Grand Finale's

One of the things I love about my first grader is the way she comes home every day, comes straight to me and unloads her backpack of important papers that she is supposed to give her mom.  I don't know when it began but she started doing her grand finale each day which was whatever she deemed the most cool thing in her backpack.  

One day it was this hat for her Three Billy Goats Gruff play that week.  

Here's a video of another day and the grand finale.  

More grand finale's were:

I've realized that each day when she comes home, I get very excited to see what the Grand Finale is going to be.  Sometimes it's a 100% on spelling test, or an art project, or the tootsie roll from the treat jar.  I love it just as much as her.

Jump bands

Ever heard of this unique type of jump rope system called Jump Bands.  They can be purchased at the following website and make "Jump Rope for Heart" a real event.  While these images only show a few students, you can get whole class jumping in overlapping star shaped formation for a great team building experience.

http://www.gophersport.com/products/item_detail.cfm?item_id=582&cat_id=144&tree_id=920

Motherhood

"Motherhood is about raising and celebrating the child you have, not the child you thought you would have. It's about understanding that he is exactly the person he is supposed to be. And that, if you're lucky, he just might be the teacher who turns you into the person you are supposed to be." 

Joan Ryan, "The Water Giver".

Toddler Computer Skills

My parents recently came to town and couldn't believe that my two year old, Louis could maneuver his way around our laptop with ease.  Here he is enjoying one of his favorite websites.  

Other websites my kids like lately are:  www.friv.com.  Try to find the Where's my Blankie game and also the roller coaster one.  They are hilarious.

The little ones also like www.sesamestreet.org games.  There is a toddler section with sing a long songs that are great!  

Imprints

No....I'm not talking about Jacob and Renesme.  I'm talking about finding that perfect publisher for a good story.  Each one with their own audience, type of book published and submission guidelines.


Here are some examples of children's and YA imprints, by publisher.*

Macmillan - includes FSG, St. Martins, Bloomsbury/Walker, Feiwel&Friends, Holt, Roaring Brook, Tor among others


Penguin - includes Dial, Dutton, Putnam, Viking, Razorbill, Puffin, among others


HarperCollins - includes HarperTeen, Katherine Tegan Books, Rayo, Balzer&Bray, among others


Random House - Knopf, Bantam/Delacorte/Dell, Schwartz&Wade, Wendy Lamb Books, RH Kids, among others


Simon & Schuster - Atheneum, McElderry, Little Simon, Beach Lane, Pulse, among others.


Scholastic - AAL, Scholastic Press, Orchard, among others. 

Then there are places that I consider "one-and-done", where the editors seem to work together more and don't really have significant divisions, including Candlewick, Chronicle,Egmont, Hyperion, Little Brown, Flux, Sterling,Sourcebooks etc. They might have different lines for different types of books (like Sourcebooks Fire YA line, Little Brown's Poppy line or Candlewick Sparks early readers) but those don't quite constitute their own departments with their own dedicated staff.

http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2011/02/crafting-editor-submission-list.html