It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world

Now that the stress of TAKS is over, we can forget all about academic instruction for the last month.

OK, not REALLY. But with testing done, we have already been tasked to start decorating our hallway for this year's International Festival which will happen later this month.

This year, the countries we are representing are Mexico, Spain, Canada, and England. Mexico is not tough. We have a TON of kids who are either from Mexico themselves or whose parents are from there. There should be no shortage of decorative ideas to represent Mexico.

But I throw it out there to my readers for any ideas as to how to represent the other countries on our list. Flags are always easy. Coloring book pictures of Dudley Do-right for Canada? Big Maple Leafs? Crooked teeth for England? (I kid, of course.)

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think my kids should put up out in the hallway to represent these countries.

Egg rolls and Lucky Charms

My school always has an International Festival in late may, partially as a delayed celebration of Cinco de Mayo and partially as a way of acknowledging that our kids come from.a wide array of nations.

Typically, each grade will choose two countries to represent at the festival. The kids then decorate the halls with those countries as their theme, we get parents to bring food that is representative of those countries, and sometimes we have kids dress in traditional attire during a fashion show.

This year, 3rd grade has selected China and Ireland as the countries. We've done China in the past, so that is nothing new to us. We have depicted the Great Wall on our hallway wall, we've put Chinese symbols around the classrooms, we've hung paper lanterns from the ceiling, and we've made fireworks posters with glue and glitter. Oh, and dragons, we've got dragons.

We've never done Ireland before, though. And though I'm part Irish myself, I really don't know what would be considered Irish food, not counting Lucky Charms. And potatoes are too generic.

So I throw it out to the audience for suggestions. Can any of you suggest some sort of food that is traditionally Irish? Or some sort of craft that would represent Ireland? I mean, we are already gearing up for shamrocks, leprachauns, and pots o' gold, me wee laddies, but can you think of anything that Ireland has given to the world? Like, Hey, it was an Irish guy who invented the picture frame!

BTW, alcohol doesn't count. We will NOT (because we CAN not) be bringing Bailey's or Guiness to school.

I'm thinking I might just go around getting really really mad at the kids every day and telling them it's my Irish temper flaring.

May fortune smile upon you

My school is hosting the annual International Festival tomorrow evening. Since there are so many different cultures represented at my school, the entire building is decorated with posters, facts, article of clothing, etc. about the many various countries that our students are from.

Every grade level is assigned a country or two, to use as a decorating theme for their hallway. This year, third grade has the country of China. So our hallway is festooned with construction paper lanterns, glue and glitter fireworks, fans, dragons, pictures and drawings of the Great Wall of China, etc.

Today, I had the idea that I would have my kids write fortunes, of the sort you would find in fortune cookies, on large slips of paper, and that we could put the good ones out in the hallway. As you might expect, I got some interesting responses.

Lump wrote, "Be a police when you grow up." -- Hey, at least he participated. A quick update: though certainly not a model student, Lump has remained manageable since last Friday's "breakthrough." Ironically, he hasn't played football with me since then, but he also hasn't made noises or played around in class. He doesn't really do the work in class with us, but any time he looks like he's about to start causing trouble, I go over and ask if he'd like to do some more 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication problems. He eats those up like Scooby Doo with Scooby Snacks.

Here are some other "fortunes" by the kids:

When your happy your mom is happy.

You are going to the chocolate factory.

Some people are smart like in Dallas, Texas.

If you swim like a fish you will be a fish like a different one like Pinocchio.

One day you will get married and then have a divorce.

Everyone goes through a lot of phrases.

The man with a woman can live.

If you study and study you will become gooder in school.

A man with a house does not need another house to give to his children when they are eight years old.

You will get a lot of money when you are 13 years old.

They say emnesia isn't a word, well here are your lucky numbers 4,8,12,9,6,2,1.

If you eat a fortune cookie and read this paper you will become smarter.

Definitely some pearls of wisdom in there. As well as some opals of confusion, some topaz of oddity, and some amethysts of what the hell??