Saturday

So... it seems I am having trouble posting every day like I thought I would.

It also seems I am having trouble keeping up my positive thinking. Part of the reason is problems with the computer - partly bad internet, partly Windows 10, partly who knows.

 

It has been kind of a tough week. 

The students are restless. The staff is a little restless and frustrated.

 I am sure this cold, snowy weather has something to do with it. 

We can't go outside for recess. My experience is that inside recess, while we are moving, 

just isn't the same as getting outside in the fresh air and MOVING.

 

Here is a picture of my area where I supervise restroom breaks. 

It is the front entry to our building so it can get chilly and noisy as people come and go. 

The picture is taken from the cafeteria door; the gym is just to the left of the cafeteria door. The restrooms are to the right and drinking fountains are under the numbers and words. 

You can see descriptive words - Up/Down, Over/Under, etc above the windows. Next to those are pictures with the letter the picture starts with. On the wall that you can't see by the rocking chair is pictures of a crayon box and individual crayons with the color word on each one with a picture of something that is that color - Orange is an orange, pink is a flamingo, red is an apple, etc. The wall that the chair is facing has sight words taped on it. More are added every quarter as they are added to the curriculum.

 

 

I do different things during this time, which is 20 minutes for each class. 

I recently found 'Would You Rather' questions. We are having fun with those. Some are though provoking (Would you rather live in a busy city with loud neighbors or the quiet countryside with no neighbors), some are gross (Would you rather kiss a jellyfish or step on a crab) and some are just silly (Would you rather wake up with an elephant trunk or a squirrel tail?). I read books and then ask comprehension questions. We play Bingo games - shapes, letters and sounds, sight words, numbers 0-10, 0-20, 11-30 and 'real' Bingo as the year progresses.

 

This week I read the book Charlie Needs a Cloak. 

In this story, Charlie is a shepherd. His cloak is tattered so he makes a new one. 

He begins by shearing the sheep and washing the wool. 

He then dyes it, spins it into yarn, weaves it into cloth, cuts, pins and sews it into a new cloak. 

Many years ago I had some sheep and tried to learn to spin. I still have raw and washed wool and a small amount of yarn I spun. I have carders and the spindle from the spinning wheel. 

I used store bought yarn to weave a small piece. I also have a cloak.

We talked about each step Charlie took to make his cloak as I showed the items I had and we discussed the part each item played in the story.

The kids seemed really interested and some thanked me for sharing my things.

Happy Thought - they were interested and asked lots of questions.

I have so many partially finished projects. I bought this multi-colored yarn a few years ago with the intention of making a sweater. At my school we have 'Jeans Day'. For $2.00, which gets donated to a different charity every month, we can wear jeans on Thursday. We used to pick a color each month for the top that could be worn with the jeans - red in February, green in May, etc. My thought was a sweater made with lots of colors would take care of several months. The back is finished, the front is mostly finished. I don't like these colors for me. So now I am trying to figure out what to do. A co-worker wore a sweater they other day with lots of colors similar to this yarn, but with a thin stripe of gray every few rows. I like the look of that so I might try that out. Meanwhile, I am knitting a scarf for my sister-in-law who loves these colors.

 

The pattern is The Unicorn Pegasus Rainbow Scarf. 

The pattern calls for 2 different colorways of Nory Kureyon, but I am only using one 

of I Love This Yarn in Hot Stripe. I got it at Hobby Lobby. It has been discontinued.

I ran into a little problem with one of the skeins - the one I chose to start knitting the scarf with.

I hadn't gotten very far when I found this knot. 

 

 

The colors aren't even closely matched up. 

 

 

And, the knot fell right on the edge. So frustrating. Then, after I took that picture I noticed another knot in the same skein. Double frustrating.

 

I ripped back and started over with another skein. I am almost finished with that skein and have not encountered a knot yet. Insert Happy Thought - no knots!

 

See what other quilters are up to at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

What a Hoot Quilts is challenging quilters to finish '18 in 2018'. Check it out.