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darcy5204's Fotobabble

Gabble-On Past Research Result

Gabble-On Past Research Result

The Apron Goddesses: Welcome in the New Year with a Giveaway from IBeCooking Aprons!

http://darcyness.blogspot.com/2010/01/apron-goddesses-have-giveaway.html

The Apron Goddesses have a giveaway!

Beautiful aprons from   IBeCooking Aprons  


Apron Giveaway!!

Last year's tree... 12+ feet!

I'm not a photographer, but I sure love taking pictures of our noble Christmas tree.  Every year our tree is so beautiful... 

Chrissiegrace's blog

I just found this blog tonight.  She is so uniquely creative...  My father did mosaics- she's inspired me to photograph them and post them...

http://chrissiegrace.blogspot.com/?

Talking to myself...

It's true!  I have no followers, no one to read my tentative steps at blogging.  Yes, that's right, I'm a baby blogger.  I feel prompted to blog, however, as if it will help me reconnect with my life... to be 'present' in the present and record events from my family, classroom, family history and faith.  A lot will be focused on projects that I do with my class, because I feel the need to create again (it's been over a decade...) and my 21 students give me an excuse!  How lucky am I?  

Time for bed.  Goodnight, me. 

Create

Create

An amazing video about how we all have the need to create...

Day of the Dead... glue resist and oil pastels.

These started out like this...

Day of the Dead/Día de los muertos

What fun we had today in my 3rd-grade DLI (dual-language immersion) classroom.  I found a wonderful blog......

(a big thank you to Kathy at http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/10/skeleton-drawing.html...) ...that hosts a myriad of art lessons.  I was intrigued by the glue resist, oil pastel 'calaveras'.  Here are some photos..  We started out like this:

I wanted them to practice both drawing the skull and controlling the flow of glue.

When they were ready:

They could begin.  I encouraged them to draw "whisper lines"... light, sketchy lines... so that they could erase if needed.  I learned that the less detail, the easier to 'draw' with the glue.  I had been worried that they would squeeze out too much glue, but I found that they didn't squeeze out enough!  When the lines are too thin, the oil pastel can hide them.  I'll do better next year.

Sr. Calavera lesson. "Just A Moment" by Yuyi Morales

I recently discovered a wonderful illustrator/author, Yuyi Morales. In my 3rd grade bilingual classroom, over half of my students are from Mexico and we've been learning about "El Día de los Muertos." In her book, Just a Moment, Yuyi portrays a grandmother being greeted my Sr. Calavera who is there to take her to the afterlife. Grandma tricks him into letting her stay-
My students are now writing their own 'trickster tale' on how they would trick him.

Well, I changed my mind.  I thought the original title was too cutesy.  It's difficult to create a blog.  I find I really have to analyze who I am, and what I'm all about.  I still don't really know, so this title is showing how I am a work in progress.  

I went from being a homeschooling mom to a full time working mom... who was also going to college at the same time.  I 'left my life' so to speak.  I want to get back to the home (even if I still have to work) and enjoy the little things that I've missed out on.  I have a long ways to go.

Bandwagon

It's funny how I had resisted a blog until I saw how many friends had ones for their families.  So, here it is.  It was difficult figuring out a name that wasn't, well, so ordinary.  I first looked for alliterations, but they all sounded dumb.  I then looked up words that rhymed with Steele.  Newsreel, ordeal (appropriate at times!), surreal (that too), deal, could have worked but I liked the word spiel.  It's a word I had used often, but didn't really know the exact meaning. 

Here it is:

Main Entry:

²spiel

Function:

noun

Date:

1896

: a voluble line of often extravagant talk ....  in other words, blah, blah, blahg.

It works.