On classroom decorations and caramel floats

I spent today working in my classroom. The week before school often brings a dizzying mix of grandiose planning and practical abandonment. "My classroom will be the most beautiful classroom ever," I think at the start of the week. By midweek, as I have sorted boxes and boxes of books (and culled the classroom library so the books will actually fit on the shelves!), my ambitions are less grand: "I want to have a classroom that does not have every inch of space covered by boxes and random debris."

In the last few weeks of summer, I've been working on creating some new reading packets. In my house we've been listening to Harry Potter on CD this summer, which has led us to trying out some different butterbeer recipes. I decided that a fun kids drink would be a good procedural text, so my sons and I experimented with a caramel apple float.

We were trying to get the taste of a caramel apple without the stickiness--our recipe turned out pretty well! And, of course, I was able to turn the whole thing into a procedural text that kids might enjoy.

Tomorrow--more work on my classroom! I will probably change my theme from "Under the Sea" to "This Is A Classroom Where People Learn". And there aren't boxes everywhere.