This embroidery was done by a machine. 
Jane and Kathie
Almost finished:
Four Seasons Quilt Group
Almost finished:
Author Archives: arletelouise
Almost finished:
ELPAC: Skip-it
ELPAC testing can offer some humorous interactions with students. For one part of the test, I showed a first-grade student a picture of an Angora rabbit, then the student had to read the paragraph all by themselves with zero help from me. The student struggled with the second word for such a long time that I suggested she could skip it. Problem solved! She read the paragraph rather rapidly like this:
“The skip-it skip-it has skip-it that is skip-it skip-it and skip-it. The skip-it skip-it can skip-it up to skip-it skip-it. The skip-it skip-it skip-it be cut skip-it skip-it skip-it. The skip-it can be skip-it to make skip-it, like skip-it and skip-it. This skip-it, skip-it skip-it is skip-it skip-it.”
After she finished, I asked 3 questions to see how well she understood what she’d read.
We worked at Woodlake on Thursday, Valentine’s Day. There was an assembly in the morning, an art teacher (students with paint-covered hands), parties, rain, and a dental hygienist working nearby. Needless to say, we practiced patience and completed very few tests. Smile.
Sports Sunday
While Lenin kept score for Sophia’s game, I watched Carson. Thais went for a run with a group that’s training for an upcoming half marathon.
“Grandma, look!”
“It’s easy to climb up here.”
In memory of
Kim Messner Lux. A classmate of Justin and Thais, a mother of 2 daughters, and has lived in Rio Linda her whole life. So many people came together today to celebrate her life.
So many friends were there, including Lucy Reed (black & white top):
The back room at the American Legion Hall was a bit less crowded.
Tim & Maria, daughter Leslie, Wendy
Many old friends I haven’t seen in quite a while.
Patsy & Bill Berry
Linda McCrackin, Val Sills, me, Tom McCrackin
Chinese New Year
This afternoon, Avery showed me how to make a Chinese lantern like the red one he’d made in school that day. He told me he was born in the Year of the Rabbit, and wrinkled up faced and kind of harumphed, “I wanted to be a dragon” 😦 
He asked me what sign I was – a rat. The look on his face made me think he’d decided his sign could have been worse. From there, he wanted to to learn how to write the Chinese characters for all of his favorite signs, so we looked things up on the laptop, he wrote out the characters, and we practiced saying the words in Chinese (because the computer pronounced it first).
ELPAC testing: week 1
We only started working Thursday, so only 2 days at Babcock Elementary.
The best part is working with Linda and Adrienne.
Birthday party #2
At Tricks Gymnastics. Friends from Carson’s preschool were the main invitees.
Helping out
96 cupcakes and a few sugar cookies today! 48 chocolate for the St Ignatius Super Bowl Party and 48 white/confetti for Carson’s birthday party tomorrow. Thais will frost them. And a few sugar cookies just because.
Behind the curtain
The reveal:
Avery’s turn:
“Grandma, this is the Statue of Liberty.”
Time for Grandma to go home. Two boys jumping and popping packing bubbles.
ELPAC training
English Language Proficiency Assessments for California. This one-day refresher course is required before we can begin testing. One of the retired teachers in the room thought our presenter was perhaps an anesthesiologist because “he really puts me to sleep.”
We had to do an additional 2 hours on our own, online, taking the calibration quizzes to qualify to be a tester.
arletelouise 