feng shui saturday

 

the best way to spend a saturday after a long week: 

sleep in. wake up. putter, read, sigh deeply. clean while listening to great music. make sweet potatoes, scrambled eggs and veggies with coffee. eat it all and part of emilys. scooter over to 9x9. 9x9 is a two story stationary store that confirms all of my hopes and wishes about how good a two floor stationary store really can be. all of my love for pretty office supplies came flooding back to me the moment i walked in. emily and i perused and debated and finally indulged in a variety of knick knacks for our classrooms. essentials only. if we feel good there and the little ones feel good in there, then we'll all want to be there. colors are magic and hand made posters are stimulating. i call it feng shui. pretty calendars,magnets, construction paper, and many other tools of the crafy kind. i am going redecorate the f out of classroom 2b on monday. =)

also. KNS has this point system they use with the students which i won't write too much about because its saturday and its my day off. i will say, however, that this point system gets the kids sun stamps at the end of each day if they earned enough points. the unfortunate consequence to not earning enough points for a sunny stamp is that your bluebook (agenda type book that we use to comunicate with parents. i get lots of notes in chinese. its very helpful.) instead gets branded with a rainy cloud. this is disastrous for young children of asian descent. i havnt quite figured out what the irreovcable attraction to sunny stamps is but i figure i must have had affinities for strange, seemingly trivial things as a younger child too. so let them have the sunny stamps. anyway. i write of all this because the kids try VERY hard (usually) for these stamps and try to avoid rain stamps at all cost (usually). So emily and i wanted to implement some sort of treasure chest idea (no, i did NOT get this idea from the barley mow mel.) Our plan is this: At the end of each class whoever received the most points will get their name written on the corresponding date on our calendar (which we bought today and will be decorating this evening). at the end of the month, whoever has earned the most points will get to choose a prize from the ever revered 'treasure box.' i realise its not revered yet, but once i explain the magical contents you will all be displaying a far more reverent attitude.

inside the treasure box, our lucky kids can choose from:

• glow in the dark stars
• very smooth writing metallic pens that smell like fruit when they dry. and good fruit not fake fruit. that would be disgusting.
• glow sticks
• those little notebooks that tell a picture story when you flip the pages. flip books maybe?
• a pocket mirror shaped like an oreo
• 6 squishy balls in different colors
• bubbles in the shape of light bulbs that hang around your neck. bubble necklaces i think the kids are calling it.
• stamps
• a pen that doubles as a flashlight and writes with invisible ink and comes with its very own matching pad. (okay to be honest, we kept that one but wouldnt you?)

I basically couldnt be happier about this treasure box which i get to show all of my classes on monday. they're going to be putty in my hands. except maybe my c6 class. they're in grade 6. i mean i find little notebooks and things that glow in the dark to be extremely exciting..but they might be just too old and too cool. thats okay though, ive already got them with my charm.

im off for more arts and crafts and wine with emalina. listen to this. i am.
xx

ps. HAPPY SATURDAY!