Wednesday, July 19, 2017

road trip


This past weekend we road-tripped to visit family.  950 miles in 4 days.  Hubby is pretty busy at work and couldn't take off, but they kids and I are used to road trips with just the three of us, so it was cool.  First stop was my sister's house. 


A few miles from her farm, I stopped to pick her some wild flowers.  Bee took this picture of me and sent it to her daddy saying, "Look what mom did, so much embarrassment!"  That's my job right.  



The nephew is getting so big. He and Lou are buddies. 



The dogs chased Bee's feet as she swung. This swing is her favorite spot on the farm and probably has been other little people's favorite spot over the years too. 

We grabbed us my sister and nephew and my mom and her hubby and the next day headed to Michigan.  Little G still needs schooled in the art of selfies. 



My brother's sweet wife was being ordained as a pastor and we wanted to be there to celebrate with her.  




She's a book lover too.  Those are the best kind of people.  I don't know where she got her shirt, but I made mine using my silhouette cameo, which I am still very much in love with. 



The nephew loves Lou!  



Bee and my sister were accidentally twins.  Bee did not like when we said we were posting it online with the hashtag #twinning.  She's too cool for school some days. 


Here's my brother and his sweet wife, the new pastor. 


She wore one of the stoles I made her two Christmases ago.  Not sure if she planned it that way or not, but it was fun to see one of my projects in use.  



Here are the others- it looks like I never blogged about them.  



Then we got to really celebrate. 



My sis and Little G.  A baby in a bow tie.  Love it- the only thing cuter is a baby in pajamas.  


My mom at the photo-booth with the #Kellynailedit sign.  My sister in law requested a photo-booth.  No problem, I love a good photo-booth.  Then she said she wanted a reformation themed photo booth.  After a little bit of googling, I was caught up and my sister and I were ready to pull something together (basically this year is the 500 year anniversary of Martin Luther declaring the separation of the new church from the Catholic Church and he nailed this document to the door of the church).  Thank goodness teachers are hoarders- we were able to piece it together.  Don't look too closely, that's the bill of rights stuck on the door. 


We set up a hashtag for her booth and encouraged her friends to share on social media and tag it.  I was worried that some of the crew wouldn't get it, but they all did it and they loved it!  They seemed to have fun with it and did lots of sharing and tagging!  #Awesome


The food was pretty amazing.  My sister in law works with refugees.  She asked one of the Afghanistan refugee families she has worked with to cook for us.  Here's the sweet mama so cooked and cooked and exposed many of us to our first taste of Afghani food. 


My sister and I googled recipes afterwards at the hotel in hopes of recreating a few of the dishes.  This rice dish with carrots and raisins was a favorite.  


It was so good to see old friends and to make a few new ones. 


The next day we headed home.    Here we are at the start of the last leg of the trip. All smiles.



And six hours later.  Worn out but glad to be home!



Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Pearson Reading Street Grammar skills for 3rd grade

Do you use Pearson's Reading Street with your third graders?  We've used it for years, and I really do like the series.  I hear lots of negative stuff about using a basal, but I like the stories, the kids seem to enjoy most of them and the majority of the accompanying resources are really strong.  In Indiana, the Pearson company also makes our end of year state test, so the curriculum is lined up really nicely to prepare the kiddos for that.   It doesn't matter how much you like or dislike using a basal, state testing, or following a more strict schedule for teaching, they are facts of life for many of us.   We do throw in 4 novels through the year, but that's another post.  

I created a series of worksheets to accompany each of our stories with the assigned grammar lesson for the week.  Even if you don't use Pearson Reading Street, these are appropriate grammar skills for 3rd graders and you could use them supplementary to any series or novel studies you might use. 


Find Unit 1 here
When Charlie McButton Lost Power- Complete Sentence
All About Me- Subjects and Predicates
Kumak’s Fish-Declarative and Interrogative Sentences
Supermarket- Imperative and Exclamatory Sentences
My Rows and Piles of Coins- Compound Sentences


Penguin Chick- Common and Proper Nouns
I Wanna Iguana- Singular and Plural Nouns
Prudy’s Problem and How She Solved It- Irregular Plural Nouns
Tops and Bottoms- Singular Possessive Nouns
Amazing Bird’s Nests- Plural Possessive Nouns


How Do You Raise A Raisin- Action and Linking Verbs
Pushing Up the Sky- Main and Helping Verbs
Seeing Stars- Subject Verb Agreement
A Symphony of Whales- Past, Present, and Future Tense
Around One Cactus- Irregular Verbs

The Man Who Invented Basketball- 
Singular & Plural Pronouns
Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest-
Subject & Object Pronouns
Rocks in His Head- Possessive Pronouns
America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude 
Ederly- Contractions
Fly, Eagle, FLy- Prepositions

Suki’s Kimono- Adjective and Articles
I Love Saturdays y Domingos- Adjectives That Compare
Good-Bye, 382 Shin Dang Dong- Adverbs
Jalapeno Bagels- Adverbs that Compare
Me and Uncle Romie-Conjunctions



The Story of the Statue of Liberty- Capital Letters
Happy Birthday Mr. Kang- Abbreviations
Talking Walls: Art for the People- Combining Sentences
Two Bad Ants- Commas
Atlantis: The Legend of a Lost City- Quotations and Parentheses





Each unit comes with a  worksheet for each of the grammar skills for the five stories in that particular unit. 


Answer keys are included, although there is usually an open ended skill application piece towards the end. 



Come see me at TPT!  



Unit 4

Unit 5


Unit 6


Bundle Pack- save money by purchasing them together!

singular and plural possessive noun noodle glaring activity

Do you teach singular and plural possessive nouns?  It can be a tricky skill for elementary kiddos.  Need a free hands-on activity?  


Come see me at Teachers Pay Teachers for a free download!










Monday, July 10, 2017

bible journaling #3


Here are some newer bible journal pieces.  I'm trying some new paints, new brushes, and venturing into bigger pieces and brighter colors.  Again, these are my art pieces, but most ideas come from online and tracking down the original piece is tricky. 























Want to see some more?  I've got a tag over to the right called bible journaling.  I have a few posts with pictures of my stuff.