scary valentine's day! and sunshine and march madness

It is a little scary here in the mid-Atlantic, with about 13" of snow arriving in two rounds yesterday.  School was cancelled for Thursday by 3 pm on Wednesday, and now school is closed Friday as well as Presidents' Day Monday--a 5-day weekend.  This makes a total of 7 snow days so far this year, but fortunately/ unfortunately (depending on who you are and what you lose) the State of Maryland has declared a State of Emergency, so those missed school days will not have to be made up in June.  Perhaps climate change is another reason why American school systems are going to need to shift to a year-round schedule with rearranged breaks...

Anyway, school Valentine parties are all rescheduled for next Friday and will have to be a little blip on the landscape instead of the big deal it once was in my 4's nursery school class.  One inspired year, following the lead of the children, we spent February pursuing MONSTERS.  In those days I played guitar, we sang every day, and I made up stuff here and there as needed...including the following celebration of love so powerful it's scary!  I don't have chords and can only dimly remember what tune we sang, so if anyone out there would like to compose a new tune, these lyrics are definitely for sale. ; )  We made crazy monsters with heart-shaped bodies and accordion-folded limbs to go with the song.

The Love Monsters

Look out!  Watch out!
The Love Monsters are coming!

Look out!  Watch out!
The Love Monsters are coming!

They come in every shape and size
They live under your bed
Their favorite day is Valentine's
They're pink and white and red

Their long arms stretch to hug you tight
Their sweet lips want to kiss you
Their long legs chase you day and night
When you're gone they miss you

Look out!  Watch out!
The Love Monsters are coming!
Look out!  Watch out!
The Love Monsters are coming!

HM 2014
all rights reserved

In other news, Ruth from There is no such thing as a Godforsaken town has nominated me for a Sunshine Award!  The award is actually a homework assignment of the best kind; here's how it works.

1. Share 11 random facts about yourself
2. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger creates for you
3. List 11 bloggers
4. Post 11 questions
5. Acknowledge the nominating bloggers
6. for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all the bloggers know they've been nominated.  (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)

My 11 questions from Ruth are

1.  What's your favorite song right now?

2.  What made you decide to start blogging?

3.  What's your favorite post you've ever written?  (Link, please!)

4.  What's a book you've given (or loaned) to multiple people because you love it so much?

5.  What Hogwarts house would you be in?

6.  What's your comfort food of choice?

7.  What book character would you like to have lunch with?

8.  What's your favorite podcast?

9.  What's a movie you've watched many times?

10.  What are your favorite clothes to wear?

11.  What's a book on your wish list?
I shall be working on this over the next week and I have a feeling I might have trouble finding 11 bloggers who have not yet participated...so if you're feeling sunshiny, let me know and I'll tag you.

And, last but not least, I find myself getting excited about the challenge of participating once again in the March Madness Poetry Tournament hosted by Ed DeCaria at Think Kid Think.  Ed is not only a technogeek who uses tools and statistics to analyze poetry (his "Poemetrics" approach) but has been tireless in his efforts to make the tournament a real reflection of poetic skill.  In the past there was some feeling that poets could win a round based on popularity or number of friends voting rather than on the success of their actual poem. This year Ed has introduced new opportunities for participation by the public as well as new guidelines for winning a match-up:

Unlike previous years where the public vote alone determined the winner, in 2014, #MMPoetry authletes must win two of three of the following separate votes to win their matchup:

1. Public vote
2. Classroom vote – this is where you come in!
3. Authlete vote

Do you see that, teachers?  Your class can become a pre-approved official voting classroom, helping to ensure that the winning children's poems in the Tournament have actually been read by children!  (And voting classrooms are entered to win a really nice prize: a collection of FIFTY (50) children's poetry collections.)

Do you see that, poets?  Your poems will be voted on by kids and your poetry peers, not just the general public!  I encourage you to join me, Jane Yolen, Allan Wolf, Tiffany Strelitz Haber, Samuel Kent and prodigy Gloson Teh (and many more) by signing up to "compete"!  The application is here:
http://www.thinkkidthink.com/mmpoetry-2014/authlete-application/