Back to School Supply Slice

Tuesday's Slice at Two Writing Teachers

Thanks to Stacey and Ruth for hosting

The Sunday papers were flooded with ads!  I always scour them to find the best deals for back to school supplies.  I always dig into my own pocket to purchase my favorite things so I know I'll have just what I need.  So I have two questions:  do you dig into your own pocket to purchase supplies you need as a teacher?  And if so, what is your spending range?

Currently, in my district, we get a small supply allowance.  I usually tap that first.  I buy a jump-drive for storing documents from the computer, and some other things that I know we use regularly.   My favorite items to purchase are dry erase markers, composition notebooks and crayons.

This year, I'm smiling as I am thinking about all the crayons!  There's a cute new picture book out by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers called The Day the Crayons Quit.

It's made it on the NY Times Best Seller list!  It's all about how crayons have feelings too!  They write letters to the main character, Duncan and address their concerns about how he's been using them and what they're always responsible for coloring.  Check out Oliver's website for other pictures from the book...you'll never think the same of the crayons again. http://www.oliverjeffers.com/picture-books/the-day-the-crayons-quit
I was thinking of some other supplies that might quit their jobs... the eraser or the stapler come to mind for me. It's all about their point of view.  What school supplies do you think might quit their jobs?

Frog's First Interview

Today's quick write-courtesy of Jo Knowles-from Teachers Write

Hello there friends.  I am Fred the frog...I am green and slimy with 4 legs.  A funny thing about my legs, they've stretched and grown.  Soon after I hatched from my egg, I had a tail and no legs and I swam through the water like a fish.  Then my back legs grew out.  Before I knew it, I had front legs too and could hop onto the land nearby instead of only living in Carol Pond.  On top of all this growing excitement, I also lost my tail!  Who knew?

So now, my favorite place to hang out is in the small hole in the garden. I dug it out to keep cool during the hot summer days.  I slowly creep out on hot summer evenings to hunt for my dinner of bugs.  I don't like sharing my corner of the garden with anyone else, I love to keep all the bugs for me...

Here's some news about my family!  When I was first born, I had lots of brothers and sisters.  We all hung out as  small black eggs together in the water connected to the roots of the lily pads.  After we hatched, I got to spend lots of time swimming with the family in the water of the pond.  Sadly, some of my siblings (my brothers and sisters) were eaten by fish, like Koi or birds, like Blue Heron or Hawks.  I don't see my family much now that we've left the pond.  We all went our separate ways.

I'm going to tell you about my favorite part of me-my tongue!  I love how I can stretch it out and use it to catch my prey, like beetles, flies and ants.  I want to fill my belly with good things to eat.  The least favorite thing about me is my skin.  People stare at my skin and comment about its ugliness when they see me.  That makes me feel sad sometimes.

My biggest pet peeve is the myth that people always blurt when they see me and try to pick me up-I'm going to pee on their hand and give them warts.  This is completely untrue.  I think that mommies made this up so their kids wouldn't pick up frogs.  However, I do have warts on my skin that can pass along bad bacteria to people-so you might not want to touch me after all.

The thing that I am most afraid of are birds.  I don't like birds for two reasons.  One reason is they can be big enough to swoop down out of the sky and eat me.  The other reason I don't like them is because the smaller birds swoop into my garden and eat the bugs I was spying on for dinner.

So now that you know a little bit about me, how about telling a little bit about you?