Category Archives holidays

Tuesday Tales – Chanukah Book Edition

Tuesday Tales

Even before I had kids, I liked to collect picture books about the Jewish holidays. I would use them in the classroom and knew that one day I would have them for my children. For years my collection of books was rather sparse. Thankfully, these days more and more authors are creating,  and  publishers are printing books about holidays like Chanukah, Passover, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and beyond.

The selection of Chanukah books is much, much smaller than those available for Christmas this time of year. Still, there are so many more Chanukah books compared to when I was a child. While quickly searching around the book case in NHL and JSL’s room, I found the following Chanukah books. These include board books, along with soft and hard cover books that we have received and/or purchased in the past.

Some of our Chanukah Books

Board books:

  • Eight Nights of Chanukah Lights – Dian Curtis Regan
  • Where Is Baby’s Dreidel – Karen Katz
  • Hanukkah Lights – Ben Lakner
  • Rainbow Candles – A Hanukkah Counting Book – Myra Shostak

Hard and Soft cover books:

  • Chanukah Lights Everywhere – Melissa Iwai
  • Happy Hanukkah, Biscuit! – Alyssa Satin Capucilli
  • Mrs. Greenberg’s Messy Hanukkah – Linda Glaser
  • D is For Dreidel – A Hanukkah Alphabet Book – Tanya Lee Stone
  • It’s a Miracle – A Hanukkah Storybook – Stephanie Spinner

Of course, we also have some new books that will be added to our collection at the start of Chanukah when we light our candles on December 1. Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert came from the PJ Library. I bought Eight Wild Nights – A Family Hanukkah Tale by Brian P. Cleary and Hoppy Hanukkah! by Linda Glaser from a Scholastic Book Club flyer sent home from school.

New for Chanukah 2010

I know we have many others, but I wanted to share some of our Chanukah book collection with everyone. Whether you are Jewish or not, it is a great idea to expose your children to other traditions.

So what have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Tuesday Tales and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books. 

TheAngelForever

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School projects

When I was teaching, I was a pro at  assigning projects to my students. I had a lot of fun coming up with new and creative ways for my kids to do things like book reports and science projects. Of course, the flip side of these items was correcting them. I spent countless hours creating rubrics with my grading policies, expectations for each section, and more. Once the items came in, as exciting as it was to see the creativity of my students, it also meant a lot of work correcting/grading them. Not simply slapping a grade on them, but writing comments as to why points were deducted per the rubric and beyond. In the end, it was well worth it. Of course, I did have complaints about some of my projects. The calls, e-mails, and personal visits happened many times. Most of the time, things ended well and everyone was happy.

Now I am getting a taste of life as a parent helping with projects for my own boys. NHL has had a few of them here and there, he is a second grader after all. On Tuesday, JSL (3) came home with his first ever school assignment from nursery school. I smiled as I watched the little guy get so excited that he had homework. I read the note that was on a large sheet of construction paper:

Dear Parents,

In conjunction with the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving, we will be focusing on our families.

Your homework is to depict what your family enjoys doing together. Use pictures, stickers, etc.

Homework is due Friday, Nov. 12th.

Have fun,

JSL’s Teachers

So, JSL has been talking non-stop about doing his homework (I need to record this excitement to use for when he gets older). Thursday, he helped me to pick out some photos. We went to CVS and had them printed out. Then we sat down on the floor to arrange them on the paper. He helped me to glue them on (had special photo glue I was testing), and then added fun stickers of his choice from my collection. Here is the final result:

JSL's First project for school

So my question for you this week:

If you have children, what has your favorite project been that they have brought home? If you do not have kids, or they are too little, what was your favorite as a child?

TheAngelForever

P.S. Be sure to stop by and enter my Mastermind Game giveaway and TechyDad’s Mastermind Animal Tower giveaway.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An<br<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
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Island<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
Life

Aloha #125

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Thank you to our Veterans

A big thank you to all of the Veterans past, present, and future. Your dedication to protecting our country is recognized not only today, but each day with the many freedoms that we enjoy.

Flag by jcolman on Flickr

This gorgeous photo of your flag was taken by Jonathon Colman and can be found on his Flickr account. I felt his photo captured the essence of this day.

Please take a moment to thank any veterans that you know. If you would like to honor them here, the comment section would be a great place to share a little something about what they have done for you and our country.

TheAngelForever

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2010 Halloween Memories

This year, the boys had a lot of fun doing different things for Halloween. After being sick last year, anything was a huge improvement. Friday night, we went to NHL’s school for a party. The boys had a great time playing games, seeing people, and making some goodies.

Saturday, it was time to carve our first family pumpkin. Little did I know, it was also the first EVER pumpkin that TechyDad had carved. I was floored since I had so many memories of carving pumpkins with my family when I was little. Here are a few photos about this experience. TechyDad wrote more about it on his blog today.

Pumpkin Carving

On Halloween, we took the boys to the mall for a short time to get some trick-or-treating done. Thanks to the weather, we were not sure how much we would all want to do outside. The boys had fun, but were getting tired from walking in the crowds.

Taking a quick rest

After this, we went back home and then to Nana and Papa’s house. We stayed there to play for a little while and then went to a few of their neighbors before heading back home to see some people here.

Trick-or-Treating Time

Then, it was time to head back into the warmer house, take costumes off, eat dinner, and wait for a few trick-or-treaters to come. Before we knew it, we turned out lights off and called it a night. Lots of memories made and two very happy little boys.

TheAngelForever

P.S. This is also serving as my entry in the SITs Girls Halloween Giveaway. Thanks for the fun ladies!

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