Having to give my students the state mandated STAR test, leads to a more relaxing atmosphere. You wouldn't think so, with all of the hype and pressure to do well on the tests, but it does. You see, we spend a lot of time preparing to take these tests. I start sending Test Prep for homework in January. In class, we work on the important concepts reflected in the tests-we do that normally, but there's lots that we don't cover until AFTER the tests. For this reason, I have to make sure I hit those things before we take the tests. It's crazy. It's not going away any time soon, so my job is to make sure they have those skills, necessary in time for the test, and then the skills needed to succeed in 3rd grade. Because of this, and because we have a very demanding Reading series, we don't have a lot of "down" time. We are always busy. We work, work, work, but these two weeks of testing, we can slow down a little. I am not doing the very demanding Reading program this week. Instead, we are enjoying some really great literature books, and some really great projects. Like this for instance...
Where The Wild Things Are (picture that underlined-unable to underline here), is my most favorite children's literature book. I LOVE IT! My favorite part is when the wild things "roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes..." Awesome book.
See? I even have a "Wild Thing" at school-his neighbors here are Lily and Junie B. Jones, with Madeline toward the end. He's cute, so cute. When Quinn was about 18 months old, we took both boys into the city to see the Where The Wild Things Are exhibit. It had things for the kids to do, things they could climb, parts from the book, interactive stuff, a boat for Max, etc. It was really cute. Quinn was a little afraid of it though, it was kinda dark. Riley really liked it, but he was a little more familiar with the book at that point.
At school this week, we made our own "Wild Things." They are hanging all over the classroom, in varying spots. We wanted to feel like the jungle all around. These three are protecting the lunch boxes. Thanks Sheri for hanging all of these up for us-er, me!
These two are protecting the calendar-or are they looking for something to eat? I love how short that top guy is!
All of this leads me to THIS! The movie! It comes out in October, and I am very excited about it. When I watch the trailer, which you can do too, HERE, I get all misty eyed. I absolutely love the song they use in the trailer. It's called "Wake Up," and it's by Arcade Fire. I just purchased it from iTunes. I will be very interested to see what they do with the plot of this movie. The book isn't very long, so obviously, they have to create a back story. I can't wait to see it! October 16!
Word for the Day: Better. Quinn is much improved today. He hasn't eaten anything yet, but it's still early. He's drinking though. He still looks a little pale-or paler I should say, as he's usually devoid of pigment. He's on the couch, skinny legs all over the place.
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