HAPPY VETERANS DAY

Veterans Day at Kate's school is special!

The kids get to invite veterans for a celebration....

dads, mom, lots of grandfathers, uncles, even neighbors.

Kids who don't have a veteran to invite 

borrow one from another kid.

From the Posting of the Colors to a Parade of Veterans

it is a day of pride and honor.

The veterans sit in special seats on the front steps of the school.

Each grade comes forward to sing for them.

Kindergarten does Yankee Doodle and it goes on from there.

Then each of the veterans comes to the front and introduces himself 

 and tells when and where he or she served.  

Some offered advice for the young students.

One old Army guy said....

"Always remember honor yourself and honor your country.

That advice was given to me and it always served me well."

I heard a few "Hoorahs" from the Marines 

and more than a few

"God bless America".

But my favorite was from a young father who was a Navy reservist.

He shook the hand of a Korean War veteran and said:

"Thank you for your service, sir."

Here is a Smilebox I made this morning after the service.

(To play click the arrow.  To close click the Smilebox Playback tab.)

HOORAH!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!

Crafts to make to celebrate fall

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

Here are some things to make using the fall cut-outs.

 Make place mats and name plates for Thanksgiving dinner.

Celebrating Thanksgiving tells the story of the holiday.

 Create a Thanksgiving card for someone special.

The cut-outs come in various patterns and sizes.

The card is made using 6" pumpkins and 1" accents.

Glue together four craft sticks to form a picture frame.

Use the 1" corn to accent the scarecrow picture.

There are various styles of leaves in all three sizes.

 Use the leaves to create a scrapbook page.

Leaves, corn, and pumpkins

mean fall is in the air.

Let's Go Vote

Check out Melanie's blog....Inspired in Style for election ideas.

Here is what happens when you get old.  

Yesterday, Lenny and I had this conversation.  

(I am thinking he was not wearing his hearing aids!)

Tommie: We should go vote tomorrow.

Lenny: Why do you need to go to Lowes?

 (Lowes is a big box hardware store.) 

Tommie: I said...we need to go vote.

Lenny: I guess I will stay home. 

 I don't think I need anything from Lowes.

Well, today we are going to vote and then 

I guess we will go by Lowes just to see if we need anything.

Getting old is not for sissies!!


P.S. I just had a call from Cindy, one of the CTP reps.
She thinks they sell hearing aid batteries at Lowes!

Maybe there is hope!!

What I learned in Greece and Other Places

First, I want our friends on the East Coast to know that our thoughts and prayers are with them.  I cannot imagine how hard it must be to have your life turned completely upside down.

We were flying back from Rome on Saturday through Philadelphia. I think we made it out on one of the last planes. It was a bumpy ride but we made it home to Dallas....tired but safe.

I wanted to share with you all my experiences of the last two weeks.  We had a wonderful time practicing for retirement. We traveled to Italy, Greece, Croatia, and Turkey. Surprisingly I met a retired teacher friend in Dubrovnik as we were walking around the city walls.  She was practicing for retirement, too.

I put all my pictures in a Smilebox. My daughter said I needed a Smilebox intervention. I am now limited to sending them only one a week.  I offered to pay anyone in my family $10 to watch this one.

Actually it is really quite good, if I do say so myself.  Be sure to turn on the sound on your computer.  I have lovely music to accompany the pictures. The world is a beautiful place if only me had the time and money to see it all!!! Right now I have no money and I don't think I could make another transatlantic flight if I had to.

This slideshow generated with Smilebox

Next time.....
I'll have something more educational for you.

Check out How to Use and Free Activities

While I am away cruising

I am leaving you some home work.

On most of my posts I invite you to visit the website

 www.creativeteaching.com 

to check out the products they offer

like these Cootie Catchers for Halloween.

(Look for these at your local teacher store, too.)

But there is lots more on the website.

Click on the box that says

HOW TO USE.

(Use the clink below and see one of the ideas.

Don't forget to come back to this page.)

http://www.creativeteaching.com/ctp/i/t/htu/23-One-More-Game.pdf
This game is really fun, but there are 
lots of other ideas in this section.

Are you back?
Now click on the section that says FREE ACTIVITIES.
(If you click the link below it will take you to one 
of the free activities. Be sure to come back!) 

http://www.creativeteaching.com/ctp/freeactivities/2399-EB-all-about-me.pdf
This is a great All About Me activity.
Copy it and use it right now.

While I am gone have fun
clicking and copying.

Practicing Retirement

For the next two weeks I will be practicing retirement.

Last Sunday we left for a two week cruise. 

After a long flight from Dallas 
we arrived in Venice.

We boarded our ship and 
began our cruise to several Greek islands.

 Next week, we end up in Rome.

Then another long flight home. 

This is the island of Corfu, Greece.

While there we will be learning to cook a classic 

Greek dinner....then eating it!

So much to see and so little time. 

We will spend some time on the Isle of Capri.

I wonder if we will see Cary Grant?

If you don't know who he is, you are too young!

You should check out the DVD of

An Affair to Remember.

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr....

I don't know whether they were in Italy or Greece
or maybe along the coast of France....

but it really doesn't matter.

It is a wonderful love story.

Warning....Have tissues close at hand.

How to make a Step Book

Here is another of my favorites 

from

Read, Write, and Publish.

This is how to make a step-book.

Step-books are great for recording life cycles.

Butterflies and frogs are easy to do if you use 

CTP mini bulletin board called Life Cycles.

All the pictures are there.

Another use is for teaching ordinal words: 

first, next, then, and last.

I made this book to go with the reader,

Tess Builds a Snowman.

The pages inside show the order

in which the snowman is built.

This is the Five Little Monkeys book that I posted a few weeks ago.

It is good for teaching counting forward and backwards.

This is an "All About Me" book.

It is great for getting to know the kids in your class.

In our class, everyone is "thumb-body " special.

You can also use a step-book to sequence the events in a story.

This is from the reader

Who Will Help".

You will find that no one is willing to help with the work.

But, everyone is willing to help with the eating.

Does that sound familiar?

Take a giant step and make 

a step-book with your class.