the apples of my eye

My kiddos are truly wonderful this year. I'm still at only 19, and they're just so well behaved. Part of that is because of me, I know. I spent the first two weeks of school "training" them to self-manage. And part of it is them. They're a small group, and they're not too rowdy. So it's a nice balance. Because of that, I'll be able to get a lot of work done with them, as well as all sorts of fun projects.

To that end, we spent last week learning about Johnny Appleseed. Last week we had an apple taste test. We tried (clockwise) Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Braeburn.

The taste test was a huge hit, and the clear favorite was the Granny Smith. There's just something about first graders and that "sour apple" taste. :)

After we tasted them, we heard the story about the star hidden inside an apple. (Slice across instead of down to see it!)

Today we did some math with apple-flavored cereal. (No name brands for this Catholic school teacher!)

Is there any better way to learn subtraction? Every time we had to "take away," we got to eat some cereal!

So that's it for now. I just figured after all the bitching I did about Back to School Night, you'd like to read about something more positive. :)