Book Character Parade

Wow! March is over so I better hurry and finish all my March posts, so that I have time to share about my April activities...:) We had a Book Character Parade at our school as a part of the reading month activities. I didn't get too many great photos but here are some highlights...

Yes the two librarians as Thing 1 and Thing 2- Judy didn't want to die her hair blue
so I found these shower caps for about a dollar at the mall!

A turtle and Amelia Bedelia...

Yep we are crazy...my Thai teacher as a Thai girl from a  Thai folktale
My roommate Tami as Anne with an E

1st grader- Cows that type:)

Amelia Bedelia and Nate the Great

We walked over to the high school side- walked through the high school
and then walked around the pool

6th graders as Thing 1 and Thing 2!

One of my 1st graders really wanted a picture with me because we were both in red
I think another 1st grader took this photo:)

Pajama Story Hour

March has been reading month at our school...We love to read! One Thursday night we had a pajama story hour from 6:30pm-7:30pm for the K-2nd grade students. I think that about 30 of them showed up (we have about 60). Our theme was "mysteries" and the book I read was a Nate the Great book. It was the book where he can't find his dog....and I just can't remember the name of it right now....if you can tell me the book's name- you can get a prize:)

They had to follow the paw prints to get to the right classroom...

We were all in our pajamas...some of the moms that stayed didn't wear their pj's:)

On beanbags ready for the story...

Listening or sleeping...:) His monkey made noise! 

Josh (a 10th grader) came and helped us...here we are trying to solve the code
Answer: Good Detectives like pancakes!

My good friend Gina helped me by making pancakes right there in the classroom...the smell of pancakes was in the air as we read! (If you didn't know, Nate the Great LOVES pancakes)
They were half dollar sized and we gave them little cups of syrup! It worked very well and no mess! 

Bikes and other things...

This post has a few different topics...

1. I got a new bike a couple of weeks ago and I just had to compare my old bike and this one...

My new bike is in the middle...

New bike in the front...a mongoose
Old bike behind

Another angle

As you can see...My new bike is more my size and my knees don't hurt so much when I ride it!  It also has  gears- imagine that- I can actually change the gears to make it easier to pedal! I am loving my bike! 

2.I went to a show put on by Rajanakarindra Institute of Child Development here in Chiang Mai and Interact Theater Company from Minnesota

 http://www.interactcenter.com/news.html

It was called Wake Up and Dream (waking up to the potential and talents of people with disabilities)

A number of people from school went watch with me and it was neat to see people with all different disabilities share their talents to make a fun show. 

 They are building this center (shaped like a piano) to be a therapy center. I really hope to go and see it sometime it looks so neat!  http://www.ricd.go.th/jvalun/ioverview.htm 

 3. Lastly...just thought I would show you my Thai outfit- on Fridays the teachers in the public schools in Thailand will dress in traditional Thai outfits and so many teachers at our school will join them as well. The flip flops are actually from Brasil:) but they are pink...so...they matched nicely. I took this photo by myself so sorry for the poor quality. 

Huge Pizza at a Birthday party

My friend Annalisa had a birthday on Sunday and we ordered food from Pizza and Pasta. The man that owns the restaurant is from New York, so you know it is going to be good pizza:) Annalisa decided to get the pizza that had 8 slices of pizza....

Here is the box trying to get through the door...as you can see it just fit....

Tami showing off the pizza...

What a fun party:) We had all been really busy with school, etc
so after filling up on pizza we were sleepy...

The birthday girl eating her birthday brownie and ice cream!

Annalisa has been such a blessing in my life here. She has helped me get adjusted to Thailand, traveled with me to the beach, and helped me travel around Chiang Mai. Annalisa has also run two races with me, one on Christmas day and one in flip flops! She won't be here next year, but my friend and I are already planning a trip to visit her in the next Southeast Asian country she is moving too!

Dr. Seuss' 108th Birthday!

For Dr. Seuss' birthday we had an all school bingo game. I got the idea from the last school that I taught at, every class would have their bingo cards in their classroom and then the numbers would be called over the school's tv channel. If you got a bingo you would run into the hallway to get your prize while the game continued. 

Our school doesn't have a tv channel, but we do have an intercom! We played Dr. Seuss book bingo over the intercom...the 1st graders got some extra help from the 6th graders. I made about 25 different cards with different Dr. Seuss books in each box. The title was read and the students had to search for that book. When they got a bingo they either had to go to the office or the library for their prize.

We had so much fun and it was a great start to our March Reading Month!!

1st grader with her 6th grade buddy...

Those buddies had to work hard....

Working together...

Prizes were chocolate chip cookies with a Dr. Seuss quote on them...

4th graders waiting for the next book....

Helping the 3rd graders play bingo during their library time!

Our wonderful bingo caller with her Dr. Seuss hat ...

Some of the many happy winners...

The art teacher helped us decorate for the month!

108th birthday!

My "new" slippers...

What I have been doing....

Today is the last day of the Wizard of Oz! We have two more shows and then the cast party! The kids have been working really hard and we have had two GREAT shows already. I am helping with the stage crew- my main job is to help the stage director, who is a senior. There are 10 students and myself backstage. My roommate decided to help with collecting and making props...so for the last month or more I have been helping her as well.

Tami in the Poppy Field... we made all the flowers...my job was folding the tissue paper....
and I helped to paint the fields green.

We also made the corn stalks...I think my Grandpa would have been proud at how realistic the corn looks:)

Spears...

The corn field (the background was really hills we just hadn't changed it yet)...just missing the scarecrow.

After today I should be able to relax again and not be at school for 11+ hours a day!

Skyping with Berean

Berean turned 2 on the 7th of March so my mom was nice enough to plan a party that I could "attend." We skyped on the 6th, so this helped her prepare for her big party on Friday night. My mom thinks of everything and made a birthday sign, cakes that were cooked in the microwave, and she wrapped a present I had sent with all the Christmas gifts in December.

Here are some pictures my mom took from her side of the world...

Berean decorating her cakes...

The look I got most of the time...look at all those ducks on that cake!

Even the fridge had a birthday message! Here Berean is eating her cake in front of me...
my mom tried to share with me but it just didn't work....

Getting all the cake off of the fork...

Then from my side of the world...

Berean and my mom as we sang happy birthday

I think this girl might think I live in the computer! I got a her an elephant purse-
she is wearing it but you can't see the elephant.

Happy Birthday Berean! See you in June!

Thanks Jo!

Jo Sturdy sent me some amazing Valentine's Day gifts and included in the fun were balloons...but not just any balloons! Watch and see...

This video was the second balloon that we "inflated"

We (my roommates and I) took it over to our neighbors so that we could all enjoy the fun!

This was the first one that we tried at home...it required many hits and went much slower...don't know why!

About Hello Kitty and what I said at the end of the video...see Hello Kitty stuff is very popular here so we are always laughing about all the things you could buy that has Hello Kitty on it.

All of my friends in Thailand think that I have the coolest friends back home! I have gotten so many FUN gifts! Today we also made some fake snow that my friend Kristel sent me...one of my friends has never seen snow before! She was surprised at how soft it was and not hard like ice:) Of course it didn't really feel like TRUE snow, but it was close enough for now!

Run for Relief

 Last Saturday over 300 people from the Chiang Mai area ran a 5k for the purpose of helping those who daily live on the run. This is the 8th annual Run for Relief here- there might be one in your area....

See what the website is saying about Burma, etc  http://runforrelief.org/   

and check out this video.....http://runforrelief.org/video.html

Yes, we are crazy and we ran in flip flops! There was a special category for people doing the run in flip flops. The point of this group was to show what it is like for many people in Burma, who run with only flip flops. It was great fun and I just ended up using different muscles to try to keep the flip flops on! My feet survived! For those who keep asking; we ran it in 32 minutes. My friend Annalisa ran with me the whole way...she also ran the 10k with me!

For some reason the people running in the flip flop division got a "Oregon Senior Olympics" bib instead of just a plain one. I guess if we run in flip flops we will get old sooner?

The finish line...before the race started....(we had to run by it at the very beginning).

The back of my shirt and the free flip flops I got for running in flip flops...

I picked the orange flip flops in honor of my nephews....