Book Review!

After years of trying to remember the title of the book, I finally found it! The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, is written by Julie Andrews Edwards--the Julie Andrews of Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. I never knew that she was an author, and a great one, at that.
My 6th grade teacher read this book to our class. I absolutely loved it. It is a book that sparks the imagination and allows the reader to see into a whole new world.
This story is such a fun read for children and adults. There were many things within the pages that made me stop and think.
a quick synopsis:
3 children befriend a professor that tells them about a place of wonder where the last whangdoodle lives. Because Whangdoodleland is only reached by the imagination, he begins to teach them how use the power of their imaginations. The Prock, a creature of Whangdoodleland, tries to prevent them from completing the journey to see the Whangdoodle.

Now you just have to read it to see what adventures befall the characters and to allow your imagination to run wild!

Lesson Plan!

If you would like to view my lesson plan click HERE.
My lesson is geared toward the 4th grade. The students learn how to identify different biomes in Utah as well as recognize the different animals that live in the state.

My feedback for the webquest follows:
In my opinion, the best working part of the web quest is the potential for the students to be more involved and in charge of their learning. If I had more time and money, I would like to have a huge room that you could change the environment, (like you see in movies) so that the students can experience different biomes without leaving school.
The planning sheet helped me see visually how to organize my webquest. The peer review helped because we discovered that one of my links didn't work anymore. I have learned that it is easy to include technology in the classroom. It is a way for the students to take the initiative to learn more than what is required.

Work is a Blessing

Last Tuesday was my first day of employment at Payless ShoeSource. I am really enjoying working there and am learning A LOT about shoes and marketing. There have been many times when I just think "Oh! So that's why they do that."
My boss is a great guy and is so easy to work with. He is a great teacher, too.
Friday I worked 7 1/2 hours. Big reality check! I started out wearing a cute and comfortable pair wedges, then gratefully exchanged them for some flats when I went home to grab dinner. I never knew that my feet could hurt so bad! No wonder, all of the employees where flats!
I feel very blessed for being able to get this job and know that the Lord had his hand in it.

Geometry!

In class we took pictures of different geometric shapes. Kellianne and I paired up to create a little book about these shapes. We used Comic Life to create these pages.
I am definitely a fan of using digital photography in the classroom. It can be a good reinforcer for students to actually be able to identify things in their environment.

Our Easter Eggs

Daniel and I had Easter by ourselves this year. We still tried to carry on some family traditions though, such as grandma's barbecue hamburgers and coloring Easter eggs. General Conference was also a plus to the Easter season. We hope that everyone had as good a holiday as we did.
Below are the eggs that we decorated. We sure did have fun with them.

Web activities for students

An interactive website that will be good for my fourth grade class would be http://pbskids.org/krattscreatures/login.shtml?. Students can click on each continent to learn more about different habitats and its animals. This would go along with Standard 4 when students learn about biomes and animals. I think I am going to use this in my lesson plan so students can learn about the different biomes in the world and not just Utah. The site also gives cool facts about animals.
http://www.visualfractions.com/index.htm use for 4th grade math standard 1 objective 5. This website will help reinforce the learning of fractions. Visual learners can see the different fractions and what they would look like in a circle. Students can identify, compare, rename, subtract, add, multiply, and divide fractions.