Colors Festival

"Local Colors is Roanoke’s premiere year-long multi-cultural program which recognizes and embraces people of diverse origins, races and ethnic backgrounds.

Throughout the year Local Colors works with schools, colleges, neighborhoods, retirement communities, government, businesses, and civic organizations to promote diversity and multi-cultural understanding.

Annually it culminates in the third weekend of May with the renowned Local Colors Festival."

Ever since I can remember I have celebrated this event with my family in downtown Roanoke. In this, the 21st year there were over 94 languages spoken and even more countries in attendance.  Thousands of people come to peruse the crowd, eat delicious food (seriously de-lic-ious), watch native performances, browse through (or buy) handmade items, and learn about different countries. As a child many of my friends from different countries would participate in this event and it was so cool to see them in their traditional dress. It was nice to see many people I knew and catch up. My papaya on a stick and some sort of Egyptian food were tasty-and comical when I my brothers started fighting over who got to eat what I didn't finish. Reminded me of why I lose weight when I go home.

Pretty weather. Friendly people. Good food (notice how many times I've mentioned food in this post-yum!). People learning to accept one another because of differences. What a fabulous day!

(My memory card was full so these are from the colors website, not my camera.)

"you've learned me!"

Things I was learned today.
1) It is amazing how much an ipod touch and green m&m's help my classroom management. It is also amazing how much they hurt it when I leave it in Roanoke or run out. Note to self: Get the ipod asap and buy m&m's. Maybe I should invest in the colorworks ones and just buy green...and then the kid will change his favorite color back to red.
2) There is a difference between the s-word and the sh-word. The s-word is "stupid" and we all know the other one. Both were uttered in my classroom today, and my kids freaked out more about stupid than the other one. Hmmmm...
3) We are going to the dairy farm tomorrow (btw one of my kids was pooped on last year). We were talking about where milk comes from and the whole process of getting from the cow-->home. It was a very interesting/fun conversation in which we all were learned. My favorite/least favorite part of the conversation happened when one of my kids asked where baby cows come from. There were many responses, but two of my favorite are below.
    a)kid 1: They cut the cow's tummy open just like they cut your mommy's tummy.
       kid 2: They cut my mommy?!?!
   b) It comes out of a hole. Like our belly button.
4) You can't go to the same doctor's office twice in the same day even if you are seeing two separate physicians, because your insurance will freak out. I'm in high demand these days, so I get to go to the same place on Monday and then again on Tuesday, which is perfectly gas efficient.
5) I was included in one of my 5 year old's prayer last night. This makes me very happy. a: because I made her happy and b: because her mom is comfortable enough with me to know I share the same beliefs as their family.
6) Our chicks went outdoors for the first time today. That was a big hit. It was also during this time that one of my kids said "Ms. Henderson you've done a great job of learning me this year!".
Yes, I have learned a lot this year. 19 days left.

Chicks Chicks Chicks

As you know I have been working on incubating chicks in my classroom. Well, it was taking a little longer than planned aka for some unknown reason no chicks were hatching. So, I cheated. There I said it, I'm a cheater. I went to a hatchery and asked for two eggs that were getting ready to hatch, and they were nice enough to donate to my good cause. My kids were able to witness the eggs peeping/shaking/cracking, but the actual hatching took place after school.

Needless to say there were some very excited kids in the morning. Morning routines have already been messed up by excitement from checking the incubator every morning, so I decided to prevent that from happening with this chaos. I stopped the line in the hallway and had everyone take folders out of backpacks right then and there. Then I let them in little by little to sit on the rug. They were surprisingly well behaved and followed directions with a few prompts. The morning was consumed with going over rules for handling the chicks, holding the chicks, and naming the chicks! Some names in the running were: Daisy, Jenna, Emily, Rose, Betty, Freddy, Fishbowl, Army Guy, Hat, Red, and the winners (seen below). I wrote all the names on paper and then drew 3 boy and 3 girl names. Then the students made a human graph to determine the winners. I must admit this was also a bit staged when Princess Kate was chosen obviously Prince William had to be a choice when it was time to vote. I was impressed that my kids remembered the wedding that had taken place. We had briefly discussed it on Monday when I was told "A new princess was born", but it just shows how much of an impact this royal wedding made on everyone--even 6 year olds. Below are nametags and "Buckingham Palace"-made out of paper, tp rolls, and glitter glue.

Is this a project I will undertake next year? I think so. Will I do things differently? Yes! I think I'll make friends with the hatchery next year too and save the stress/waiting time/money. In the meantime the learning experience and excitement has made all this work well worth it!