It is a sunny Wednesday morning, January 25, 2012. A Gilded Flicker, numerous Collared Doves, Sparrows and Red Poll are jostling for food outside my window. The sunshine feels grand on my face. I love sunshine and I love beautiful language. These January days I am having opportunity to visit one on one with all of my students. Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful visit with a ninth grade young woman who has discovered the delight of figurative language; the power of personification,  alliteration, simile, metaphor and more. I invite all of you to be on the look-out for beautiful words, words that enlarge understanding and are delicious to the ear. Share your findings ...

Enjoy these samples of similes: 1. Little Women: "…she tried to get rid of the kitten which had scrambled up her back and stuck like a burr just out of reach."
2. The Red Badge of Courage: "In the eastern sky there was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the coming sun…".
3. Magnificent Obsession - "…utterly absorbed by the curious experience that still clung to him like a garment."
4. East of Eden - "Kate inched over her own thoughts like a measuring worm."

Changes!

It is the morning of Tuesday January 17, 2012. We have all just come through

a very balmy holiday season, enjoying record breaking warm temperatures. Suddenly, literally overnight, we have been plunged into deeply cold air; an abrupt change for all of us, including this flock of Eurasian Collared doves that come to feed outside my office window each  morning. Yesterday my internet connection was down all day; I felt cut off from a communication source that I never  imagined even 20 short years ago. Today I am communicating again but missing the hot water unable to reach my shower due to frozen pipes.  

A ponder challenge: How did your own feelings change when we moved so quickly from warm to cold temperatures? What freedoms did you lose? What blessings in your life do you most take for granted? What would you miss most if it is gone? 

Ask your own questions; think your own thoughts, catch them on paper and share them.

Yours in learning, 

Mrs. J

Esther's hero journy

I've been thinking about the hero journey today; the journey we have been talking about in our novel studies all year. Here is a photo of the class that just finished studying The Endless Steppe. From Esther (the author and heroine of the story) we learned that we can be hero's by choice and it is rarely easy.
Other people choose to follow villain journey's (like the Nazi soldiers) and try to force heros to be victims. Even though Esther was so young she set a good example for us by sticking to her hero choices at all cost. This story also reminded me of the blessings of crossing paths with other people on hero journeys who make hero choices and become our mentors. And it is important to remember that we soon become mentors for others.

What did you learn about hero choices from Esther? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Mrs. J

Self check: Where are you writing from? Are you pursuing the answers to your own questions? Are you after the great ideas? Are you connecting what  you learn to your own experiences? Are you expanding your own understanding? Are you pondering what you learn? Are you recognizing your feelings becoming thoughts; your thoughts becoming ideas?

Here are some quotes to practice thinking on: 1. "Draw from the past, but do not let your past draw from you." -Teal'c (Stargate)
2. "If you weren't selling this, would you be buying it?" -heard on a CBC radio program
3."For Every Goliath there is a stone." -sign at a Garden Center on Vancouver Island

Share your ponderings!

Yellow Treasure Hunt

Here is my yellow ‘idea-gathering’ treasure hunt, before editing.

YELLOW

Highlighter felt pen

Sunflowers: a print on a cushion, photos in frames, in prints on my shelf, plastic sunflowers in large and small vases

Bright yellow round table, summer BBQ furniture

Banaba gram games pouch for tiles

Apiece of the tummy on my patchwork bunny

The toy tote tray, a pack of post–it notes,

A phone book,

Journey through OZ book spine

Micro-fiber cloth in the kitchen

Bottle of sunlight dish soap

Plastic pitcher I water the plnats

Pineapple fridge magnet from Hawaii

A bunch of bananas on the counter

Stripes on cooler bag

Edge of National Geographic in bathroom

Today is TOO white! I am looking for yellow!

Here is my poem after one round of editing;

My YELLOW Treasure Hunt

By Mrs. J November 30, 2011

Yellow, sunflowers, everywhere: a print on a cushion, photos in frames, in print pictures on my shelf, plastic replicas in large and small vases,

on shelves, on walls, in corners; cheerful.

Bright yellow, small round table, summer BBQ season left over,

Bright yellow, a toy tote tray, a pack of Post–it notes, a phone book;

A Highlighter felt pen for illuminating great words;

A piece of the tummy on my patchwork bunny

A pouch for Banana gram tiles.

Journey through OZ book spine

A Micro-fiber cloth by the sink

And a bottle of Sunlight dish soap,

A plastic pitcher for watering houseplants,

Pineapple fridge magnet from Hawaii,

A bunch of bananas on the counter,

Stripes on cooler bag and the

Edge of National Geographic magazines in the bathroom.

Yellow cheers up white.

Now you give it a try! Enjoy! Mrs. J

How to handle a snowy day

  On a snow day -->"Choose to learn great things. Look, listen, touch and feel with the intent to learn; pay attention to what your senses are telling you, find answers to your questions, visualize what you learn."(Mrs. J) We are all stuck in our houses today because it is storming outside. What great things can we choose to look at, listen to, touch and feel with the intent to learn right here at home? What can we take the time to let our senses teach us? 

Suggestions: 1. Go on a treasure hunt for 'yellow'. List all the yellow things you can find and turn your list into a poem; draw a picture to go with your poem and submit it to our school writing contest. 

2. Put two bananas or apples on the table in front of you. Write a description of each one; noting details: size, shape, markings, bruises, roughness, shininess, etc. See enough detail that I could read your work and know which piece of fruit you were talking about. 

3. Lay on the rug in the living room with your notebook beside you. Draw/write and description of your new view of the living room. Pretend you are the family cat or dog or …… How would your life be different if you were mysteriously shrunken to 10 centimeters tall. ??

4. What are your ideas …………… please share!

I am going to do the treasure hunt for 'yellow' right now. Watch for it on my

next post! Happy writing! Mrs. J

On Talking
How often do we find ourselves in places where we are not supposed to talk? How often, especially as children are we reminded to "be quiet"! There are places where quiet is appropriate, (can you think of any? Talk about them,) but there are times when talking is essential; like those times when you are looking for the answers to your questions.

"Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings." -Miles Franklin (Do you agree?)

Sometimes we have to look for the right place to talk and for the people willing to listen.

"It was my mother who gave me my voice. She did this, I know now, by clearing a space where my words could fall, grow, then find their way to others." - Paula Giddings
(Who are your best listeners?)

"Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery."-Mark Amidon (Why are good ARTICULATION skills so vital?)

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up." -Oliver Wendall Holmes (Have you heard the old saying, "two minds are better than one"? What does it mean to you?

"The revelation of thought takes a man out of servitude and into freedom." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Is talking empowering? How so?)

Talk about talking with someone today. Share your ideas.

Mrs. J