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The smarty-pants checked my pinterest board to see what kind of a ring I wanted. |
Friday, December 28, 2012
Poppin the Question!
Monday, December 24, 2012
The Twelve Days of Christmas Brea
It is officially Christmas break. I say that it's official today because normally I'd be at work, and today, I'm sitting. I went to make cookies at my moms, and I ate about 10% of the cookies myself. And then I came home and sat.
It's wonderful.
As I've sat here, I thought a little bit about what my plans are for this break. I decided to share these plans with you. In the form of a song.
Twelve Days of Christmas Break
On the twelfth day of Christmas break, I will have ...
drank 12 cups of coffee (with whipped cream all over)
eaten 11 (different types of) cookies
watched 10 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
listened to Charlie Brown Christmas 9 times
worn 8 different pairs of pajama bottoms... as pants
consumed 7 alcoholic beverages (that number 7 is arbitrary and does not actually represent my alcoholic consumption.
visited 6 family households
finished wrapping the last 5 presents
mailed 4 boxes (of gifts that won't arrive until after Christmas, so I'm a horrible friend)
taken 3 walks (because I feel guilty about the eleven types of cookies)
read 2 books (that I chose to read for myself!)
and gone to see the Hobbit ONCE!
I hope your plans are just as lazy as mine :)
Merry ChristmasPin It
Friday, December 21, 2012
My Top 7 Christmas Movies
Christmas movies are probably the best movies out of all of the movies in the world. I don't think I am being biased when I say this. It's verifiable fact. How do I know? Well, after you finish watching some movies, you might think, "Wow. That was meaningful. I'm a little depressed." After watching a Christmas movie, you might think, "Wow. That was heartwarming. Let's drink hot chocolate an buy presents."
The choice is clear.
I do have one confession, though. I really like Christmas movies that give a naughty twist. So you may be very upset with me to realize that
It's a Wonderful Life isn't on this list.
WHAT?! The outrage! The unforgiveableness! The blatant disregard for George and Mary and Angel's Wings!!
But alas, it just doesn't make my cut. A little too deep for me.
These are my favorite Christmas movies, in reverse order of favoritism.
#7 Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Why it's my favorite: Claymation is fantastico! And every time Rudolph's nose lights up, it makes this obnoxious and addicting noise. "WHOOOOO"
One problem: The island of misfit toys reminds me of a bunch of Debbie Downers. If you're already a little depressed, Charlie in the Box can send you right over the edge.
Favorite parts: Clearly, it's when Herbie says, "I want to be.... a dentist!" Great voice acting.
I don't know if this counts, but I'm the one writing the blog post, so it's going in.
Why it's my favorite: Um, do you remember the California Raisins?! Do you remember how cool they were?! I think it's pretty obvious why it's my favorite. The awesome factor is very high.
One problem: They were singing raisins, after all.
Favorite parts: Most definitely, my absolute most favoritest part was when the camels sang We Three Kings. All-time Christmas song high.
Isn't that lovely and weird?
#5 How the Grinch Stole Christmas: the real one. Sorry, Jim Carrey. Not doing it for me.
Why it's my favorite: Whos! And the general weird-ness of Seusstastic stuff.
One problem: Max makes me a little sad. He's kind of depressed and has to run around with a giant horn stuck to his head. He can't be enjoying it.
Favorite part: When the Grinch is slinking around the houses, gathering up all the decorations. It's exactly how I feel after Christmas, when I'm taking everything down and stuffing it into tubs in the garage.
Why it's my favorite: I know I wasn't even born during the time this movie depicts, but somehow, (grouchy father) this movie (mouth washed out with soap) seems to really resonate with me (gifts from family members that are completely age inappropriate).
One problem: The kid has yellow eyes. I mean really? Also, Santa is absolutely terrifying.
HO, HO, HO!
Favorite Parts: "*sob*Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie." (been there)
This part:
Why it's my favorite: The kids' voices are charming and Vince Guiraldi really knows how to rock a soundtrack.
One problem: This film can cause depression in those susceptible to it.
Favorite parts: I would say Linus' monologue, but that's understood. So I think my other favorite part would be when Lucy is trying to get Linus to play Jingle Bells. "No! Jingle Bells! You know, deck the halls and all that jazz?"
Why it's my favorite: Ummm...cause it's hilarious? Will Farrell reminds me of myself around this time of year.
One problem: Weirdly, every time I get to the part at the end where everyone's singing in Central Park, I cry. I don't think that's normal.
Favorite Part:
Why it's my favorite: Highly quotable. When in doubt, quote Clark Griswald. Or better yet, cousin Eddie! And I think it makes me happy to see a family in action that is more dysfunctional than mine.
One problem: Every family has a cousin Eddie. If you don't know who YOUR cousin Eddie is... maybe it's you.
Favorite parts: We're gonna have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny f*&#ing Kay! (been there)
Pin It
#6 The California Raisins Christmas Special
Isn't that lovely and weird?
#4 A Christmas Story
And "You used up ALL the glue ON PURPOSE!"
#3 A Charlie Brown Christmas
#2 Elf
#1 National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
This is exactly what my outlets look like.
He's been holding out for a management position.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
I honestly don't know what to say, so silence is best anyway.
Join us tomorrow for a day of silence in the blogging community to honor and remember the children, teachers, and families of Sandy Hook.
Friday, December 14, 2012
On the third day of Christmas, Ms. B gave to me...
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
On the First Day of Christmas, Ms. B Gave to ME...
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
12 Days of Christmas starts tomorrow!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Expository Text Structures
Our latest plans for nonfiction!
In fifth grade, the teachers are introducing expository text structures. The TEKS call for these text structures in fifth grade: cause-effect, compare-contrast, sequence, logical order, and classification theme. The teachers are reading different articles with the kids and searching for the 'signal words' that indicate the relationships between ideas. They'll build this chart as they go!
In fifth grade, the teachers are introducing expository text structures. The TEKS call for these text structures in fifth grade: cause-effect, compare-contrast, sequence, logical order, and classification theme. The teachers are reading different articles with the kids and searching for the 'signal words' that indicate the relationships between ideas. They'll build this chart as they go!
At the end, we planned for them to distribute shorts texts to the kids and have them sort them by organizational pattern, and complete the graphic organizer for each one.
Wish us luck!
To help your kids understand how to analyze text structure, you can check out this Reading Strategy MiniPack on TPT: Analyzing Text Structure! It uses the gradual release model to support kids in understanding how to analyze text structure in expository text.
Labels:
Anchor Chart,
Nonfiction,
Reading,
Text Structures
Thursday, December 6, 2012
New Unit: Nonfiction Features!
Embarrassing Story:
Today my hunny and I went to Corner Bakery to do a little work on our laptops and enjoy some tasty stuff. I worked away (blogging, creating. You know the business) and he worked as well. He is the photographer for our district, so he was working on editing some pictures of the cute little guys we go to work for every day! At one point, he flipped his laptop around and showed me the most beautiful picture. A little pre-K boy with his tiny little fingers clenched in glee, laughing like he'd never seen anything so funny. I immediately cracked up. This little guy just looked so joyful.
Then I asked, "When did you take this? Why is he laughing so much?" and my hunny said, "It was the first day of pre-K and they were doing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes during PE as fast as they could."
And this is when I became a smushy puddle of jelly. I started cry! Right there, in the Corner Bakery, I had tears spilling down my face and onto the napkins made of recycled material. Something about the sweetness of a little boy being so excited to do Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes on his first day of school was so moving that I fell apart like a person with a chemical imbalance.
Which I may well be.
Anyway, this is what I intended to blog about: (Don't you love my skill-less transition?)
Actual Blog Content:
One of the more difficult texts for kids to navigate is expository. This is unfortunate, because kids love to read about information and it's such an invaluable skill! I think it's largely due to the lack of experience kids have with informational text. The less exposure they have, the more difficult it is for them to glean information and identify how ideas are related.
My school has begun teaching about expository text this month. For the next several days, I'd like to share with you some of the things that we've planned to do in the expository genre.
To get started, we're helping kids do some basic text navigation by creating this anchor chart. Students often have experience identifying the text features. However, using them is a different story.
Ask a kid, "Where's the caption?" and he can probably point to a caption. Ask the same kid, "How does that help you? Why did the author include it?" and the kid stares blankly. (This is what I call the dead fish look.)
To me, this is a slight flag-raiser. Everything we do is to help our kids understand text and become better readers. If what we're doing doesn't do that... why do it? So to assist in this, we made sure we added a column on our chart entitled "Why was this feature included?"
Today my hunny and I went to Corner Bakery to do a little work on our laptops and enjoy some tasty stuff. I worked away (blogging, creating. You know the business) and he worked as well. He is the photographer for our district, so he was working on editing some pictures of the cute little guys we go to work for every day! At one point, he flipped his laptop around and showed me the most beautiful picture. A little pre-K boy with his tiny little fingers clenched in glee, laughing like he'd never seen anything so funny. I immediately cracked up. This little guy just looked so joyful.
Then I asked, "When did you take this? Why is he laughing so much?" and my hunny said, "It was the first day of pre-K and they were doing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes during PE as fast as they could."
And this is when I became a smushy puddle of jelly. I started cry! Right there, in the Corner Bakery, I had tears spilling down my face and onto the napkins made of recycled material. Something about the sweetness of a little boy being so excited to do Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes on his first day of school was so moving that I fell apart like a person with a chemical imbalance.
Which I may well be.
Anyway, this is what I intended to blog about: (Don't you love my skill-less transition?)
Actual Blog Content:
One of the more difficult texts for kids to navigate is expository. This is unfortunate, because kids love to read about information and it's such an invaluable skill! I think it's largely due to the lack of experience kids have with informational text. The less exposure they have, the more difficult it is for them to glean information and identify how ideas are related.
My school has begun teaching about expository text this month. For the next several days, I'd like to share with you some of the things that we've planned to do in the expository genre.
To get started, we're helping kids do some basic text navigation by creating this anchor chart. Students often have experience identifying the text features. However, using them is a different story.
Ask a kid, "Where's the caption?" and he can probably point to a caption. Ask the same kid, "How does that help you? Why did the author include it?" and the kid stares blankly. (This is what I call the dead fish look.)
To me, this is a slight flag-raiser. Everything we do is to help our kids understand text and become better readers. If what we're doing doesn't do that... why do it? So to assist in this, we made sure we added a column on our chart entitled "Why was this feature included?"
Once students have learned to identify (and appreciate) the features text has to offer, they need to do these two things with them:
1. Use the features to make good predictions about the text
2. Gather information from the features
To help out with this, I'm sharing a couple of documents that you can use to help kids make and record their predictions and record facts they have learned from features of nonfiction.
1. Use the features to make good predictions about the text
2. Gather information from the features
To help out with this, I'm sharing a couple of documents that you can use to help kids make and record their predictions and record facts they have learned from features of nonfiction.
(I require students to use the nonfiction features to gather information and record them on this organizer.

Monday, December 3, 2012
Saturday English Camp: Gingerbread Adventures and GIVEAWAY WINNERS!
They made the gingerbread from a mix and rolled it out.
Then they oh-so-carefully decorated with m&ms.
And then, they baked in toaster ovens!
Tasty. I'd recommend it.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thankfully Stuffed
We (my mother, sister-in-law, and I) made fourteen pies, fifty-some empanadas, a lemon thing, and
Not Martin Luther King. I mean, he's great, and I'm thankful for him, too, but my hunny is the one on the left.
He's on the right in this one. That other guy is Babe Ruth.

My great sister-in-law, Stephanie. Super fun to be around, and she's a teacher, too, so we bore everyone with our teacher talk.
All my bros and my parents. This is John & Stephanie's wedding, about a two years ago. We're lucky that, even though we tease each other mercilessly, (see below) we all actually like each other; something my hunny frequently reminds me of.
The other day, we celebrated my brother Ben's twenty second birthday by playing the game "Partini." This is a dangerous game. For one round, we had to write things about the person who chose the card and the person had to decide which was funniest and which was truest.
These were some of the statements written about me:
- I am a man who has funky teeth and I'm not as smart as I think. (from John. How sweet.)
- I am down to Earth (opinionated). (from Ben. This was truest.)
- I like tasty things (from Stephanie. This was funniest. Because it was true)
- I am the boss of can I can I have I can do anything I try to do! (this was mom. She struggled a bit.)
- I was such a mean teacher to my students they told me to teach other teachers. (from Matt. Insightful.)
Other highlights: "I'm the smartest one around. When I'm not around family." and "I can't fix anything without breaking it first."
Go link up with A Year of Many Firsts!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Marshmallow Multiplication - Freebie!
Just looking at it makes me happy.
And here's your freebie! At TPT or Teacher's Notebook.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Saturday Camp: Super Fun.
They measured pumpkins and cut them open to take out the seeds. They counted out the seeds and sorted them into groups!
"Ew! This is gross!" was the most repeated phrase this morning.
Tasty.
Our fourth graders had a Chato's Kitchen theme this week.
They sorted beans of different types and made a graph. (A few kids requested their very own bean to take home as a souvenir lol)
Then they made enchiladas! Some very creative teachers brought in a little griddle and fried the tortillas for a minute. The kids dipped the tortillas into the chile.
They put cheese in the middle, rolled them up, and scarfed.
As I walked by the fourth grade room, I overheard them working on a sentence patterning chart. They were adding nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. As they were adding to their list of adjectives, one of the teachers said, "You'll probably know this adjective! I always say, 'I'm going to go-'"
Clearly, she was going to finish with 'crazy.'
"TO THE BATHROOM!" shouted one of the kids.
I cracked up. Kids have no idea how goofy they are.
These were just some of my favorite highlights from our little Saturday camp.
So this is my big question. What do you do to support your English Language Learners?
Also, I have a new product to share with you!
Gobbling Up Words: Thanksgiving Themed Word Work!
Grab it at TPT or Teacher's Notebook.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Writing Talk
I know my blog posts don't always show it, but I have a secret dream. It's probably a pretty common one. I am a teacher after all, and teachers love words.
Before I was a teacher, I was a nerdy child. This, actually, is an understatement. I was THE nerdy child. A straight-A student, following instructions to the letter, and never deterring from the self-righteous path that I had determined as the only right way to do things. I worse big, almost-perfectly-round glasses with wire frames. I had crooked teeth between which my tongue would occasionally protrude, trying to form a lisping "s". I say 'had'. I should say 'have'. I cried when I got my first B in third grade math, and I loved books. I loved to read. I spent hours squirreled away in my bedroom reading Anne of Green Gables. All of this undoubtedly pushed me in the direction of a young writer.
I had a notebook that I religiously carried around with me. An unceremonious purple spiral, with the wires uncurled and sticking out on either end, making it look like some kind of a medieval instrument of torture. It was filled with page after page of my "novel," about a magic hallway mirror ugh, the cheesiness in the house of some older, kindly women, loosely based on my aunts. Later, when I moved from Dallas to El Paso, the novel changed. It was now about Annie, a young girl who, not unlike myself, moved and started over in a new town. However, Annie, unlike me, quickly met a handsome young man with striking green eyes, and fell in love, her life surely to end in unbelievable happiness.
I had a penchant for drama, okay?
But all that cheese is not really my point. My point is that I loved to write, so I spent my time thinking like a writer. Thinking like a writer is what helped me grow, not only as a writer, but as a reader.
Do our kids love writing?
If they don't we have some problems. If they don't love to write, and spend much of their day doing it - and I'm not only talking about fiction here; I'm talking about at all - then we are missing out on a vital tool that will grow them as readers, and thinkers, and individuals.
We're trying to build some reflective writing practices on our campus. One way we're doing it is by using the language of writing with our kids. We can help them grow in their sophistication by growing their thinking about the choices they make in their writing. Because writing is nothing if not a series of deliberate choices to make an impact on the reader.
Here's a little anchor chart I put together to encourage kids' using more sophisticated language to talk about their writing choices. I used the released questions from the Texas STAAR Writing Fourth Grade Test and other sources as well. Then I organized the stems into the three categories on the writing rubric, to help students think about the purpose of their conversations.
Before I was a teacher, I was a nerdy child. This, actually, is an understatement. I was THE nerdy child. A straight-A student, following instructions to the letter, and never deterring from the self-righteous path that I had determined as the only right way to do things. I worse big, almost-perfectly-round glasses with wire frames. I had crooked teeth between which my tongue would occasionally protrude, trying to form a lisping "s". I say 'had'. I should say 'have'. I cried when I got my first B in third grade math, and I loved books. I loved to read. I spent hours squirreled away in my bedroom reading Anne of Green Gables. All of this undoubtedly pushed me in the direction of a young writer.
I had a notebook that I religiously carried around with me. An unceremonious purple spiral, with the wires uncurled and sticking out on either end, making it look like some kind of a medieval instrument of torture. It was filled with page after page of my "novel," about a magic hallway mirror ugh, the cheesiness in the house of some older, kindly women, loosely based on my aunts. Later, when I moved from Dallas to El Paso, the novel changed. It was now about Annie, a young girl who, not unlike myself, moved and started over in a new town. However, Annie, unlike me, quickly met a handsome young man with striking green eyes, and fell in love, her life surely to end in unbelievable happiness.
I had a penchant for drama, okay?
But all that cheese is not really my point. My point is that I loved to write, so I spent my time thinking like a writer. Thinking like a writer is what helped me grow, not only as a writer, but as a reader.
Do our kids love writing?
If they don't we have some problems. If they don't love to write, and spend much of their day doing it - and I'm not only talking about fiction here; I'm talking about at all - then we are missing out on a vital tool that will grow them as readers, and thinkers, and individuals.
We're trying to build some reflective writing practices on our campus. One way we're doing it is by using the language of writing with our kids. We can help them grow in their sophistication by growing their thinking about the choices they make in their writing. Because writing is nothing if not a series of deliberate choices to make an impact on the reader.
Here's a little anchor chart I put together to encourage kids' using more sophisticated language to talk about their writing choices. I used the released questions from the Texas STAAR Writing Fourth Grade Test and other sources as well. Then I organized the stems into the three categories on the writing rubric, to help students think about the purpose of their conversations.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Indecision: our sofa adventures
Oh, yeah. And since I love him, I do like to be with him a lot.
Those are the things we're happy about. There are other things, though. Things we're 'happy' about.
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