Celebrating The Little Things

    Thanks to Ruth  at Discover.Play.Build, Ruth Ayres Writes for creating a place for everyone to share their celebrations. 

                  It's a week of sweetest 'little things', some already shared on this blog, on Facebook or Twitter, but still it's a pleasure to remind myself that those 'Little Things Mean A Lot', as an old song says.  

*On Monday, the ALA Youth Media awards were announced, and my Newbery club celebrated our own vote along with the official vote of the committee.  What an exciting morning!

          

*We awoke Tuesday to hear of the death of Pete Seeger, and since then, music has been much on everyone's mind.  Posts on blogs and Facebook along with tweets have celebrated his life of songs that touched and influenced so many in his life.  I remember more than one time seeing him in a small concert place in Denver with my family, my kids loving seeing him after hearing and learning his songs while growing up.  Among them, one I've always loved and shared with students, this song, one for females of all ages.  Written by his sister Peggy, and made popular by Pete, it speaks to me still:

I'M GONNA BE AN ENGINEER
When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy
I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys.
Everybody said I only did it to annoy
But I was gonna be an engineer.

Mamma said, "Why can't you be a lady?
Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
Wait until you're older, dear
And maybe you'll be glad that you're a girl.

Dainty as a Dresden statue, gentle as a Jersey cow,
Smooth as silk, gives cream and milk
Learn to coo, learn to moo
That's what you do to be a lady, now.

                The rest is here!

And you can watch Pete sing it here!

And then, I just read a new picture book that many are talking about, here in 2014, titled Rosie Revere, Engineer, written by Andrea Beaty & illustrated by David Roberts.  It's a great book, Pete would have loved it.

*Wednesday--I took an unusual mid-weekday off, a few appointments, including a dental check-up!  My dentist happens to be the dentist for the Broncos, so I had my picture taken with a star, well, a virtual star!  What fun that staff is having with all the Super Bowl mania here.  Go Broncos! (had to say!) 

*Thursday--I finished my book group that read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.  What a wonderful group of students they were, loving the story, groping with the underlying meaning of Babbitt's beautiful words.  This I will remember from one student: "It's like that artist guy, you know, the one who did his paintings with the little dots and when you put all the dots together, you can then see the whole picture.  That's what reading this book is like, finding all those little dots till finally we get to the big picture."

*Friday--Snow began the night before and I woke to snow.  Here is what I saw on the way to the car! It is those 'little' things-this time, bunnies!

And here is what we were all greeted with at school, mid-morning!  Every year a primary class parades through the school ridding us of all the bad, welcoming the new!

Gung Hay Fat Choy - Happy Lunar New Year everyone!