If you're lucky, a giant green bus just might show up at your doorstep someday. In case you haven't noticed, we're pretty lucky here at One Magic Classroom; and YES a magic green bus did show up for us.....the JULE Bus that is! So enjoy our top five favorite reasons why you should ride The Jule. We had one magic detention after school so the kids could work on their skits. Give them ten minutes to brainstorm and a box of vintage clothes....the rest is Jule history my friends.
Did you know?
Did you know you can even take your bicycle on The Jule? Did you also know that felt is super cheap and kids will come up with really creative things when you give them a permanent marker too? Well, now you know and you're totally smarter because of it!
Listen to what "Randy" says.
And Randy says "Always stay seated on the bus!"
Bus drivers mean business, so don't mess around!
These might not be your typical bus rules, but nonetheless they are super important things to keep in mind like "don't hold onto the tires" and "don't play 20 questions with the bus driver".
Be Green. Be Cool. Ride the Jule.
This post is dedicated to Candace Eudaley and all the friends at the Jule (including a super awesome parent named Marla Quinn) who came in to share some earth friendly facts, and even let us ride on the bus. Thanks for making another memorable moment, and taking the time to let my students know that they are special. We think you're special, and we think green buses called the Jule are REALLY SPECIAL.
One Magic Classroom enjoying One Magic Puppet Theater (thanks to Art Gumbo).
I love socks. I also love chocolate from Switzerland, kitten stickers, and people from Switzerland (named DRACO!) that send us this stuff in the first place. Since starting this most awesome blog, we have gotten lots of magical mail. This week we got chocolate from Switzerland, German gummy bears, kitten stickers, crochet beards (I'm not joking, we really did....see photo below), and really funny postcards with sayings in French we didn't understand.
Random is good, and so are random acts of sock kindness. So if you've sent us mail, be expecting some handmade sock puppet love coming your way, One Magic Classroom style that is.
Crochet beards and Swiss chocolate:
Best combination gift of ALL TIME!
Did I mention crochet beards? Yeah, my super-cala-magilistic cousin Auni made us crochet beards in honor of our blog entry "When I Grow Up". She is a teacher as well, and her students are doing some of the projects that we have shared on our blog. We got to see pictures of what they were doing and received some amazing letters too. It is so inspiring to see that other kids are doing activities related to our class. So here is to Auni (another Ms. Sprengelmeyer) and her wonderful students. We think you're great (blog post to be continued later....insert scary music and thunderstorm noises here).
Swiss Chocolate + Crochet Beard = One Happy Sock?
Max's beard matches his sock!
One Magic Puppet Theater Performs!
Here's a video to thank Draco and Abigail (Draco's "mum" as he would call it). I met Abigail over winter break for the first time several months ago with my sister in the woods of Canada. Abigail loaned me a documentary on puppet making while I was staying at her house (or magic cabin castle as I like to think of it). Based on the conversations we had, she thought I might be interested in puppet making. Little did I know one of my students (Brody) would wish for a puppet theater just one month later, and that we would actually win money to build one! Guess you had a sneaky suspicion One Magic Classroom was the perfect place to make puppet dreams happen. Before I forget Abigail, you've got a book on tree houses I would like to borrow next (once I return your puppet making documentary of course). I'm dreaming of a tree house, and lately dreams have been coming true. Sometimes all it takes is the planting of a little seed.
Sibling Puppet Makers = Really Cute
Yeah, send that photo to grandma and grandpa!
It's a good thing when you tell your students that they are welcome to stay after school with their teacher to make puppets, and almost the entire class stays after. In fact, the ones that didn't come said they couldn't make it. If you would have asked me to stay after school with my teacher in elementary school, I would have said "I'll take a rain check". If fact, the kids were all joking that they had to stay after school and do fun stuff with their teacher for detention. I'm proud to say that we have created not only a community, but what Seth Godin would call a tribe. We are a tribe of not just believers and dreamers, but achievers; and yes we are doing great things together.
"The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow."
-Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
I hope we have brightened your day a little more, by adding some British accents, chocolate, crochet beards, and if nothing else a little more sock love into your life.
What mother doesn't love getting a homemade card from their child on Mother's Day (especially when you are wearing glasses that were won at the Reading Carnival)?.
I love the spontaneous creativity that occurs when you give kids a green piece of paper and a box of foam cut-outs to choose from. Ben decided to make the foam cut-out into a bracelet and label it "Free Gift", which is awesome because it reminds me of a cereal box advertisement. These kids are natural marketers. So watch out fellow greeting card companies, cause you've got some stiff competition coming your way from the kids in One Magic Classroom. Take note of the little picture frames that I found in the "free pile" at work. They were once wedding announcement frames that obviously someone didn't need any more. So instead of ending up in the garbage dump somewhere, we repurposed them into Mother's Day frames. So here's an extra shout out to Mother Earth on Mother's Day. We love you too!
I love you because....
Here's a little video montage of some reasons why my students love their mothers. Didn't get to record all of them though because MOTHER NATURE got in the way (that's okay, we forgive you).
I LOVE MY MOM!
This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't give a shout out to my own mother. She pretty much rocks all the time, and if you don't smile while looking at this picture, you might need to do a happy dance or something to fix that. My mother Nora has taught me not to care about what other people think about you. Take for example the other day while I was eating dinner at her house with a few of my friends and she decided to dance around in fairy wings to make us smile (my guess is most mothers don't do that kind of stuff). It occurred to me during her "fairy spin" that I really do have a one of a kind mother, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll never really be able to thank her for all she has done, but that's okay because she loves her kids more than anything. So here it goes mom, I LOVE YOU!
