Tofurkey it is, in that case!!

Last Tuesday, our last day of school before Thanksgiving break, I assigned this journal prompt:

Write a letter, from the point of view of a turkey, to your family.

Include reasons in the letter that your family should NOT eat the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

I love having students write from others' points of view, especially animals, so I love assigning this prompt.  Also, my vegetarian self likes getting the students to think about their food from time to time!! :)  I promise I'm not preaching...I don't want THAT parent phone call!  Anyways, I didn't have a chance to read through them until today.  Here were my two favorites:

(sorry the pictures are super blurry!  I really have to remember to bring my camera to school--my phone isn't cutting it!)

 Dear family,

PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!!!  There are SO many different foods you could eat instead of me!  You can eat potatoes, pie, cranberrys, NOT ME!  Or how about we all be vegiterians for this time.  Please, please, don't eat me.  Turkeys don't need to be Thanksgiving food, how about you take the chickens insted.  (That sounds like a good plan, don't you think?!)  I will give you some time to think about this (or 2 days to be exact!)  PLEASE DONT EAT ME!

Very scared and sad,
      Turkey

Please don't eat me this year for thanks giving this year.  I have lots of dreams when I grow up.  I want to be a Professional turkey dancer.  So if you eat I will never get to accomplish that career.  that would be really sad right so if you want to eat me well PLEASE DONT!!!!!

Sincerely,

         Your Turkey

I'm thinking next year we should do an actual writing project with this prompt...these are too funny!

Today's Little Happys :)

Today was happy because of...

 ...These cookies that a student brought me.  She wants to bring them in for our class holiday party the day before winter break (in 2 1/2 weeks...), and she and her mom wanted to give me a "taste test."  Adorable.

...And because of this gingerbread latte.  First of the year!!  I have to say, it was not quite as yummy as a pumpkin spice latte...but really, what is?

...And also because of this little guy!  This worn out, ugly frog is a new addition to our classroom.  Actually, he is a cast-off from my mom's classroom (she's also a teacher).  Teacher Mom decided he was looking a little ratty, but I thought he still had some life in him!  My kids seem to be way too old too fast, and I am forever looking for ways to keep them kids.  They like to sit and read with the frog, and I was happy to seem him perched up here with the books at the end of the day!


..And because when we took the Reading MAP test (a 3x a year progress monitoring test), almost all of my kids' scores went up since fall!  YAY!!  2 of my lowest kids actually went up close to 15 points, which is HUGE!  I almost cried.  :)  Now, just gotta keep this up until the end of the year!

..And also because I had a successful visit to the orthopedist during which it told me it is OKAY for me to be running, as long as I am taking it easy and a LITTLE pain is not becoming a LOT of pain...after which I had a successful run/walk on the treadmill!  PS- treadmill < running outside.  I miss summer...

Pourquoi Stories: Class Book

While I LOVE teaching intermediate grade kiddos (I actually had a NIGHTMARE that I had to teach Kindergarten last night...*shivers*), one thing that often makes me sad is that we do way less "cute" work.  Actually, at times this is something I LIKE about big kids, but come on, every teacher likes a good bulletin board filled with cute work now and again!  Well, as promised, I made the Pourquoi Tales from last week's lesson into a class book.  The kids were thrilled!!!  We spent 15 minutes of social studies today sitting on the carpet and listening to students share their tales from the book.  It turned out great, and was wonderful to see them get so excited.  I definitely plan to incorporate more writing into class books in the future (even if just copies of expository essays or narratives!), because they get the biggest kick out of both seeing their writing in a book, and reading their classmates' writing.

Pictures (sorry for the smudges!  I blurred the names)

The Bee Story was a few more pages...but you get the idea ;)

Story Surgery

source

Earlier this year, I taught a mini-lesson on Story Surgery that I borrowed from Ralph Fletcher's Craft Lessons K-8.  Here's a secret...sometimes kids' writing absolutely SUCKS their first draft out!!!!  No really, it can be a big garbled mess.  But here's a bigger secret that I just learned this year...that's okay!!!!  My perfectionist self tends to like a nice and neat first draft, but it is SO much more beneficial (in my opinion) to just let kids write, then teach them the beauty of revising.  Because the first draft is often a little sketchy, I love Story Surgery.  I have my kiddos write on every other line on just one side of the paper for the first draft.  Then, as I am going over the writing with them in conferences, we will look for places that may need more elaborating, or parts that are out of order.  Next (and here's the fun part), the kids will cut apart their draft, and tape it onto fresh paper leaving room for the new additions.

It's very practical, and let's face it, it's fun too.  I keep a set of scissors and some scotch tape in the writing supplies bin (along with whisper phones, thesauruses, and red and blue pens for revising/editing), and while at first I thought they would get crazy with them, they are actually very responsible.  Anyways, this all came up because I noted this case of story surgery getting a bit out of hand...

Story Surgery--yep, those are all taped together!!

Hey, at least she was revising!!! :) 

I am thankful...

...for my wonderful family with whom I got to enjoy a yummy, silly thanksgiving...

...especially for my parents and brothers, who never mind hearing my stories about school, who put up with the fact that I am still free-loading at their place instead of growing up and moving out, and who grilled tofu and allowed it to grace our Thanksgiving table :)...

...that even though many of my friends live far away now, we are as close as ever, and when we DO see each other, nothing has changed...

...for my job.  not only that I have one, but that I have one I LOVE that is never boring, mindless, or impersonal...

...for my supportive coworkers, who I know I can call at night, frustrated and stressed out, and they will talk me down and convince me to keep coming back into work...

...that the above type of phone calls are FAR less common this year than last year!!!

...that I have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children every single day.  Because honestly, what better purpose IS there in life?

...that while I am often frustrated about my running injury, I still have running in my life.  After years of believing I was not an athlete, I have found a sport that I love, and thank goodness it's one that you can start anytime, anywhere, and participate in even if you kind of suck...

...for you. :)

I guess some runs are just like this...

This week I started my half-marathon training plan, after putting it off as long as I feel I can and still be ready for my February race.  This is my first half-marathon, and I very much want to be prepared, so I had every intention of starting to train EARLY.  But then my body had other plans...I've been on a running hiatus for the past few months, trying to rest my tibia and allow it to heal from the stress fracture I got in August.  Turns out it's taking FOREVER.  I finally felt ready to start running the past couple weeks, but still have some pain off and on...let me tell you, I think back over my runs before I hurt my leg and I did NOT APPRECIATE THEM ENOUGH!!!!  I would give anything to be able to run without a) tibia pain b) worrying about tibia pain and c) having to take a million walk breaks to PREVENT tibia pain.  Wow, I'm doing a lot of complaining today...one of those mornings though.

training plan

When I started my run this morning, it was bad.  And then.....it got worse.  I imbibed in two delicious brews last night while catching up with my college roommate who is in town for the holiday.  They were on the heavier side, and did NOT like being sloshed around in my tummy this morning on my run.  Cue nausea...not the recipe for a good run!  (but it was worth it to spend the time with friends!)  My tummy was not enjoying my run at all.  Then, halfway into the 3 mile run my tibia started yelling at me too.  You'd think after months of rest it would just chill the heck out!  I did listen to my body though and switched to just walking once the tibia started really hurting, and headed straight for home.  Where I promptly saran-wrapped an ice pack to my leg and laid on my bed wallowing in self-pity.  I know, pathetic.  I'm just frustrated and SO over this whole deal...

Here's hoping that a day of icing is all I need and I'll be ready for my 4-mile run Sunday...note: do not drink heavy beer Saturday night...

Pourquoi? Because I said so.

I have a secret to confess.  I don't like teaching social studies.  I know, it's horrible...Actually, the TEACHING is not so bad, but I dislike the planning part because I very rarely have original and engaging ideas for social studies.  And since I don't have inspired lesson ideas, I don't enjoy the teaching as much as I do other subjects.  Once in awhile I do stumble across a great interact or simulation (I adored the Hacker Trail westward expansion interact we did last spring!), but between our outdated sub-par social studies curriculum, and the fact that there is little or no time in the day for social studies anyways, my lessons are usually not quite what they ought to be.

source

Right now, we are in the middle of a half-assed unit I threw together on Native Americans.  Now I just said I'm not into social studies...well, I am REALLY not into the social studies curriculum on Native Americans.  First of all, it's way too much.  No, we are not going to study EVERY tribe, and no, I really don't want to do tribe research projects.  I would much rather focus on traditions of Native American cultures, then begin moving onto settling the New World/revisit Native American roles in that.  Anyways, in my ongoing quest to find engaging, meaningful lessons that connect to Native American traditions, I found this fantastic unit on Pourquoi Tales (how & why stories, often myths and legends) on the fabulous website Read Write Think.  If you have never looked around there before, definitely check it out!  It's a gold mine.

Over the past two days (I squeezed it into such a short time because we weren't using our literacy series for the two day week, plus our intervention block was cancelled.  Helloooo tons of teaching time, it's so nice to meet you!!), I read aloud 3 or 4 Pourquoi Tales from different cultures, including a few from Native American tribes.  The kids also read a few for homework.  We worked on identifying the aspects of the genre, as well as discussing the cultural elements from the stories.  The class LOVED listening to the stories (and hello, we know I am a big sucker for any chance to a. read out loud and b. read picture books to my class), and really got a concept of the genre.

source

Then, after exposure to a few tales, they worked with partners to come up with an idea for their own pourquoi tale to explain something in the world.  They filled out planning guides (provided by Read Write Think!!) and started drafting their stories.  One thing that they struggled with a little bit was coming up with plot events that can link to an eventual solution that explains their element in nature.  For example, one student wanted to write about why the cheetah has it's spots, but couldn't think of any ideas for events that would lead to that.  It took a lot of conferencing with me for some of them to get ideas, but once they did, they ran with them!!!  The stories are so creative.

After writing and revising, they recopied the stories onto construction paper and illustrated.  When we come back from break, I'm planning to laminate the pages and bind them into a class book.  Hopefully beforehand, if I am feeling extra ambitions, I will have a chance to photocopy them all and make individual black and white booklets of the stories for the kids.  They seemed excited about the class book idea, but disappointed that they wouldn't be able to take their story home.  I definitely recommend this lesson, and not just as a Native American unit link.  Genres, especially traditional literature genres, are a highly tested area, but tend to be very confusing for kids.  While "Pourquoi Tale" isn't a specific genre, I feel like my class has a much clearer understanding of legends and myths after this lesson.  And, I am SUPER excited to get the book all put together.  I will post pictures of that next week!

You know you're a teacher when...

You get a new book (not for your classroom for a change!) and your immediate instinct is to write your last name and the genre of the book inside the cover!  Almost just did that, and then realized that it probably isn't necessary... ;)

In other news, Happy Thanksgiving Break!!!!! aka the BEST 5 days off of the year.  Much, much needed for everyone's sanity I'd say!

To be updated on soon:

• My RTI frustrations
• Our wonderful writing project from the past two days
• Half-marathon training--let the tibia swelling begin!

Book Club = Eating Extravaganza

Today was Book Club!  (BTW that just made me think of how, during student teaching, the el ed majors would call gathering at the bar next to campus Friday afternoons "book club"...oh the good times...)  Anyways, this book club actually does involve some reading.  This month the book of discussion was Harry Potter 7, which of course we had all read before, but wanted to reread/discuss with the movie just coming out (which I still have not seen!!!).  Actually though, I'm pretty sure that the only reason we picked HP was so that we could just keep discussing the Hunger Games Trilogy, our OBSESSION.  The past two book clubs have both been discussing Hunger Games books, and both had fabulous Hunger Games themed desserts, including a cookie cake designed like the arena in book 2, and cookies shaped like Katniss's mockingjay pin.  All courtesy of our resident book club baking/cooking/crafting EXTRAORDINAIRE!!!  This month, we upped the ante by each writing trivia questions for one of the books so we could have our own Hunger Games Game.  God, we are so lame, but it was so much fun.

Too fabulous to eat...almost!

This month, she outdid herself and cooked up this AMAZING edible Hunger Games game board!!!  We had a great time moving our game piece around the brownie board, answering trivia questions, and eating amazing food.  The beverages were one thing that DID go along with the Harry Potter theme--butter beer floats and pumpkin juice!  Umm can you say delicious?

The pathetic dent we made in the HUGE game board!

I apologize to anyone who is bored outta their minds because they don't know what on earth The Hunger Games are.  I suggest you read the book review I wrote on them a few months ago, then get yourself to the library ASAP because you are missing out on one awesome book series!!!

Next month's book club book?  Twilight.  I have never read it and the other girls are avid fans who insist I will love it.  And, let's be honest...we just can't bring ourselves to tackle an adult book.  :)  That's okay...right?

Wine + Chocolate + Shoes = BLISS

Friday nights I usually want to just curl up in a ball on the couch, totally drained from the long week.  However, I think my abundance of rest Monday-Wednesday this week left me with an abundance of extra energy Friday!  That, and having a good, productive, happy day at school.  That might have something to do with the fact that only 19 kids showed up...yes, 5 absences.  I love my kids, but that small group was amazing.  Wish I could have 19 kids every day!

Too pretty to eat...well, almost...

I decided to take advantage of my bundle of energy and went out for wine and chocolate with Miss R.  Amazingly, there is a fantastic little cafe/lounge not too far away that sells the most beautiful hand-painted truffles paired with a glass of vino.  Hold me.  The company was wonderful, the conversation lovely, and the chocolate and wine...bliss.

But wait, it gets even better.  Halfway through my glass of wine, I realized a DSW shoe store was just across the parking lot, still open.  Obviously a quick walk through the massive shoe store was in order before heading home!  Which means of course, buying a pair...when you see red patent leather flats on the clearance shelf, you do not think twice.  You just buy!!

The weekend is off to a wonderful start.  Now, I'm off to school to help out at Family Movie Night.  When I heard they were showing Toy Story 3, I immediately signed up.  I'm kind of a Toy Story fan... :)  Have a great Saturday!