The Traveling Teacher

Another Ending

2011-03-13T21:52:00.001-07:00

Well my trip to Granada, Spain has come to an end. I was sad to leave because it really started to feel like home for me. Seeing as I was recognized at two pastelerias and a teteria I consider my first trip to Europe a success.

Where will teaching and traveling take me next? Only time will tell!

Weekends Strolling Granada

2011-02-15T08:33:00.000-08:00

More pictures from my weekends wandering!

Aren't the doorways beautiful!?

This is where people used to get their water before there was public plumbing.

More doorways!

The man in the blue sweater looks remarkably like Mr. Rodgers...

Statues - there are SO many here!

Alhambra from afar - Thursday I will get to see it in person!

Just another beautiful Spanish building!

Far shot! :) Talk about lovely!

My former housemate Nick and I overlooking the Alhambra. What a gorgeous day!

Stephanie, Kelsey, myself, and Nick resting from our stroll up through the Albaicin. Ah, those are the days!

Mas Comida!

2011-02-15T08:27:00.000-08:00

As usual, I've tried more food in Spain! My latest treats are from my favorite pasteleria in Granada - Olympic 21. I am actually recognized there and am buddies with the employees... oh what my love of goodies has brought me!

This one is the same fruit one I had before (it was too good to pass up) and then another new addition on the right. It is pastry with custard in the middle which is light and super cinnamony. YUM!

My gigantic sandwich! Roscos are super common here - this one was labeled as vegetable but had mayo and tuna. It was yummy!

Side view.... I did in fact eat the whole thing. I surprise myself sometimes!

FINALLLLLYYYYYY!

2011-02-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

The glorious day finally arrived for churros and chocolate - let me just start off with saying yum. :) It was quite tasty and completely spur of the moment as we walked around one night.

These are the churros and the milk chocolate (the one complaint I had was no dark chocolate for sure!) but it was tasty!

The smile on my face could not fade because finally I got what I'd been waiting for! :)

Then the guys soon found it endlessly funny because it looked rather.... shall we say inappropriate to see me eating the churros...

Boys will be boys but they were sure tasty! :)

Pronunciation Errors

2011-02-09T05:38:00.000-08:00

Well this is just a funny story from teaching English...

Pronunciation of English is sometimes difficult for non-native speakers because we have different sounds that aren't in other languages.. For example:

During a teaching practice with beginners a teacher was drilling (saying the word and having students repeat the word to pronounce in correctly) the word breakfast. This older gentleman was having trouble and no matter how many times they went back and forth repeating, he just kept saying "breast-fest". I couldn't help but laugh!

Then when I was teaching beginners the same gentleman was having difficulty saying waitress only to pronounce "white-trash".... certainly makes a sentence funny when the "white trash" was taking your order or bringing you drinks. HILARIOUS!

Graduation!

2011-02-09T05:13:00.000-08:00

We did it! We all graduated with our TEFL certificate! YAY!! Here are some shots from the event...

Mercedes - our house caretaker - makes an amazing amount of paella for us... boy was that delicious!

Vegetarian and mixed - those shrimp were awesome!

The spread - bread, paella and an awesome salad. Complete with sangria and fanta. YUMMY!

We waited patiently to hear our names being called!

And here we are from left to right: (top) Nick, John, Ryan, Juliana. (bottom) Luke, Fred, Megan, Keith, Kelsey, Stephanie, Suzanne, and me. :) Fun day!

The trainers in all their glory! Left to right: Dylan, John, Antony, and Richard.

A more serious picture!

Me accepting my certificate from Dylan! :) And the most exciting news was that I was valedictorian! YAHOO!!! All that hard work definitely paid off!

The classmates started chanting "Speech, speech, speech...."

So here I am making me heart-felt, impromptu speech. :)

Sights around Town

2011-02-09T04:59:00.000-08:00

During my latest outings I snapped a few photos to show everyone back home. Somewhat random but they caught my eye!

Even in Spain the kids like Spiderman (this was for you AJ!). The kids here generally dress VERY nicely but it is fun to see a kid every now and again dressed like super hero!

I generally don't take pictures of dresses but this was gorgeous (minus the bow) and would totally wear it whenever I get married. Definitely caught my eye.

Street views in Granada.
My postre - a little tart with vanilla custard and fresh strawberries on top. YUM!

Stephanie with her dessert called Felipe.... we aren't really sure what it is actually called because when she tried to ask what it was called she accidently asked the nice man behind the counter what HIS name was, to which he replied, Felipe.... we got a good chuckle outside the pasteleria when we realized what happened and proceeded to call this little morsel Felipe! :)

Me, the city, my dessert, and a sunny day - what could be better!

Wide shot of the same thing. Just a gorgeous day in Granada!

A fountain in town - nearly every plaza (and there are tons) has their own fountain. All are so different!

GIGANTE!

2011-02-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

I mean, really! Look at this postre! It was awesome! Like I have mentioned before, there really aren't many cakes around here - everything is mostly custards and tortes. But this little gem (obviously not so little being as it's almost as big as my head!) was like a chocolate covered Boston cream pie - vanilla cake, custard in between and covered in dark chocolate. It was tasty to the max and a steal for only 1 Euro!!

Strawberries!!!

2011-02-09T04:53:00.000-08:00

I just had to share this picture.... I mean, strawberries in January! The mediterranean in amazing! :)

Another Sunday, Another Crepe

2011-02-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

It's become a Sunday tradition around these parts to have tea and crepes on a Sunday afternoon. It's the perfect break from the day and a nice chance to get out of the house for a bit.

This Sunday I ventured way out of my crepe box and tried a savory crepe - cheese, chicken, avocado, tomato, and a dill sauce inside a crepe. Definitely tasty, though the good ol' fashioned sweet ones are still the ones I prefer!

Stephanie and I at the teteria having a good, relaxing afternoon!

Me and my Moroccan tea. It's what I get every time and I love it more each time. Might have to see if I can buy some - it's that good!

My little tea pot and cute cup from the visit. Makes me really want to get a nice teapot as the treat for myself from my trip here! I need to continue this tradition even after I've left Spain because it really does do the trick to relax you!

Some Clothes I Bought So Far

2011-02-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some clothes that I have bought so far. More pictures to come soon but these are the only pictures I have taken of clothes so far.

Purple suede heels with a flower on the toe - talk about CUTE!

Brown and light blue shirt with ruffled sleeves - way cute!

For Chocolate Lovers Only

2011-02-02T06:31:00.000-08:00

This dessert was truly and utterly a chocolate lovers dream! It was something that literally stopped me in my tracks and I was compelled to buy it. And for only 2 Euro I thought it was a steal!

As you can see... it's simply amazing! Chocolate torte/cake with a truffle on top.... and all in dark chocolate. It brings a tear to my eye!

Like heaven on earth.... The truffle was amazing by the way. Definitely put the cake over the top. For those of you who don't like anything "too rich".... don't even attempt this - it's not for the weak of heart. A full glass of milk is likely needed but oh so worth it!

MORE DESSERTS!

2011-02-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

Well, like I said! I am addicted to pastries and I have made a personal goal to eat my way across Europe - of course this will not be my only trip so that is definitely possible. :)

My pastry was the fruit one to the left - so tasty! Cake and custard layered with tart fruits like raspberries and currants on the top with a light fruit syrup. Perfect balance to sour and sweet. Honestly one of my favorites since being here. Something about fruit and custard that is so light and just screams summer. Again I'm forced to say... lordy I wish I could bake like this! Maybe something to add to my life list! :)
Top view of the pastry - the flash didn't give the best photo but I just didn't want to spend time taking tons of photos.... I wanted to dig in!

Still More Sights to See!

2011-02-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday 2 of my housemates and I went out for a walk just to get some fresh air and get out of the house. There were a lot of things due that everyone was stressing out about so few people left the confines of the house. Seeing as I needed a mental break AND I've been keeping up with my work so didn't have a whole lot, I ventured out for a break. Here are some sights along the way.

Up the hill looking at the homes from downtown Granada. What a grey day we had!

Architecture on the cathedral where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried. It's a pretty amazing sight to see. The church is massive!!

More architecture!

And even more - they don't make things like this anymore!

That's not even the whole thing of the cathedral! It is gigantor! Me in my red jacket so you can spot me easily!

The bell tower of the cathedral.

A long shot of the cathedral. Pretty gorgeous. If only there were some stained glass windows it would be the church I've always imagined would be in Europe.

Orange trees grow everywhere here! They are super sour though and are only used to make marmalade!

Walking down a corridor in the Albaicin!

More churches in Granada. The architecture is gorgeous here!!

Just thought that looked so cute and European. Loved it!

Stephanie and I on a side street in Granada.

One more shot of the two of us!

Kelsey and I with a gorgeous background!

The crazy different environment in Spain - prickly pear cactus and old brick buildings. How fun!

Old Moorish buildings all on the hill. Something about these white washed walls on a hill like that make me think of the Mykonos in Greece!

Down into town - the city looked so brown that day!

Me with the city and the cloudy skies. It was much warmer than it looked because of the overcast but it was a nice bit of fresh air and time out of the house! :)

Bread and the Bread Man!

2011-02-02T05:26:00.000-08:00

Only in Spain would there be a man who literally comes door to door with a basket of bread which you can purchase and people actually buy it. People meaning.... well, me! :) I couldn't resist some homemade bread and to support the local baker, so I bought some. And here it is from all angles, in all it's glory!

And on the left is the bread man (and his basket of bread loaves) in the flesh with the house's caretaker, Mercedes. He definitely had a grill or a lot of gold teeth.... who's to say.

Turned out the bread wasn't my favorite (had a weird after taste and was REALLY dense bread) but it was good to give it a go at least! :)

Inspiration from a Necklace

2011-02-02T02:38:00.000-08:00

I bought this necklace a while ago, thinking it was pretty, dangly, and fun - all the characteristics I was looking for in my necklace purchase. However, wearing it here and spending more time looking at it I realize it essentially represents a lot of ideas I have for myself and my future...

The little Eiffel Tower - I want to see the world. Whether I do that through a teaching English vehicle or an annual trip somewhere, I don't know. I do know that my life list has a LOT of things on it (140 at last count) and I would venture to say the vast majority are travel related.
The circle that says discover - This is representative in 2 ways: I think it's important to always be learning and discovering and the fact it is printed on a circle (symbolizing an endless cycle) is the perfect thing for that!
The world - Like I mentioned before, I want to see the world through whatever vehicle can take me there. I truly want to experience as many different cultures as possible because it only helps you become a better person in the end.
The camera - Well, obviously I want to take pictures of all my adventures to share with everyone and to remember for the future!
The plane - Well, a plane will probably be my most probable literal vehicle to travel the world and get that passport filled with stamps! :)

Just some thoughts from Spain and a little deeper than I tend to go on my usual food postings but hey, I thought I'd share! :)

More Pastries!!

2011-02-02T02:13:00.000-08:00

Well I can't help myself! The treats here are just too good to pass up.... so I don't even try to resist anymore. I will confess.... these treats were both bought on the same day, but from two different bakeries (be to fair to both, of course!).

This first one was very different from what I was expecting. Like I mentioned before, I basically just point at one that looks appealing and give it a go. Nothing is named so I just generally stick to something that I can recognize to be fruit or chocolate... seems safe anyway! Well this one was a vanilla cream custard/cake mixture (like all of the pastries here are - they don't have traditional cake like we have in the states. It is thin, moist cake with custard layers too so it's extra moist!) with a fairly thick layer of chocolate on top. However, it was chocolate anise flavor which completely took me off guard. It wasn't bad, but wasn't my favorite necessarily because of the anise. Oh well! Can't win them all, huh? There are enough other tasty ones here it's probably for the best! I would have to be rolled home if they were all so good! :)

Side View. :)

This little gem, however, was mighty good! It was a puff pastry shell, filled with custard, with sliced apples on top and a sweet caramel-type glaze on top... oh man was it good! I need to learn how to bake like this... and of course find someone to give things away to because otherwise I would probably eat myself into a food coma. :) A cookbook is still on my "to buy" list!

Top View - tasty, huh?

A Quest for Chocolate con Churros

2011-02-01T13:41:00.001-08:00

Since I have been here (quickly coming up on 4 weeks) I have yet to have chocolate con churros. It seems to be the elusive treat on my Spanish adventure. It was one of the things I was set on having when I got here and yet with a busy school schedule and many many other treats that I've tried chocolate con churros just hasn't appeared yet. But now it's getting late in the trip and honestly I'm getting nervous that the elusive breakfast or snack is not going to happen for me... I've decided to take things into my own hands now... I am not going to let my first trip to Europe end in dessert failure... not on my watch! So my goal is to find AND TRY at least one (that's right, I said at least! I'm shooting for the stars here!) churreria (churro cafes - yes they have their own cafes devoted to the sweet treat). It is definitely a challenge I am up to taking on. And with a nose for chocolate like I have, I know it will be successful. On my walk the other day I saw a whole plaza that on every corner was a churreria - aka heaven on earth. Now I just hope the hype I've built up in my head is worth it.... Ah, who am I kidding? It's going to be ooey gooey chocolatey goodness! YUM!

Seafood Paella

2011-02-01T05:09:00.000-08:00

Well I had my first authentic paella at a restaurant the other day. Two housemates and I went to a cafe for lunch and split the seafood paella. The restaurant definitely didn't skimp on the seafood! We had crab, mussels, crawdads, and calamari. It was good but a little more exotic for my taste since the seafood was a whole!

Most of the seafood had their limbs removed but this one managed to resist the efforts. Looks like he's throwing up a gang sign! :)

This is the mural on the wall outside the cafe. Aside from the metal face, the rest of the mural is made with their 1 cent and 2 cent penny-type currency. Pretty neat!

Tapas with our drinks - a little pasta, roasted veggies, and some meat on top of bread. Not bad for ordering a glass of water!

The paella before anyone got their hands on it!

Me and the crawdad before I had to crack him open. I had to get a photo of it because I knew few people back home would believe I cracked open a crawdad! :) It has so little meat (only in the baby tail) but it's tasty. The saffron stained my fingers for the rest of the day though. Super good look to have... yellow fingers! Good thing I'm not trying to impress anyone here! :)

Family Dinner

2011-01-31T05:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a look at our Sunday night family dinner. Four of us chipped in and created a wonderful assortment of yummy foods!

This was my plate of food! Tasty!

Here we are, just going to town on that food!

The dessert plate - chocolate, chocolate chip cake and suizas con chocolate (chocolate cookies with chocolate fudge filling).

Quite a spread for only 4 people cooking!

Stephanie made a garlic cream chicken with jamon serrano and spinach. SO good!

She also made some spinach and tomato bruschetta with mozzarella on top. Quite good!

Tortilla espanola with avocado - very yummy!

Spanish rice made by me - turned out pretty good for just throwing it together!

Banana-Chocolatey-Goodness!

2011-01-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

My crepe - I realized I forgot to post a picture and that just isn't fair! I am taking pictures of all of my food for a reason, right!? Yum! Chocolate, banana and whipped cream!

Cloudy Days, Tea, and Crepes

2011-01-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

What's a better way to spend a cloudy Sunday afternoon than in a teteria (tea house) drinking tea and eating crepes? Few things I can think of! It's becoming a Sunday tradition for me! Sounds like a plan!

The city on a cloudy day!

The old city buildings and the new graffiti on the streets - merging of modern and antiquated.

The cathedral where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand's remains lay. Pretty fantastic architecture.
The top level of the teteria - my favorite place!
My housemates who came out with me today! From left to right, Juliana, John, Keith, and Nick.

Me with the housemates! Moroccan tea and a chocolate banana crepe - YUMMY! I need to find some recipes for crepes and a crepe pan and I am going to continue this tradition when I get home! :)

Veggie Bruschetta

2011-01-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

No exactly a Spanish meal but it sure was tasty! I made these bruschetta from onions, red and green peppers, garlic and tomatoes sauteed, toasted crusty bread, and topped with cheese and avocado. YUM!

A Full Day in Granada!

2011-01-30T04:01:00.000-08:00

YUM! Nothing helps relax you more than a nice walk through town and a sugary treat from an amazing bakery!

Well Saturday is traditionally my day of rest. I work hard all week and just need that mental break on Saturday so I can get my homework done, papers graded, etc on Sunday. Finally, this Saturday got back into that routine. Stephanie, Kelsey and I went out on the town in Granada to burn through some of our hard earned cash at the stores - which is awesome because of all of the after Christmas sales (rebajas) that are STILL going on and will continue through February or March! BEST THING EVER! :)

This is a famous Granada statue in one of the plazas here. I thought it was pretty amazing looking when it was all lit up. In Spanish the word granada means pomegranate so there are huge pomegranates all over the second and third levels of this fountain. It's pretty gorgeous when the water is running and the lights are on!

This is a sight that gives me a good chuckle every time I see it. This, my friends, is a pizza deliver vehicle, a scooter. :) Because the streets are so narrow, full size cars (even the tine European ones) have a difficult time navigating the streets, let alone finding potential parking. So, if you ever order a pizza in Granada, keep an eye out for the pizza delivery scooter to be arriving soon! I almost want to order a pizza just to see it really deliver my pizza! :)

This is the next best thing to heaven. As my silly housemate Stephanie innocently eats her triple chocolate cookie, you can see the window filled with delectable treats for the sweet tooth in anyone. Namely, and part of the entertainment when we eat there, is the fact that all of the chocolatey treats are placed in the window on their big trays and nearly every woman walking past this shop, instantly stops, starts pressing her nose against the glass (or nearly so), points at the treat that caught her eye, and more often than not the word chocolate is uttered. Simply perfect!

Here was my tasty treat! Chocolate palmera - delicious! Definitely on the "to make" list when I get home.

My housemate Stephanie with her mini espresso and her sandwich sampler plate. Fresh bread and everything! Does it get any better?

My tiny (jokes!) sandwich - With jamon and tomato. Pretty tasty! Excellent bread but the jamon was a little chewy for my taste which made the consistency a bit strange.

My orange Fanta (it's big here but makes me think of that annoying jingle every time I see it... "Wanna Fanta, don't you wanna, wanna Fanta.."). And my potato chips and savory bread pudding. Seems weird but it was actually really tasty. Garlic and spices made it the perfect starter.

Me next to a tiny fountain in a little, graffiti-riddled plaza. Pretty eclectic environment here!

The wide shot to see it all!

And without me there - the graffiti is pretty neat though!

The thing I love about Spain is that everyone, and I mean everyone, even the little kids, dress nicely! I haven't yet seen anyone not looking fairly dressed up or someone wearing sweat pants or looking on the scruffy side. It's pretty neat. Here was a cute example of the little kids looking so adorable!

Buildings and buildings as far as you can see!

Just one of the MANY fountains in Granada - almost every plaza has one.

A bull in a gift shop of a souvenir store on a side street in Granada. It was definitely real. And way bigger than I was expecting!

I had to get my picture with it too! He was very friendly. :)

Plaza Larga and Menu Del Dia

2011-01-30T03:30:00.000-08:00

Plaza Larga is a smaller plaza just up the hill from our house. It is the home of one of my favorite bakeries, Casa Pasteles, but is also the site of a daily morning farmer's market. They have tons of produce, clothes, cigarettes, etc that you can buy. Plaza Larga definitely has this hippy vibe that is unmistakable.

Here is one of the market stands. Just tons of amazing produce and since there are 2 stands, the prices are reasonable to get your business! :)

The other wonderful thing about Granada is that many (if not all) of the restaurants in Granada have what is called a Menu del Dia where you can choose from 2 main courses and a dessert with coffee all for around 9 dollars. I finally got the courage and time to try one and this is what I came out with. This was my first course alone (goodness was that filling in and of itself!). This was pasta de verduras (vegetable pasta) which is pasta, carrots, onion, and red and green bell peppers all sauteed in butter and olive oil and topped with some seasoning... YUM is the correct word to describe it!

For my second course I ordered pescado frito con ensalada (fried fish wish salad) because I love seafood and I haven't had any in a while.... well this is what I got. A couple of comments. I am a big fan of salad dressings like we have in the states, namely honey mustard. The salads here just come with olive oil and vinegar... not quite the same and not exactly my style really. Then, the fish I was imagining to be like fish fillets... wrong! I got calamari (which was awesome and super fresh!), fried sardines (kinda weird to eat because they still had a backbone and everything!), and then these bigger fish what were just fried whole. Not exactly the fillet I was hoping for.

One of the fried fish was made extra special for its future consumer by being circled around and biting its own tail before fried. YUM! Couldn't eat that one... can't even pretend.

Here's the little guy's front shot. I mean really? That doesn't make me hungry for fish at all! :)

A Beautiful Day for Tea and Crepes

2011-01-30T03:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday is the day of rest and what better way to rest on a beautiful Spanish day than to go to a teteria (tea shop) and enjoy some tea and crepes? It's definitely hard to think of many better things in my opinion!

Talk about a gorgeous day in Spain!
Sunny yet a bit chilly! Wonderful January day!
The tea house itself is a 3 story building - you wouldn't even know it was a shop if you were walking by it because it just looks like another house. The first floor is just the entry way where you get menus and head upstairs. The second level is a small area with some cozy tables and wicker chairs. The third floor - my personal favorite - is really in the attic of the house with the slanted roof and everything! It is cozy and super relaxed up there. There is a balcony area where you have a gorgeous view of the Alhambra and over the valley but it was too packed for us to sit out there. The tables (or what you can call a table) is basically wooden blocks on the floor and you sit on pillows. It is so fun! Here is me and some new friends Alexis introduced me to. We had a great time!

YUM! My crepe filled with chocolate, peach, and whipped cream. SO good! Going to have to learn how to make these when I come home!

Here is what the "tables and chairs" look like. There is a white cat that lives there which totally adds to the hippy vibe of the place. She just comes and checks out what everyone is eating and says hello! :)

Out and About

2011-01-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Granada as I am out and about when Alexis came over for the weekend from Lucena where she is teaching English this year.

So this picture is the clearest one I could get but this Burger King is giant and the line (all day long) is from the counter to the door. It's sad that these Spaniards are surrounded by all of this wonderful food and they choose to eat at the BK? Tragedy.

This was hands down one of my favorite things I ate while in Spain. For whatever reason I just am head over heels for this dish! It seems strange but trust me, it's amazing! It is fried eggplant (aubergine) slices with only a thin coating of seasoned flour to not overpower the eggplant taste with a molasses syrup over the top, though honey is often substituted. AMAZING!

This is an example of a tapa that came with the drinks we ordered. In Granada, home of the tapa, you get some tapas for free for with any drink you order. Each bar or restaurant have their own specialty and some places have different things you can choose from. I know Granada is known for the tapas here (it's even made into a verb tapar - to go and eat tapas) but overall I haven't really been overly impressed with it. Since I don't drink I don't go out to bars and have these much so maybe that's part of it, I don't know. They are always good, just nothing fantastic that I couldn't live without (like the eggplant above). This was a curried pork stew with potatoes and pork chunks with bread. Not bad!

Alexis and I went shopping and literally this is what every store looked like. No one here hangs up the things they look at or refold clothes like we do in the states. You look at it, and throw it in a pile or on the floor. Goodness. It just makes me incredibly thankful I don't work retail here...

Another close up of the Cristobal Colon statue with Queen Isabella. It's a giant statue with a fountain around the base.

I know I am short but this just shows you how big the statue is! The Europeans love my red coat and most of the Americans think it's something I bought here! Thanks again, AJ! I love it!

Here is a hostel in town which is decorated with tons of little painted plates. Pretty interesting!

Long view!

Fountains like this are found all over town and you actually can drink the water that is coming out!

A special treat Alexis and I shared - the tapa plate. There is a tortilla on top (the triangle shaped wedge), patatas con pimenton (steak fries with paprika! :)), jamon, sheep's cheese (really hard but super mild and yummy!), and croquetes (basically a battered and fried ball of mashed potatoes). It was a yummy lunch for us and pretty filling!

For ordering drinks we got ourselves the house tapa from this restaurant - migas. Migas are fried bread crumbs with seasoning and finely chopped onions. Sounds crazy but it's way good!

Everything here is lemonade so I had to order one!

Up one of the side streets in Granada!

The buildings in Plaza Nueva - one of the bigger, more well known plazas in Granada. Again, shops on the bottom and apartments on top. Just so beautifully European!

Mercadona

2011-01-29T04:53:00.000-08:00

These are a couple of pictures from Mercadona, our local grocery store. Grocery stores like we have in the US (aka one-stop-shopping) are only slowly becoming common in Spain. Until recently people were forced to go to the pescaderia (fish market) to get their seafood, the panaderia (bread store) to get bread, carniceria (meat market) to get meat, etc. However, these stores are slowly sprouting up around Spain and seem to be fairly popular, especially with the younger generation of shoppers.

This is truthfully what the meat market looks like there and that is all real meat you can buy. Those are legs of jamon (pronounced ha-MOAN) which is a slowly cured ham leg that is sliced very thin and is famous in this region of Spain. It looks slightly off-putting at first but once you taste some good jamon, nothing can ever compare.

Even in Spain little boys are obsessed with Spiderman. Thought that was ADORABLE!

These are the buggies in Mercadona, or at least one of them. So the regular metal carts like we have in the states are actually locked up and cost money to use. But these little beauties are completely free and awesome. If you hold them with the green handle it is like the hand baskets we have at stores in the states - used for a couple small items needed. However, when you use the giant orange handle, it actually has wheels and can be pulled or pushed around the store like a buggy! It is fantastic! The other amazing thing about Mercadona is that it is 2 floors with of food so there is a moving sidewalk that takes you down to the lower level and is specially designed to grab onto the wheels of the little carts so they don't roll around on the ride up or down. Makes grocery shopping that much more fun!

Sunrise in Spain

2011-01-29T04:28:00.000-08:00

I was very lucky this morning to have such beautiful weather and be up early enough to watch the sunrise. I never thought I would get to see the sun rise over the Sierra Nevada but I can officially cross that off my bucket list!

Right off the terrace I saw some people taking a sunrise hot air balloon ride over Granada - how beautiful would that be!

The balloon again - definitely one still on my bucket list!

The sun just peaking over the Sierra Nevada. Great start to the morning.

Terra cotta roofs in the foreground, the Alhambra in the center and the Sierra Nevada in the background. What a sight!

The warm sun glistens on a gorgeous Spanish morning.

Comida de Espana

2011-01-29T04:02:00.000-08:00

Here's what you've all been waiting for - my post on some food! :) I know it was definitely part of the reason I wanted to come to Europe, there's no lying there! :) These pastries are from my favorite bakery in the Albaicin - Casa Pasteles. SO good. It is a store with only pastries and ice cream. Can't really go wrong there. :)

I have no idea what the name of any of these are because the pastelerias (bakeries) just have mounds of each item, not names.... it's basically heaven on earth. This was a flaky, buttery pastry drizzled with honey, chopped peanuts, and granulated sugar with the ends dipped in dark chocolate.... YUM! It was definitely a breakfast one morning - guilty!

This was a cream horn topped with honey (as most are due to the Arab influence in southern Spain). SO good and remarkably it's not super sweet so you don't feel too sugary and overwhelmed when you eat it for breakfast. What? I can't stop myself!

This was the inside of the other pastry. It has something the Spaniards call "cabello de angel" which translates to "angel hair". I have no idea what it is other than it's fruit and kind of stringy like coconut but it's pretty tasty.

The freshly opened package. You can't lie and tell me that doesn't look like a pretty yummy breakfast! :)

This is a true Spanish tortilla - nothing like the tortillas we have in the states that are from Mexico. This is a Spanish omelette essentially - potatoes, eggs, cheese, green onion and tomatoes on the side. Quite tasty! This is the traditional version (tortilla espanola) but there are hundreds of varieties with asparagus, chorizo, etc. A very filling lunch indeed!

The Alhambra at Night!

2011-01-29T02:30:00.000-08:00

Not much more to say than this is what the Alhambra looks like after dark. Pretty spectacular view to have every night.

This one is of downtown Granada from the terrace.

Sights from the Street

2011-01-29T02:07:00.000-08:00

More pictures from wandering through the streets and alley ways in Granada.

This one is of the cobblestone alleyways in the Albaicin. White washed walls, terra cotta roofs and cobblestone streets. Doesn't get much more European than this.

A view of the city from on top of the hill.

That big church with the green rounded roof is the cathedral where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand's remains are. It's supposed to be a pretty amazing place. Definitely on my to do list of things to see when I'm here.

Looking over the Albaicin rooftops to downtown Granada.

Up the hill. I was pretty impressed with this picture. :)

Talk about cool street lamps! So geometric!

This is how street signs look. So basically if you aren't on the corner of a house or building where the streets are marked you are completely lost. :)

An archway in main town Granada.

Just a very cool Spanish building - apartments on top, stores below.

And one of the funniest shop names I've seen here... I don't know if they are thinking of the translation we would have in America. Most of the English names make no sense because most people here have very poor English, if any at all so they have no concept of it's other meaning. Still funny for me though! :)

Views from the Albaicin

2011-01-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

Another view of the Alhambra - I know there are lot of pictures of it but it's honestly breathtaking and that's from far away! I can't imagine what's going to happen when I get to go there! :)

Back view of the Alhambra. Pretty amazing, huh?

Graffiti on a wall in the Albaicin. The best part was when I stopped to take the picture, my camera (which has face recognition) zoomed in on about half a dozed faces. Got quite a chuckle out of that, can't lie!

Another view, you can see it's just randomly there!

Wandering the Streets of Granada

2011-01-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures from my wanderings through Granada on day 2 of my adventures here. Pretty cool sights to see!

Near the top of the hill overlooking all of the valley - downtown Granada and Santa Fe with the Sierra Nevada foothills in the background.

The Alhambra from another angle.

I loved the combination of features in this picture - the old Spanish gentleman and the remains of a Spanish brick building, with a motorcycle and palm trees.... what a sight! :)

The doorway to a church in Granada - one of MANY!

Bell tower in another church.

Looking WAY up to the Alhambra!

Exactly what I pictured Europe to look like.... cobblestone streets, old buildings, and the quintessential old European couple walking with arms wrapped around one another through the streets. PERFECT!

The remains of an old aqueduct system that allowed people working and living in the Alhambra to get fresh water from the river but blocked boats from coming up the river to potentially attack the fortress. Pretty amazing they could do so many things with no technology and a lot of engineering.

The river running through town. There are a TON of stray cats living down there. Took some of the charm away, I can't lie. :)

The perfect European buildings. Exactly like I imagined.

Main town Granada... look at those beautiful paved streets!

Another shot of the streets. So much easier to walk on than cobblestones!

A little church in town. Exactly what I thought a church to look like in Europe!

A fountain (though not turned on at the moment) which people actually use to drink out of... it's not all decorative!

My First Spanish Meal!

2011-01-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

My first Spanish meal.... yum! I had to go out for something traditional night one even though everyone else wanted to stay in! Paella (with chicken and shrimp), a whole lemon to squeeze over it, a chunk of bread, and a lovely Spanish fruit pie from one of my favorite (yet expensive) little bakeries Pan y Chocolate... though I have found 2 others since then that I regularly attend. Definitely a tasty first meal in Spain!

Roof Top Views!

2011-01-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures - yes still from day 1 of the trip (I told you I was picture happy, didn't I!?). This is the view of and from our terrace on the third floor. Pretty cool place to live, I have to admit!

Me with the Albaicin rooftops behind me. I don't look half bad for having traveled for the last 25 hours and grocery shopped before this was taken! :)

Me again with the Alhambra (an Arab castle/fortress) in the background. Supposedly it is the eighth wonder of the world. Looks WAY closer in person and is pretty cool. Can't wait until I get to go visit!

The Alhambra all lit up at night.... gorgeous, isn't it?!

Another view of the terra cotta rooftops looking out toward the Sierra Nevada!

Sunset in the Albaicin. Beautiful!

Alhambra during sunset and the Sierra Nevada in the background - ah, European life! :)

The terrace at the house. Pretty neat. The white curtain style thing inside the barred off area opens up so the center of the house gets direct views to the outside. When the weather is nice it is perfect!

Up the street from my house. The streets are SUPER narrow up here so it's nice that I don't have a car. :) They are all super scratched up from having to park right on the cement posts and stuff to allow enough room for the buses to go through. Yes, buses actually can fit up those roads... it's pretty skilled driving! And in the foreground there (to the far left) you can see the post for the neighboring nunnery which still operates. I have only seen one nun since I have been here though and I didn't have my camera. It made my day to see a real live Spanish nun but broke my heart I had not one piece of photo evidence. Another day!

The Residencia or My Home for the TEFL course!

2011-01-28T11:34:00.001-08:00

And now we arrive at pictures of my house - a former nunnery (not at all a joke) that has been turned into a dorm of sorts for the class. I have one of the smallest rooms in the casa with no bathroom though some rooms have bathrooms and double beds even! It is really a good reflection on life when you have a more modest living situation. I don't need all of the things that I have at home, I am quickly learning, because I have lived the whole time without them here! Definitely puts things into perspective in a quick way! :) But enough philosophy.... on with the tour! :)

Here is a picture of my bedroom. It's literally a walkway between my twin size bed and my "washbasin". I have a closet with hanging space on one side and shelves on the other half. It has been suiting me pretty well. Plus, I didn't bring too many clothes or anything thinking that I would shop a ton when I was here... planning ahead you see! :)
A side view (sitting on my bed) of my sink and closet.

From the doorway (on day 1 obviously) with my bed and suitcases waiting patiently!

The house is built around this central courtyard area. I am on the second (of three) levels which is nice. The bad part is I have no windows to the outside which means little fresh air. This is looking from the top story railing to the courtyard on the first floor.

From the stairs down my part of the hallway toward my room. Mine is on the left where there is the little gap in the wall there!

Our common area downstairs. TV, couches, and a coffee table. In three weeks here so far I have never used this area. I am living in Europe for goodness sakes, why do I need to watch TV!?

Our kitchen table. The benches are literally wide enough for 2 people to sit on. Doesn't it look like the table from Sister Act? Makes me realize it really was a nunnery every time I see that table. :)

The industrial kitchen. Here it was before the ants (yes, people are pigs, don't clean their dishes properly and therefore the ants come marching in... so, so SOOO disgusting) and when the kitchen was nice and clean.

The double range and convection oven. Funny this is that we have literally 30 pots and pans for the range and nothing to cook anything on for the oven... strange!

The industrial fridge where we each have our own section. I am bottom left hand corner. My area is slowly but surely being taken over by everyone's food and drinks since my area isn't constantly overflowing with food. I don't want to come all the way to Spain to make grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese every night (Yes, about half of my roommates really eat that every night because they either are lazy or don't like Spanish food... just a crime! I want to eat my way across Europe! :)) I came to eat REAL Spanish food. I have succeeded somewhat but I have yet to really make anything Spanish yet. I need to adopt a family to teach me how to cook! :) One thing at a time I suppose! :)

My First Day - after 25 hours of travel!

2011-01-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures from my first day in Granada. I literally arrived at the house, set my stuff in my room and some new housemates and I went to get some food at the market since it was Saturday and everything is closed on Sundays in main town Granada. Talk about a whirlwind. After 25 hours of traveling - flying, sleeping, waiting around in airports, etc - I had to go and try to think of what in goodness name I wanted to eat for the week... needless to say that first trip was not my most fruitful shopping trip. :)

Buildings in main town Granada - how European!

The Moroccan market that leads the way down to main town Granada from the Albaicin where I live. The Albaicin (pronounced Al-by-SEEN) is the "barrio" or old town of Granada, complete with cobblestone walk ways, white-washed buildings with terra cotta roofs thanks to the Arab occupation of Granada, and on a very steep hill! It gives you quite the workout, let me just say!

From the market looking toward main town Granada - what a difference in the look of the buildings!

An amazing bakery called "Pan y Chocolate" - Bread and Chocolate. I mean, how can you go wrong with a name like that!?

The statue of Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon en Espanol) asking Queen Isabella for money to go "discover" the Americas. Granada is supposedly the site where the Queen gave Cristobal the money he needed so this is a big feature of main town Granada!

One of the plazas in downtown Granada - there are fountains and plazas everywhere here!

Downtown Granada streets - everyone says it feels like Rome in this part of the city. I guess when I finally make it there, I will compare notes. :)

Bustling Granada streets after siesta!

The VERY European poster ads downtown.... I mean, where else but Spain would a cologne ad feature a matador? :)

And as you can see the perfume ad went in a less traditional, yet equally European, direction. The ads here are MUCH more sexual than in the states, especially ads for anything directed at women.

The river that runs through Granada with the bridge and pillars that allow you to cross. It's not deep at all since it's winter!

Another view of downtown Granada - I am a little picture happy! :)

And one last one to round things out. Those are all apartment buildings straight ahead. Few people own homes but own flats or apartments.

On My Way to Granada!

2011-01-28T10:57:00.000-08:00

Well, clearly these are all old photos but I am finally buckling down and getting caught up for you all to see the pictures of my trip in Spain (and Germany eventually)! Sorry it's taken so long to get caught up - the schedule here has been busy and hectic to say the least! But after much anticipation..... we shall begin!

This was in the Madrid airport..... yes, that's a lady.... walking her cat on a leash... IN the airport.... goodness sakes.

This is what the terminals of the Madrid airport look like. It was pretty impressive! Thank goodness too because I had a 6 hour layover there... and it was from 6 am to noon (Spanish time).

A McDonalds in the Madrid airport - that American culture is just everywhere! However, that California Grill they feature doesn't look too bad at all! Can we get that on our menus?

This was my breakfast on the trans-Atlantic flight I took. Nothing special but filling - Dried fruit, banana, blueberry yogurt, and a blueberry muffin.

My dinner during my trans-Atlantic flight - actually really tasty! I got a water, salad, pesto tortellini, a roll with butter, crackers and cheese, and a caramel brownie. Carbs, anyone? :)

Transformation Time!

2011-01-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since my last post but it's time for an update!

The blog used to be a place for me to post what was happening in my classroom in Montana but it's going through a transformation! I am switching it over to be my blog about my travels in Spain while I am here taking a TEFL course and learning Spanish. I have a TON of pictures and this is definitely the easiest way to make those as easily accessible as possible! Can't wait to show you everything about my travels in Granada!

Thank you for the Wonderful First Year

2010-06-05T10:51:00.001-07:00

Well the year has come to a close, much more quickly than I was expecting. Time sure did fly right by us!

We had so much fun this year together and I want to thank every one of you for giving me an amazing first year and accepting me as part of the Frontier Family. Even though I am not returning for the 2010 - 2011 school year, I will always remember your smiling faces and warm welcome. I have so many amazing memories about Montana because of you and you will not soon be forgotten.

Thank you again for giving me a wonderful first year and you will always be my first class! Have a great summer and enjoy fourth grade! You will all be amazing!

Love, Miss D.

The Classroom Continues to Empty

2010-05-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well today was our last Wednesday of the year. I cannot believe we are at this point in the year already!

Today was another fun day in third grade with a lot of art projects all around. We did some Mexican metal tooling and decorated them with bright colors. Colors really pop when you are coloring on tin foil! I can't wait to see how they turn out when we're done!

Today the kids are coming home with a TON of corrected work and things from the class. We had our final class store today and everyone was really excited to buy up everything! Tomorrow we will have a lot more to send home as well.

Today we had our Popsicle treat for the class reading another hundred books this year. Great job! We also had our good behavior extra recess this afternoon. Once again, third grade had no write-ups so everyone got to enjoy the beautiful weather! I am so proud of you all for such a great job!

Tomorrow is the last full day of the school year so sleep well and make it a good day! See you tomorrow!

One Down, Three To Go!

2010-05-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

Well another day has passed us by and things were much brighter here than they were yesterday (inside at least. That weather outside is still nasty!). Everyone was in good spirits coming in today which was a pleasant change from yesterday's Grouch Festival! :)

Today we continued our journey through our Little House on the Prairie book and we are SO close to being done! I can't wait to see how things end for Laura and her family.

We also learned about rain sticks and are in the process of making our own to take home! How cool! Not that we want the extra rain but these will be cool either way!

Our class keeps getting emptier and emptier and we clear out the old things we have used all year, take our projects home, and get ready for summer vacation. The classroom looks so empty!

Tomorrow (if we keep up the good work) we will have our reward for making it to our 100 book goal again. That means we have read over 200 books this year in our class! Awesome work, third graders! Keep that reading high over the summer and you will all make amazing fourth graders!

Only Four More Days

2010-05-24T15:30:00.001-07:00

Oh my goodness we are down to the last four days of school! Where has the time gone? This has been such a fast year!

This week your students will be bringing home a lot of projects and things from school as things wind down here. Today students had notebooks, art projects, and name tags to bring home. More will be coming home soon!

Today was a very rough day for behavior. I was honestly pretty disappointed with the group because I really want to end our year together on a positive note, not one where we are really frustrated. Today had our normal morning routine but was more relaxed for the afternoon and that send everyone into wild behavior evidently. I am more than happy to teach the regular routine all the way up until the end of school if that will help but the students want to try again tomorrow morning to show me they will handle the art projects and fun activities better.

Today my parents also sent us a goody package as a congratulations for making it through my first year of teaching and the 2009-2010 school year together. Everyone in the class got a chocolate covered marshmallow and a chocolate dipped pretzel. Yum! We really enjoyed that! Thanks Mom and Dad for the great treat! We really liked them!

No homework tomorrow and students will be getting their final grades tomorrow for what will be on their report cards that will come home Friday. Keep an eye out for that. Get plenty of rest and see you tomorrow!

Our Awesome Field Trip

2010-05-20T16:31:00.001-07:00

This digital scrapbooking design created with Smilebox

Third and Fourth Planting Lilac Trees!

2010-05-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

Make your own free slideshow

More 1000 Page Members!

2010-05-20T16:07:00.001-07:00

Congratulations Mary, for being our FIRST 3000 page club member. This is absolutely amazing and I am so proud that you have gone above and beyond the reading every quarter. Fantastic!

Great job, Ezekiel for getting in the 2000 page club! Keep reading all year long!

The Day After Makoshika!

2010-05-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

Well our field trip was absolutely amazing. I don't think that many of the kids knew that hiking was that physical because many mentioned that they didn't think there was going to be so much walking! :) I forget sometimes we aren't in the Pacific Northwest anymore and kids here don't go hiking all the time. :) A group of pictures from the trail will be coming soon!

Today I gave the kids their current grades as of this morning. Many of them were not too pleased to see that result. I think many of them are shocked that their missing assignments are making such an impact on their grades. I guess it is a learning lesson for many of them. I hope that all of the missing work they have is going to come in tomorrow because tomorrow is the last day I can accept late work for the grade book. Imani, Jeremiah, Semarah, Theo, Dani, Kirsten, and Cole all have missing assignments. I really hope they come in!

Tomorrow students have their make-up work due, Workbook pages 211-214, and their human body pocketbook. This pocketbook is something that we have worked on for a month and a half now for science and is a significant portion of their grade. If students do not return this, their grade will surely become an F. Students have been given time to work on the activities EVERY time we worked on science. Some students chose not to make very good use of that time and therefore have a lot to complete.

I can't wait to see you all tomorrow for our last full Friday of the year! Holy Cow! Bring in all that work, study those spelling words and rest up! Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler (thank goodness) and so it should be a fun day!

Welcome to the Jungle!

2010-05-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick post for the night because tonight is our Spring Concert. The concert starts at 6 o'clock and I can't wait to see all of the hard work! See you there!

Last Spelling List!

2010-05-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well it is the last full week of school already so our last spelling list of third grade is on its way! This week we are working on words that have the "qu" spelling in them.

The whole class words are:

quilt quite quiet quit square squeak squabble squid quality squirt
quote queen quest question quiz quack quick hundred
thousand million *bouquet

The word marked with the * is the challenge word for the week.

The Challenge words for MB, CB, KK, and EU are

acquire acquaintance antique aqueduct banquet clique equilibrium
grotesque inquisitive masquerade misquotation prerequisite quadrillion
qualification qualitative quartz queasy quirkiness requisition
squalor *bouquet

The word marked with the * is the challenge word for the week.

Study hard and make this last spelling list count!

9 days left of school! Where did the time go?

2010-05-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well today was a super fast Monday for us! It is our second to last Monday of the year, how weird! I have no idea where the time has gone from us!

Today we had a LOT of extra music practices to get ready for tomorrow night's concert. The concert starts at 6:00 p.m. and students need to be here at 5:45 p.m. Students brought home a piece of paper today from our music teacher, Mrs. Drummond explaining what the dress code will be and other details about the program. Since the music program is a jungle theme, students are encouraged to wear brightly colored clothes to the concert.

We also read some more of our Little House on the Prairie book and we worked on our mapping skills during math and social studies. In science, we started learning about the Nervous System and we will continue learning about it tomorrow afternoon.

Looking ahead to Wednesday for the field trip...

As a reminder, the bus will be leaving for the field trip at 8:10 a.m. so your student MUST be here before then. We will not be waiting for students who arrive tardy. Students need to wear comfortable clothes and shoes because we will be hiking all day long. Dress code is the same as it is when we are at Frontier but keep in mind that it will be warm on the trip so dress for the weather. Short-shorts, spaghetti straps, and flip-flops are NOT allowed on the trip. Students need to bring a sack lunch because one will not be provided for them. I suggest that students bring $5-$10 in cash on the trip in case they want souvenirs and so we can stop for ice cream on the way home from the trip. If students would like to bring sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, bug spray, etc. they are responsible for carrying those items during the ENTIRE trip. Chaperones will not be carrying student items.

Wednesday should be a lot of fun and I can't wait to see Makoshika Park!

Homework today is to finish coloring our state maps we started today. Other than that, keep reading at home because most people still need to improve their reading grade. Keep working hard and end the year strong!

Long Division and Lilacs

2010-05-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Today was such a beautiful day! We could not have asked for better weather to be planting the lilac trees. We were shocked when all 200 trees were planted in about an hour and a half by the third and fourth grade classes. Great job and way to work hard! We all had a fun time being outside on such a sunny afternoon and enjoyed doing out part to help make Frontier a great place to go to school. From now on, the students can all day that they planted those trees. How cool is that!

Today we also continued working on long division. Yikes! Overall the class is doing really well learning the long division but it has so many steps that they are hard to keep track of! I am working on creating or finding some kind of song or video to help us all keep it straight. I am pretty impressed with their ability to keep track of everything though! I have heard many families talk about how math now is taught so differently than what it was like when they were growing up and learning these skills. I may post a video soon so you know exactly what I am teaching the students to do so if students say, "That's not how Miss D. taught us to do it!" you have an easily accessible resource to look at to find the answer! :)

Tomorrow students have their Little House on the Prairie vocabulary words, workbook packet, and their spelling contract due tomorrow. They have had all of these assignments since Monday and have been given at least 30 minutes DAILY to work on them. When students were getting their homework ready to take home today though I noticed that some people were not using that time wisely and have a lot of work to do. Maybe next time they will learn their lesson! :)

Have a great evening and study hard for your spelling test. It is our second to last one for the whole year (whoa!). Make it count and end the year strongly!

Lilac Planting Tomorrow!

2010-05-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today was a quick day! It was the start of our wacky afternoon schedule as well.

Today we got to see the dress rehearsal of the Spring Frolic this afternoon. Frolic is Thursday and Friday evenings starting at 6:30 if you are interested. You may buy tickets in the office.

Tomorrow (and maybe Friday) afternoon third and fourth grade are going out along the fence line and planting a bunch of lilac trees that our school bought! It will be a great opportunity to enjoy the nice weather and do something meaningful for the school. Like I told the students today, for the rest of your lives you can always come back and see the trees and know that you planted them when they were babies! Since we are going to be planting, make sure your student brings tennis shoes or some kind of shoe that can be used in the dirt. They won't get muddy (unless we get rain tonight) but we will be getting dirty planting all of these trees! That's okay though, a little dirt never hurt anyone!

We are still working hard on getting everything finished up that they are missing for the year. We only have 6 more days to get everything in. Can we do it?

Today students were sent home with book orders. If you are interested in ordering, the book orders will be submitted Monday evening to make sure that we get the books before the end of the school year so make sure your student has their order in before the end of the school day on Monday. If you want to order online go online to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. Sign in as a parent and use the user name FrontierThirdGrade and the password is order. This will be our last order for the year and there are some great deals for summer reading. If you order online you even get a free book in the Fall! Wow!

See you all tomorrow, keep working hard on getting your work done, and get plenty of sleep!

Spelling Words for May 10-14

2010-05-12T11:29:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the spelling words for this week! I completely forgot to post them! Thank you, Paisley, for your gentle reminder that the spelling words were missing!

Here are the whole class words for this week:

caught thought bought laugh
through enough fought daughter
taught brought ought cough
dough rough though naughty
distraught laughter drought

All of the words this week have the "ough" or the "augh" spelling so study hard! They are tricky!

Here are the challenge words for CB, KK, and EU:

apostrophe parenthesis extraneous chronological
punctuation stanza suffix foreshadow
refrain narrative bibliography almanac
alliteration inherit constructive simile metaphor beneficial personification

Great job to everyone who has been turning in their spelling contracts on time and working hard to end the year on a positive note. Keep it up! Only two and a half more weeks to go!

Sorry for the Delay

2010-05-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

It has been a while since I have posted last. The end of the year is quite a busy time but I am back!

Yesterday the students got an eye-full when they came in from their weekend and a third of our board was covered in names of students with missing assignments, yes a third. It was a lot to look at! I am keeping those students in for recess in the morning and in the afternoon if they have missing assignments and I am giving them that time to make up that missing work. Some of the students are missing quite a few things and we only have until next Friday to bring it all in before I cannot enter grades for makeup work. I hope we get it all done! Today we had quite a few things turned in, which was good, but there are still a LOT of names to go. I am proud of the students who have been getting everything in on time and haven't had to stay in! Ezekiel and Ernest are the only two that have turned in everything, so nice job guys!

Today we continued to plug away at our Little House on the Prairie book and finished through chapter 10! It is going so quickly and we are really enjoying it so far! Tomorrow I can't wait to see what happens when Laura and her family visit an abandoned Indian village on the prairie!

This afternoon we started learning about the circulatory system in our journey through the human body. We learned how to take a pulse on ourselves and learned what happens to our pulse when we exercise! We were almost breaking a sweat! We were running in place, doing jumping jacks, side lunges, punching, and a combination of all of them. Whew!

Tonight's homework is Phonics page 199-200, 5 pages (and they can be any 5 pages) of the workbook packet which is due Friday, and one human body activity.

Can't wait to see you all tomorrow. Let's keep our spirits high and end the year strong!

Feliz Seis de Mayo!

2010-05-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

Well I am back today (finally!) and I am glad to be back with my class. I missed getting to see their faces this week! I got great reports from the substitute which was great too! It's always nice to hear good things about your students!

Today we had a fiesta in our classroom to make up for me being gone on Cinco de Mayo and the students behaving so well while I was gone this week. We had quite a fun afternoon with our foods. I made salsa and chips, chicken mole, beef enchiladas, cherry empanadas, and tres leches cake. It was super yummy and we all had a great time!

Today we also got all of our donorschoose.org things! It was really fun to see all of our new goodies and see what we have in our room! I will post pictures very soon so we can show everyone what we got!

Tomorrow you have your spelling contract, workbook packet, Phonics page 99-102, and Workbook 2, page 127-128. Make sure you have all of your work done and turned in, first thing tomorrow morning. We only have 2 weeks to get everything caught up for grades so make sure we make these last 3 weeks of school count!

Spelling test tomorrow so study those words! See you tomorrow!

April Came and Went So Quickly!

2010-04-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well April school days are officially behind us and wow, was today a quick end to the week and the month!

This morning we read our story, Poppa's New Pants again to remind ourselves what happened in the story and review our vocabulary words for the week. Then we took a vocabulary and comprehension quiz to see how well we remembered those words. Great job on the quiz, third graders!

Today we also had a quiz over our atlas information that we have been working on lately. This group of third graders is really into maps and mapping. They are fascinated by the world around them and to see how close and how far away everything seems. I love doing maps and geography too, so it makes things entertaining for the both of us. I have always liked learning about the similarities and differences between different cultures and communities around the world. The class is really starting to realize that around the world things are very different from Wolf Point. It is important to me to make sure that students realize that things are different... not better or worse necessarily, just different. We need to recognize our differences and celebrate them, but also not judge those things that make us different but find the common ground that brings us together.

We found out that we also got 2 more projects funded on www.donorschoose.org. Thank you so much to our generous donors and their support for our classroom. Within the next week or so we should be getting glue, pencils, a pencil sharpener, erasers, magnetic letters, phonics flip books, CD players, books, and books on CD! Wow! That is an amazing amount of materials to get for free to our school and our classroom! I can't wait to get everything and let the students try it out! I will post pictures as soon as we get the new materials!

As I told the students today, I will not be here on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday because I am going out of town. They will have a sub but I will be checking in on them to make sure that they are doing their best and working hard, even when I am not there. I have a REALLY fun event planned for Thursday is EVERYONE is doing their best and working hard for the substitute teacher. I really hope we get to have this fun event! Work hard, third graders, and make me proud!

See you Thursday morning!

A Serious Case of the Giggles!

2010-04-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well today was a pretty good day with a lot of hard work. This afternoon the class, myself included, had a fit of giggling about something we can't even remember why! It was a good laugh that I think we all needed. :)

Today we worked hard reading our leveled books in centers and summarizing our favorite one. Most students chose Tall Tony about a students who gets tired of being so tall until he starts playing basketball, and The Dive about a girl who gets invited to a pool party, but cannot dive! I was impressed with how well the students summarized and really could identify the problem and solution in the book, which is something we have been working on lately in class. We also worked some more on our phonics to improve our reading and writing as much as we can before fourth grades comes. Today we worked on hard long vowel sounds that are trickier to spell and read. Everyone did a great job reading and writing these difficult sounds!

This afternoon we worked more on our science unit about the human body and continued our look at the digestive system. Today we focused on teeth and nutrition. We talked about the new pyramid and the five food groups, plus the one for oils and fats. Everyone did a great job of naming foods that could go in each group! Great job!

Tomorrow will be our last day in April for 2010 (can you believe it!). If the weather is nice we are going to be doing our school clean sweep so my fingers are crossed for good weather, though I have to admit, I wouldn't mind some of this rain they keep predicting and moving back. As a Washington native, I am not used to springs that are this dry! :)

Assignments due Friday are the following:

Workbook packet pages
Free-writing
Spelling contract, with 2 activities completed
Workbook page 57-59
Phonics page 45-48

I realize it sounds like an awful lot but the students have been working on the first three items on the list since Monday so those should be mostly (if not completely) done. The workbook and phonics pages are things that we worked on today in class and most of the students got done during the work time or the "study hall" work time the students had.

Great job everyone on bringing in ALL of their homework today! That hasn't happened in a LONG time! I am super proud of you and keep up that great work!

Spelling quiz tomorrow so study hard! See you tomorrow!

The Power is Back but It's Dark Outside!

2010-04-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well we were back today (thank goodness) and it was business as usual. I thought the students might be a bit wiggly since they had that free day off but they picked up right where we left off! I was very impressed!

Grades will be coming home later this week so keep an eye out for those if your student didn't already show you the copy they have.

Today we spent some time adding another poem to our Poetry Notebook. The poem was called "My Tongue is Tasting Terrible" by Jack Prelutsky. It is about a kid that ate a variety of very "tasty" items and his tongue now tastes terrible and he's not sure why! Some things he ate were pickled snake, hippo chips, onion ice cream, and rhinoceros tofu, among others. Yikes! No wonder his tongue is not very appetizing!

We also learned a little bit more about the Oregon Trail and are preparing to depart from Independence, Missouri on Friday! Tomorrow we will take a look at the food pyramid and learn about different food groups and what foods are healthy for us during science. I can't wait! I love the food pyramid, even if the new version is a little harder to read. If you want to see the updated copy head over to www.mypyramid.gov and take a look! It isn't the same block look like they had when we were growing up, even though it tells similar information.

Homework today (for students who didn't finish in class) is Workbook pages 225-226, Phonics page 33-36 and reading Little House Chapter 4. Make sure you have it all tomorrow morning and we will see you then!

Have a great evening and don't get blown over by these intense winds!

No Power!

2010-04-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well today was a surprise day off for everyone! The power was out here at the school until early after school started so school got cancelled. This gives everyone an extra day of rest and an extra day to get their homework done (hint, hint!). :)

I will see you bright and early tomorrow with everyone ready to work hard!

Enjoy your day off!

Infected with the Giggles!

2010-04-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well this morning everyone started off very slow and sleepy. Those Monday mornings are hard, especially when the weather was as dreary as it was today! We were a little sluggish this morning, which made some students have a little bit of extra homework tonight since they didn't get their classwork finished on time.

After lunch the class definitely made up for that sluggish morning we had by giggling nonstop nearly the entire afternoon, especially after recess! Wow!

During our time for math, our centers were cut short because of the lack of focus from many students which made us have extra work. It is a bummer when students aren't ready to focus, but then they pay the consequences of those actions. As a teacher, I believe this is an important lesson to learn early on in life. Students need to understand that for every action you pay consequences, whether those are positive or negative. I try to structure my classroom in a way that reflects that idea. When students are behaving extra nice, they will get a fun activity to do. However, when students aren't paying attention and start not listen or follow directions, it is important that they learn there are negative consequences to those actions as well. It has really been working fairly well so far.

This afternoon we decided what materials we were going to take with us on the Oregon Trail and prepared to depart from Independence, Missouri this week. We also had some time to work on the digestive system packet of activities from last week.

Tonight students have to read their Little House on the Prairie book through chapter 3, Workbook pages 21-23, and Workbook pages 125-127. Make sure that homework comes back tomorrow so no one has to spend recess time with me! See you tomorrow!

New Spelling Words for April 26-30

2010-04-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

Well we are quickly coming to the end of the school year! I can't believe May is next week! Wow! Well here are the new spelling words for the week of April 26 to 30th. This week the general words are words that have double consonant letters (like tt, ss, ll, etc.)

The whole class words are:

pretty better blizzard blossom buzzard
button cabbage cottage fellow foggy
follow common mammal message office
pattern tunnel tennis valley hollow
dessert

The Challenge words for IB, CB, EU, JH, and KK are:

culture capture creature fracture gesture injure
nurture sculpture texture torture venture departure
adventure immature moisture pasture furniture miniature
premature signature posture

All of these words have the -ture at the end of them.

Good luck with the spelling words this week! Keep studying so we can get those grades up!

Midterms will be coming home later this week but feel free to call or email if you want the grades sooner!

Rain!

2010-04-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well today had weather drastically different from the rest of the week! Wow! The rain (or little sprinkles we had) we a nice change and it kept things a lot cooler. It was nice!

Today was definitely a day of quizzes and hard work! I was very impressed with the hard work that was put in today. Nice work, third grade!

Today we were supposed to do our school-wide clean sweep, but it got cancelled for the day due to the sprinkly weather. We will most likely make it up next week sometime.

This weekend I hope you all have a great time and hopefully the weather turns a little better so you can enjoy some outdoors time! Have a great weekend!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Paisley!

It's Getting Warmer in Here!

2010-04-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well we had another day of gorgeous weather which is definitely a welcome change from the frigit winter we had. I am very glad for that! Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy though so make sure we dress for the weather!

Today we spent more time reviewing our story for the week, called Pepita Talks Twice. It is such a great story that has the wonderful message that students should be proud of who they are and it is an excellent thing to have more than one language that you speak! Maybe it even inspired some of the students to learn Spanish! Fingers crossed!

We also had time to read more of the book we are reading as a class, Little House on the Prairie. So far it is really good and it's giving the students a great idea of what life on the Oregon Trail was like for the brave pioneers that headed west.

Tomorrow the students have quite a few things due, though the have had every day to work on them in class AND have had extra time today as a study hall. Tomorrow students are going to turn in their sentence packet, 2 magazine writings, their spelling contract with 2 activities completed, Workbook pages 177-179, and Little House Chapter 2 read. It sounds like a lot but as I said before, most of the students only had one thing to take home today if they were working well during their work time.

Tomorrow students have a spelling quiz so make sure you study hard for that! Tomorrow is also the end of the midterm so on Monday students will get their midterm grades in class, and they will be mailed home like usual too. Some students need to work harder on getting that homework in on time!

Have a great evening, rest, get plenty of sleep and enjoy the beautiful weather! See you tomorrow!

Mile Run and Traveling to Planet 51!

2010-04-21T15:28:00.001-07:00

Today all of third grade did their mile-run outside. We couldn't have asked for better weather for the mile run today. I even went outside and participated right along with everyone! It was nice to get that exercise time in! Everyone in the class finished in 13 minutes or less which is awesome, considering it was their first time! Great work third grade!

Today we had our spirit award party and it was a lot of fun! We had SO many treats (thank you families that donated!) and so it was good that we had worked off those calories on the mile run! We had chips, two different cupcakes, two different brownies, grapes, chips, pretzels, and cookies! Wow! If you have some sugared-up children tonight, that is why! :)

Keep up the great work and keep working hard. I know it's getting harder, as the weather gets nicer, but it is important you know that school is still important and school still comes first. Hard work at school means less homework and more play time outside! See you tomorrow!

Pioneers AND Pilgrims

2010-04-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

Well today was a day of a lot of learning and filled with new things!

We started with the morning our new story for the week, called "Pepita Talks Twice". This is hands-down one of my favorite stories for the year because it is in both Spanish and English. The top of the pages are written in English and the bottom half of the pages are written in Spanish, though both of the paragraphs say identical things. Spanish is one of my passions so I was very excited to see this story. The students were also VERY excited to hear me read the story in Spanish, too! The story talks about how there is a girl who is bilingual because she can speak Spanish and English. As a result, the people in her neighborhood always want her to translate for them and she decides to never speak Spanish again. Eventually she learns to see the value of speaking both languages! This week our vocabulary words are mostly Spanish words that have been adopted into the English language, like tortilla, salsa, enchilada, and tamale. I can't wait to help us learn more words in Spanish!

This afternoon we started our newest pocketbook about the American Colonies and colonial life. The students have been asking me all about the 13 original colonies and what life was like back during that time, so I thought now would be the perfect time to introduce the students to this historic life! They are really interested in Pilgrims and why they came to America, which is awesome!

We also started another social studies unit of study in our afternoons about the Oregon Trail! This is absolutely one of my favorite topics in history and I always loved learning about it when I was their age. The students came into new seats and a map of our journey on the Oregon Trail on the window and were instantly hooked! They are in groups of 3-4 students what will be their wagon train for the long journey. We will be working in these groups through the end of the year while we make our way from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Today we just got a brief introduction to the trail and chose our pioneer identities! Boy, did we get a good giggle out of that! Next time we travel the trail, we will be deciding what supplies we need for the 3 month journey across the country. I can't wait to see how everyone spends their money!

As a reminder, book orders are due this Thursday, on April 22nd so make sure you have those in by the end of the day, either online or in paper. Field trip forms need to be turned in by May 19th. I currently have forms from JH, PF, and EZ. Great job for getting it in right away! Lastly, the spirit movie afternoon is Wednesday afternoon. If you are interested in bringing snacks, you are welcome to do so and our movie will start at 2:15. Tomorrow we will vote on the movie we will watch.

Have a great evening and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Spelling for April 19 - 23rd

2010-04-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Here is what you have all been waiting for... new spelling words! (Maybe I am the only excited one. :))

Here are the whole class words:

disagree dishonest unwrap unhappy unripe
undo disappear uncomfortable misbehave misspell
mistake misuse incorrect unfold imperfect
incomplete improper untrue imprecise disable

As you can see, we are still focusing on prefixes this week. Our prefixes are un (meaning not or opposite), dis (meaning not), mis (meaning not), im (meaning not), and in (meaning not). Hmm... I am sensing a theme there! :)

The challenge words are for EU:

acknowledge cooperate utilize advocate
differentiate empirical hierarchy paradigm
successor ambiguous appreciate contradict
crucial denote deviate exploit
implicit radical schedule sphere

Study hard this week for these words and make sure you are working hard on the spelling contract which is due Friday, as usual. Also, keep in mind that your book reports for your book club books are due on Wednesday morning so make sure you are working hard on those! You will have today and tomorrow in class so make that time count!

Field Trip and Friday!

2010-04-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

Today was a great end to the week. The morning started off a little bit rough with some grouchy attitudes but thankfully that quickly passed. I am hoping the sunshine outside helped us all have a good outlook for our day!

Today we finished a lot of projects which was a nice feeling! It shows how much hard work the students have put in during the past couple of weeks with all of the assignments. On Monday my goal is to have grades for the students to look at to see where they are right now in the quarter. Midterms are coming out at the end of this month and some students are going to get a rude awakening to see how poor their grades are. It's like every quarter when we go through the phase when several people stop turning in their homework and then are shocked to see their grades. I guess we need those reality checks to keep us going strong for the year.

Today Mrs. Goodman (the 4th grade teacher) and I also announced our field trip for the year.... we are going to Makoshika State Park in Glendive! If you want to have a sneak preview go to www.makoshika.org It is going to be really exciting. Students were sent home with their permission slips today for you to sign so they can return them. It is important that they are returned before May 19th which is the date of the field trip. The sooner you turn them in, the sooner it's off your mind though, so get them in early!

As for the field trip, it will be an all-day event where we are leaving as soon as school starts (bus leaves the parking lot at 8:10) and we will arrive just before the buses are leaving. It is VERY IMPORTANT that your student is here ON TIME. We will leave students behind if they are not there on time, which is a bummer since they won't get to experience the trip with the rest of us! Students do need to bring a sack lunch since lunch from the school is not an option. There is a visitor center gift shop if students want to bring money to buy a souvenir, though that is not required. There will be a lot of walking and hiking during the field trip so make sure your student is wearing comfortable shoes, hats or sunglasses if they need them, and wearing layers so as the weather gets nicer they aren't super warm. If you are interested in being a shaperone please send me an email or send a note with your student so we know who is interested.

I hope you all enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend and I will see you Monday morning!

Our New Donor's Choose Materials!

2010-04-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

A free scrapbook by Smilebox

A New Perspective

2010-04-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

Today we started wrapping up a lot in our classroom. It's Thursday so the usual assignments are starting to wind down. This week, the students have a packet talking about the parts of speech that is due tomorrow, their spelling contract due tomorrow, and a small book that they wrote and illustrated due tomorrow. I can't wait to read the little books tomorrow as a group!

We also finished up our unit on fairy tales and folktales. It is sad to be finished with the unit but at the same time I am glad to be done with them. It will be nice to move onto a new topic. I am thinking about life in the colonies right now, but I am not sure! I guess we will find out on Monday!

This afternoon in art we did a lesson on creating a picture using a vanishing point. Students were given a packet with step-by-step instructions on how to create a picture with a vanishing point which we followed together. Next week, the students will have a chance to prove their artistic skills and show their ability to follow directions when they will create their own drawing without my help! Make me proud third graders! :)

Today your student will be coming home with a sign up sheet for snacks for next week. Our spirit award movie day is going to be next Wednesday (April 21st) in the afternoon. If you are interested in bringing snacks to share with 14 students please return the sheet with your student asap so we know what kinds of snacks are going to arrive on Wednesday. Feel free to bring snacks anytime on Wednesday, but please drop them off at the office rather than bringing them to our classroom since that is very disruptive during our lessons. The rest of our morning will be business as usual until after our afternoon recess. Next week we will be voting on the movie we will show in class. If you have a movie you would be willing to share with the class, have your student mention the title to me and we will check to make sure it is allowed at Frontier. Movies cannot have a rating of more than PG and must be child appropriate (no gore, killing, etc.).

Study for those spelling tests tomorrow and get all of your work done, for those of you who had to take things home. See you tomorrow, bright and early!

Spirit Awards

2010-04-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

Today we got our 14th student (though 2 were sick so we still only had 12) and it was a nice change. Almost everyone did an excellent job getting the class ready and making Cole feel welcome as soon as he got to our class. Great job!

Today we continued our journey through the body systems by looking at the digestive system. For the next 2 weeks or so, we will be learning about the digestive system and having a nutrition and health unit. The students seem to really like these activities and have really enjoyed learning about the human body. Today they were especially giggly when we learned where the left-over food leaves the body. Oh goodness, did that turn everyone three shades of red and start the giggling! :)

In P.E. today students had the endurance run where there is a 20 minute time limit and students are asked to run as long as they can for that 20 minutes. Their running does not have to be at a full sprint but anything more than walking is fantastic. The third graders did an amazing job today with more than half of the class running for the FULL 20 minutes. Awesome work!

Today we also had time to vote for what our spirit award will be. As I mentioned earlier, our class won the spirit award for keeping our hallways and lunch area clean for 6 weeks (though not in a row). Great job for that award! So, our options were to have a movie and snack party, or to have a game day one afternoon next week. Almost unanimously everyone chose the movie day. So, next week we will be having a movie time and students voted to bring snacks to share. Tomorrow I will be sending home a note asking what kinds of snacks you would volunteer to bring if you chose to. There is no requirement to bring food to share, but if food is brought, there must be enough for 14 students to share, please.

Tomorrow we will continue reading and finish up our fairy tales and folk tales pocket books and continue studying for our spelling test on Friday. The word meaning seem to be pretty easy for students which I am very glad to see!

Get plenty of rest and drink plenty of water. See you tomorrow!

And Cole Makes 14!

2010-04-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

Good News! Tomorrow our class will be growing by one when we get our newest student named Cole. We are all really excited to meet him and can't wait to have a new friend in the school. Plus, now we are at 14 students which makes us at an even number. We couldn't be happier! :)

Today we finished our look at the muscular system in the body. To do so, the students completed 7 different activities and had to identify which muscles they were using to do them. Some of the activities were a basic crunch, lifting a can of soup, or even getting on their tippy toes! The students did a great job and it was definitely fun to watch! :)

Today we also started our book reports for the book club books we have been reading. These book reports will be worked on at school every day and will probably be due Monday or Tuesday of next week, depending on how things go tomorrow when we really start talking about the projects themselves.

Tonight for homework students have phonics workbook pages, if they did not finish that in class, and a practice vocabulary packet.

Next week (as a sneak preview) we will be starting a new social studies unit of study about the pioneer life and Westward Expansion. I can't wait to start this unit since it's one of my favorite lessons in school!

Lastly, congratulations third graders for being the cleanest elementary classroom again this week! We won and completed out SPIRIT letters and we get our reward next week. What is the reward? Well come bright and early tomorrow morning and we will be discussing and voting on our reward! :) See you tomorrow!

Spelling for April 12 - 16

2010-04-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the spelling words for the class this week. They are all words with prefixes! This week we will be looking at words that have the prefix re- (which means again), non- (which means not or wrong), and the prefix mis- (which means wrong).

reapply rearrange recolor misunderstand mismatch
misbehave misprint repay retook rediscover
miscalculate misfire nonfiction nonprofit
recount reselect reheat nonfat nonhuman
nontoxic nonliving

The challenge words for EU and KK are also following those prefix patterns but are more challenging words either with spelling or meaning.

nonabsorbent nonexplosive nonflammable nonreflective
nonadhesive misaddressing misclassify miscommunication
miscomprehension misestimate recapture reunion
restructure refinance reappear rebuild
recommend rephrase reinforce mispronounce
mischief

Study hard! Your spelling contracts are due on Friday (like usual) and you will have your spelling test on Friday (just like every week!). We are getting toward the end of the year so make sure we are all trying our best and keeping our grades as high as we can! :)

Free Time Friday

2010-04-09T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well what an end to our week! This was a quick week overall! That extra day off sure does make a difference.

We spent time this morning reading and doing our atlas and spelling quizzes. The students are really enjoying the geography work we are doing with the atlases and are doing very well!

We had class store today as well since it has been a very long time since we have done it last. It was nice to have last weekend to get out of town and buy some more supplies for the store. They went over very well!

This afternoon the students had their free time that they earned by having everyone in the class pass their +3,4,5 addition facts. Great job third graders! Our next goal is getting closer and closer so keep practicing. Today students have new multiplication and division flashcards to practice those facts at home. It is important that they are building those skills now so that they can thrive in the future!

Have a great weekend. Get plenty of rest, relax, read, enjoy the outdoors with the nice weather, and we will see you Monday morning!

Spring Cleaning

2010-04-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

Today we had some time for spring cleaning where our classroom looks very different.... and somewhat empty!

As a note to parents, at Frontier there have been a couple of students found with head lice. To make sure that we are doing everything to avoid the spread, students are going to keep their coats in their backpacks when they get to school. Additionally, students are not going to share coats, hats, brushes, or other personal items with one another. All of the carpets, pillows, and blankets from my classroom are removed now (hence why things look somewhat empty!) and so that will help lessen the spread of lice as much as possible. I even got a new teacher chair that is plastic instead of fabric to give the little creatures less of an opportunity to like our classroom. Adult head lice generally will not survive more than 24 hours off of their human host so our spring cleaning is a preventative measure to make sure the lice have nothing to hang onto. If you are looking for more information on symptoms, treatments and more, log onto www.headlice.org to get more detailed information.

Today students have a lot of work to finish that is due tomorrow, however, students were given at least 30 minutes every day to work on the assignments and many students are done with them all. The things that are due tomorrow are the spelling contract (and you have a spelling test tomorrow so study hard!), the hard and soft c packet, the women's suffrage map packet, and the squiggle writing. As I have mentioned before, we are getting ready for fourth grade so expectations are higher than they were at the beginning of the year. I know ALL of these students are capable of meeting and exceeding these expectations as long as they are working to their fullest abilities. Students working to their highest potential is all I can ever ask for!

Have great evenings, work hard, and get ready for tomorrow with a little surprise! :)

Women's Suffrage and Donor's Choose

2010-04-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today we continued our study of women's suffrage history by coloring in maps of the countries we researched. It was a great test of geography skills since we have been studying the different continents lately in geography! Tomorrow students will have more time to work on it in class and the mapping packet will be due Friday at the beginning of school so some students may come home with the as homework.

We also received some more stuff from the fabulous website known as donorschoose.org. Our donors funded a project with a TON of social studies books, games, and activities for us to use for the rest of the year. Thank you so much to those donors. Later I will post pictures of us unwrapping the new things so keep an eye out for those!

Tomorrow is Thursday so students will have homework, spelling contract homework for whatever they do not finish in class, and women's suffrage homework for the rest that is unfinished in class. There is PLENTY of time for students to get done with their work in class if they are working well in class. I always make sure to give students time so that their nights are not completely filled with homework. However, it is their responsibility to use that time wisely in class. While I do make sure that students are "on task" or working on the assignment they are assigned, I am trying to help students take on the fourth grade responsibilities of time management which will be invaluable for next year.

Have a great evening and we will see you all tomorrow, well rested, healthy, and excited for the day!

Welcome Back!

2010-04-06T15:59:00.001-07:00

Today was our first day back from our Easter Break. I hope you all had a great break and you all seemed nice and relaxed and rested which was excellent to see!

Today we continued our study of folktales and fairy tales by reading "How Night Came to Be" which is a folktale from Brazil talking about why we have night. I love these stories and the students really seem to be getting into them too! Tomorrow we are reading a fractured fairy tale about the three little pigs. Ask your students what a fractured fairy tale is to test their fairy tale knowledge!

We also started our new spelling for the week which works with hard and soft C sounds. This week is going to be similar to last week where students have a packet of activities working with these sounds in order to practice the sounds and help with spelling on Friday. The general words for this week are

cabin camel candy coach coast cookie
cupid cure curse curve cease celery
fence pencil circus citizen special cymbal
juicy recycle spicy

The challenge words for KK and EU are

enhance exceed incentive incorporate
intelligence precede scope decade dynamic
guarantee isolate success unique accompany
appreciate clarify crucial coincide revolution
violate adjacent

Great work with the spelling so far and keep up the great work!

We are in the last quarter of third grade so we are preparing for the greater responsibility of fourth grade. It will be a big change for many of the students so we are trying to ease into that transition. Fourth grade will mean a much greater deal of homework and more responsibility with materials. Students are likely going to have more homework than we did at the beginning of the year so that we can get ready for that workload for next year. Also, students are required to read at least 500 pages by the end of the year and conference on those pages in order to meet standard. This goal seems like a lot but it is easy to achieve if students are consistently reading and are working well in class.

This week we will be finishing our book club books and starting book reports on those stories which will be a great ending project to those books!

Keep up the great work and make sure you bring in your homework packet AND your women's suffrage dates organized if you did not finish in class! See you tomorrow!

A Class of April Fools! :)

2010-04-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well Easter Break has officially started! Just as a reminder there is no school tomorrow (4/2) and Monday (4/5). Have a great break, rest, relax, sleep in, stay up late, eat your Easter candy, and come back on Tuesday (4/6) well rested and ready for another week! The weeks are winding down so it is important that you are here and doing your best to make sure we are ending the year on a positive note.

Today we finished researching our women's suffrage dates and we will be completing a couple of activities next week to better display those important dates!

We also took our spelling and atlas quiz for the week and they are looking pretty good!

We ended our day with an art project (sorry for the spill, Kassie!) and our extra free recess for those students who had no behavior problems this quarter. Congratulations third graders for all being able to attend! Nice work!

Enjoy your break and we will see you on Tuesday!

The Clubs Grow in Size!

2010-03-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Kassie! She is our newest member to the 2000 page club! Amazing job! Can you be the first 3000 page club member? Let's keep that reading high and anything is possible!

Excellent work, Ernest! You are our newest 1000 page club member! Read, read, read and 2000 pages will be here before you know it!

March Madness!

2010-03-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today was such a quick day! Plus it was the last day of March! Wow, this year will be over before I even know what happened!

Today we spent time learning how to use specific describing words in order to add detail to our writing. To do this, we all put our shoes in the front of the classroom and had to describe the shoes in enough detail so that the classmates could guess the object. Specific descriptions will always make it so that you can identify what object you are talking about! Great job on the descriptions!

We also spent time working on our spelling rules and spelling activities for the week. Many students chose not to work on these during class (which I couldn't quite understand why!) and so they will have both their spelling hard and soft G packet, and their spelling contract as homework. Those things are due tomorrow morning. If you aren't here tomorrow, they will be due Tuesday, first thing when you walk in.

This afternoon we had two things going on at the same time: science and social studies! In science, students were continuing our tour through the human body with the muscular system and were completing a variety of activities related to that bodily system to help them understand the function and how our muscles work. In social studies we were learning about women's suffrage (which is the right to vote, right 3rd graders! :)). The students travelled via the Internet to Scholastic's website to find out when different countries and states allowed women the right to vote. We are going to continue this activity next week as well and create time lines to show our information. It is very exciting! Thank goodness we have the computers in our rooms so we can all be working on different things at the same time!

In other exciting news, we finally made it to our math goal! Every day (or it was every day for a while but has been less often lately) we spend a minute at the beginning of math doing a timed selection of math problems. There are 15 problems that the students are asked to do in one minute. They all started at +1 facts and have progressed as they mastered that section. Today the entire class passed through their +3, 4, 5 facts! Yay! So next week we will have our reward which is a free choice period where students can do activities in the class that they choose to do! Great job third grade! Our next reward day is coming up quickly with everyone passing +8,9,10 to earn a game day. Keep practicing those facts and keep up the great work!

Have a great evening, finish that homework and we will see you all tomorrow - the first day of April!

Spelling Words for March 29 to April 2nd

2010-03-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here are the spelling words for this week:

engine imagine original gentle orange energy
gym digital fugitive frigid kangaroo guard
guess guest regular gum goose garden
gaze goal guide

Here are the challenge words for EU, KK, JH, and CB

geography maximize proportion technique
annual approximate dimension hypothesis
implement professional statistic compound
fundamental perspective license orient accuracy
enhance flexible intelligence identical

This week the class is working on the Hard and Soft G sound. The "hard" G sound sounds like /j/ like in gym or engine. The soft G, on the other hand, sounds like a /g/ like in gum or garden.

This week we will be learning some rules for when to use the short or hard G and doing some activities to practice those rules. Since we have no school on Friday, the spelling quiz will be Thursday so make sure you are practicing extra hard this week since you have one less day to study. Good luck!

The 100th Post!

2010-03-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

Well today is a special day because this is my 100th post of the year on the blog! Yay!

Today went pretty well for us in class. Most of us finished labelling our big body tracings and finished drawing in the bones which was great! We also had a science quiz at the end of the day. For the science quizzes, the students are all allowed to use their materials that they have in their science pocketbook so there is not reason that everyone shouldn't be doing really well! That is why they can use their resources because I ask them questions that are directly from the papers that we have in our folders!

Tomorrow we will be starting to multiply by 4 and will continue our journey of the skeletal system by looking at joints in the body and do some pretty fun experiments with that! I can't wait!

Have a great evening with no homework and see you tomorrow!

Life-sized Skeletons and Giggles Galore!

2010-03-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of our human body unit where we are learning about the skeletal system right now, we did a really fun activity this afternoon! Each of the students had their body outline traced on a large piece of paper. This was quite a giggle-fest, I have to say! Something about the pencil and just the idea of a classmate tracing their body was just about more than some of us could handle! I don't think I have heard this much giggling in a LONG time! :)

Once we got past the tracing (and the giggling!) the students started drawing their bones on the skeletons. Some people realized how hard it is to take the bones on a picture and transfer them to be life-sized! :) Some people started out with teeny-tiny heads and ribs and quickly realized that it was not going to fill up their bodies. :)

I am pretty happy with how things are turning out so far! We are going to finish them tomorrow and label each of the major bones in the body. The class is doing really well so far with memorizing the names of these bones. I am very impressed! I will post pictures of the finished products so everyone can see our beautiful skeletons!

Thank you for those people who submitted book orders! Tomorrow is PE so make sure you have your PE shoes at school. See you all tomorrow morning on time! :)

The Start to a Short Week

2010-03-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well Monday has came and gone. What a fast day it was! I can't believe today is our 130th day already. Wow, where has the year gone?

Today we started a new mystery state. Our mystery state morning activity is something that we started last week where every day I give the students a clue about a certain state. Then, they have to make guesses about the state and on Friday I reveal what the mystery state really was. Last week we appropriately started with Montana! This week our first clue was "This state has the lowest water-to-land ratio of all 50 states." Families, if you know the answer, don't give it away! I want the students to try and figure it out! :)

We also continued our Human Body unit and put together a model skeleton of my friend, Mr. Bones. He was a skeleton that got blown over by these strong prairie winds and so we had to help out and put him back together correctly. Even though the students were allowed to use their human body worksheets, we weren't all correct in our assembly. We definitely realized how many pieces our body has!

Tomorrow the book orders are due either online or in paper form by the end of the school day so make sure you have those in! There is homework this week, despite what students thought, because we still are here all five days of the week! See you tomorrow!

Spelling words for March 22 - 26th

2010-03-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the new spelling words for the week!

ache anchor chemical choir echo
stomach school ghost rhino whale whistle
what white where which whine whisper
character rhyme wheel

Here are the challenge words for EU and KK (nice job you two!)

charisma archaeology architect technique
chlorine monarch orchestra mechanical
psychic melancholy ghastly spaghetti
khaki rhinoceros weather whether choreograph archive characteristic cholera

All of the words we are working on this week have a silent H in them so make sure you include that H... he's sneaky! Study hard and your quiz is Friday.

Reminder: Friday is a half-day so students are released at noon! Thank you!

Kiwis

2010-03-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today for snack we had kiwi fruit in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day to keep with the green theme.

One student said she did not want kiwi. When I asked why she replied, "Because it reminds me of a big, fat guy's hair belly!"

I don't think that I will ever be able to look at kiwi the same again. :)

A Wild Tuesday!

2010-03-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well today was another lightning fast day for us in third grade! Behaviors were on a roller coaster of really good to really bad, and everything in between. Lately there has been a lot of emotions floating around between the students that may be due to the over saturation with one another or the weather... it's any one's guess! I am hoping that the upcoming Easter holiday will be just the time apart that we are all needing to get back to our well-behaved selves! :)

Today we added a new story to our fairy tales and folktales pocketbook called "The Frog Prince". The students were all really excited to hear that story since we just had The Princess and the Frog movie in town not too long ago. They were surprised that this story was somewhat different from the movie but overall they really enjoyed it.

This afternoon we spent some time learning about the skeletal system, which is our first body system that we have learned about so far. We learned about the different names of the bones and even had a brief song version from Mr. Young! That was entertaining for all of us! We will have to learn that song to help us remember!

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day so remember to wear green for an extra 20 Dunnies! See you tomorrow!

Book Orders and Pocket Books

2010-03-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

Today just flew right by! My goodness!

Today we started a new genre in reading and we are going to spend the next couple of weeks reading about fairy tales and folktales - two of my favorites! We made big books that have pockets in them to keep track of all of the stories we cover and they were very time consuming but turned out really well!

We also started learning about the Human Body in science. To keep track of all of our human body information we made another pocket book with all of the different body systems on the pockets so the students can keep track of their information and use it for quizzes and tests. Plus, all of their work stays organized that way! Bonus! We are going to start with the skeletal system first starting tomorrow. I can't wait!

Book orders also came home today and are due March 23rd, which is next Tuesday. If you don't like having to keep track of the paper forms and write checks, feel free to order online. You get a free book and so does the class so we all win! The login information is as follows:

Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
Click on parent and continue
Then, login in with our information. The login name is FrontierThirdGrade and the password is order
Then, you are ready to order!

The orders usually arrive within 7 days of ordering so the books should be here before Easter break.

Just as a reminder, this week is a full week, with St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday (don't forget your green!). Also, next Friday is the end of the semester so the students are out at noon so the teachers can enter their grades. There is a lot of work that needs to be caught up on still so make sure your student is working hard and turning in their work!

Have a great evening, enjoy our beautiful weather, and see you tomorrow!

Enlightening Words from Third Grade

2010-03-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

One of the students today told me the most enlightening thing that I had to share it with you all.

The student said, "There are only three things I don't like. Chinese sundaes for lunch, hunting, and people who don't like African Americans and Indians."

Wow! I love that the students are so tolerant of other cultures and honestly don't understand why people couldn't be friends at one time simply because of their skin tone. That is a great foundation to have at such a young age. I am so proud!

Spelling for March 15 - 19th

2010-03-15T08:46:00.001-07:00

Here are the spelling words for the week!

badge ridge edge fudge bridge judge
hedge lodge page stage huge rage
cage smudge pledge wedge large dodge
change charge

Here are the challenge words for EU, KK, CB, and MB:

achieve acquire category significant theory
specific conclude injure purchase relevant
alternative circumstance coordinate document
initial philosophy physical scheme
specify technology

Good luck on your spelling and remember our spelling rules! Your spelling test is Friday and your spelling contract is due Friday, too! Make sure you are working hard!

What a Fast Week!

2010-03-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

This has been such a week, I completely forgot to make a post this week! Wow!

Overall we had a pretty good week in class. The behavior was not it's best at times but we got through it fairly well. We finished our African American History month unit yesterday when we learned about Barack Obama. The students have done an amazing job with this social studies unit and I am SO impressed with how much they have learned and have retained! I will try to post pictures of our bulletin board this weekend so you can see all of the great artifacts we made for this unit! I can't wait to start something new though!

This week we also did a short writing assignment where the students were giving directions to a place in our building. They were really into this! I am impressed with how well they gave directions and how well they drew maps of the school to get there! On Monday we are going to follow their directions and see if the directions really get us to the places they wanted us to get! Hopefully we won't end up somewhere crazy!

Next week we are hopefully going to start a new science unit of study about the human body which will be very exciting. We are going to learn all about the different body systems and their functions, organs, and locations! That should be pretty fun and interesting!

Today we got through all of our lessons early so we even got to have an extra art lesson! These are pretty neat projects! We made alien portraits and we painted on foil! It was really fun to see the kids getting really creative with their work!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the great weather we are supposed to have!

Monday Madness

2010-03-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

Another Monday came and went.

Today was a really good day for the kids overall. The seating arrangements got changed which is always nice for them. I may have to start changing the arrangement more often!

There are still many people who have a LOT of missing work that I am giving them a second chance to complete so there were a lot of people who missed their morning and afternoon recess today. I am glad to see that there are people who are learning their lesson though! After the morning recess I asked what lesson we are learning and the whole group said "We need to turn in our homework!" Thank goodness! That will help their grades immensely to have that homework turned in. Homework is not a huge portion of the grade but to have a lot of zeros in those homework spots really hurts things.

The quarter ends March 26th and on that day the kids have a half day release at noon.

The new spelling words are posted so make sure you are studying hard! See you tomorrow!

Spelling for March 8th to 12th

2010-03-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

Here are the spelling words for this week! Study hard to get those grades up!

eight buy toast money window pie
beads stew glue jewel toe flies
tray train monkey sleigh bowl leaf weigh freight

These are the challenge words for KK, EU, IB, and CB

antifreeze classify independence underweight
international transportation communities invasion
continuous irresponsible deodorize misunderstand
discovery nonliving electricity performance
encouragement prehistoric impression signature

Good luck and your quiz is on Friday! Study hard!

It was fun while it lasted...

2010-03-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well the great behavior trip is definitely over. It was fabulous while it lasted but I think it has run its course. The students were extremely picky with one another and were constantly getting in arguments. I think we have just all had about as much of one another as we can handle. Friendships seem to be at the breaking point which is so sad! It is really hard with a class this small to not get tired of seeing the same people all of the time though. I can understand where they are coming from but we have a whole three months left so we need to make it work! If we don't, it is going to be a very long and painful three months!

Just a reminder that we are still collecting Boxtops for Education, Campbells Soup Labels, old magazines and calendars (which are student appropriate of course!), and egg cartons of any size and shape.

Tomorrow the students have PE and their spelling test for extra points so study those words! Everyone in the class could definitely use the boost in their grades!

Starting next week, I also will be requiring students to stay in during their morning recess if they did not turn in their homework because homework return rate is at an all time low. That is a big reason that grades are so low. The homework itself is not worth that much but when you add up all of those zeros in the grade book, it makes a huge difference! If students can get it done during that recess time then great! If not, I will take what they have done and they will get graded on that portion. There is only so much I can do to help their grades. The STUDENTS have to put in the effort to EARN the grades that they receive. If it was based solely on how much I like the students I would have a LOT more A+ grades! I think both the students and I wish it was that easy! I really hope I see more effort put in by the students to raise their grades and really try. It is so important.

Missing: My Voice

2010-03-02T15:07:00.000-08:00

What a great group of students. Today was day 2 of our CRTs and they handled it very well. I am a little concerned that they are rushing through the extended response but it is their test to take and up to them how they want their scores to look.

However, I came in today with a hoarse voice (at best) and the whole group did an excellent job of being quiet so my little voice could be heard through the whole class. That was GREATLY appreciated!

Today we studied George Washington Carver in our social studies period and the students were really excited to learn that he made shampoos, milk, cheese, soaps, and hundreds of other things all from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and pecans! He is definitely one of my favorite people to learn about in history because peanut cheese! Who would have thought of such a thing? :)

Tomorrow is our last day of testing so get plenty of rest and come in ready to do your best!

Extra Spelling for March 1st - March 5th

2010-03-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

Since this week is CRTs (and the kids are doing great so far!) we are not going to have a normal spelling routine like we usually do. I don't want there to be any extra pressure added to the testing week so we are not going to have homework this week, and we are not going to do standard spelling which everyone is graded on this week.

Instead, we are going to do extra credit spelling tests. This will be a list of 24 words that students are working on during this week and practicing in the afternoons after testing is done. Students who wish to take the extra credit test will be able to do that and any words they get correct will be counted as extra credit in any subject they choose (which is something many of the students need right now!). The whole class will be given the challenge spelling test on Friday for those students who choose to take it. It is extra credit, after all, so I am not going to require anyone to take it!

The bonus words for this week are:

abbreviate accidentally balloon bicycle beautiful because dessert
equipment February friend interesting island people quiet
scissors tomorrow Wednesday weird arctic rhythm women
challenge does exercise

Good luck with the bonus words and keep up the good work on the CRTs! :)

Harriet Tubman

2010-02-25T13:55:00.000-08:00

Today we spent time preparing for our CRTs again by doing a math practice as well as a reading practice. We are getting better and more prepared every day! I know they are going to do great!

We also started putting together our poetry portfolios. We have learned about 8 different kinds of poetry now, and the students are getting an opportunity to create a final draft of all 8 types of poems. The poems are going to be turned in as a poetry book and we will be sharing it with one another when we are done. I can't wait to see how the final product turns out!

Lastly, we learned about Harriet Tubman today during our social studies afternoon. I showed the students a great slide show about Harriet Tubman. Check it out at the following link: http://www.pocanticohills.org/tubman/timeline2/timeline.htm The students then practiced taking notes from the slides so that they could remember the timeline and add it to their social studies notebook. I was impressed how well they could take what they read and put it into their own words! All of the practice from the animal reports really paid off! Great work!

We are all starting to get sick too. Make sure that you are getting plenty of rest, drink plenty of water, and are washing your hands often and well! We want to be healthy and happy as much as possible and there were an awful lot of coughs and sneezes today! I can feel the sickness starting in! Oh no!

Rest, rest, rest. Drink, drink, drink. See you tomorrow!

Life on a Plantation

2010-02-24T13:23:00.001-08:00

Today during social studies we finished talking about the freedom quilts and the quilt squares that slaves used to signal others the way to freedom. We even made a quilt square book that will help us remember and understand what each of the quilt squares mean.

Then, we spent time using our awesome Smartboard to learn about what life was really like for slaves living on a plantation in the south during slavery. This really helped students get a better understanding of what slavery was really like because we saw real pictures from during this time! You can watch the video together if you follow the following link: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/plantation.htm
Scholastic has a very informative and interactive way for students to understand the Underground Railroad and slave life.

Today we also spent more time preparing for the CRTs which are next week. The students are doing MUCH better at reading carefully and using the information from the text to answer the questions! I have faith that they are going to all do their best next week. We will be doing CRTs during the morning on Monday through Wednesday and possibly Thursday morning depending on how much the students have done. Again, students are not going to be able to get up out of their seats when they are testing so it is a good idea to send your student with a water bottle so they can drink water at their leisure. There will be plenty of breaks, so don't worry about students getting restless or not being able to go to the bathroom! We want everyone to be comfortable afterall! :)

Today there is a form coming home with your student for the seventh grade fund raiser. The seventh grade students are selling cookie dough, pasta sauce mix, cheesecakes, and biscuit mix. The order forms and money need to be brought back to me by Tuesday, March 2nd. All of the orders are preorders and there will not be any extra for sale after Tuesday. Please make sure you have those order forms turned in as soon as possible to support our seventh grade class and get some tasty treats as well! :)

Have a great evening and get plenty of rest! See you Thursday!

Freedom Quilts

2010-02-23T19:04:00.000-08:00

Today we finished our discussion on freedom quilts. Freedom quilts are quilts that the slaves would make that would help lead other slaves to freedom. The students learned about 12 different quilt patterns and got to try their hand at decorating the quilt squares. They are turning out pretty nice! Tomorrow we will be cutting out the finished quilt squares and making them into a book so we can remember the meaning of the squares.

At the end of social studies every day I have started giving a mini quiz to make sure that students are listening to the topics we are discussing every day. The questions are ones that every student can EASILY answer if they are paying attention to the discussions that we have every day and the material that we are learning about. This also reinforces the topics that we talk about every day so that students are retaining the information we discuss.

I have noticed that students aren't reading at home anymore. Of the 13 students in our class I only get reading logs back from about 3 students every week. It is so important that students are reading at home to improve their reading abilities and to practice. After all... practice makes perfect! So, reading is now going to be part of their reading grades. It is expected that students are reading 20 minutes every day. This can be time read independently, with a sibling or other family member, or aloud with a family member. The daily reading logs come home every Monday and are turned in the following Monday. These are going to be graded for completion only. It is important that students are doing this because not turning in these logs will make them have a really hard time bringing up those reading grades (all of which need serious help!).

Thank you for the book orders that were turned in! See you tomorrow!

Midterms come home this week!

2010-02-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

Today we are officially more than half way through the third quarter of the school year! I can't believe it! Since that is the case, midterm grade reports are coming home this week. I have to say... grades are pretty bad overall. There has suddenly been a lack of motivation by the students overall. They are not reading at home anymore, not turning in homework, not following directions and listening very well, and not trying very hard at school. Everything they are presented with is met with "This is so hard!" The materials and assignments are not hard, they just require that the students have to try and that doesn't seem to be something they want to do much of. Hopefully we will get out of that phase soon! If your child's reading grade has gone down from last quarter, that is due to the reading comprehension practice that we have been doing. The reading passages are all at the students' reading level that they are capable of reading but often times the students aren't paying attention to their reading and just guessing an answer to quickly get done. Many of the students' grades are Fs at this point because of that fact. Also, they need to be writing in complete sentences to get credit on their answers so many are doing poorly on their reading assignments because their answers are correct but they are not using complete sentences, so they only get half credit.

CRTs are next week so make sure that your student gets plenty of sleep and healthy breakfast to make sure that they are as successful as possible. We will be doing one section of the test every day next week so they are not overwhelmed and completely exhausted after the first day! It is important that they are able to do their best so a good nights sleep and a full belly will always help that out! :) Also, I will have activities to do when they are done while the rest of the class finishes but I recommend that students bring a water bottle because they are not allowed out of their seat unless we are doing a group break to make sure they are not distracting others.

One last reminder, we have book orders due tomorrow! You may buy books online or send in a paper order form by the end of the day to order! For every item you order, your student gets 20 class dollars for their wallets.

Great job today with your work and getting assignments in. Remember, there is still half of the quarter left to lift those grades! Don't give up now! See you tomorrow!