actually got to open the bags, they LOVED the freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches.  Before researching, they made predictions about how astronauts go to the bathroom, sleep, and what they do in their free time.  Then, they wrote papers about what life is like in space for astronauts.

Next is a unit on weather, storms, and hurricanes.  Any lesson plan ideas for those topics?

Con mucho amor.

Valentine's Day

What we did to celebrate:  I love celebrating love.  Valentine's Day landed on a Sunday this year.  (Here's the link to how we celebrated at the Reyes Academy last year.)  I had some friends over for dinner.  We ate pasta, and we ordered the yummiest cinnamon rolls from my new favorite place: Mari's Cakes.  I also had the apartment decorated for the holiday.  (Thanks mom for sending such cute decorations!)  

The Reyes Academy celebrated Valentine's Day on Monday.  We first made Love Rocks.  Here's an article that explains where the idea came from.  A couple lost their daughters a few years ago.  To help cope with the tragedy they started making these love rocks to spread joy.  Visit their Facebook page here to learn more about what they do.

My mom made one for my roommate and I last year, and I loved the idea of randomly blessing others.  We could leave them at the supermarket, give them to people on the street, or set one on a step of the apartment.  I thought the concept of spreading love went perfectly with Valentine's Day.  The kids each made 2-3 using fabric scraps and modge podge.

Next we did black out poetry with using 1 Corinthians 13 or 1 John 4.  I loved seeing how different the 6 poems turned out.  Christin and I also participated.  It really helped us to think deeply about the text and its themes.  I would love to incorporate this same strategy into English class sometime.  

We ended the celebration by giving the kids their valentines.  Over Christmas break I found these poop pencils, and I knew they were perfect for the boys.  They absolutely LOVED them.  We had fun laughing about sticking poop in our noses, eating poop, and touching poop.

Christin and I made cookies and cake to give to the guys at the colmado and to bring to Bible study.  Through a friend on Facebook, I discovered a website called 40 Acts.  Each day of Lent they send an email with an act to do for the day.  I had already planned on making these things, but when I opened my email the act for the day was to make food to give to someone.  It was fun to randomly bless those around us.

How did you celebrate love year round?