Mel's Box of Chocolates

Today was the day that I was videotaped for my last entry for my Board's...YEAH! What a liberating feeling to know all my lessons are finished and now it is just the typing, typing, and more typing. Oh yeah and revising! This last lesson was a science lesson with a strong math focus so we have been doing shadows. They have traced their shadows three times on two separate days and collected data measuring their shadow and watching it change position. They used their data table to create a graph and today analyzed their graph and created a shadow poster on the video. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and I know I got some good discussion on the video. The best part thought was when in the middle of my video one of my little darlings ran to the trash can and puked! Yes, that is right...in the middle of my video for my National Boards one of my students vomited!! That pretty much sums up this whole science lesson as I have worked on it for the past 3 weeks pushing things back for two...

I love tax time! I know many people do not agree with my sentiments but being married, not making a whole lot of money, and having two kids one of which goes to daycare, all adds up to a pleasant tax time. Every January I anxiously await my W2's and then I bug the crud out of hubby until he does our taxes. This year we were even more blessed than usual as we both made more and were put in a higher tax bracket, which meant more deductions!!! Woohoo!! We usually cap out for deductions, but now we could get even more back. I know, I know, we should raise our deductions so the government is not holding our money all year and we aren't making interest and honestly, I really have increased mine, but I really like a big refund. Anywho, the reason for saying all that is to say... I bought our plane tickets today for SAN DIEGO!!! I am tickled pink since that is where I was born and have always wanted to visit. Every year we use our tax money for a vacation over spring break. Since my hu...

When I used the card reader to get these pix off my cell phone camera card, I was pleasantly surprised to find some old pix from last summer. I thought I would share them with you since pictures have been scarce around here. SUMMER 2007 A DAY AT CHUCK E CHEESE'S FEB 2007 The kids sent me this picture while I was in Florida.

That is what I kept asking all day. Let me explain... First of all...Board's...I know you all are probably just as excited as I am to get my portfolio finished and sent in so you don't have to listen to me anymore. But you have a few more weeks to go so just bear with me. Anyways, I am trying to get my last entry finished and this one is a science lesson with a strong math focus. The lesson I chose is about shadows. My students work with a partner and we go outside to trace our shadows. We trace in the morning, at noon, and right before dismissal. After tracing we measure the length of the shadow and record it in a data table. The data is then graphed showing the students that their shadow is long in the morning, short at noon, and getting longer again around dismissal time. They also realize that their shadow moves so we have great discussion about what is really moving....US. The kids love this lesson because it is so hands on, they get to be outside using chalk, an...

My parents visited last weekend and Sunday was relatively warm so we headed to the beach. We took the kids bikes so they could ride on the boardwalk and even went down to check out the ocean. Of course, no trip to the beach is complete without bringing a couple seashells home.

After nights of working on my Board's and many nights to go it was nice to take a night off to go see Disney on Ice at a local convention center. Every Feb/Mar Disney on Ice comes to town and this year one of Dave's co-workers gave us free tickets. Thanks, Hope...you rock!! The great thing was that it was all about princesses this year and Zoe was in heaven...Dyl not so much, but with a little smoke and pyrotech's he got into the show too. The castle turned so it looked like each of the princess' castle. Here is Jasmine with the Genie and check out the big ice skating elephant. He made me laugh!! Snow White with the Seven Dwarf's Every princess has to have a wand...or two...or ten in Zoe's case!! The prettiest princesses of the night!! No, really the boy's weren't into the show at all! We girl's loved every minute of it. Zoe got a wand and Dyl enjoyed a bright, blue snow cone in a Mickey Cup. This was his highlight of the night!