Anne of Green Gables

Exhibit

Anne Exhibit

Recently, while house-cleaning, the mother of one of our students came upon a lovely souvenir plate from Staffordshire, England.  Since it depicted the famous Green Gables house, she sent it to the school and I was promptly urged to create an “Anne of Green Gables” display for the showcase in the front hall of our school.  During noon hour, I found several Anne picture books, the original series and even an Anne doll.  Before the bell rang in the afternoon, several little girls were already gathered around, eyeing my little exhibit.

How many generations of girls have grown up loving the delightful, red-haired, chattery orphan girl adopted by Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert?  In my childhood, I missed out on the charming Anne.   Our school copies of L. M. Montgomery’s novels were somewhat tattered and worn by the time I was introduced to them.  I clearly recall my sister Linda showing me “Anne of Windy Poplars” one summer and urging me to read it.  “It’s a really good book!”  Unfortunately, I was deprived of Anne’s escapades, since I “judged the book by its cover.”

Read Aloud

Several years ago, when we were still in our old school, I read a condensed version to my primary class.  My students were totally engrossed in the story-line.  They laughed at Anne’s childish capers, grumbled about Marilla’s stern ways and mourned Matthew’s passing.  The latter is especially memorable for me.  I was reading them the sad chapter of Matthew passing away, at the end of the day.  The atmosphere in my classroom was not unlike that of a funeral.  When the chapter ended, my students somberly got up and walked to the hallway to put on their boots and coats.  The older students were also there, getting ready to go home.  One of the little girls in my classroom sadly shared the news, “Matthew passed away,” in the same tone she would have used, had a favourite uncle died.

“Matthew? What colony is he from?” an older student questioned.

“Not from a colony, from Anne of Green Gables,” my student soberly replied.

“Oh,” came the response with the wave of an uncaring hand. “That’s not so bad then.”

Clearly he had not been introduced to “Anne of Green Gables” yet.

I’ve since listened to the entire series while scrap-booking and thoroughly enjoyed every word of it.  I’ve read this book to other classes and showed them the movie and plan to introduce our current generation of students to our 'Anne with an “e”.'  

Annette Shirley

Annette Shirley

And I especially look forward to introducing "Anne of Green Gables" to my two- year-old niece, our very own red-headed Annette Shirley.

Bitten

The excitement and gleams in their eyes tells me that the girls in front of our show case are already feeling the itch of the “Anne” bug.  Actually, one copy of our books has already found its way into the book bag of one of the girls. 

Back-to-School Prep

 I'm sure most teachers will agree that back to school preparations, what with unit planning, familiarizing ourselves with new curricula, creating school plans, etc. can be a rather arduous and time consuming undertaking.  Still, there are some of us who add several other projects to our prep work, not necessarily because everything else is already completed or that we want our school year to run smoother.  Rather, we like feeding our creative streak and adding a bit more spark to the upcoming year be it for ourselves, out colleagues or students.   Below are some of the projest I indulged in, just because...

Chair Bags

Not sure why I'm not able to rotate this picture, but I trust you get it.

For years now I’ve provided chair bags for my students so that each of them can have several books on hand for whenever they finish their work early or arrive early.  Actually, I think a student said it best.  Once a school visitor asked about the bags and the student replied, “This is where we keep our books and when Elma answers the phone, we get to read.”  In short, whenever they have down time, there’s always a book or two on hand.

Earlier this year, a fellow Night Writer, after reading my sister Linda's newly published book "Hutterite Diaries", asked us if we would like fabric pieces for future quilting projects.  Of course we accepted them and he presented us with almost a dozen "books" of fabric samples from perhaps a drapery store.  So, the prints of this year's set of chair bags will be as varied as the personalities of the students that will use them: floral, checks, solids, bold and bright...  Since I made an extra one, each students will have a choice. 

 

Birthday Gifts

 

Many teachers present their students with a gift when their birthdays roll around.  Some bake cupcakes once a month to celebrate all  the birthdays happening in that month, while others present books or other small gifts.  For this year’s birthdays, I found something that’s all about the presentation: unique birthday smoothies!  I found the idea at: Monday Made It and decided to add my own twist to it with the items I selected to include in it: stickers, eraser, sharpener small writing tablet, balloon, candy, birthday bracelet.  To add the bubbles on top, I added a handful of Easter grass.  For the straw, I inserted a fancy birthday pencil.    I don’t think the total cost per gift was more than $2.00, but I’m sure my students will love them!

Gifts for Teachers

Typically each year, I leave a back to school gift on the desk each teacher at my school and also some of my teacher friends at other schools.  This year it’s several small items and each comes with a special message:

Sharpie, Marker or Highlighter sets

Fourth & Ten  gets the credit for this idea,

  Prescription

Thanks to Little Priorities for this cute idea. She used M&Ms but I used Smarties.  Teachers are smart people, right?  This is prescribed to ease various teacherish symptoms from curriculum overload to headaches to fatigue and more.

 

 

 

 

 Box of Rubber Bands

At our semi-annual back to school I was presented with several boxes of elastics – something all teachers use almost as regularly as the school bell.   I decided to add the following quote to each box: "Blessed are the flexible, for the will not be bent out of shape,"

 

  Cleaning Cloths

Of course, nothing says 'a new school year' like a newly serged set of cleaning cloths and towels!

May YOUR school year be bookish and bright, celebratory and sparkly!

What's part of your school year prep routine just because" ?