Pictures of the Third Meeting

Third Meeting

I am happy to announce that we have a new member!  This person filled the last spot in our book club.   This new person did not find out about the club until after our preview meeting but could not make it to the second meeting.  She has been reading along at home so I am glad she could finally attend a meeting!  Her nickname is Hollywood.  She chose this name because she likes stories about old Hollywood.  After introductions, we were caught up on her answers to the two Sharing Jar questions she had missed.  This was nice because we had an opportunity to get to know her a little bit better.  She liked Beatrice Potter Little Rabbit books when she was younger.  And she has an appetite for “wine and a good party”.  Hollywood als brought each of us a gift.  It is a darling purple feather duck pen.  They are adorable!  Thank you Hollywood!  That was very nice of you!  A new item this time was the Progress Chart I created.  It is similar to the posters of a thermometer that are colored red only part of the way up - displaying how much money was raised compared to the goal amount.  Instead of a thermometer, this is a picture of a stack of ten black and white books.  I colored in 4 of them showing we are 4/10 or 2/5 of the way through the Julia Child book.  I don’t think anyone else was as impressed with it as I was! 

On May 21^st, 2011 the third meeting took place.  Again, our meeting ran a little long.  Again, I apologize!  But, just like last time, a lengthy but great discussion took place!   We started out with the Sharing Jar question.  The index card in our supply box stated, “Julia seemed to have a good memory of the meals she ate.  Think of one meal that you remember clearly.  Describe it here.”  There was some confusion at first when half of the members started looking in the book.  The other half of the members were puzzled as to why they were looking in the book.  These members interpreted the directions as “describe one of Julia’s meals that you remember clearly from the book (or Julia remembered clearly)”.   Rabbit said that the Mushroom Swiss Thickburger from Hardees was a memorable meal because it tasted sooo good since she doesn’t eat meat that much anymore.  Hollywood said that she remembers eating a baked potato with butter and sour cream, filet (medium well), a lettuce salad with Thousand Island dressing and a roll with butter.  Dead to the World said she remembers eating lefse (Norwegian potato flat bread like a tortilla) with hard-boiled eggs with her entire family.  She also noted on the index card that the lefse is best when it is newly made, the eggs are still warm, and when you add a little butter to the lefse.  Sookie remembers the first time she ate “real” Chinese food in Chinatown.  There was a baby squid and the meat was boiled instead of cooked in a wok.   I remembered when I ate at the Melting Pot in the Twin Cities.  It was very expensive but worth it for a once-in-a-lifetime meal.  I explained how I recreated it at home for my significant other and another couple.  It took 6 hours to eat the meal because we would stuff ourselves at each of the three courses.  I also remembered a romantic meal that my college boyfriend made for me – tuna salad sandwiches and rice.  The reason why it was romantic is because of the candle in the middle of the table!  I also remember eating Czech food in Prague but I didn’t care for the food.  I was disappointed since I am half Czech.  Romantix had lobster ravioli at Napoli’s for Mother’s Day.  

To begin the meeting, I passed out the recipe for Tempura Asparagus (the appetizer I made last time).  I also handed out copies of an article that I found in the free HyVee magazine that comes in the mail.  It discussed types of asparagus, how to choose the freshest ones in the store and different methods of cooking asparagus.  Since several of us, at the last meeting, expressed how much we loved asparagus, I thought this would be helpful.  I also gave Rabbit some information about John Alden (of Mayflower fame) and Henry Alden who is the founder of Alden, Iowa (Hardin County).  She had originally thought that the John Alden that was mentioned in the book might be the founder of Alden.  Rabbit tried to read the articles to see if Henry Alden is a descendant of John Alden.  It was not mentioned in the articles but they still may be related.  She is planning on researching it more.  We then discussed the homework sheets.  See a later post for the details of the homework sheet discussion.   This time Romantix was the lucky one to be chosen to read the definitions from the dictionary.  She was kicking herself for making eye contact with me!  Just like last time, we moved onto the Bloom’s Taxonomy worksheet to answer two questions from each of the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  See a later post for the main points of this worksheet.  

After the discussion, because we were hungry, we decided to eat.  While we were making our tacos, I verified that Romantix was the one who suggested the idea of everyone bringing an ingredient or two for tacos.  Dead forgot she was to bring tomatoes and brought cheese instead so we had a lot of cheese!  I didn’t miss the tomatoes though.  Sookie made a strawberry pie.  She said it was really easy to make – just whipped topping, strawberries and yogurt.  It was really good.  Thank you BookMarks for bringing your taco ingredients!  While eating, we discussed what we should bring next time for food.  We are grilling out.  This was my idea.  Hopefully, it won’t rain like it has been!  I am supplying the hamburgers.  Sookie is bringing the brats.  Rabbit is bringing chips and a dessert.  Romantix is bringing macaroni salad and Hollywood is bringing the fruit.  Dead is providing the hot dogs and buns ( both types).  I can’t wait for this barbecue!   

After eating, we settled into two activities dealing with metaphors.  Before we did this, we defined the term metaphor.  This is our definition:  “one thing in terms of another; a replacement of one thing with another thing; alternate description that you have to figure out; two nouns in comparison”   While reading the latest section, I noticed that many metaphors were used to create imagery.  In the first activity we each had a set of eight strips of papers. Each strip contained a metaphor from the reading.  Each metaphor had a reference of the page number and paragraph number.  We each chose one metaphor that we wanted to explore.  When it was our turn, we explained what two nouns the metaphor was comparing.  Then we also had to state the relationship between the two nouns (so pretty much we explained the meaning of the metaphor).  Then we passed each set of metaphors to the right and chose another one out of the remaining seven.  My intent was to go through all 48 metaphors but I could tell that we would all be bored soon (I was even getting quite bored.)  I am sorry to say that this activity didn’t work out so well.  I think some of the metaphors were a tad bit difficult to explain and several of us read the paragraph from which the metaphor was taken.  This was good but it took up more time.  See the Metaphor Activity sheet on the Activities page of this blog for a list of all 48 metaphors.  Part 2 of the Metaphor Activity went more smoothly.  I wasn’t sure how this activity would work but it turned out great.  Each member wrote down one noun on each of four index card strips they had in their supply box.  Some nouns that were written were:  tacos, mall, Sammy-the dog, volleyball, transformer, horserace, Cedar Rapids, shoe, siren, insulin syringe, sliced bread, cat food, iceberg, bosom, chestnut, duck, art, alien, vampire and strawberry pie.  We put the cards in the Sharing Jar.  On our turn, we chose one of the 18 nouns that were listed on the sheet (see this sheet on the Activities page of this blog).  The nouns listed on this sheet were related to the book.   After we chose a noun from the sheet, we drew a noun from the jar, therefore, forming a metaphor.  Then we had to explain the relationship.  I was worried that some of these words would be so different from each other that it would be hard to connect the two.  I was impressed by how creative everyone (except me) was in making a connection between the two nouns.  Here is an example of one that turned out really well:  Sookie chose “Paul is a” from the sheet, then she drew out the word “vampire.”  So she created the metaphor, “Paul is a vampire.”  She related these two ideas together by saying, “they both suck the life out of Julia.”  Here are some other ones that worked well.  “The war is a strawberry pie.”  Rabbit said that they are both red (blood red).  She also related it to the movie Strawberry Fields.  “The ending of the war is an insulin syringe” because they both inject goodness.  “Weather (in China and India) is cat food” because they are both gross.  “The house parties overseas is a siren” because they are both loud.  “The wedding (Paul and Julia’s) is a transformer” because it changed their friendship to a marriage.  “Dysentery is a duck” because they both quack!   "China is a taco" because they both have dog meat.  We had just been talking about how taco bell only has 30% meat in their tacos and was wondering what the other 70% was!  And I know that in Korea they eat dog meat but I am not sure about China.

The next part of the meeting was the visual.  In the reading, there were several pairs of concepts that seemed to be almost complete opposites of each other.   Some of these pairs are Paul/Julia, China/India, and Smith College/the OSS.  On a wall in three different rooms of my house, was a Venn diagram with one of these three pairs.  If you are not familiar with a Venn diagram, it consists of two or more intersecting circles.  One circle is labeled with one concept and the other circle is labeled with the other.  For Paul and Julia, we brainstormed ways that they were alike and wrote those similarities in the overlap of the two circles.  Then we wrote ways in which Paul was unique (or different from Julia) in the circle labeled Paul.  Then we did the same for Julia.  We worked together in partners to fill out one of the Venn diagrams.  Then we rotated to the next room and added to the existing ideas of another Venn diagram.

For show and tell, each person was supposed to bring a kitchen item (not food) and obviously not something huge like a refrigerator!  We used our kitchen items for the game.  I brought out a cotton ball and put it on a chair.  Each of us had to pick up the cotton ball and carry it across the room to the TV using only our kitchen item.  Everyone succeeded with the cotton ball so the next level was a softball-size squishy exercise ball (thank you Dead for letting us use it.)  I failed this level because I was too cocky with my plate.  I worked too fast and it rolled off the plate.  The next level was a volleyball.  Rabbit, Dead and Sookie were all eliminated in this round.  The volleyball was too heavy for Rabbit’s mini-teaspoons!  Dead to the World wanted to poke the ball with her bottle opener since it was her ball but we wouldn’t let her.  Sookie, with her egg separator, didn’t defeat the volleyball.  So, Hollywood and Romantix were left.  I brought out a huge exercise ball for the last round.  Neither of them could lift the ball with their utensils.  So, we went back to the ping pong ball (this was supposed to be the second round but I accidentally overlooked it).  Because the ping pong kept rolling off the vegetable cutter that Hollywood was using, Romantix won with her garlic press.  Congratulations, Romantix.  She unwrapped the prize to discover Fourth of July patterned bag clips.  Since Rabbit forgot to bring her camera, the photos of this game were taken the next day with Rabbit demonstrating the game with my mini-teaspoons!   

For the craft, we made bookmarks. I found this website, linked to Oprah’s Book Club and Books website, http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Oprahs-Book-Club-Bookmark-Maker, where you can personalize bookmarks with your name and a saying.  I created personalized bookmarks for each member using our nicknames and our real names.  We then cut them out, cut out cardstock of the same size, and then adhered the two together with rubber cement.  We paper-punched a hole in the top so we could thread embroidery floss through to make a tassel.  Thank you Rabbit for letting us use your embroidery floss.  I was pleased to see how creative we were with the floss.  Some of us braided it.  Some of us used more than one color of floss.  And some of us punched two holes and tied a bow at the top!  At the table, Romantix suggested that we come up with a logo for our book club (maybe incorporating all our nicknames somehow) and Sookie could design it since she is an artist.  Romantix has recently shared an idea with us on our facebook group.  She is thinking that we should have six books between two bookends and the spine of each book displaying each of our nicknames.  I really like this idea.  We also talked about the next meeting.  It looks like we will be meeting in three weeks since our summers are looking fairly busy.  I forgot to mention the show and tell at the end of the meeting but it is written on the homework sheet.  We are to bring an eating utensil (like a fork, spoon, etc.)  The Learning/Enthusiasm Matrices averaged out to “I liked it!”  and “I learned a lot!”

Pictures of the Second Meeting



Homework Sheet Discussion
Turtle and Sookie wait patiently for Romantix to speak

  



Homework Sheet Discussion
Dead to the World listens intently

 



Homework Sheet Discussion
Turtle, Romantix and Sookie

  


Bloom's Taxonomy Worksheet
Romantix, Sookie and Dead

 



Bloom's Taxonomy Worksheet
Dead reviews her answers





I Agree
Rabbit demonstrates what we did when we agreed with the statement




I Disagree!
Rabbit demonstrates what we did when we disagreed with the statement



I am not sure!
Rabbit demonstrates what we did when we were on the fence about a statement. 




Family Tree Template

 



Working together on the family tree
Turtle, Dead and Romantix




Visual
The completed family tree!!!!!!




Craft
Creatively rubber stamping on address labels



The finished products
Hershey nugget party favors!





Sookie's Birthday cake that Romantix baked




Lighting the sparkler candles!!!



Make a wish Sookie!



It is getting really smoky in here . . .



Let's open a window. 





Oh no!  They were not recommended for indoor use!  Oops!



Bloom's Discussion of the Second Meeting

Bloom’s Taxonomy Questions for An Appetite for Life – The Biography of Julia Child – 1^st Regular Meeting

Since the first two questions were basic recall questions, there wasn’t a variety of answers.  The point of recall questions is to make sure that we gain the important knowledge from the reading.  These two questions asked when and where Julia was born and what her maiden name was.  She was born August 15^th, 1912 in Pasadena, California.  Her maiden name was McWilliams.

The next two questions make sure we understand (or comprehend) the concepts of the reading.  The first question asked us to describe Julia – her physical appearance as well as her personality.  We wrote that Julia is tall, thin, adventurous, outspoken, witty, warm, friendly, likeable, boisterous, tomboyish, extroverted, intelligent and mischievous.  We also stated that she had a high-pitched voice and great gams.  The other question asked us to describe her relationship to food/cooking at this point in her life.  We responded by saying that she loved to eat and try new things.  She was always hungry.  She loved jelly donuts.  She remembers the buttermilk biscuits her mom used to bake on the cooks’ night off.  She actually stayed away from the kitchen when she was a child because that was where the hired cooks presided.  So, pretty much, she did not know how to cook or did not like to cook. 

The application questions help us apply what we learned to our own lives or to a new situation.  We were supposed to think of someone we know personally that Julia reminds us of and why.   Sookie and Dead said that Julia reminds them of their sisters because their sisters were adventurous, tomboyish and athletic when they were younger.  I said that Julia reminds me of a smarter version of one of my friends because she is tall and fun-loving.  Romantix and Rabbit could not think of anyone they knew who is similar to Julia.   The other application question asked us to think of some things that were happening in Julia’s early life that could possibly occur today and state how it would affect us.  We said the US being at war still is happening today and greatly affects all of us.  The triple murder/suicide could happen today but the newspapers would probably handle it differently because of today’s acceptance of mental disabilities.  There is still a fairly strong influence of money today just like in Julia’s time.  If one has a significant amount of money or has familial influence, one can most likely attend an Ivy League college and pursue a prosperous career.  But today, in general, anyone can go to any college if they are academically capable but some might be in greater debt than others after they graduate.  A depression could happen today.  In fact, a recession did occur recently.   A couple of years ago we saw foreclosures, loss of jobs, etc.  This didn’t affect the country as much as it did in Julia’s time because we now know how to handle the situation (hopefully we have learned from the past) to prevent it from becoming a depression.  We also have more resources we can rely on (as long as we don’t deplete them).

The next set of questions helps us to analyze or break concepts down.  The first one asked us to compare Julia’s life growing up to our own.  We stated how her childhood was the same and how it was different than ours.  One of the similarities was that Julia's dad was involved in the community – like Rabbit and Dead’s dad.  Another similarity was that Romantix’s parents were old-fashioned so Romantix feels like she grew up in the same time period that Julia did.  Like Julia, Sookie noted that she was never told how she should be.  Rabbit and I could relate to Julia when she enjoyed partying in college.  Half of us could relate to her playing outside all the time and attempting daring tasks.  But the other half of the group stated that this was a difference – they stayed inside more often and were more cautious as children. Another difference was that she grew up in a wealthy and influential family.  She obviously grew up in a different time when gender distinctions were different.  She slept outside on the porch whereas all of us slept inside.  She attended a boarding school but none of us did.  One member noted that she had strict parents but Julia did not.  Someone else stated that Julia was very outgoing whereas they were not as outgoing growing up.  Another member stated that Julia was in trouble quite a bit so that was a difference.  Actually she didn't get into that much trouble but she did her share of mischief!  Dead to the World could relate to the story about Julia and Babe stealing cigars from Babe's father and smoking them because Dead remembers when she stole cigarettes and smoked up the neighbors’ garage.  It was split on the fact that Julia’s parents went to college.  Some of us had parents that went to college but the others were first generation college students.  The next 'analyze' question told us to list all the major periods or events in Julia’s early life.  We briefly stated that camp, Polytechnic school, KBS, Smith College, her first job in NYC and moving to Washington, D.C. to join the OSS were the major periods in her life.  Some major events in her life were her grandfather and mother both dying, the triple murder and WWII. 

The creative questions allow us to imagine new scenarios and synthesize concepts (or put concepts together).  The first creative question tells us to imagine that Julia is shorter, then explain how her life would have been different.   We listed that she probably would have been married in her 20’s, she wouldn’t have been good at basketball (the jumping center), she would have blended in more physically with others and she might have been more comfortable with her body.  She obviously would not have been looked up to as much (physically and maybe socially - because her personality might have changed).   Maybe she would have had less confidence or not have been so outspoken.  The next question asks us to change Julia’s parents or family so Julia fit in more (or felt like she fit in more).  I guess we didn’t agree with this statement.  Julia did fit in.  But we still thought about possible changes for her parents.  One of us said that if her parents were shorter than obviously she would have been shorter.  If her mother was stricter, maybe she would have performed better in school.  If her mother didn't insist that she go to Smith, maybe she would have had experienced a different college and have traveled down a different path in life.   

The last pair of questions lets us evaluate or judge the concepts.  In the first question, we were asked what we thought was the most valuable aspect of Julia’s life or personality that would later make her into a success.  We had a variety of responses.  The fact that she didn’t fear new things would definitely help her later.  Also, the fact that she was adventurous helped in Julia’s success.  Her personal qualities like being outgoing, personable, likeable, confident, forgiving and easy-going would help her in the business world.  The experience she had with the OSS and experiencing different cultures and food played a huge role in her career.  And, of course, her passion (or appetite) for life played a large part.   The very last question asks if there were any choices that Julia made that we would have chosen differently if we were her.  We all agreed that if she would have done anything differently, then she would not have been herself and maybe have not been a success.  When I wrote this question, I meant to ask, “what would you have decided differently if you were faced with the same choices but if you were you?”  Then one member responded that they would have not gone to war.  Another member would not have married Paul because he is too short. 

Discussion Points of the Second Meeting

Homework Sheet Discussion for An Appetite for Life - The Biography of Julia Child - 1^st Regular Meeting

To start the discussion, we shared how we summarized the section.  We summarized the first section of this book as Julia Child’s family history as far back as her great-grandparents and the description of her childhood and schooling.  This section also explained her personality, her physical appearance and her relationships with her family and friends.  In this section we also learned about her early career.   

The second part of the discussion addressed the words we didn’t know the meanings of.  We looked up the meanings of the following words in the dictionary:  funicular (p. 32),  antimacassars (p. 18),  effete (p. 5), arias (p. 33 ),  raconteur (p. 5),  primogeniture (p. 53),  verdant  (p. 40), and gamine (p. 34).

Next, we discussed the “I wonder” section.  I noticed that I had more questions than anyone else, but that would make perfect sense if you knew me.  Rabbit wondered if the John Alden who was mentioned in the reading (when Julia made a mean comment to her aunt about indentured servants) was the same John Alden that founded the town of Alden, Iowa (Rabbit’s hometown).  Further research concluded that the person who founded the town of Alden is Henry Alden, not John Alden.  The question is whether Henry Alden is a descendent of the John Alden (of Mayflower fame) who was mentioned in the book.  There was a question on the meaning of Julia’s quote at the beginning of page 30.  “Why languish as a giantess when it is so much fun to be a myth?”  Some possible meanings that were suggested are “cherish your tallness instead of being sad about it”, or “why not be popular or well-known for your tallness (uniqueness) rather than dwell on it."  I wondered how much she really cared about fitting in.  To me, fitting in didn’t seem to bother Julia but later the author quoted Julia expressing how she struggled to be pretty like the other girls and had difficulties attracting boys.  when she did worry about fitting in.  I was also confused about Julia’s voice.  I always thought her voice was deep but in this book it states that she had a high-pitched voice.        

We then moved on to what we liked about the reading.  We liked her childhood stories – how adventurous she was.  We also liked that she was independent in a time when most women’s goals were just to get married.  Most women back then (and even today) in Julia’s situation (she was older – 28; no other males interested in her) would have said ‘yes’ to any marriage proposal, but she said ‘no.’  We liked how she kept a diary and later updated the diary entries with her new relevations.  I liked the story of how she promised her dad she wouldn’t smoke until she was 21.  So the minute after her 21^st birthday she smoked!   I liked how Julia’s mother, Caro, was mad at her own father because he “wore out” Caro's mother by having ten children.  I also liked how Julia said that she had a minor in academics but a major in socializing!  I thought it was comical how the McWilliams family built their house with tall doors and tall handles.  Another member thought it was funny that her husband, Paul, initially thought she had an interest in food and cooking but she was just always hungry!  Rabbit liked the part where Caro’s friend said to her, “You read more books and know less than any woman I know.”  Someone also pointed out that it would be interesting to live in a time when Caesar Cardini invented the Caesar salad.   Another member like the indented paragraph on the bottom of page 43.  It gave a good description of Julia's height, voice and personality.  WE also liked the passage that compared her childhood tears to mechanical tears because she had a weak tear gland.  We also liked when she compared herself to a pregnant raincloud and how her heart is no softer than a rock.  Another member noted that this was a time when all the theories of cooking and eating were based on science.  A member noticed in this section that the magazines had conflicting views of the woman’s role in the household, so you can see that womens’ rights were slowly starting to change.  We all agreed that this book was written in great detail.  We liked how it would mention a company or a place back then, then state what it is now.

The main thing that we didn’t like was how the author’s writing jumped around so much.  Even within a paragraph the ideas seemed disconnected.  Rabbit noted that she did not like the introduction because it seemed like an unusual spot to begin the book.  Another member noted that the author seemed to assume that we already knew quite a bit about Julia.  Several members didn’t think it was necessary that her family history went way back to her great-grandparents.  One member didn’t like how the professor’s grades were.   Dead to the World criticized the study which concluded that the college graduates of Vassar, Wellesley and Mount Holyoke were one inch taller than their parents.  We agreed that this would have been proven true of all colleges in the world if the researchers would have included more colleges in their sample.  On average, we are taller today than the generations that came before us (because of better health, the growth hormones in the meat we eat, etc.) 

There were several things we were surprised at.  Romantix was surprised that Julia’s paternal grandfather lived to be almost 93 years old.  This seems like a long time to live in those times.  I was surprised that she didn’t perform so well in her French classes at Smith (given her later career.)  However, I took Spanish for four years in high school but it really didn’t help me speak the language.  I believe, to learn a language well, you have to be immersed in it - constantly being forced to speak it like if you were to visit another country.  I was absolutely shocked at how the triple murder/suicide was viewed by the town.  According to the newspapers, the man was brave.  I do not think he was a hero at all but a coward.  If he was brave, he would have not killed himself and would have punished himself by going to prison.  We were also surprised that Julia did not grow up cooking with her mother or even the hired cooks.  One member was surprised that, when she graduated college, they stated she did not need a job because she is from a wealthy family.  It makes you wonder what the purpose of college was back then.  The faculty seemed to informally evaluate the students on their ability to marry (the President of Smith was quoted - “not the brighest class that ever graduated from Smith but you were the marryingest class”).  I was surprised that it was implied that the only reason Caro married John McWilliams was so that her children would live longer than her side of the family.  A very weird reason to marry someone.  I was surprised that her father did not attend her graduation.   The reason he was absent was never stated.  Another member was surprised at how fearless she was and how she was okay with all the girls dating and eventually getting married.  She was comfortable not being like the rest of her friends.

The next section of the homework sheet dealt with our feelings or emotions.  I don’t think anyone quite knew what to put down for this section, so I shared what I wrote.  I feel like I should get out and do more and live life to the fullest like Julia did.  I also wish I was more outgoing like Julia – a leader everyone knows and loves. 

Then we talked about how each of us could relate the concepts of the reading to our lives or to our previous knowledge.  I wrote that I like to cook and eat like Julia did.  I could also relate to her college life – the partying, there always being something to do and constantly being distracted from my homework by other floormates (or distracting other floormates myself!)  Rabbit could relate to Julia when Julia went to her 5^th year Smith College reunion where all her former classmates were married with children.  Rabbit felt the same way at her 15^th year high school reunion.   Another member stated that she followed her destined path just like Julia did – Julia was destined to go to college (particularly  Smith).  Another member stated that she feels like life and how you turn out depends alot on chance.  Like Julia was lucky to be born into a weathly family so this made it easier for her in many ways.  We started talking about menstruation and the belts women wore years ago.  When Julia attended camp, she and the other campers were afraid of getting the "curse".  Romantix remembers her mother telling her how she had to wear the maxi pad belts just like women did back then.   

The next part created confusion.  After I explained what this section meant, we shared our goals (what we plan to do after we learned a lesson from the reading).  I plan to be more active – physically and socially.  I also plan to enjoy life more.  Another member said that she wanted to learn more about the 1900’s.   Dead to the World stated that she wanted to visit the Smithsonian where Julia Child’s kitchen is located.

To sum the discussion up, we shared what we learned from the first reading.  We learned about Julia’s family and her colonial and pioneer heritage.  We also learned about what California was like in the early 1900’s.  We learned she had a very active childhood and also had a great personality, so, therefore, was well-liked.  The interesting thing we learned is that she didn’t like to cook but loved food because she was always hungry.  We learned about her KBS and Smith schooling.  Someone noted that they realized how tall she really was (Julia was taller than they had originally thought).  Another member added that she discovered Julia was an athlete. 

Second Meeting

On Saturday, April 30, 2011, our second meeting took place.  I am happy to announce that we finally have a name!  The name that we all agreed upon is BookMarks!  So, from now on, we are the BookMarks Book Club!  This last meeting went a little bit long – three hours too long!  It lasted six hours total!  I have to admit, I got carried away with one of the activities.  I also underestimated the discussion time.  We had lots to talk about.  The discussion went really well.  When the members arrived, they signed the roster sheet and grabbed their supply boxes like they did last time.  But this time, they also signed a birthday card for Sookie.  I am glad Sookie was okay with having the book club meeting on her birthday.  I just hope she had a good birthday!  Since it was her birthday, she had to wear a lei that said Happy 36^th Birthday.  I thought it was cool but I think she was embarrassed.  Romantix noticed that she took it off just to go outside to her car!  Rabbit took a picture of her under the Happy Birthday banner wearing the lei and holding the Happy Birthday message written on the chalkboard.  After we settled in, we answered the sharing jar question which was written on an index card in the supply box just like last time.  The sharing jar question this time was, “From the reading, you can see that Julia had an appetite for life.  What do you have an appetite for?”  We weren’t allowed to discuss our answers – we had to put them in the sharing jar right away.  At the end of the meeting, we played Loaded Questions.  Loaded Questions is an actual game that can be bought in stores.  It is a really fun game.  I read off all the answers to the appetite question and then each person had to guess who said what answer.  I said “volleyball”, Sookie said “creating art”, Rabbit said “my hot coworker!”, Romantix said “appetite for all foods, shopping, spending time with family and friends” and Dead to the World said “nursing, chocolate, reading.”    For Romantix and Dead to the World, I only read one thing and chose ‘appetite for all foods’ and 'chocolate' because the other ones they listed would have been dead giveaways.  Earlier, I had predicted that we would have to do another round since we all know each other fairly well. So, I assumed we would all get 5 out of 5 correct.  I was wrong.  Only Sookie and Romantix got 5 out of 5 correct.  I then asked Sookie and Romantix, out of the three of us remaining, who said ‘reading’.  They both had correctly written ‘Dead to the World.’  So we had to do another round where Rabbit, Dead and I went to the other room and came up with three more appetites we have.  I said "sweets", Dead said, "Bejeweled Blitz" and Rabbit said "Girl Scout Cookie Martinis".  They still tied!  So, after the suggestion to do so, I decided to give out two prizes this time.  Note to self:  buy another prize for the 7^th Julia Child meeting.  So, Romantix picked the long box and found out it was aluminum foil after she unwrapped it.  Sookie unwrapped microfiber dishcloths. 

After the Sharing Jar, we handled some official business.  We talked about the book club name again but didn’t actually make the decision until the end.  I passed around photos of the last meeting so we could all look at them.  Earlier, Romantix had wondered why my TV is always playing black and white shows.  I watch Three’s Company at night and I leave it on TVLand channel.  Andy Griffith comes on in the afternoon on this channel.  So, when the photos were being passed around, Romantix noticed that Andy Griffith was indeed playing on the TV at the last meeting!  Then I passed out the Zuppa Toscana soup recipe (I made this soup last time). I passed out the typed mission statement and the list of members with their nicknames and the rules of the club.  No one had a problem with it, so I passed out the member contact information sheet.  No corrections were needed.  The KW (of KWL) sheet looked fine for all of us, so moving on, we looked at the minutes of the last meeting.  We performed an official approval of the minutes with “motion to approve”  and “I second” terminology.  Copies of this blog were passed out.  There was an edit needed with this one.  Dead to the World noted that she didn’t love the Skittles.  In fact, she really didn’t like them all that much.  It was Rabbit who thought that they were okay.  I also passed out a Book Club Notes sheet for us to jot down anything we wanted to remember.  After this, we started discussing the book.  We pulled out our homework sheets.  We started out with someone sharing what they wrote down for the summary of the section.  Next, I handed Sookie a dictionary so she could look up the words as we announced them.  These are the terms that we were unaware of the meanings of.  An edit to the homework sheet is:  we should have written down what page number the vocab word was on so we could quickly reference the original context of the word.  A funny story is: I am terrible with vocabulary words.  The reason is I don’t read that much.  Lesson learned.  Anyway, a word came up that someone didn’t know.  The word was verdant.  I was just being funny and said it meant green.  Someone knew what I was thinking and said, “No, Turtle, you are thinking of 'verde' in Spanish.”  The funny part is that verdant means green and grassy and growing!  After the vocab, we discussed the questions we had.  Then we shared what we liked and disliked.  We also mentioned what we were surprised at.  Then we discussed what we learned and the new knowledge that we related to our existing knowledge or to our lives.  Also, our feelings and goals were discussed.  Here is another edit to the homework sheet:  Many members didn’t know what I meant by “I plan to . . . “  (goals).  I explained that it is what you plan to do now that you have learned a lesson from the reading.   See a later post for the details of the homework sheet discussion.  We ended with the Show and Tell.  Each of us shared the information we brought about a historical aspect.  Sookie shared information about the Rose Bowl’s history which is in Pasadena where Julia was born and raised.  Rabbit shared info about the OSS and how it transformed into the CIA.  Romantix read about the term 'Anglophile'.  I shared the meaning of scientific eating.  Dead to the World didn’t have a chance to obtain any information.  We all understood that final tests are coming soon for her classes.  Interesting information!  Thank you for sharing all of the interesting info BookMarks!  After that we filled out the Bloom’s Taxonomy worksheet and then discussed our answers.  See a later post for the main points of this worksheet. 

After the book discussion, we decided to eat.  I made Tempura asparagus.  Rabbit made this Apple Jack/pecan mix.  She also made garlic pretzels with garlic dip.  Dead to the World brought fruit pizza which we didn’t get a chance to eat and cream cheese/black olive tortilla rolls.  Sookie brought fried ravoli with spaghetti sauce and vegetables with dill dip.  Awesome food and a good variety!  Thank you BookMarks for bringing the food!  After snacking, we got back to the book.  We had an activity where each member read 11 statements. If we agreed with the statement, we raised our green hand.   If we disagreed, we held up our red hand.  And, of course, if we weren’t sure, we showed our yellow hand.  (I bought colored cut-outs of hands.)  The members who raised a color that was in the minority were the first to discuss why they felt that way.  For the visual, we made a family tree.   One book club member mentioned to me before the meeting that it was really confusing with all the names of Julia’s family.   So, in our supply boxes were 6-7 colored post-it notes.  Each one had a name of one of Julia’s family members.  On the front of the post-it we had to find out when this person was born and when they died, if the information was available.  We also wrote down their nickname if they had one.  Their heritage or where they were born was also found.  Also, on the front, we added one piece of relevant information so we can easily remember them.  On the back, we wrote down who they married and the year they were married.  Also, we included the number of children they had.  And last, the relationship they were to Julia was recorded.   There were page numbers listed on the back of each post-it note to help find the information quickly.  We stuck these post-its to the blank family tree template I had drawn earlier.  It was fun – like putting together a puzzle!  I think this helped us keep everyone straight – at least I can now.  After the visual, we made a craft.  The craft was actually a party favor.  This was a quick craft since the other activities took so long.  In the supply boxes were six white address labels.  Using rubber stamps, we decorated the labels.  Then we wrapped each address label around a Hershey chocolate nugget.  Silver ones are milk chocolate and gold ones are milk chocolate with almonds.  They turned out really good.  We have some artists on our hands!  After the craft we took a group photo.  This will be used for the profile picture for this blog.  Romantix baked a cake for Sookie’s birthday.  I found some candles – one was a 3 and one was a 6.  They were actually sparklers.  They were really cool but smoked up the entire house!  I had to open several windows.  Someone asked me if they were supposed to be used outside.  I looked at the package and sure enough it said, “Not recommended for indoor use.”  Rabbit took a picture of these directions on the back of the package.  We forgot to sing to Sookie so after we were sitting eating the cake, we sang.  Very good cake.  Chocolate!   Sookie couldn’t blow out the candles but hopefully she made a wish!  Before we left, we planned the date of the next meeting.  I promised the members that it wouldn’t be as long next time!  (I hope).  Next time, for show and tell, we are to bring a kitchen item (not food.)  Also, we decided to bring an ingredient or two for tacos.  Great idea.  I can’t remember if it was Romantix’s or Sookie’s idea.*  I am bringing the meat since it is easier to make at my house.  I am also going to supply the shredded carrots even though I will be the only one that eats them since the other members stuck up their nose when I suggested shredded carrots on tacos!  Sookie is bringing the salsa and a dessert.  Rabbit is bringing the tortilla shells (both hard and soft) and onions.  Dead to the World is bringing the sour cream, tomatoes and black olives.  Romantix is bringing the lettuce and cheese.  Most of the Learning/Enthusiasm matrix sheets said that we loved the meeting and learned quite a bit!
*See correction in a later post.