our front yard...

I spy something in the garden...can you see it?!

Oh, there is the giant spider eating the little fly.

I spy something in our tree....(from my roommate's room)

Oh, there it is a swarm of bees!

Here is a video of the bees... 

The Rice Field (a Thai fiction story)

ตามีนาดี  นาดีมีงู   อาไถนากะดูงู  
งูไปในรู  อาจะดูรูงู   อาจะตำรูงู   
ตาพาลามานา  ลาไปดูโค  
ขาโคในรูงู   ตาทายาขาโค  โคโอเค

Grandpa has a good rice field.  The rice field has a snake.  Uncle plows the rice field and looks at the snake. The snake goes in the hole. Uncle will watch the snake hole. Uncle will mash the snake in the hole. Grandpa brings a donkey to the rice field. The donkey goes to look at the cow. The cow’s leg goes in the snake’s hole. Grandpa rubs medicine on the cow’s leg. The cow is okay. 

Written by two students with help from their VERY patient teacher

I must admit that I came up with the mashing idea and the cow's leg. We had to make the story somewhat exciting while only using our limited vocabulary.

Roommate

 I must confess that I don't really mind my roommate....

he/she is pretty quiet and keeps the insects out of my room (or just eats them). 

I didn't like it too much when it tried sleeping IN my bed with me. 

The walls and ceiling is the best place for this little guy. 

I should probably name him (or her) so here is the first contest of the new school year! 

Help me name my gecko roommate!!!

Life of an Elementary Librarian

Life of an Elementary Librarian 

BOOKS for the week?!?!

I have been trying to read books in our library...must say most of these books don't look super exciting to read by myself...wish my nephews and nieces were around to read them with me.

 I am actually excited about reading Teaching with Love and Logic!

Funny things kids say....

At the beginning of the year in the library the 1st and 2nd graders learn about fiction and non-fiction books. I have decided to start by making them play a little game. 

The 2nd graders play "make-believe" or "true" and each student needs to say one thing that is "make-believe" and one thing that is "true." Then we get to try to guess which is true and which is not. 

This year the first graders just said one thing and we had to guess if it was true or not.

I don't know if this is the best way to introduce the idea of fiction and non-fiction, but it is a great way to get to know the kids and it gives me some funny stories :)

Here are some of the best ones from this year:

One 1st grader had us decide if he was telling the truth about wearing space alien underwear. He was ready to show us if we didn't believe him... :)

Another 1st grader said she had 1,000 cousins. We guessed that was make-believe and she agreed but then informed us that she had 90 cousins. I am still waiting to see her mom to find out if that is true or not!

One 2nd grader said that he lived in a pickle... hmmm we knew for sure that was false!

I know there were more...but I didn't have time to write them all down before I forgot!