bags

Here are two bags that I made following a pattern I found at morsbags.com. I adjusted the pattern a bit so I only need a half a yard of fabric. If you are an experienced seamstress, you could probably get one of these bags done in less than an hour. There are some French seams so there are no raw edges exposed when it is complete. This bag is a great quick project to make for a gift for a friend.

some books by Grace Lin

This week in my class we focused our reading on books written by Grace Lin. Below are a few of my favorites. The Ugly Vegetables is the first book Lin had published. It is a great story about gardening and sharing with others. A little girl wishes that her garden had something pretty in it instead of plain green plants. Her neighbors all have flowers and she thinks growing vegetables is terrible. As the story progresses, she realizes the good things about the vegetables growing in her garden, including being able to make a great smelling and delicious tasting soup. There is a recipe for the soup at the end of the book.

Lissy's Friends is the story of Lissy. She is new at school and is having a hard time making new friends. She eats lunch alone. Lissy ends up folding paper cranes to keep her company. A sweet short story. When my students voted for their favorite book by Grace Lin, this was the one that was in second place.

Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same! is Grace Lin's newest book. It is a 2011 Geisel Award Honor book. Ling and Ting are identical twins that share some fun experiences together. The book is divided into six short chapters, but the first one is my favorite. This is a great book for children just learning how to read because the word choice reflects what a new reader might be able to tackle. Children that are always compared to their siblings will be able to identify with the story found in this book. This was the most popular book among my students this week.

Some of Lin's other books focus more on aspects of Chinese culture like food and different holidays. If you are more interested in Grace Lin you can also look at her blog here.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is the book I read last weekend. I am not sure where I first heard about it...it looks like something you might see in the book section at Target. Young Henry Lee is a Chinese American boy living in Seattle during World War II. He becomes friends with a Japanese American girl, Keiko. It goes back and forth from the 1940's to the 1980's. It made me think a lot about how minorties have been treated in the past by others...and maybe are still are. If I taught high school English I would encourage my students to read it.

The Handiest Things in the World

The Handiest Things in the World by Andrew Clements with photographs by Raquel Jarmillo is a great picture book to read to preschool or school age children. The book shows how people use hands. It then shows what people have created to do the same job. The text is brief so it could engage very young children, and the subject matter is definitely appropriate for elementary age children. The photographs are fantastic and make the book appealing.

National Letter Writing Week

January 9 through 15 is National Letter Writing Week. I realize many of those of you who read this blog do write letters and even send them in the mail because I am the recipient of some of those letters. If you don't write letters often, I would encourage you to do so this week. I'm not sure how I became enamored with letter writing, but it probably helped that people I wrote letters to responded by sending letters of their own or postcards (my aunts and uncle). Some of my friends, my sisters and I still write letters. Some of the letters I recieved in college are worth saving-my grandmas, dad, and younger brothers and sister wrote letters that brightened my day. Some of the more memorable ones included sketches or song lyrics written on the envelopes.

Monopoly Deal

Monopoly Deal is the game I got for some of my nephews for Christmas. We tried playing it on Christmas and it didn't go so well because we did not read the rules very carefully. When I played it with my other nephew and his family, it went much better. I would buy it again for a gift. The game is much faster than regular Monopoly, but it is probably takes closer to 30 minutes than the 15 minutes that it says on the box. I like it because it isn't a lengthy game and of course the size is nice because you could tuck it in your bag while traveling without taking a lot of space.