Monday, May 27, 2013

That's Some Diorama

A week or so ago I came home from work and Justin had an Important Paper on the table for me. It was a note about his 3rd grade Charlotte's Web diorama assignment. Interestingly, I had to sign an acknowledgement that I knew about the assignment and its due date. Which, depending on your assessment of the state of parental support of education, was either brilliant or sad.


So we got to work recreating the scene where Charlotte writes "SOME PIG" in the web. The problem: the sheep tells Wilbur he is going to get killed. (This is how Justin describes the scene in his TYPED (required) summary.) Since we didn't have a rat, we improvised with a small pig, a Sharpie, a pipe cleaner tail and two red painted eyes.
 
 
 
 
No farm kid-produced diorama of E.B. White's classic tale could be complete without REAL straw and a selection of plastic farm animals from his personal collection. Thanks to the crafting gene Justin inherited from me via his maternal retired teacher Grandma, he had plenty of pipe cleaners on hand to create fencing and a pitch fork.
 

 
We also used pipe cleaners to create the web and the SOME PIG letters. Justin had the all the right stuff on hand to make Charlotte look great. I happen to be especially proud of our weather vane.
 
Justin is taking his project to school tomorrow, and I'm confident he will earn a good grade. But just in case, we are sending in the paternal retired teacher Grandma to help him deliver it to the classroom.
 
She won't leave without the A+ for Justin, even if she has to make her own sign that says, "SOME DIORAMA."

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Snapshots on the Farm

A warm, dry day in May is perfect for planting season. Our family is getting into the fields this week to start planting corn and soybeans.

Appointment Pooping

  NOTE: If you do not want to read about my healthy bowel movement, well too late you just did. I recently became you-better-get-a-colonosco...