Is it really a frog?

Ok, so here are the latest pictures from the tank - the eggs are hatching and quite a few of the "tadpoles" are getting bigger. (just wish I had a better camera and could get some clearer pictures!)

In this week's Scholastic Student news that the 1st grade classes receive there is a story about things that live in the pond and it shows a baby newt - looks an awful lot like the things swimming in our tank. So this got the teacher and I thinking - is it really frog eggs that we found or something else??

But then, I found a picture in one of our frog books that shows a tadpole with "gills"

So the question is - do we have frogs or newts?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see!!! The kids in the class are having a great time writing about what they are observing and now they will be writing predictions about what they think is really living in the tank!

Stay tuned!

Don't you hate it when...

You can't find a book - a book that you read to your students EVERY year and somehow it has just disappeared from your house.

I hate it even MORE when said book that has vanished into thin air is no longer in print. Your public library does not have a copy, YOUR own media center does not have a copy and no one you know has a copy either (hence why you loved to read it every year, most kids had never heard of it!).

The book in question is Just Like Abraham Lincoln by Bernard Waber and I just know that the book will turn up somewhere tonight - AFTER I had planned to read it this week!

So instead, I choose to read A. Lincoln and Me by Louise Borden and illustrated by Ted Lewin. It was an ok 2nd choice. I wanted to read a fiction book (which this is) and I wanted it to talk about Abe Lincoln, but it just wasn't quite as funny as the Waber book and many of the references to Lincoln were a little over my younger kids heads.

So if I can't find the Waber book, I guess I will be shelling out some $$ to purchase it through Amazon - sigh - it has to around my house SOMEWHERE!!

Frog update

Well our little friends are now living in my son's 1st grade classroom. I think I will be doing an activity in the media center with them sometime after they have become a little more exciting to look at. They have grown and but are still in their "eggs". We transfered them to an aquarium this morning, but the pond water James collected was REALLY dirty/cloudy, so the pictures look a little cloudy. I have a jug of water sitting out to be added to the tank, hopfully this will make the tank a little less cloudy.

Great Book - Cornelia

Last night I finished the book Cornelia and the Audacious Adventures of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M.M. Blume. What a GREAT book for the tween set.

The book is set in modern day NYC. Cornelia is the eleven year old daughter of two famous pianist, one of whom she has never met (her father). Her mother is a jet setter, playing concerts all over the world and Cornelia is often left at home with the French housekeeper. Cornelia loves words, especially large, outrageous words and loves to intimidate people using her large words.

One day she stumbles upon her new neighbors, an older woman named Virginia Somerset, her companion Patel and her dog Mr. Kinyata. Virginia is quite taken with Cornelia and she starts to tell Cornelia stories of the adventures that she and her sisters had traveling the world in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Not only do Virginia's stories take Cornelia to far away places, the rooms in her house do also, she has decorated each room in her house to reflect the different countries she has lived in.

I love how this books is set in today's world, but takes you away to far away worlds in Morocco, France, England and India. And I love the characters, I can just picture what Cornelia and Virginia look like!

I actually acquired this book as part of a promotion for my upcoming book fair, so I am excited to recommend it to my 4th & 5th grade girls (although I do think some of the boys would enjoy this book too!)

Nature - Growing Frogs

I am back - last week was full of depression after the super bowl loss on Sunday (and to make it even worse, I was at a party with plenty of Giants fans!) and then I had a wild and crazy Mo Willems week in the media center. I will post soon some of our entries to Mo's contest - I hope we win!!!!

My youngest son (age 7) has been playing in the mud. Behind our neighbors house there is a wooded area with a creek that runs through it (we've lived here 2.5 years and I never knew this was back there!)  yesterday they discovered frog eggs!  And somehow my son convinced me that we needed to keep them and watch them grow into tadpoles.  So after a trip to Walmart to buy some supplies we are now the proud owners of two frog egg sacs.  We are going to take them into school tomorrow to show his class and then we will wait and watch and *hopefully* some of these eggs will turn into tadpoles.  

As luck would have it, I just purchases the book Life Cycle of a Frog by Ruth Thompson so I am thinking of a way to share these in the media center - not sure yet what I will do, but how often do I have the chance to bring some

 science into the media center.

James looking for the eggs

egg sac in the murky water

Just had to say...

GO PATRIOTS!!!!!

Can Brady do it and go 19-0?  Lets hope so!  I am going to a party with mostly Giants fans - even my HUSBAND is rooting for the Giants ? oh well, won't they be disappointed at games end :) But I did make a FABULOUS stromboli to take with us to the party,  it is a pizza dough filled with capicola (italian ham), salami, deli pepperoni, provolone cheese and roasted red peppers - and served with some good marinara sauce - YUM!

Before the game I am off to get ready for Mo Week (as in Mo Willems) in my media center - more info. on my Mo week activities to come tomorrow!