Celebration Saturday: Happy Anniversary!

Today I am celebrating our thirty-second anniversary. Here are a few pictures that show just a sample of some of the wonderful things we have been able to share.

We love to run. We have done everything from 5Ks to marathons together!

 

We had a great time at Disney with all our kids and grandkids!


 



We also love baseball, especially the Tigers!

 

We might get in trouble at times, but is this necessary?
 

We are always up for some fun, if it includes the grandkids!

Yes, I think we made the right choice 32 years ago!

Tuesday Slice of Life: Talking about Themes

Last week I was able to visit another one of my favorite classrooms. This fifth grade group is so smart about talking about books. I was thrilled that they were working on that when I came that day. The focus of the day was: Themes of a book.

The class started by looking at a story in their basal reader. The students realized that they might have different viewpoints of what the theme was. They learned that it was okay to disagree about that. The children then shared what they thought the theme could be. But, that wasn't enough, they also had to prove it by stating from the text proof to back up their theory. 

Then in their reader's notebook they had a picture of a tree with a large trunk and bunches of leaves. On the trunk it said: THEME. On the bunches of leaves they had listed what makes up a theme: defendable opinion; moral or life lesson; implied-not necessarily stated.

After that, the teacher read the book: A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. The students listened and jotted down three possible themes and how they would defend it. Quickly, they met in groups of 3 or 4 and shared their ideas. When they came back together, the teacher had several groups share one theme and the proof. What a smart bunch of kids!

While I was there, I shared with the teacher a new book that I had recently purchased. It is called Reading Projects Reimagined--Student-Driven Conferences to Deepen Critical Thinking by Dan Feigelson. This book is short and easy to read. It gives teachers a way to have children think for themselves while still guiding them. We always want kids to become independent thinkers and we want them to use comprehension and to use it on their own. So, that means..."teaching them to recognize, name, and extend their own ideas about what they read."

I think in this day of helping kids to read, comprehend, and defend their thoughts, Dan has given teachers a great tool to do just that!  A good addition to any professional library!

Slice of Life Tuesday: Time Out for Dave

Today is the first day of the rest of Dave's adventures with rehabilitation. He went to the surgeon and got a clean bill of health. It has been a long journey!

After several months of limping, each week getting worse and several visits to the local vet, we finally got to the real problem. Dr. Dave, our local vet, told us he had a torn ACL band and needed surgery.  We were directed to an animal emergency clinic and to Dr. Coolman. What a blessing that was!  Dr. Coolman gave us the sad, but good news. He could fix his leg. It was hard to leave him in the hands of someone else and let him stay there all night. He had never been away from home!

After the surgery, we were able to take him home the following day. He had to wear a cone so he didn't lick his wound. He had staples all up the front of his leg. He looked so sad. He slept most of the time the first week.

The other sad part was, he had to go on a serious diet. So, after the staples came out we put him in a strict diet program. He could only have the diet treats and we measured his food.  It didn't take long for him to realize we were serious and that meant no other treats! He couldn't walk much because of the healing of the bone. That didn't help!

So, he did a lot of sleeping.  We did play ball with me rolling the ball to him. We also learned a new game of hiding the ball in a plastic cup and then he had to find which cup it was under. He could only go outside to do his "business"...no walks!  He missed seeing all his friends and they missed him, too.

After eight weeks of rest and diet, he got the all clear sign from the doctor today. He was very pleased with his progress and that he had lost 5 pounds. He is now ready for physical therapy. We have guidelines to go by as he goes through this phase. He will gradually take short walks to build up the leg muscle and help with the weight loss. He is a much happier dog now and uses the leg like normal!  So glad to have our baby back to normal!

Slice of Life Tuesday: It's Halloween Again

Halloween is such a fun holiday. It takes imagination to come up with costumes and even decorate the house! We started a tradition a few years ago and we just keep adding to it. We are so lucky to have our grand kids close to us, so we travel from house to house to see their costumes, take pictures and deliver goody bags! The pictures turn into photo books to keep as memories of the years. It is a great way to see how much they grow and change! Here's a peek of our memories over the last couple years!

Audrey and Mallory are Strawberry Shortcake and a Strawberry

Audrey as Snow White and Mallory as a dwarf

Audrey and Mallory always dress as a "couple". It is fun to see what they are going to be each year.

This was Kaelyn's first Halloween. Graham was a pumpkin

Last year Kaelyn was a flower and Graham was a doctor

Graham wanted to be a doctor after he got this outfit for his birthday. He said, "I'm Dr. Garman!"

Meron as a witch, Shelby as a clown and Bam is a pumpkin

Shelby was Thing 1, Meron was a cheerleader, Bam as Mr. T and Lane as himself

The creativity in costumes is amazing. It is interesting to see how the older kids start fading away and just want to pass out the candy. Still we love seeing them and they don't refuse the goody bags we bring them!

This year we are going to dress up as we visit them! Can't wait to see their faces!
What are your Halloween memories? 

Saturday Celebration: Visiting the Writers

Last week I was able to visit a new classroom. Being in this 5th grade classroom was a double blessing. First of all, I got to work again with a really talented teacher friend and also work with some amazing young writers.

I had been planning on visiting their writers' workshop and finally it was the right time. Before the teacher had a chance to introduce me, the students were raising their hands and giving opinions of who I was and why I was there. One of the guesses was: She's an author! Well, maybe that's true, but not a published one like they were thinking. Finally, the teacher told them that I was there to help them with their writing and to help her with her teaching of writing. The children were very impressed! Really, they were!

They were beginning work on nonfiction picture books. They had already decided on a topic. They chose a topic that they were experts at, things they could teach others. I was able to talk to three of the children. Vernon was working on a book about football. But this book was to help younger players understand what type of gear they would need. After talking for a few minutes, I was impressed with what an expert he was. We did look at his subtitles and combined several of them so he would have enough to write for each one.

Next, I talked to Montana. She was writing about making cakes. Again, we decided it would help if she combined some subtitles. Instead of one for eggs, one for mixing and one for frosting, we figured out how she could combine all of those into the actual mixing the cake. She came up with four different subtitles. Last was Terra. Terra was writing about taking care of babies. It seems she is an awesome aunt, so she knows a lot about babies. Again, we talked about how to combine sub topics.

Since these three students all had the same issue, I talked to the teacher about how that would be a perfect minilesson for the next day. I can't wait to go back to this room and see how these books are developing!

Soon it was time for the students to get ready to go home. I promised them I would come back several times this year. As I was gathering up my things, Terra came up to me and handed me this note. She said, "Thanks for helping me. You are really smart about writing, just like my teacher said."  See why I can't wait to get back there?

Slice of Life Tuesday: Narrative Writing

 Last week I visited a third grade classroom in a nearby school district. This was my first visit of the year. When I got there the children were working on their narrative writing. I was able to talk to four students about what they were writing.  All of them were doing stories about things that had happened to them.  I called them Edge of Your Seat stories because when I read them, I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

Brandon was writing about a time he was in a storm. Amrie wrote about when she got a bee sting. Nicholas was telling a story about when he had a bike wreck and Gianni wrote about a time he was sick and had to miss a Christmas party.  All of these things are common among third graders, but they all were exciting. The beginning of the stories all had great hooks. You could tell they had been working on that.  They also had good endings. I felt satisfied when I finished reading each one.

Now the middle of the stories was another thing. This is so common with young writers. A couple of the stories went on and on and on. For example, Brandon told about what he was doing before the storm, during the storm and several days after the storm. When I talked to him we found the hot spot in the story...when the actual storm came...and focused on that. He slowed down the story and added what he was thinking and saying to his brother. He ended the story with going to bed with the candles still lit in his room.

Amrie had included several bee sting stories. She was trying to get the reader to know all about her experiences with bee stings. After talking to her, she decided to just focus on one bee sting adventure in this story and keep the other time for another story. Nicholas could close his eyes and picture the whole adventure of when the car hit him on the bike. He again slowed down the action and added his thoughts and conversation to his story.
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This was the first time these children had worked on narrative this year. They were doing amazing things. As they published their pieces, the teacher and I discussed where she would go in a few months when she hit this genre again. I really like the idea of coming back to genres throughout the year. I know these children will take what they learned in this unit of study and apply it to their next visit.  Can't wait to see how they grow as writers this year!

Slice of Life Tuesday: Fall is Here

 The signs of fall in northern Indiana are at their peek right now. The neighborhood has turned into a blaze of color! When we visited Florida a few weeks ago, one of the people we talked to was going on and on about what the Midwest was like in the fall.  Today, I want to share some of what I see every day along with a special playdate with my four-year-old grandson.

When I look north from my front porch, I see the beautiful autumn trees in my neighbor's yard. How could I not snap a picture of that?

We always take a trip to a local farm to get pumpkins and corn stalks to add to our front yard. This is our way of saying Welcome Fall!

Every year I also snap a picture of Dave, our golden retriever with the fall decorations. He just seems to fit in with his golden coat.

Last week I had a playdate with Bam, our grandson. One of the things we did was take a Nature Walk in the neighborhood. He has his bag to collect things that are special. I think it was full of the beautiful leaves. We also got to watch workers as they were busy with building a new house.

Of course, no playdate with Grandma would be complete without making cookies. We played games while they baked, took a Nature Walk while they cooled and then got to frost them and add the sprinkles. We love fall!!! What are you doing to create memories?