Last week in January 2011

One always hopes for the new year to be better, although we sometimes hardly know what better is. I am grateful to have a roof over my head, and an apartment underneath that roof that is quite nice, even awesome, one might say.  We are comfortable, have enough food; we love each other. I love teaching, too. What is it that myself longs for? warmth, sunshine, a caressing breeze, and no earaches.

Snowing...

Oh, dear.  It looks like we are going to be snowed in for the week. 

Snow

Snow. It has fallen; it is falling; and it will continue to fall. (past, present, and future progressive.)  Snow is cold. Teddy will not do his business in snow. Teddy looks at me like its my fault that it is snowing.  Teddy flicks his feet, one at a time, when he has to walk in snow.  Teddy does not like snow. He does not run in snow. He does not look for Spot or other dogs in the snow. Teddy does not sniff the snow or bite the snow. Teddy says, "To hell with the snow."

Grammar Tree

I am trying to devise a visual that will help students see that the parts of speech grow together to form a sentence.  For example, in order to have a sentence, one must use nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to form the sentence. Sentences form paragraphs.  Paragraphs form essays, etc.  Hmm, I have a tree branch with twigs--this is not a huge limb; it is a smallish limb, etc...  And the branch has twigs that branch to form larger twigs--will this be confusing or will it be helpful.  I will play with this on paper a bit...