November means NaBloPoMo… and turkeys!

Posted by: curiousillusion on: November 1, 2009

In: curiousillusion
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Before we get into my regular scheduled blog, I have to interrupt because… it’s NaBloPoMo month! I’ve wanted to participate since I first became a blogger so I’m excited. If you’ve never heard of NaBloPoMo… it’s National Blog Posting Month. One post every day for the entire month of November. Sweet! Okay so it may not sound like a big deal, but.. why not? :)

Anyway… so I teased yesterday that I redecorated my classroom on Friday after school. It was fun, although I think it’d be more fun if there was more Thanksgiving things out there. For some reason stores tend to jump from Halloween straight to Christmas… there should be some turkey puzzles or decorations or something. Anyway, I took down and put away everything Halloween-related, used turkey cutouts for name labels on the kids’ cubbies, and set up my Thanksgiving things:

turkey This is Gobbles. I got him at Barnes & Nobles the other day. [Sidebar: can I just say how much I LOVE the Ty Pluffies that Barnes & Nobles carries. I'm eager to see what they have for winter. I'm hoping for a penguin... as much as I love snowmen, I have quite a few.] Anyway, Gobbles sits on the library bookshelf, to the left of the metal basket that holds all the seasonal picture books. On the other side of Gobbles are…

thanksgiving bears Lil Feather and Lil Pilgrim. Now, Lil Pilgrim I also got at Barnes & Noble and I saw Lil Feather on the website, but he wasn’t available in stores or on the store website. So I had to track him down online and he was a bit more expensive… but totally worth it. They belong together.

Meanwhile I’m an idiot. Take a look at the seasonal word wall I had mentioned working on a few days ago:

fall word wall This is part of it and so far it looks exactly how I envisioned it. I don’t think my mom is too impressed – to her it doesn’t look all that professional, I guess… she’d rather the pictures be printed out rather than hand-colored, and the words typed rather than hand-written. But I spent ages working on it and I’m not about to change it.

But that’s not why I’m an idiot. Take a look, if you will, at the word harvest. Why on earth did I put a picture of a boy raking leaves next to the word harvest?! I meant to use a picture of a kid picking apples off a tree (I think that works?). Luckily the kids haven’t seen this yet, and I’ll fix it before I show them. It’s okay, I think I need to add the word “feast” as well. I’m a bit mad, also, that at times I didn’t push down very hard when I colored and so the colors don’t show up as vibrant as they could have. But I guess, live and learn and I’ll know better for when I work on my winter words.

Anyway, that’s about it. I’ll introduce the Thanksgiving games I’ve been working on to the kids this coming week (one each day or they tend to get confused) and then it’s about 3 and a half weeks until it’s time to take everything down and set up for Christmas. Man, time flies this time of year!

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Quave

That's one thing we don't have here at all, thanksgiving.
I like the board. You're so hard on yourself! I think it's got character. Nothing better than real handwriting and real colouring in! You've done well. As for the harvest pic... well, it could be a metaphoric harvest. :)
Barnes & Noble... those are the guys that are going to release the Nook soon, to compete with the Kindle. Hmm... I think I might need to get one, if they ever sell it here.
Gonna see if I comment on your blog every day. :)

curiousillusion

Well sure, you didn't have any Pilgrims or Native Americans so you wouldn't have Thanksgiving.

Would you really get a Nook? That's awfully geeky of you.

A comment a day huh? I'd LOVE to see that!

Quave

Ah, good point. You clever little chook.
I would get either a Nook or a Kindle2, depends if they sell the Nook here or not. But I won't say more because I know you have little faith with regards to my geekyness.

A comment a day it is! You make sure you write, I'll make sure I comment! :p

ronnica

He could be harvesting leaves, right?

Keeping with the theme, I'm going to TURKEY this month. The last time I went was actually over Thanksgiving, so everyone gets a lot of laughs about that...

curiousillusion

Oooh he COULD be harvesting leaves. Good point.

Ha ha that's funny!

ari_b

We can so do this NaBloPoMo thing!!!

Thanksgiving is a seriously under-appreciated holiday!

curiousillusion

Yes we can!

And yeah it totally is. Mmm turkey!

Bluebelle

Wow, a post a day? I'm not sure I could do that, I'm so undisiplined when it comes to blogging. But I'm looking forward to reading yours! Hmm, now I'm tempted to try. I will go and check it out. :o)

I like your word wall, I think it's nice actually if the words are hand written. My mum is a teacher and has folders and folders of hand written, hand coloured words and displays.

curiousillusion

I USED to do a post a day at the very beginning of this blog but it got hard, with work and all. But I'm gonna try.

Oooh it must be nice to look at all your mom's things!

kiranapoleon

Ari I think it looks totally great! I think the handwritten letters are way better than printed out, as it gives the kids something to imitate. And especially that turkey is so adorable. It's so great looking at your photos of Thanksgiving otherwise I probably wouldn't get excited for it at all...And I'm sorry for being such a lame blog friend, but I've been following what you're up to on twitter!

curiousillusion

Thank you! And you're not a lame blog friend at all!

Shop Girl*

Mmm you should come Thanksgiving shopping in Canada! We have it a few weeks before Halloween so it doesn't get lost in the holiday shuffle. There are Turkeys galore!

And, by the way, I think what you've done looks fabulous AND professional. Who needs a computer?

curiousillusion

Oooh I'll have to come!

And thank you very much! :)

Heather Rose

I love your unprinted seasonal word wall. It's wonderful. Were I to teach, that stuff would totally be my favorite.

curiousillusion

Aw thanks! :)

last year's girl

Good luck with the daily blogging! Your classroom looks adorable, wish you could have been my teacher ;)

curiousillusion

Thank you... and aw! Sometimes I think I'm too strict though, you may not have liked me as a teacher!

Classroom Confessions

I think the word wall is really cute and creative! I do hand done stuff all the time and I think it is totally fine, and sometimes even better!
Congrats on doing NaBloPoMo! I think I am doing it too, let's help each other with ideas if we get stuck :)

curiousillusion

Do you have pictures of the stuff you have done?!

Yup, good idea - we'll definitely have to help each other with ideas!

Caity

Oh, and just randomly... I also noticed that you are part of 20SB and GoodReads too! We have more in common than just NaBloPoMo! Plus we're both doing a Project365!! Madness!

curiousillusion

Oooh we do have a lot in common! Although... I actually quit 365 a few weeks ago. I'm kind of mad at myself for quitting, but I just got lazy and my pictures suffered and then I figured that there wasn't a point in finishing if my shots were awful. Good luck to you in finishing, it's hard work!

Caity

Thanks for the comment at my blog! NaBloPoMo is definitely fun! I love all your Thanksgiving toys! They are adorable! People probably teased you for redecorating because they are jealous! My mother taught elementary school and the same thing used to happen to her! :P

I think it's so funny about using the wrong picture on your harvest word. I suppose after all that decorating you were bound to make a mistake. That is a lot of work, there! I never would have noticed it unless you mentioned it either, though!! I am sure you will be able to fix it though. Sometimes those little whipper snappers are a bit quick on the uptake! I definitely know! They can make you feel silly if you are not always on top of your game!! Haha!

curiousillusion

Thanks for the comment... and thanks, I'm looking forward to NaBloPoMo!

You're totally right, my students are VERY quick to point out my mistakes. Lol!

Sarah B.

I like your word wall, it looks very professional... it doesn't look commercial, which it seems your mom would prefer. Commercial does not equal superior.

No, NaBloPoMo for me... I'm finishing up my 365 this month.

curiousillusion

Thank you... and congrats on finishing up!! Excited?

Sarah B.

Very much so. I made myself a paper chain to count down the days. I'm such a dork!

bella rose photography

I LOVE how your word wall turned out. And I love the hand-made aspect to teaching. I NEVER printed words for my word wall. I always hand wrote them. The kids need to learn proper handwriting right? So you are modeling really good hand writing to your kids (you have perfect teacher writing!).

In any event I am very intrigued by NaBloPoMo but I think I'll wait until December. We are going away for Thanksgiving and I already see problems with posting everyday for November. Soooooo, I think I'll wait a month.

Looking forward to seeing your everyday posts this month!

curiousillusion

Thanks Beryl. I like the hand-made stuff too... I always admire hand-made stuff of other teachers more than I do store bought things. And thanks, I think my handwriting was a bit messy but I try to make it "teacher" looking!

Oooh where are you going for Thanksgiving? And good idea on waiting... makes sense.

Kecia

I found you from NaBloPoMo, and I'm so happy to find a teacher's blog! I am still in college to be a elementary school teacher, but I love seeing the ideas of others. It seems that not many teachers blog, or at least I haven't found them. Gobbles is so cute! I didn't notice the mistake on the word wall until you mentioned it.

curiousillusion

Thanks for finding me! :) I love reading teacher blogs too... you're right, there aren't that many around. I wonder why...

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curiousillusion

November means NaBloPoMo… and turkeys!

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curiousillusion

November means NaBloPoMo… and turkeys!

[donate to the computer fund]

[buy]

[on twitter]

[on flickr]

[etsy wishlist]

[tags]

[calendar]

[archives]

[good blogs]

[meta]