Hope you all have had a great week. I've heard it's been snowing in many places in the US! How fun! It's getting chilly here...I think we'll have rain this week.
Reading:
We picked up Edward Gibbs' I Spy with My Little Eye at the library yesterday, and have been having a lot of fun with it. With this book, you guess the up-and-coming animal based on a couple of clues. It focuses teaching on colors- which is great for my 2 year old. The illustrations are vivid.
I'm still reading (and really enjoying) Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. I hope to finish it this coming week.
Doing:
My baby girl was sick all day today with a stomach bug. I hope she'll be fully recovered tomorrow.
Our kitchen is coming along! We got our countertops this week, and the appliances and sink will get hooked up tomorrow. We will still have work to do here and there (install a backsplash, etc..), but I'm excited to start used the stove again! Veggies here I come!
On a very different note, I'll be attending "The MLK Day Stop the Gunfire Gathering" at a Regeneration Church in Oakland tomorrow. We've had several lock downs at our school site this year because of shoot outs across the street from campus. Many of the kids in Oakland grow up accustomed to gun violence (much of it random). One of my former students was struck in the back by gunfire after a party a couple of weeks ago. It was a tragic event-- he was trying to protect some of his friends (all bystanders) from the gunshots. Thankfully, he survived. I was invited to this event in remembrance of that incident and many other similar acts of violence across our city daily.
If you're local (Oakland, CA), do try to come out:
In response to the tragic events that have victimized residents of Oakland, particularly the loved ones of the three toddlers that were gunned down last year, and the fact that the murder rate in Oakland continues to rise, an eclectic group of activists, ministers and community leaders created a free event coined "The MLK Day Stop The Gunfire Gathering" - an organized coalition meeting intended to stop the violence in the streets of Oakland.
Regeneration Church, located at 238 E. 15th St. in Oakland, will be the location of the gathering and will be held on Jan. 16, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, which is Jan. 15. The event starts at 10 a.m.
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| http://oaklandlocal.com/article/bay-area-gather-honor-dr-king-combat-gun-violence-oakland |
Pinning:
If you haven't ever used Thinking Maps in your classroom, they're phenomenal. I was trained on them a few years back, and I love using them with my students on a regular basis.
Today I pinned a resource from the blog, Teaching in Room 6 (follow link to check it out!). It's an amazing (FREE) resource for teachers that are familiar with Thinking Maps. The blog author, Stephanie, has a great spirit with upper grade students. She also has a interesting perspective on teaching and a lot of useful ideas! Join me on pinterest, so we can share more awesome literacy resources with each other!
What are you doing to honor Dr. King tomorrow (or this week in your class)?
I'm Linking up at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns:
I love your sink so much! (Your floors, too!) :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't decided if I'm going to do anything special tomorrow or not. It's great that your community is having that gathering, and I hope it will be helpful and healing.
Hope the baby is better tomorrow.
:)
Thanks Silsbee! I'm excited about the new kitchen...but I want everything to be perfect! We've had a couple glitches that we'll need to fix...boo. But things are plugged in and working. Yay!
ReplyDeleteToday was good. I went to the MLK event, and it was powerful.
Hope you had a good one! ;)
Thanks for joining WMCIR! I am sometimes ashamed thinking how much we in Silicon Valley are protected from the violence that is happening so close to us. I Spy looks like a very interesting book!
ReplyDeleteOh, I Spy looks great. We will check that out. Your kitchen is coming along beautifully. I love the sink!
ReplyDeleteWe have a book similar to the I Spy one--it's so fun to guess while you read! (By the way, we're also LOVING the Bob books!)
ReplyDeleteYour kitchen looks awesome! Great work.
Hey all! Thanks for stopping by! :)
ReplyDeleteRaising a Happy Child, It's easy for me to forget about the violence even when I live in a city so affected by it. My principal tallied the number of days she heard gun shots last year (she lives in the same neighborhood the school is in too)- 76% of the days last year. That means our students grow up with that reality-crazy. I need to be reminded of what my little ones are dealing with.
Jackie, Great to have you! The sink is rather fun, I have to say! Ikea!
Tricia, Glad you're loving the BOB books- they are kid and parent-friendly. How is your little one doing? Is she able to read them? Thanks for stopping by, friend!