Stone Soup Celebration (and bacon?!)

I am sliding in juuuust under the wire to join in Jennifer’s Something Good linky!

Something Good at Home: Can you say 3-day weekend? I got to hang out with my mom, 2 family friends, my mother-in-law, her boyfriend, my cousins, a couple of coworkers, and 3 good friends- plus, of course, my husband. We spent some time watching improv comedy, playing with a puppy, watching The Muppets (a Valentine’s gift!), and visiting the Indianapolis Children’s Museum (which is just plain amazing).
Something Good at School: My students hosted a Stone Soup celebration last Friday to honor some people who we appreciate in our school. It was a great opportunity to write letters detailing the things we love about some of the people who make our school work.

My students each brought in one ingredient (okay, well, most of them did). We thankfully didn’t have too much overlap, and most parents washed and cut things first.

Of course, we added stones first. (Oh, and a crock pot liner. Seriously, these things are SO worth it.)

We added to the crock pots and let the soups cook for a few hours.

They turned out delicious, and when each person stopped in for soup, we paused to raise hands and share specific compliments or things we liked about that person. A couple of teachers nearly teared up. The kids also got to eat lunch in the room and try a little cup of soup. It was such a sweet way to end last week!
*Random side note: my husband does improv comedy, and recently acted in a (kind of ridiculous) local Internet commercial. He was paid in money and bacon, so I keep joking about him (literally) bringing home the bacon. If you have a minute, check it out.


By the way, the bacon was deee-lish. Hope you are having a great week!

The BFG– Our Class Party!

Oh man. Yesterday wore. me. out.

We had our BFG Party, which I kind of morphed into BFG Day. I tried to tailor almost everything we did to the BFG in some way, and we had a blast.

This is one of my favorite read-alouds. Dahl just *gets* the kind of silliness that kids love. (I mean, the whizzpopping scene? Seriously, is there anything that cracks kids up more than an entire scene about passing wind?)

I let my kids wear pajamas, because Sophie was in pajamas most of the way through the book. One girl dressed up as the BFG, with the cutest little turtleneck and vest. She even brought in props:

A dream trumpet, and a dream jar- complete with the BFG-style dream label. (She purposely put backwards letters and misspelled fly. I love it.)

We started our morning with a math journal prompt. (I wrote about my math journals here.)

This one, I just loved. What great math thinking!!!

Next, we got creative and made our own dream jars.

The kids got to share with me one golden phizzwizard (wonderful dream!) and one terrible trogglehumper (nightmare) of theirs.

Some chose to draw the dreams the way they were described in the book, but others chose to draw what was happening in the dreams, but they had to label the jars with a summary, just like in The BFG.

What I loved was that the students asked if they could write it “like the BFG.” The special words, backwards letters, and ways of talking they remembered made me realize how into this book they really got. So happy.

This one said, “I is the first human bean to go bundjie jumpin out of a bellypopper and keep alive!” If you’d like a freebie copy of the BFG dream sheet, just click the photo above to find it on DropBox (and please say thanks!)

Then, we went to the computer lab, where I had students listen to Jack and the Beanstalk and then compare and contrast it to The BFG in their Reading Notebooks. After they finished the story, my kids could explore Universcale, by Nikon.

Have you seen this site? It’s amazing for comparing sizes of things, and very cool to just click around. I also had my kids find the things closest to the size of the BFG and the other giants in the book- which happened to involve some English-to-metric conversions. (So much learning packed into this day!)

Then we did an engineering challenge, like the Queen’s staff had to do for the BFG towards the end of the book. I’ll write more about this one later- it was probably my favorite activity of the day!

Note: the movie does include a bathtub scene you may want to preview before you decide to show it to kids.

Finally, we ended the day with watching the movie The BFG. (I actually found it on YouTube.) We also enjoyed some special BFG snacks- see the “snozzcumbers” below(cucumbers with the center cut out and cream cheese sprinkled with salt and pepper). I also had Frobscottle, but it was very quickly gone and I forgot to get a picture.

There’s an official Roald Dahl cookbook, but I kind of winged it.

I mixed together a can of Mt. Dew, a few generous squirts of lime juice, and lime sherbet. I let them sit in the fridge for about an hour until the sherbet mostly melted. Then I stirred and added some Fresca over the top. I hoped to sprinkle it with Pop Rocks, but had a hard time finding them. (My fault for shopping the night before!) It was delicious.

And very green!

We also enjoyed tiny snacks to make us feel like giants- see the cocktail weenies, baby carrots, mini Ritz crackers with tiny squares of cheese, Mini Oreos, and Chips Ahoy Minis. Oh, and my favorite- a mini baked potato bar.

Yup. Tiny potatoes baked during my lunch, and then kids could add cheese and bacon bits for bite-sized baked potatoes. Yeah, I think I may have enjoyed this part even more than my kids.

I’m excited to think of even more ideas for my kids next year. I love packing in as much learning as I can into a “party” day! Who knows- maybe if I ever decide to start a store, other people would have interest in a BFG Day packet?

It was a great day- but I came home very tired! Maybe that was just because I spent all day wearing footie pajamas, though :) Thanks for your help with ideas!

Improvisation

My husband is an improv comedian, doing short-form 'games' like on Whose Line Is It Anyway. Basically, the audience gives them some suggestions of setting or character, but from there, the comedians make up the acting and script on the spot. I love watching him do improv- we actually met at a college improv club- but I have to say that being funny spur-of-the-moment has never been my forte.
Still, sometimes in teaching and life, it's necessary to improvise. We've all had those lessons where we magically think of a better idea in the middle of the lesson, and switch gears.

Last weekend, my husband asked if I would please make him chocolate chip pancakes. He cooks more than I do, but pancakes are one of my things. In fact, he is almost always the one to cook breakfast (guy makes a mean bacon, egg, and biscuit breakfast!). So, of course, I had to oblige.

One problem, though- the batter is made up already when I realize we have NO chocolate chips.

I have already promised these to my husband.

So... my eyes hit the peanut butter brownies I made the day before, and I break the brownie into tiny pieces.

And then I set them in the batter on the griddler, and cover them with a bit more batter.

The other option is M&M Minis, so I make some with them, too. (Yes, they were from Christmas.)

Mmm.

 

 Sometimes I think it takes a little spontaneity (and delicious brownie pancakes) to remind me that not everything needs to be all planned out.

Have a great week!