more than I expected

Sometimes when I start a project, it is hard to know how much time it is going to take.  Making these hexagons is an enjoyable process even though it takes time.  While in Guatemala I got a good start...but then I ran out of fabric scraps.  One day in the summer or early fall,  my sister gave me some more scraps...and yesterday I was looking through my fabric, but it looks like I am going to need lots more. It is a good project for these long winter evenings.  Maybe I can get the blocks done by the time we are done with a Minnesota winter. 

free days at National Parks

Bryce Canyon National Park

Each year, the National Park Service offers several days where the entrance fee to the park is free for everyone.  In 2016, they have chosen 16 different days where visitors can enter without a fee.  One (January 18) has already passed, but that still leaves 15 days for this year.  If you visit this web page, you can read more about it.  Maybe I will have to head west this August and revisit some of the parks I went to 2014.

Another thing I noted while reading the information is that any fourth grade student in the US can get a free park pass for that school year.  For information on that, see the website here.  

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is classified as a novel for children, but I think many adults would enjoy it as well.  Ivy June lives in Thunder Creek, Kentucky, where phone lines don't go to every home and some people do not have indoor bathrooms.  Catherine lives in Lexington with the same amount of bathrooms as people in her home, plus her own cell phone.  Both girls sign up for a two week exchange program.  So Ivy June is off to the city to live with Catherine for two weeks, attending school with her friend.  Later, Catherine goes to spend two weeks with Ivy June in the mountains of Kentucky.  Life seems different in each place, but by the end of the story the two girls realize how much their are alike despite the outward differences.  This would be a good book to read aloud to sixth or seventh grade students.  It could lead to some good discussions.   

Love From the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a new book which could make the perfect gift for Valentine's Day.  It is small (less than 6 inches by 7 inches) and brief.  Each pair of pages has an illustration in classic Carle style along with a handful of words.  It is an illustrated love letter written with metaphors.  This is not going to replace my favorite Valentine's book (which is The Day it Rained Hearts), but I will definitely get this from the library each February to read to my students.