Hello, Readers.
Eloise reporting in from the Arctic Circle...
or Harborcreek, PA.
I'm still in the happy part of the winter though.
I love to be snowed in and snug at home.
I read this book
and it was really, really good.
It's an epistolary novel,
which are my favorite to read.
This this one outranks
The Gurnsey Potato Peel Pie Society,
which was #3 on my list of favorite books,
recently reassessed.
After some thought,
The Correspondent takes the #3 spot.
Pop Quiz:
Do you know my top two favorite books of all time?
See the end of the blog for the answer.
Winter is also fun
because Snowmen are cute.
here in the Great Lakes Region.
It's good for the beaches,
the farms,
and my water well.
We are starting to think about spring flowers.
These big pots were purchased for a few dollars
at the end of season.
never pass on an opportunity to dig through the stuff
in the Dollar General entryway!
70% off Next To Nothing
is always a very good deal.
The pots are filled with bulbs
layered at different depths.
The technique is called bulb lasagna!
We will post their progress in the spring.
We are making the year extra fun
by celebrating Fun Holidays
as per the Time and Date website.
I learned how to tap my (birth, not blogger) name out in Morse Code last Sunday-
it's fairly simple with all the vowels.
This will be a good assignment for you
if Readers do not know my birth name.
It's decodable!
· / ·-·· / ·- / ·· / -· / ·. 
Thursday we celebrated Strawberry Ice Cream Day
in Natalie's new Christmas bowls!
I'll be digging out my thesaurus on Sunday for Thesaurus Day.
I'm most looking forward to
celebrations on next Wednesday and Thursday, as well.
Practice your Chart Reading skills to find out
what Fun Holidays fall on next Wednesday and Thursday.
Chart reading is a student skill found in PA Academic Standards
CC.3.5.6-8.G, CC.1.2.6-8.G, CC.3.5.9-10.G, and CC.3.5.11-12.G
If you think I'm joking
here is an example of the words I have to sift through each week,
as all my goals and lesson content
is to be related to a
PA Academic Standard.
It's really fun reading....NOT!
Standards like CC.3.5.6-8.G, CC.1.2.6-8.G, CC.3.5.9-10.G, and CC.3.5.11-12.G emphasize the need for students to integrate quantitative and technical information presented in both text and visual formats (like charts, graphs, or tables), as well as to translate information between these formats and evaluate multiple sources, including charts.
Here is the Fun Holiday line up for next week:
Here's the link to take you directly there: CLICK HERE
School was fun this week
because we are preparing for the Winter Olympics!
My students turned their Sticks and Stones
into Olympians!
Hockey players
Figure Skaters
And Alpine Skiers!
Here are two stunners from this week.
I tried to capture the golden glow of the outdoor lamp post,
indoors!
This neat lamp was a Christmas gift
and you can change the colors of the light.
I just love it!
Thinking about golden glows,
got me thinking about my summer flowers.
Yes, you can dream of dandelions in the winter!
Last week I went on a field trip
to the Tom Ridge Center.
The topic for my students was scientific drawing.
We observed the finest details of antennae,
wings of birds,
fish scales,
and petals of flowers.
We had to choose something to focus on
and were given time to practice.
I chose the simple dandelion.
I wanted to draw it from all the stages of its life,
as each has its own beauty.
I gave myself a B- for overall quality,
docked myself a few points because I cheated a little
(my student Emma showed me how to blend the colors to shade the leaves),
but gave myself an A for effort.
We had a memorable discussion about
the possibility of the practice
becoming obsolete
with computer technology.
On the drive home from school that day,
my head was spinning,
trying to find ways to balance human skills
with the ever-advancing computer world.
The lead-in for my morning podcast
advertised--100% Human!
Meaning the content and the voices were not AI generated.
Where are we headed?
What could possibly be next?
These were my thoughts as I began to ponder words.
The Correspondent is about a letter writer,
and the reader pieces together the events of her life
through her letters and emails to others.
Hand drawn nature illustrations
and written words are important.
But I feared that maybe we are seeing the end of both.
It made be feel a bit melancholy,
which is unusual for me.
I grabbed the mail from the mailbox,
crunched around in the snow with the dogs for a bit,
then headed inside for dinner.
I plopped the mail onto the counter,
and a brown envelope slid from the pile.
It was addressed to me
and had this really cool sticker
on the back
that looked like a wax seal,
which I love.
I dropped into my favorite reading chair
and opened to this beautiful card
from a former teacher from Klein School.
She retired a few years ago
at what I would consider the height of her career.
She was a master at teaching reading
and had THE BEST class her last year.
She told me several years ago
that when I chose to retire,
she hoped to do it like she did--
go out on a high.
Retire out of a good class
and your best year
so those memories of school would be your last.
And the card inside
was this one---
showing the dandelions I drew earlier that day,
in all the stages of their growth and development.
This, dear Heidi,
is going in a frame
and it will be hung in my most sacred of spaces--
my happy little greenhouse.
You know the one?
The one where I nailed a wayward Gingerbread Man's a$$ to the wall
so he cannot leave Gingerbread Girl
alone in the depths of the winter.
See you next week.
Look for the the light
with the donkey underneath.
He's an @$$, too,
but a lovable one.
Eloise
Quiz answers:
#2
#1
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