Thursday, April 21, 2011

Children's books take the cake!

A few weeks ago, a food representation  of The Very Hungry Caterpillar took the prize for "Most Creative" at the Denison Library's annual Books2Eat Festival, and a cake replica of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows won "Best of Show." Congratulations to these winners and the others who participated in the festival! For more pictures of the other delicious treats in the festival, look here!


Discovering Dahl

One of the most comprehensive Dahl sites I've found, The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre contains a wealth of information about Dahl and his work, as well as lots of fun and games. Explore Dahl's Writing Hut or the online Dahl archive. Just for fun (or if you happen to be jetting off to the UK any time soon), check out the food selection at Cafe Twit, where they serve Fizzy Lifting Drinks,  BFG cookies, snozzberry yogurt, Miss Honey's scones, and even "SandWitches" and a Bogtrotter Cake.

For All of Your Happily Ever Afters...

Last fall, Disney Fairy Tale Weddings and Honeymoons added a blog to their site, the appropriately titled Ever-After Blog. With features such as "Wedding Cake Wednesday" (check out the scrumptious Wall-E wedding cake or this cute Scrabble cake), the blog showcases the countless ways the Disney Weddings team can make your fairy tale wedding come true. If you want a wedding fit for a princess, the blog has plenty of ideas Disney brides and grooms can replicate, from a Rapunzel-inspired dress and  Cinderella Platinum Anniversary Gown to a Tangled-themed wedding. "Real Weddings" features couples who have been engaged or married at Disney (or whose engagements and marriages were Disney-related, like this adorable proposal based on Up), as well as couples who renew their vows or celebrate major anniversaries at Disney, like this couple commemorating their 50th anniversary.

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss

This new 72 page book will be out September 27, 2011. It will feature 7 lost stories: "The Bippolo Seed", "The Rabbit, The Bear, The Zinniga Zanniga," "Gustav the Goldfish," "Tadd and Todd," "Steak for Supper," "The Strange Shirt Spot," and "The Great Henry McBride."




Monday, April 4, 2011

Teaching to the Test

I've been noticing flyers in Knapp recently that are "Brought to you by: Teachers Against Testing Campaign March/April 2011." They each have facts about standardized testing as it relates to funding for education, and have links to websites where more information can be found.  Teachers Against Testing actually has a facebook page and a few links to other websites that express concern over the effects that "teaching to the test" will have on education in this country.  I'll put a few of the links below on this page so anyone can look at them- they are pretty interesting and align with a lot of the opinions expressed in class last week about the negative implications of funding according to standardized testing.  They're also definitely informative about the specifics of how No Child Left Behind operates.

http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrages.php?id=3747

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2009/11/should_teacher_evaluation_depe.html