Searching for the Truth and Uncovering the Lie!

Whoa. That sounds rather ominous!

Thankfully, this all relates back to the fun link-up at Flying into First Grade...

Here were your options:

Statement 1: While working for the Hawaii Department of Education, I got lost in a sugar cane field with my co-presenter somewhere in the vicinity of the school where we were assigned to work. We drove through rows and rows of cane plants (which poked into our windows and nearly damaged the car) for over an hour and narrowly missed having the workshop canceled on our behalf... Or...

Statement 2: As a seventeen year old employed at a doughnut shop, I misread the directions while making raised dough (such as that used for glazed doughnuts). As a result, once I mixed the warm water and dry ingredients, the dough rose out of the mixer, filled first one large trash can, then two, and then nearly half of the dumpster in the parking lot behind the shop... Or...

Statement 3: During my first year of teaching, I was on duty as the recess supervisor when three large dogs from the house across the street broke free from their backyard and found their way onto the school playground. Hundreds of children watched amused and/or horrified as I ran back and forth across the playground, among four square, hopscotch and tether ball games, trying to catch and capture the furry friends with only the help of my whistle and a commandeered jump rope...

Hmmmmm. Are you still wondering? Which ones ARE true? And which is completely made-up?

 

Statement #1... True story! I thought I would be lost forever in that sugar cane field in Hawaii! Fortunately, the native Hawaiians were so sweet and friendly that once we finally DID arrive, they gave us some food and some juice and made us feel like everyone, positively everyone gets lost trying to find their training location.... I am chuckling now remembering that is was a rather large white building that we managed to miss...

Statement #2... True story! It was the one time in my life I thought I was actually living an episode of I Love Lucy! It was only my second job (if you don't count babysitting), and I was panicked. I am still paranoid about fractions, because clearly I read some part of that recipe incorrectly. I do remember securing the assistance of some rather cute box boys from the grocery store in the same parking lot. We hauled the dough out in big plastic trash cans (which were surprisingly heavy) and tipped them into the dumpster. And, yes, I admit that I drove by the next morning to determine that the dough was not oozing out of the dumpster like the blob that ate the doughnut shop (Good movie plot, though!)

Statement #3... Ah, there's the falsehood. Here's the TRUTH on this one: I am afraid of most dogs (although probably not Sydney or Murphie or Missy Squirrel's dog, Truman, who could probably fit into her chicken purse). I have a very bad feeling that if there WERE three large dogs (or medium dogs) (or, quite possibly, rather small dogs) loose on the playground, I might cry. Or I might say, "Oh My Golly! There are three large dogs loose on the playground... Somebody DO something!" Or, most likely, I would run up to a few of my sixth graders and say: "Look. Help me out here. I'll give you all homework passes if you can PLEASE help me out with the dog situation..."

Of my many (okay, nine) respondents, two people guessed correctly. Tamara and Nancy: Check your e-mail for a Starbucks treat! And, if/when I start my own CSI outfit, I want you to be on MY team!

Here's more news: Tomorrow, the Easter Bunny Freebie Trail is dropping by my blog! YIPPEE! I loved being a part of TBA's Bunny Hop last year. (I felt very "grown up" about it, for some reason. It was my first ever HOP!). And now the bunnies have hidden something special for you AGAIN!

So be SURE you hop by tomorrow and find a FREEBIE.

And don't forget to link up with LaToya at Fluttering through First.
Finally, don't you just LOVE all of these Ashley Hughes graphics? I left the link to her TpT store below. Such happy stuff! (And my numbers are from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah! Click on the Zip to get there!)

See you tomorrow... PEEPS!

Artwork by Ashley Hughes on TpT

Fun fonts by Jen Jones at Hello Literacy and on TpT

I Might Be Telling the Truth...

Hello My Bloggy Dears! I have missed you!

I'd like to say that I had sailed solo to Tahiti, or built a three story room addition or won the lottery, but, alas, no. I've just been overwhelmed by the craziness of being a sixth grade teacher when Spring Break and state testing are simply too close together!

Testing is only three weeks away, but all we can think about is S-P-R-I-N-G---B-R-E-A-K!

As a testimony to the state of mental exhaustion that has overtaken us, I misspelled "Spring Break" three times trying to type it in that last sentence. At least I caught my error before suggesting that I was waiting anxiously for Sping Break or Spring Beak.

In an effort to ease back into blogging, I am joining up with LaToya Reed at Flying into First Grade! I am already a week behind, so I have to jump in quickly before this link "expires," and then catch up on the new activity.

Week One's assignment {well THAT makes me chuckle} is to present the readers with two truths and a lie--and to leave you guessing (at least for a little while) which facts are true and which fact is untrue.

Ooooohhhh. I do like the sound of this! I've done this activity with my sixth graders in the past and we had a lot of fun. As I recall, they needed two sets of reminders. First reminder: There is a difference between "personal" meaning "about you" and "private" meaning "your parents won't be happy if they found out you shared this information with thirty-five of your closest friends." Sixth graders tend to blur those lines with some regularity.

Second reminder: The "lie" should be not be obvious. I remember students writing things like: "I won a million dollars yesterday" or "I stole three cheeseburgers and three hundred dollars at McDonald's last night" (So often, their world revolves around food, money, sports and video games!) Telling an almost-truth about themselves was not quite as easy for them to do! (Not to mention the importance of reminding them that this is a game and they are not supposed to be lying in the first place--especially if you are the one who stole my purple pen or broke that last roll of "boo boo tape"...) If you do try this activity with "bigger kids," these reminders might be helpful in the set-up of the game...

So, back to lying about myself...

Font from Hello Literacy... Chevron paper from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs (see button at the end of the post)

Can you guess which two statements are true and which one is completely-falsified-so-that-I-could-include-it-here-for-the-sake-of-this-game? So...

Statement 1: While working for the Hawaii Department of Education, I got lost in a sugar cane field with my co-presenter somewhere in the vicinity of the school where we were assigned to work. We drove through rows and rows of cane plants (which poked into our windows and nearly damaged the car) for over an hour and narrowly missed having the workshop canceled on our behalf... Or...

Statement 2: As a seventeen year old employed at a doughnut shop, I misread the directions while making raised dough (such as that used for glazed doughnuts). As a result, once I mixed the warm water and dry ingredients, the dough rose out of the mixer, filled first one large trash can, then two, and then nearly half of the dumpster in the parking lot behind the shop... Or...

Statement 3: During my first year of teaching, I was on duty as the recess supervisor when three large dogs from the house across the street broke free from their backyard and found their way onto the school playground. Hundreds of children watched amused and/or horrified as I ran back and forth across the playground, among four square, hopscotch and tether ball games, trying to catch and capture the furry friends with only the help of my whistle and a commandeered jump rope...

Hmmmmm. Are you left wondering? Which ones ARE true? And which is completely made-up?

Thanks for checking in today! I hope that you will stop by Flying Into First Grade and learn some fun facts about some of your other friends in the Blog-O-Sphere. Just click on the colorful button above. And if you're not in the mood for scrolling upward, I added another copy of the link below!

The next time I link up with LaToya, I'll tell you the answer to my challenge. But for a bit of fun, you could leave a comment and let me know which fact you think simply cannot be true.

And just to make it a little more exciting... I have a little treat for you if you guess correctly correctly. I'll let you know Wednesday night (3/27/13) if your sleuthing capabilities have led you to the truth!

If you are on break this week, I am wishing you a delightful mix of fun and relaxation. If you're still waiting (like me!), I am wishing you patience and perseverance. And if your break is a thing of the past, I am wishing you a chance to reflect on the best-of-the-best moments of your time away from school...

The sweet fonts in my graphics are from Jen Jones-Hello Literacy at TpT and at her blog and the nifty chevron digital paper and the oh-so-cool numbers are from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah on TpT! (Click the buttons or the links to see great stuff!)