Hi ho Silver, away!

Continuing our look at Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, Mrs. James's class yesterday traveled to The Baldwin Project where I read William Tell and his Great Shot to the class. What a grand tale it is! (I had forgotten the reason Tell sheathed the first arrow in his belt before loading a second arrow onto his crossbow. Do you remember?) Terrific drama - the kids sucked it all in. Now the fires were stoked for them to listen to the musical underpinnings of Rossini's William Tell Overture. (The Classics for Kids website is simply outstanding in every way.)

Here's a good site which illuminates the origin of Christmas traditions. Perfect for our class - I can project it on the big screen and let students take turns reading.

Our kids scored an overall 82.6 percent on last week's Mars/Jupiter SpaceQuest test. That means we owe them a pizza party (for scoring 80 percent or above). I think we're going to have it today.