Wed, 24 Sep 2008

Literary Response #2

T-y gave his second literary response on the book "Everything on a Waffle". He did a fantastic job. He wanted me to come watch his presentation and cook waffles for the class. The school forbids homemade treats of any kind, so I went and cooked me a waffle. The waffles aroma filled the air during his presentation. I noticed some of the kids trying to figure out what the smell was. After he was done I passed out some Eggo Mini Waffles to his classmates. This is when the kids realized what I had been cooking. The class really enjoyed the waffles and the report.

 
Sat, 13 Sep 2008

What a Crappy Wrapping Job!

Well, the plans to return to the San Rafael Swell this weekend got scrapped. Johnny had to work and Reese and T-y wanted to attend the birthday party for one of their friends. Apparently bowling trumps camping; well at least today it did.

T-y and I went shopping for a present. T-y's friend is a baseball fanatic, so i thought we hit the jackpot when I found an Uno card game, MLB American League Special Edition. We also bought some Kit Kat bars and ate them in the car. The chocolate got all over T-y hands so I gave some tissue to T-y to clean his hands with.

I am not a big fan of wrapping paper. I hate buying it cause it's a waste of money. I prefer to use other types of paper to wrap gifts. Typically I use newspaper, but if it's a special occasion I will use the comics or one of the colored ads. T-y's chocolate mess gave me a great idea on how to go about wrapping the present. Check it out.

 
Fri, 29 Aug 2008

Stinky Cheese Man

T-y's teacher requires a literature response each month. This month, T-y had to give a literature response to a book that has received the Caldecott Award or honor. T-y chose to give his response to "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Stupid Fairy Tails". It's a pretty funny book, in a stupid way. He had to give the class a response to what the book was about and why he liked it. Shantell helped him create the poster board that described some of the tails. The class thought the "Ugly Duckling" tail was funny.

Once upon a time there was a mother duck and a father duck who had seven baby ducklings. Six of them were regular-looking ducklings. The seventh was a really ugly duckling. Everyone use to say, "What a nice looking bunch of ducklings; all except that one. Boy, he's really ugly." The really ugly duckling heard these people, but he didn't care. He knew that one day he would probably grow up to be a swan and be bigger and look better than anything in the pond. Well, as it turned out, he was just a really ugly duckling. And he grew up to be just a really ugly duck. The End.

I passed out some stinky cheese on crackers to the class after he finished his presentation. Some of the kids thought it smelled like stinky feet. T-y's response was critiqued by his peers. Here are some of their responses to his presentation:

Your dad is "hairlarious"
You did awesome. Nice stinky cheese.
Speak Louder
You did really good. I liked the appetizer's.
I liked how you passed out stink cheese
Dude! That was really awesome.
That was a really great poster.
I like how you did more then one story.
I liked your dessert at the end.

I liked how Mr. Z had the class critique each of the presentations. T-y did kind of struggle and mumbled through some of it. At least now he knows how to do it and what he can improve on the next time. I was pretty darn proud of him today.

 
Thu, 28 Aug 2008

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

Today T-y and his class had a field trip to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. I was lucky enough to be one of the chaperons. I took T-y, Taylor, and Lawry with me to the festival.

I went into the festival thinking that someone would be reading stories out of books. Boy was I mistaken. They were 4 storytellers that told some amazing stories.

The first storyteller was Kim Weitkamp. She told her story so well that I able to imagine myself flying on a sled as she told the story.

The second storyteller was a 2nd grade student from a local elementary school. Her story was about her families nightly ritual. She was very animated and told a great story. Really made me laugh.

The third storyteller, Antonia Rocha, was my favorite. He included his extensive mime experience in his story. This really made the story come alive. He involved the kids in his story and that made them pay attention. In fact, he recently released a DVD that won "Parents Choice Gold Award for 2008". He did a mime impression of blowing up a balloon that had all the kids standing up to see if he was really floating away. It was unreal.

The final storyteller was none other then the Grammy award-winning performer Bill Harley. He sang a song that involved the kids learning some sign language and asked them to sing along. Yes. I sang and it was amazing. That was a blast. He even taught the kids how to sign "I have to p".

It was such a great time. If you haven't ever been to the Festival, then get off you butt and go!

 
Tue, 01 Jul 2008

What a Game!

T-y played in the City Tournament Championship game today. They played 6 innings. Which meant that T-y got up to bat three times. He struck out twice and walked once. I filmed the walk. You can check out the video here. Also, make sure you click on "More Info" to read why he got a walk.

He played a pretty good game. He had one error on third that caused a run to score. I think he was a bit nervous because that was the first hit that he has fielded while playing in the infield. They were beating the Tigers the entire game, until the bottom of the sixth inning. The Mets were leading the Tigers 10-9 going into the last inning. The Tigers rallied and scored the needed 2 runs to obtain the victory. T-y and his team were a bit disappointed to lose the game in such a manner. They took solace in the fact that the 2nd place trophies looked a lot better then the 1st place trophies. The 2nd place finish earned the team a berth in the State Tournament that will be held July 15-17th.