04.10.09

Red and blue make purple?

This morning when I was leaving for work I spotted a robin and bluebird in the neighbor's front yard. They were both hopping around eating "stuff" out of the grass. As I continued watching them, a fem ale bluebird came around the corner of rock.

04.09.09

Claymation.

We are in week three of our claymation enrichment class at school. I have about eight students, grades 4-6, that are participating in the class. During week one and two the students completed their storyboards. Today they began creating their characters with wire and foil. Once their "skeleton" is done, they will be adding clay...I'll keep you all updated.

04.08.09

Healsville Animal Sanctuary.

As I posted last week, I will be headed to Australia at the end of May with four of my students. We received an email that highlighted the residents of one stop on our itinerary - Healesville Animal Sanctuary, home to the Australian Wildlife Health Centre.

The Sanctuary has played a major roll in the recovery efforts from the Victorian Bush fires earlier this year. Some of the sanctuary’s most common refugees were injured koalas, as they were often too slow to get out of burning areas, and many received burns on their paws. Once recovered, these koalas will return to the wild, and released into areas not affected by the recent ravaging wildfires. We are all county the days!

04.07.09

Here to stay.

Well, I'm pretty sure the bluebird couple is here to stay. They have made it through two snows and have been around the box everyday this week. I'm still waiting to see any type of nesting material going in the box, but I'm just glad to see them still here!

04.06.09

Cup.

I began having some "afternoon tea" at school this week. I quickly had several compliments on my fun, blue cup. It was a gift from a former student.

04.05.09

Homemade noodles.

I'm guessing there's a good chance that I made noodles during one of my many years in 4-H cooking, but this weekend was my first noodle-making adventure that I can remember. It was our turn to host the monthly dinner. We selected a fettuccine with cream & sausage dish...and of course I had to make my own fettuccine to make a truly authentic Italian Dining experience. It's amazing how different homemade noodles are - store noodles don't even compare!

So, as we were looking through our Italian Cookbook, we came across rum cake...that's right...rum cake! How could we pass up rum cake? (We were questioning how or why this type of cake was in the Italian Cookbook.) After doing a little searching on the Internet, I learned that the English settlers brought a style of cake to the Caribbean. It was then modified by the Africans who came to the region during the slave trade. (In the cookbook it referred to a Polish man who "invented" the cake. So, I'm still left wondering how it's really Italian.

04.04.09

Red-feathered friend.

After our several "snow storms" there's been a few new birds showing up in the backyard. The finches are all showing their spring colors.

04.03.09

An AMAZING adventure.

Exactly one week ago today I learned that I had been chosen by Discovery Education Student Adventures to lead four students on a two-week trip to Australia! Needless to say, I was ABSOLUTELY excited!!! Our trip is one of three pilot trips planned for 2009 in preparation for the 2010 launch of the DE Student Adventure program. We will be traveling with two other teachers and their eight students.

I had to wait until April 1st to share my exciting news with others. This meant I could then invite the four students. The parents and students were all SO excited.

Our adventure will last 14 days. We will begin down in Melbourne, visiting wildlife sanctuaries and rain forests. We will then move inland to Ayers Rock where we will sleep in the bush under the stars. Finally we will head north to Townsville. We will learn about the amazing creatures that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef and then spend a day snorkeling and collecting data. (All of the students that I will be traveling with have heard scuba diving stories and have also seen a number of my photos. I can't wait to share the underwater world with them all.) And I will have some GREAT photos to share here on the blog! (Today's is a simple screen shot...probably some snow for tomorrow's photo...they are calling for about 10 inches here in Castle Rock.)

I'm not sure what other words I can use to describe how I feel about this trip. Personally, I am so excited to go on the trip, but it means even more to me to be able to share this incredible opportunity with four students. It's a trip of a life-time...thanks Discovery Education Student Adventures - www.discoverystudentadventures.com

Here is a link to the blog posting by my friend RJ...it includes an Animoto file.

04.02.09

Beautiful morning.

Well, it happened again. I took a photo early in the morning and by the evening, forgot that I had taken it. Anyway, here's an amazing cloud that I caught above the Rockies early Thursday morning. I'm thinking there must be something about the mountains that helps form these clouds. I captured another cloud similar to this earlier in the year.

04.01.09

No April Foolin!

We were expecting 4-6 inches of snow today.  It didn't actually begin until sometime after 4:30...this is when I got back in the school after duty and helping someone jump-start their car.

When I left school at about 5:30 there was a blizzard...it was amazing how quickly things changed.  Our first April snow storm was over in a few hours and left behind several inches of snow.