Insectsy and We Know It II

Hey Friends,

If you're coming here straight from part one, you're awesome! And if you're not, don't worry, you're awesome too :). I am starting to think I might have a crush on Mr. Eric Carle. This past week we used yet another one of his children's books, The Grouchy Ladybug as our focus text. Our sight word last week was 'look' and with the abundance of dialogue in the story, I thought it was a good opportunity to review the word 'said', 'you' and 'are' as well. Here are some student samples:

Insectsy and We Know It I

Hello Everyone,

It has been such a strange and overwhelming past couple of weeks, and I think if I had to sum it all up in one word it would be - bizarre. As many of you know, I survived my first case of food poisoning last week, but apparently it was a mere link in a chain of unfortunate events surrounding my bubble of friends. The reading specialist at my school recently got bit by a rattlesnake (he's doing much better now), the school psychologist was out for a couple of weeks due to appendicitis, and last night, my boyfriend also caught a bad wave of food poisoning. Bizarre, am I wrong? I'm bracing myself for a plague of frogs to fall from the sky next weekend. I'm serious. All these obscure and rather outlandish situations have really begun to bug me...

Fashionate About Teaching

Hi Friends,

So I had some undercooked chicken this past Saturday and I am going to assume that that was the cause of a major (at least in my book) episode of food poisoning - the first of its kind since I've been alive! For a foodie and person who literally grazes 24/7, I've determined that food poisoning is indeed a fate far worse than death. I hadn't eaten food for two days and at that point I seriously had to ask myself, "Self, what are you?". I felt neither human nor alive. Regardless, I'm doing much better now and although I am aware that I'm long overdue for a teaching post, I thought I'd celebrate my return to eating solid foods with a F.A.T. post. Do you see what I did there? ;)

Vasquez Rocks, Rock!

Hi Everybody,

My obsession with Vasquez Rocks first started when I discovered that it was the filming site of some Star Trek (the original series) footage back in the day. Admittedly, and I'll gladly call myself out before you do, the only Star Trek I've ever seen is the 2009 blockbuster so yeah, I'm not a die-hard fan or anything by any stretch of the imagination. However, the idea of hiking here with a vibrant yellow Star Trek shirt (shout out to my old roommate for making it happen!) was irresistibly appealing to me and it was a near instant addition to my ever so evolving Bucket List.

Banh Mi Birthday Dinner

Hi Everyone,

Today was my mom's birthday and in lieu of me sending her flowers on Mother's Day, I decided to slave away in the kitchen and create a flavorful birthday dinner for her (and me!) to enjoy. Growing up, my mom always cooked dinner for us. In fact, missing dinner was considered a cardinal sin in the Lee household. Everyone knew that dinner was synonmous with family time so you'd better be dead if you weren't there, and if you were alive and absent, then yikes, you might as well be dead. Suffice it to say I rarely missed dinner with my famiy and over time, thanks to this tradition, I grew to associate food with love. So what better way to show love for my mom than preparing her a scrumptious feast?

He Was Nuts About Her

Hi Everyone,

For all the fellas out there who think you've got the number one wingman, think again.
Meet Waldo. He's a walnut and I reckon his success rate is higher than your average wingman's.

I'll be posting an update with our metamorphosis unit sometime later this week, but today, I'm feeling rather whimsically nostalgic. In grad school, one of the classes we were required to take was a course on incorporating art into our pedagogy. Needless to say, this was one of my favorite quarters during my M. Ed. methods coursework taught by one of my favorite professors on the staff.  There was one project in particular that really roused my creativity and made a memorable and lasting impression on my otherwise somewhat forgetful and unimpressionable memory. Well, today also just so happens to mark the eve of my one year dating anniversary with my current beau. You might be wondering what an art project I was assigned in grad school has to do with me celebrating a wonderful year with my boyfriend right? Allow me to share yet another version of boy meets girl.

Earth Means the World to Us

Hi Everyone,

Last week we learned about the 3 R's: reducing, reusing, and recycling. We read a bunch of books about recycling and discussed what it means to take care of our Earth. My students especially enjoyed We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers by Lauren Child. The illustrations and characters (Charlie and Lola) are so much fun and the way the book covers the topic of recycling is just wonderful. Later in the week, after the concept of recycling was in my students' schemas, we sorted out paper, cans, and plastic on our Promethean Board by taking turns completing this short activity.