How My Parents Learned to Eat

I'll be posting some books in the fashion that can be seen in my "Great Books" section of the blog over the next few weeks. I am currently in a multicultural literature class and we are to read, review and come up with ideas for a multicultural book for 6 out of the 8 weeks of class. I decided this week (2nd book review) to make my technology connection posting the book to my blog. I will also back-post the first book I presented and the other books I review.

So for part 1/6 of this multicultural literature series I will be presenting How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman.

Told by their daughter, this story is a story of an American soldier and a Japanese “school girl” who met while the narrator’s father was serving in Japan. Although they really liked each other, both were afraid to go out to dinner with the other for fear of embarrassing themselves, not knowing how to eat the “right” way. The narrator's father learns to eat with chopsticks while her mother learns to eat with a fork. The couple agrees not only to teach each other “how to eat” but they also agree to be married and eat both with forks and chopsticks.

Reading Level:  DRA Level 20-24
                            Lexile Level 450L

Teachers: Here are some resources for you...

Web Resources:

• Kid's Web: Explore Japan: On this site, students can explore folklore, virtual culture, nature, food and more about Japan. This is a great resource if you use How My Parents Learned to Eat as a kick off for your students to compare and contrast the United States and Japan.
• Explore & More: This site offers an interactive map where students can click on Japan (and other countries) and explore different aspects of the chosen country. There is also a teacher section with various other activities.
• Global Diversity through Literacy: This site offers a kid-friendly connection between How My Parents Learned to Eat and facts about Japan. The site also has lesson plans included.

Vocabulary:  ashamed, encouraged, foreign, gobble, museum, recognized, realized
Key Words: chopsticks, fork, knives, restaurant, taught

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Have students start a KWL telling what they know about Japan or what they know about specifically food/eating in Japan and what they'd like to know about food/eating in Japan.
•  Have students predict why they think the narrator's parents had to "learn to eat."

During Reading:

• When the narrator's mom learns how to eat with a fork, have students discuss how she is learning to use a fork differently than they typically use a fork.
• After the narrator's mom and dad "learn to eat" ask students to predict how the story will end.
• Ask students: why do you think the narrator's mom and dad are embarrassed to eat in front of each other?

After Reading:

• Complete the L of their KWL
• Compare and contrast how the narrator's parents eat using a Venn Diagram.
• Learn how to use chopsticks!

Across the Curriculum:

• There are many Social Studies connections you could make, learning about different cultures and their eating habits.

Sunshine Blogger Award!

If for nothing else but to prove it is a SMALL world, I have to share the story of how I got nominated for the Sunshine blogger award... a blogger who went through the same undergrad program as myself and had viewed my blog via one of our professors nominated my blog for the Sunshine Award! She too had a blog assignment for our professor's class and made my day saying that my blog helped motivate her to start blogging again! Thanks to Katie from Teaching Voracious Learners! Makes me feel like I need to do a few book reviews to add to the "Great Books" section of my blog soon since that's how this all got started in undergrad... anywho, enough about how small the world is...

So there are 4 parts to receiving this award...
1. Post 11 random facts about yourself.
2. Answer the 11 facts asked by the blogger who nominated you.
3. Nominate 11 bloggers you think bring sunshine sunshine to the world.
4. Make up 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
I secretly feel like there should be 11 parts since the number 11 is obviously key in these steps ;)

Here are my 11 facts...

1. I married the love of my life who I have known since I was 11 in October.

2. We have a puppy... (well technically he's not a puppy anymore) named Bogey (as in the golf term).

3. I'm in my 2nd year of teaching, both years in 2nd grade and I'm increasingly convinced I will have to be dragged out of that grade level kicking and screaming because I love it so much.

4. My grade level partners are both men. I love working with them because it's NO DRAMA! Plus we have way too much fun. I'll be very sad if either of them ever leaves the team.

5. I'm a Whole Brainer. I love the way whole brain teaching and learning activates all parts of the brain. I have seen so much success in my students over the past 2 years and I think it has a lot to do with the use of all parts of the brain being involved in almost all the learning that happens in my room.

6. In high school I played 3 years of basketball and ran 5 seasons of indoor/outdoor track & field, I then competed in 11 seasons combined of cross country and indoor/outdoor track & field in college. I competed in nearly every event (except throwing) and have had a love/hate relationship with running since graduation. Here I am after Color Me Rad.

7. My husband is first assistant superintendent at a golf course. Said golf course is literally my backyard. It's pretty amazing to have such a big back yard to walk the pup or go for a run or hit up the driving range late at night (I'm terrible at golf though)!

8. I also live about a mile from the beach. Clearly my husband should have picked a less appealing place to work as our first home haha!

9. The summer before student teaching I went to Ireland for 5 weeks with a group from my college, it was probably the most amazing experience of my life!

10. I HATE the dark! But, I can't sleep unless it is completely dark... makes no sense, but it's true!

11. I love to bake! I actually just made 7 dozen chocolate chip cookies for the hubby because it's his birthday and he doesn't like cake :)

Here are my 11 answers to Katie's questions...

1. If it was your birthday and you could do ANYTHING you want, what would it be?

Go back to Ireland :)

2. What’s your #1 favorite book?

Hunger Games. I couldn't put any of the 3 books down and neither movie has disappointed!

3. If you could play any sport, what would it be?

If I was going to compete professionally it would be a close call between track & field and basketball.

4. Could you not watch TV for one month?

If netflix didn't count then yes :) Sometimes I just need to zone out in front of the tv!

5. Who is your biggest role model in life?

My mom! She never went to college because she hated school but ironically ended up working as a paraprofessional. She has always supported my dream of being a teacher and is always, always there for me!

6. What are your nicknames?

I used to have a few that involved my former last name, but those don't really count anymore. So, the only one I can really think of is Ash.

7. What did you want to do with your life when you were 7?

Be a teacher. My 1st grade teacher inspired me :)

8. If you could have ANY superpower, what would it be?

To read people's minds as long as I could turn it on and off at will. It would be so helpful especially when kiddos try to pull one over on me haha.

9. If you had to wear pants or a dress for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Pants! I was NEVER a dress/skirt person until I started teaching and needed a way to not sweat my butt off in terribly warm classrooms at the beginning and end of the year.

10. Why do you think there are SO many women teacher bloggers but not a lot of men?

I think a majority of teacher bloggers teach younger grade levels and there just aren't a lot of men who teach younger grades, despite my grade level team being me and 2 guys.

11. What or who made you want to teach or work with children?

My first grade teacher was simply amazing. She made me love learning and from the time I left her class I knew I would be a teacher. We are still in contact, she was even at my wedding :)

Here are my nominations (in no order)...

1. Butterflying through Teaching

2. A Rocky Top Teacher

3. Teachers are Terrific

4. Magic Mistakes and Mayhem

5. Confessions of a 3rd Grade Teacher

6. The 4th Grade Journey

7. The Perks of Teaching Primary

8. Seconds at the Beach

9. Live Laugh I Love Kindergarten

10. Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together

11. Time Two Teach

11 questions for nominees to answer...

1. What do you order at your favorite coffee place?

2. Give your #1 behavior management strategy in your classroom.

3. Why are you a teacher?

4. What's the best part of teaching?

5. What's the worst part of teaching?

6. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?

7. What's your favorite thing to do over the summer?

8. Do you have any siblings? Are you close with them?

9. Do you have any pets?

10. Why do you think so many people leave teaching after 5 or fewer years?

11. If you weren't a teacher, what would your profession be?

Thanks to Katie for the nomination! Excited to read the posts by my nominees :)

Math, Spring & Dr. Seuss

Hey everyone, it's been a while, so I have a lot to catch up on!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for 5 for Friday, so I can quickly give you an update on what's been going on in my teaching life & classroom. I'll be posting more about a few of these ideas soon :)

I'm also linking up with Freebie Friday with a Spring freebie which can be found in #1 and a Dr. Seuss freebie which can be found in #2!

Bring on Spring!

I decided up here in New England that I am beyond sick of the cold weather, especially when I think back to how nice the weather was last March, so my class took a couple days during writing workshop and decided to "Think Spring!" Get the writing paper freebie here. For the drawing section I just had the kiddos cut a piece of white paper with fancy scissors then draw a "Spring picture."

Dr. Seuss...

I don't know about you but I LOVE Dr. Seuss day in my class! We spent the whole day reading and listening to Dr. Seuss books and then spent part of the afternoon deciding on our favorite book, explaining why it was our favorite book and blending it into our little craftivity. They came out great! Get the freebie here.

More Dr. Seuss...

The following day we my wonderful substitute read The Lorax and then the kiddos wrote about how we could protect the Earth like the Lorax tried to protect the Truffala trees (we had been working on a recycling sort to go with the book during the previous week's centers). I got the Lorax freebie from The Teaching Bug here and the recycling sort (and other FREE Lorax activities) from Homeschool Share here.

Math...

I was picked to go to a math workshop on Monday and although I was initially a little hesitant to go and had literally no idea what I was getting into, I had a FANTASTIC TIME! I met some great teachers and learned of some fabulous ways to teach math, especially logic and number sense.

If you've never heard of Marcy Cook, go check out her website! She was a dynamic presenter and gave all the teachers there a TON of great ideas. All of the number tile activities on her website are interactive and I can't wait to try them out with my kiddos. I will keep you posted! I bought a few items while at the conference and am debating buying 3 more of the tile packs... we shall see!

I already started giving my students a "number fact" to go along with each day. For example, "Today is the 12th day of the month, there are 12 items in a dozen. How many eggs would there be if I had 2 dozen?" Marcy Cook has books with all kinds of number facts to make math relevant to daily life but I thought this was one activity I could easily begin in my room myself. I'm going to have to start keeping track of the number facts I use to help me out next year!

In the meantime if you want to check out an example of the types of tile cards she has, here are some made by a teacher to fit Marcy's tiles.

New product...

We started our time unit this week, so here is the Solve the Room product I made to go along with time. There are 3 different activities: Time to the nearest hour/ half hour; Time to the nearest quarter hour; Time to the nearest 5 minutes. Check it out!

Little Bonus...

Meet my amazing guest teacher!

I had the BEST sub (or guest teacher as we call them in my school)... look at how neat she left my table, I didn't have to do ANY of the usual extra work & cleaning coming back after she was in my room... I told our (also amazing) secretary that I want this sub EVERY time I'm out :)

Hopefully I will post again soon with some more Cook math ideas!

Whole Brain! Whole Brain! Whole Brain!

Well another short week behind us... my district actually only had President's Day off, but we had a snow day Tuesday, following a week of Thursday/Friday snow days.... so basically I had a mini-vacation mid-February. Boy do I need to get back into a routine!

Anywho, I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday.

If you couldn't guess from my post title, I have some Whole Brain Teaching to share, but I'll save those for the end... (best for last!)

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Wednesday because we were snowed out on Friday. In case you missed it last week, we made bear Valentine holders for our cards & goodies. We saved Valentine's Day festivities for last mostly for my sanity as we had to "earn it!"

We have been doing "mini research" projects in writing. I do some of the "research" for my kiddos by having them put 3-4 topics on an index card with their names. I then sorted through the cards and chose a different topic for each kiddo, then located a book, article or website for each kiddo. They then use the book, article or website to answer each question on their worksheet/organizer. Once they're done with their organizer we'll work on transferring the information into a nonfiction piece. The process isn't perfect but it's better than last year. If you're interested, click below to see/download the organizer we're using, again, not perfect... definitely a work in progress!

With all these snow days I was able to finish a few TPT products! Right now I'm teaching money, so I've been trying to whip up some products to make it all a little more fun!

My Coin Matching Memory Game & Worksheets includes 3 different memory style games tried & tested on my kiddos who LOVED it!
It also includes worksheets where students connect the coin set to the animal with the correct value, also tested on my kiddos and although they thought the animals were cute, of course they weren't as enjoyable as the memory games.

My story problem cards include 8 money story problems including addition, subtraction, 1 & 2 step problems. I haven't used these with my kiddos yet as we aren't to this point in the unit, but my students have enjoyed story problem cards as a math center for other math topics!

Finally, here is the money bundle! It includes ALL the money products I've promoted lately and if purchasing the bundle will save you nearly $5, and who doesn't  love a deal ;) It includes 3 solve the room activities, 3 I Have Who Has games, 3 Memory Games, 3 sets of matching worksheets & Story Problems!

I am so happy to have my toughest grad classes so far almost done. My research paper which I wrote about Whole Brain Teaching is done and submitted and I'm SO excited to present to my classmates about the magic of WBT this coming week. We were limited to 4 power point slides during our presentation... I decided to teach my classmates about all but one of the "Big Seven" of WBT.

And BEST FOR LAST... I was just approved by my district to go to the annual 3-day Whole Brain Teaching Conference in June with my bestie from the school I worked at last year... We are BEYOND excited! The conference is a few hours outside of New Orleans, so we are going to visit there too! Then when we get back we are presenting PD to our schools. I can't even express how thankful I am for this opportunity! Be on the lookout in June for all the fun stuff I learn while I'm at the conference :)

Well that is all for today, don't forget about the TPT 3 million strong sale on February 27th & 28th! My store will be on sale the 26th too (Happy Birthday to me!).

Busy (But Short) Week!

Well we got to celebrate 100th day (finally!) this week, but with 2 snow days, I guess Valentine's Day has to wait until Tuesday...

I'm linking up again with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday...

We had 100th Day this week! It kept getting pushed back because of snow, so we ended up with Tuesday 100th Day and Friday Valentine's Day... oh and Thursday yet another snow day, so clearly it wasn't a crazy week at all... oh wait...

Click the picture to see yesterday's post about all our 100th Day fun!

You just gotta love when the white and red Scholastic box arrives! This time I had a bunch of points and was able to order a normally $25 pack of National Geographics for Kids Animal Books. The kiddos went NUTS over these!

We made these bear bags for Valentine's Day... too cute! Too bad we won't get to use them until we go back to school on Tuesday after President's Day. I'm definitely officially sick of the snow!

I thought this was such a cute idea for a Valentine's Day teacher present... taking note for when I'm a Mom and my kiddos are school age!
Sorry for the poor quality it says "I'm soaping you'll be my Valentine"

Lastly, here are a few new products on my TPT page, check them out!

Don't forget to follow my new Facebook page for flash freebies and other fun stuff!