Something of My Own to Go Home With

It's time to slip back into my envelope and fly home, but that's ok, because I have something of my own to go home with.

Dillon, be prepared.

Here's a hint:

I love clover.
I love oats.
I love running through the meadow.
I love splashing through the creek.
I love the wind through my hair.
I love when my four feet pound the dirt and stir up the dust to show my speed.
I love to flick my tale at the flies that bother me.
I am fiesty, but with kind eyes like Pooka.
I am glad I have a new friend, Flat George to care for me.
We are best friends.

I am Flat Pinto Fred. See you soon!

Work in Class

Yes. I have to do school work with the kids. I don't get to loaf around. I tried to say I was too little for grades six, seven, and eight, but Gramma says she adapts the assignment for what the students need and she says I need practice with description.  I have to elaborate my ideas with images that create "mind movies" in the reader's mind. Boy, have you heard that? Me too. All teachers say that about writing.

All I said was, "I'm hungry for ice cream."

Gramma said to write about it.

I wrote, "I want ice cream."

"Elaborate," Ms Edwards said. "Describe it -- describe what you like about it."

"It tastes good," I replied.

"Describe what it looks or feels like."

I could tell I needed to do more or I probably would have to stay in at lunch for study hall.

Here I am at my own desk:

Since I couldn't really see and Ms Edwards had to constantly kneel to help me, I was able to sit on top of a desk.

By this time, everyone else was reading in their own books. But I had to write my elaborated description. Since I didn't bring a book to class, Gramma (Ms Edwards) suggested I finish my ice cream description.

Here it is -- just click the image to make it bigger.

Ha!  I got a 4 for "descriptive imagery." How about that !

This has been a great day.  The only thing better would be if I had a horse of my very own to ride.

Eagles at Work

The school's mascot is the eagles. Here I am with two of the eagles around their school:

The first eagle is bronze and was donated to the school by the Friedlander family. It sits in the office.

The second is a golden eagle donated to the school by Monte Joseph, a descendent of Chief Joseph. His brother, Andrew, is currently a Colville Tribal Councilman and a School Board Director. Did you know that only Native Americans can possess eagles or eagle feathers? Eagles are part of their culture and traditions. Monte was a marine and attends every Veterans Day Assembly at our school. When his name was chosen to obtain an eagle that had died, he decided to donate it to our school.

I didn't attend this, but some of the students went on an eagle watching trip. Lots of bald eagles live here. Grampa is always taking pictures of them.

 This is an eagle if it works.

One of Grampa's photos

And the drum:

Next, I helped with chalk drawings on the side walk. Have you created any chalk drawings today?

Then I saw the water bottle volcanoes for second grade.

Here's another version.

When I get home, Dillon, we just have to make some!  Please????????

Then I attended culture class. I wanted to play lacrosse, a traditional Native American game, but we were learning the history of the horse instead.

Ever since the rodeo with grampa, I've loved horses.  Wouldn't it be fun to have your own horse, like many of the kids here have?

Time to go to the main building again.  If you look east, you can see the town.

Here's the scene from the north. Lots of places to ride four-wheelers, dirt bikes, and my favorite, horses.

In the staff room, I discovered the candy box, a place for staff to buy candy to support a scholarship.

My favorite: M and Ms.

Time to get back to class with Ms Edwards.

By the way, the animated gif is from Animation Factory.  Gramma says I have to cite my sources if I use other people's work, and I have to have permission to use it.  Gramma purchased this years ago when she was still creating web pages in Claris Home Page. Most people don't remember that anymore. She's old.

Big and End of Big

We went for a walk to a spot your grampa likes. He put me into his iPad, which is quite comfortable because I'm flat.
These towers hold up huge electrical lines that carry the power from Grand Coulee Dam to Lake Stevens and other parts of the state. The towers are taller than a football field is long. Really big.
And it seems pretty funny that your grampa sits in a place so full of really big stuff, like these towers and the dam, to read this book on his iPad Mini.
Personally, I thought it had a pretty catchy title.

Way, way up here

Dillon, we went to a spot called Crown Point high above the little town of Coulee Dam where your gramma and grampa live. It was awesome. You should go there and find geocaches.

World travelers

We got to go to a park to meet a bunch of kids from all over the world. They were in Grand Coulee with something called the Rotary Exchange. There were 35 kids from 18 different countries in Asia, South America and Europe.
All of them were very nice and seemed just like kids here. The all spoke English, as well as their own language. Many of them said they've been away from home long enough that it is getting to be hard to remember how to speak their own language! They've all been living in the United States and Canada form almost a year and it is nearly time for them to go home.

I talked them into all posing with me for this photo.

Rest

In the coulee, when the world gets frenzied, there is only one thing to do: head to the beach.

Then, of course, Gramma take pictures. Of everything.  Here's Pooka swimming. Then Gramma uses the pictures for her photography group.  This week's topic was black and white, so this picture became this picture:

She used an app called Etchings on her phone. You could get it on your iPad too.

Rodeo crazies

Scott took me to the rodeo.
Those men all just jumped up on the fence because that bull is mad and they don't want to end up flat like me.

Parade and Dance

Next today is the Colorama Parade. My favorite part was this jeep. Uncle Jake would love this!

After the parade, Pooka could not walk. Her arthritic legs just would not work.  Gramma had to call Grampa to come get them. We had lots of water for Pooka while we waited. Gramma put her chair so her shadow would cover Pooka.

Pooka is fine now. She has new medicine. It is so hard to see our friend grow old. She still has her kind eyes and is so gentle.


The rest of the day, Grampa took me to the rodeo.

At night, we danced in a big tent. I didn't get to go on any carnival rides because I was watching bull riding and stuff like that at the rodeo. You won't believe what happened!

For your information: I am NOT going to ride bulls!  They are wicked strong!

Walk the Dam; Building a School

Hey!  Are you awake, Dill?

I'm up early playing in Gramma's new Lemon Thyme, one of the gifts she received for being an excellent teacher. I love the pinwheel!


Today is a big day.  The community is showing up to help build a school. Our local Rotary club sponsored the walk. When you pay at registration, those funds go right to the school fund. Everything is volunteer help. The race is called Walk the Dam; Building a School.

The schools here are very old with old boilers for heating and leaky roofs.

They don't have anyway to raise money because most of the land is owned by the US Bureau of Reclamation -- the government in charge of the Grand Coulee Dam.  That means the school district can't ask for local taxes, because the land is owned by the government already.

Schools are built with the help of local taxes. Your parents pay taxes on their home so you have a school to attend. But here, there isn't enough "taxable land" so this community doesn't have the funds to build a new school.

So we have been helped by State Senator Linda Evans-Parlette. She recognized the need for help because the government itself owns most of the land, and so they can't be taxed. It seems if the Bureau of Reclamation needs the people who work there to live here, and they need the parts of a town (like grocery stores, police, fire department), then perhaps they should help out by helping with the school.

And the community keeps working to raise as much money as they can. It's an amazing story to help kids!  In 2014, the kids will have a new school here!

And guess what! I got to walk across the dam, which is usually not allowed except in official tours because of the 9-11 attacks. Whoa! This is fun! Do you see Gramma's house across the river? And look at the tiny trucks by the building!  This place is huge, as I've said in my other posts.


Look how far down it is!  Gramma laughed because I did exactly what your Uncle Greg and Uncle Jake did when they used to walk over the dam when they were in junior high. We spit over the dam to watch it fall!  One time Uncle Jake spit over the edge but it was so windy the spit blew back and hit Uncle Greg!   Ha. It was a perfect day though, so I didn't get whacked by my own spit!

And here's a panarama view. On the right is where we started, and on the left is where we are headed, to the other side of the mile wide Grand Coulee Dam.

Do you see the silver part? That is the railing, and it is filled with people's etchings, a history of all the travelers who have visited this wonder of the world.

Here is the huge crane that is used to work on the dam. 

At the end of the race, a bus takes us back to the parking area. On the bus were two teachers from Gramma's school. They brought the Run-Walk Club to the race to support the high school they will attend when they are older. One of the kids found an owl pellet. That's what an owl ate and regurgitated. He is going to dissect it to see what the owl ate, probably a mouse.

How about that!  Next post: Parade and Dance.

Gorilla Day

 I fit perfectly into Gramma's computer bag each day. You can tell I love it. See the smile on my face. This is much better than a baby backpack. I'm an official computer guard !  Any one gets near, and I cry out, "Hey Dude! You know the time?"  That way I can let them know I'm here, watching.







This week is Teacher Week.  Look at what the classified, paraprofessional teachers, gave to Gramma.
Gorilla Glue with her as a gorilla. Very funny. All the teachers were gorillas in different poses, but Gramma's was the only one sunbathing!  Gramma always ways, "Winter Teach. Summer Beach."

It was a fun day of food, food, food.

And, of course, the students reminded me I had to get to work and "Be Productive," by pointing out the poster they had made earlier in the year.  See how  they have to pay attention to "audience" and "purpose?"  I bet you hear that in your classroom too.  So here's my post today. I'm being productive and publishing -- turning it in!  See you tomorrow, another big WALK!

Flat George Teaches

Getting up early is not my thing. I can be grouchy, but Gramma gave me some duties so it wasn't boring coming to school and I cheered up. Here I am making copies. Gramma doesn't make too many copies because her students use Google Apps and blogs. Today, though, they needed some extra directions.



Speaking of directions, I got to show the kids the agenda for the day. Gramma says that as soon as the kids walk in the room they ask, "What are we gonna do today?" So she puts up an agenda, and they settle in. Here's the agenda for three classes:

At lunch time, Gramma had to make phone calls. By the way, at school I am supposed to say, "Ms Edwards." That's what the kids call her. Guess what? She dropped her keys behind the phone desk, which is on wheels, but is still hard to move. So, lucky I'm so flat, I can crawl five miles in a 0.5 inch space. I had four inches here so it was a snap. I even found "Honey's" nerf basketball. Honey is the middle name of one of Gramma's students. Isn't that sweet?

What I am very proud of is the picture I drew following Gramma's art directions.  Gramma thinks kids need art, and there is no art class at this school. So today's assignment was to learn about creating depth in art by reading and looking at images and art that teaches students how to draw foreground, middle ground, and background.  You can read the directions in that link.  After drawing a picture using the strategy, students wrote the directions for how to do it. Since they needed to draw pictures, the students wrote on paper, then we took pictures of the writing, sketches, and drawings and put those on the blog. Here is one that is finished. This class went to camp this week so their blogs aren't finished yet.

You might want to read about their ZITS projects. Did you know zits are not caused by foods? You can learn a lot more on their blogs. They were learning how to choose the main idea and details. The hard part was pulling out a "story" from the nonfiction article. Some of the students were able to change the facts into stories.  All of them needed to use text features (titles, color, fonts, bold, subtitles, images, glossaries, etc.) and text organization (title, introduction, body, conclusion, images, citations). What do you think? You could make a comment on the one you like. Next time, the students will read an article of their own and draw out the story in the nonfiction articles to create their own articles.

Do you blog in your classroom? Could you make a drawing with depth?

Walk, Hike, Food

Here we are on another hike. Pooka is carrying me. For an old dog, she sure is kind. That is the Grand Coulee Dam in front of Pooka. It is not the biggest dam in the world, but it is amazing. That part in front of the lake is one mile long! Wowser!  Next week we get to walk across it on another walk, this won will be to raise money for our new school.

Here's some more information about this dam, which irrigates thousands of acres of land, prevents flooding, and generates electricity for much of Western USA.

Star Visitor's Guide

US Bureau of Reclamation

After a walk like Charlie's we need nourishment and the Siam Palace offered 20% off if we wore our t-shirts from the race, so we did. I was restless by then and started climbing the walls. But you know Gramma, she just had another sip of tea.  Grampa, on the other hand, said I had to behave and climb back down.

Gramma made the picture on her iPhone with an app called Visual Poetry. You can get it on your iPad too.

What did you do to exercise today?

Flat George Walks to Help

Important things happen in this area that kids start. We walked three miles along the river to help Charlie Knight raise money for prevent domestic violence. See me hitching a ride? With my shortness, I would have gotten stomped by all the people helping with this cause.

Charlie is only a senior in high school, but she has quite a story to tell, and a wish to help others. Every senior completes a project, but this one rallied the community to a cause to prevent this problem. You can read Charlie's story here.

Here we are walking the path, which goes right by Ashlyn's gramma's house!

We are the last ones in the race, but we walked the whole three miles. We decided to to talk a drive, and what did we see?





We saw deer!  See just above my head. They are really tiny deer; I hope he doesn't poop on my head.
Just kidding!  I'm in the car and the deer is far away on the hillside.

You can see him again just below my arm. See the deer?

Finally we took Pooka for one of her favorite walks, but she just was so tired she lay down in the grass. It was a fun day and we helped out a lot of people by registering for the Walk To Fight Domestic Violence.

What did you do to help someone today?