Calendar of Houses Bee Quilt


A friend and I organized the on-line bee for this Calendar of Houses Bee Quilt.  We organized it differently than the House Block Bee we'd been in earlier.  Each month, a bee member made a block for another member while a different bee member made a block for her.

Because it was a calendar quilt, the house design was to represent that particular month.  For example, the February house in my quilt is a mitten, the March house is an Irish castle, and the October house is a pumpkin.  July's house is made of flag fabric.  A woman is busy cooking Thanksgiving dinner in the November block.  A wreath graces the December house's door. 

We used our own stash to make the blocks we sent to others.  The sashing fabric I chose looks like shingles, which I thought was perfect for a house quilt!  

This Calendar of Houses Bee Quilt, along with three other quilts, hangs in my reading classroom.  In truth, my room looks like a cross between a classroom and a living room, and I like it that way!

I work with four groups of students each morning, teaching reading.  I start with a small group of 4th graders.  Then I work in a 5th grade classroom along with the classroom teacher.  My third group is a 5th grade boys book club, the Domination Readers.  After reading Great Illustrated Classics Journey to the Center of the Earth, they have moved on to Great Illustrated Classics War of the Worlds.  One boy's mother wrote me, "I cannot thank you enough for getting my son excited about reading."  That's exactly why I teach! 

Finally, I work in a kindergarten classroom along with the kindergarten teacher. 



                                      Two Good Books

       If you were a book,

       What book would you be?

       Alice in Wonderland?

       Life in the Sea?

       If I were a book,

       I’d be Rumpelstiltskin,

       ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,

       Or Huckleberry Finn.

       If we were two blockbuster

       Books on the shelves,

       We’d tingle our spines

       Reading us to ourselves. . . .

       Then we’d do the same thing

       All the other books did –

       We’d wait to be borrowed

       By some lucky kid.

                                      J. Patrick Lewis

I made this lamp out of an apple cider jug and then filled it with crayons.

                  Green Oobleck Recipe 

Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss

1-1/2 cups water

4 or more drops green food coloring

1 (16 ounce) box cornstarch

1.  Read the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss.

2.  Place water in a large bowl.  Mix in green food coloring.

3.  Add cornstarch and stir.  It will be very hard to stir, but keep working at it.

4.  If the oobleck is too thick, gradually add water to thin it.  If it is too thin, add more cornstarch.  It should be about the consistency of Elmer’s glue.

5.  Play with your oobleck!

For best results, prepare oobleck a day prior to use and store in an air-tight container.  Do not put oobleck down the drain.  It can clog the pipes! 

Oobleck is known as a “suspension.”  Squeezing keeps the suspension together and it feels solid.  When you stop squeezing, the liquid and solid begin to come apart, and it starts to feel like a liquid.

 

You might enjoy reading my previous blog post, also about my classroom:

http://www.starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/2013/01/if-your-teacher-is-also-quilter-part-i.html