Discovery Channel: The World is Just Awesome

I absolutely love Discovery Channel. Besides being educational, their shows are really fun and this song is simply contagious!

  Check out these drawings from Tumblr. They’re so cute! I wish I had that much drawing skills. Haha!

The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers)

My officemate Steph, showed me this during one of our breaks and it truly made our gloomy day so much bearable! 

These are supposedly from the 1999 Washington Post humor contest. The ones in bold are my favorites!

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck

backing up.

We read the article here.

Halloween Costumes

I’ve been so busy with work and school that it’s just today that I realized that halloween is just around the corner. In the past, my mom and I would be bonding over costume designs and trying to come up with the most creative outfits for me and my 5-year-old brother…yes, even the teachers are required to dress-up during halloween and yes, we make our own costumes in the family…but that was when I still taught in preschool. We don’t have that in gradeschool anymore..it’s exam week. Boo-hoo!

Anyhow, my brother is going trick or treating in school next week and it’s like crunch time to find a cost-efficient costume (since we no longer have time to make). My brother is used to the creative and non-scary costumes. In school, he once dressed up as Bob the Builder and I went as Pippi Longstocking! So I surfed the net for some nice finds and ta-da! I found a treasure trove of super cheap costumes! All under Php350!

Aren’t these simply adorable? And they don’t cost a fortune! Check out some more of the costumes here.

A-Blog-A-Day

I took a hiatus from blogging in 2009 because of the turmoil in my personal life. Now that things are going well, I’m setting myself up for a challenge: A-Blog-A-Day. I’m hoping to post at least one entry here everyday. Here are some topics I have in mind:

1. Lesson Plans and Activities for Kids

2. Book reviews

3. Movie reviews

4. Education (in general)

5. Personal take on current events affecting the educational system, children and families

6. Fun stuff..like anecdotes of the kiddos I teach

Any topic or request you have in mind?  Email me, leave a comment or ask away here.

At home on (yet) another rainy day

Classes at Nest were suspended again.

It’s been raining pretty hard, non-stop since last night here in Metro Manila. According to the news, Typhoon Juan (international name Megi) has already claimed 10 lives (all from Northern Luzon) and it this typhoon is now termed as “the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines in four years”.

I’m worried about relatives and friends from up North. It sucks to feel helpless here at home. All I can do is pray for them at this point. 

P.S. Just to keep the mood up this gloomy day, at least I can catch up on some sleep, much needed bonding with my 5-year-old brother…and maybe a bunch of work stuff I need to finish.

Progressive Education in the 1940’s

Here’s an interesting video I found showing the difference between Traditional and Progressive Education.

“We are trying to help the child learn to face actuality. And on this basis build his ideas, his character, his sense of self-reliance; of how to live and wake with others. In a word, we are equipping the child to face his future by learning to face intelligently his immediate present.”

-William Heard Kilpatrick

What’s in the BOX?!?!

Q: What is one thing that my Grade 1 class absolutely looks forward to every Monday?

 A: The class Mystery Box! 

Why are the kids so excited about this box?

1. The children take turns in bringing the box home on a Friday and putting a”mystery object” in it. It could be a toy, a food item.. it could be anything that fits in the box! The harder to guess, the better.

2. They get to write 5 descriptive sentences about the object as clues.

3. On Monday, the child with the Mystery Box gets to stand in front and make the class guess what’s in the box. (The children may touch, smell, or taste depending on the object.)

4. Each child gets 3 chances at guessing and the children with the correct guess gets a prize!

The Mystery Box isn’t just a fun guessing game. It helps the children practice sentence construction, creative thinking and use of senses; plus they also learn self-discipline (got to keep that object a secret!), taking turns and sportsmanship.

No Classes for Preschool and Kindergarten today

As the news would have it, storm signal number 1 was raised here in Metro Manila because of typhoon Juan. Young kids don’t have classes today. Storm is hitting the northern provinces pretty hard. Praying for all my distant relatives out there.

Keep safe everyone!

Mmore updates on the weather here.

My Thoughts: The Giving Tree

“Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy” I loved this book from the moment I read it during my practicum in 2006. Misha made me read it to her during rest time. I found myself unable to speak and choked up at some parts of the story. The drawings may be in black and white but look at the details and you’ll see just how wonderful each page is.

“Shel Silverstein has created such a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another’s capacity to love in return.”

It reminded me of the people who love me unconditionally and those who have been altruistic eversince…my parents.

I’m saving up for my own hardbound copy now. ——> got one at last!!!

This is one story I’d love to read to my future kids and grandkids.

Why don’t you get a copy and see for yourself?

Best Cooked Play Dough Recipe