Mondays with Jack, 4th edition

Welcome to the fourth edition of Mondays with Jack! If you want to know what this weekly feature is all about, see here.

Apple pie magnet from Bananamoo

“When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmmm, boy.” -Jack Handey

It's for the dogs

Today ends my first week back to school with the kids! It's been a long week, but a good one. My first graders are so cute! I taught fifth last year so their small little selves were a bit of a shock at first, but I love them.

Part of my job that I'm not really fond of is Lesson Planning. It's a necessary evil, I suppose: I'm a far worse teacher when I just try to wing it. What really annoys me is that on top of my own personal lesson plans, I also have to submit a separate lesson plan with this special format for the principal. These are a waste of time because the format doesn't lend itself well to... well, actually teaching.

I think this cute little magnet from Cafe Press says it all:

Crafting with kids

Do you have kids? I don't (maybe later!), but I do have a classroom full of kids and most of them love to craft! It's fun to craft with kids because they take such a joy in the PROCESS of creating -- not in the end product. I'm not sure when we start to obsess about the perfection of the object we're creating. I wish I could throw my perfectionism to the wind sometimes and just enjoy the journey more!

If you're looking for inspiration, One Pretty Thing is your best friend! Go to Categories, and search under "Crafts for Kids". You might find this page where there's a link for a fabulous tutorial for a Texture Book.

Texture Book tutorial from b kids

Laurie from Tip Junkie can always be counted on to bring you the best of the ideas from around the Internet. She has a great roundup for summer crafts here. This pom pom garland is my favorite!

Pom Pom garland tutorial from Views from my Window

What crafty sites do you enjoy with your kiddos?

Mondays with Jack, 3rd edition

Welcome to the third edition of Mondays with Jack! If you want to know what this weekly feature is all about, see here.

Oil painting by Leslie Culpepper

"I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain, because later you might think you're having a good idea but it's just eggs hatching." - Jack Handey

Favorite quote

Today ends my first week back at work, filled with meetings, meetings, and... more meetings. On Monday, the kiddos arrive! So I thought it would be a perfect time to share my favorite quote with you. It also sums up quite nicely my personal philosophy of education. And Mr. Rogers said it! Do you remember Mr. Rogers? With the cardigans and King Friday? Good times....

So here it is:

"It's easy to convince people that children need to learn the alphabet and numbers. How do we help people to realize that what matters is how a person's inner life finally puts together the alphabet and numbers of his outer life?

What really matters is whether he uses the alphabet for the declaration of war or the description of a sunrise, and his numbers for the final count in Buchenwald or for the specifics of a new bridge"

Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers)

Just beautiful! I should really frame it and put it on my desk at work -- for a little encouragement when I'm feeling too tired to be a good teacher...

I found some lovely prints on Etsy to go along with the theme of the quote:

Alphabet animals from Ink Tree Press

Ocean numbers from The Paper Tray

Now I know my ABCs from Sugar Fresh

Mister Numbers from Sugar Fresh

Fun with photos

Have you guys heard of Dumpr? It's this really fun site I heard about through Malia from Yesterday on Tuesday. I've been playing around with it, and I'm here to show off my creations ;).

I started with this picture of my sister and I eating ice cream at Disneyland this summer (I'm on the left):

Then I added in some special effects! Like paparazzi:

And photo to sketch:

And museum:

And something called Lomo:

And sketch artist:

Have fun playing around with your own pictures!

Mondays with Jack, second edition

Welcome to the second edition of Mondays with Jack! If you want to know how it all started, see here.

Daffodil buttons by Tessa Ann

"Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff." -Jack Handey