Friday Favorites: Wrapping Up February!

Happy last day of February!  Thanks for checking in as I link up with Erika from A Little Bit of Everything and Andrea from Momfessionals for:

It's Been A Year....

One year ago this week, my husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.  It's been a whirlwind of treatment, surgery, aftermath symptoms (hopefully, you don't know what this means), etc.  Amazingly, his latest CAT scan and blood work look good.  For the next several years, he will need follow-up testing every 3 months, but every day is a gift.  Here's a picture of Matt from - what he calls - the "before times."

Since diagnosis, he's lost over 40 pounds.  Due to his esophagectomy, his stomach has been greatly reduced and is located between his lungs.  It's all amazing that medicine is this advanced.

Do you need a unique personalized gift?

When we went to San Juan last year, we were so enchanted with the art in this store:  The Poet's Passage.  We bought 3 personalized casita doors and 2 prints.  Now my niece is engaged and has bought a house in Texas so I am ordering her a casita door, too!

I'm leaning toward this one, but I haven't made my final decision.  I just think they're so colorful and fun!

Cuticle Cream Worth Checking Out!

My hands, especially my cuticles are so dried out right now.  I've been using this Onsen cuticle cream, and I really love how it absorbs quickly and helping to moisturize my ragged cuticles:

Jane Brocket:  Colorful Non-Fiction Books

Every Saturday I take my weekly trip to my local library.  The first thing I do in the Children's Room is look at the new books.  Lately, I've been trying to find more non-fiction picture books, and this week I was extraordinarily lucky to find a new-to-me series, Jane Brocket's Clever Concepts.  Here are 2 examples:

 Bright color and photographs automatically attracted me to these books as well as the math connections, shapes and patterns.

Circles, Stars, and Squares has beautiful pictures of real life examples of two and three dimensional shapes:

 My students can always review different shapes as well as the difference between 2 and 3 dimensional shapes.  Plus, look at those delicious pictures, and that's only one of the pages. 

In Spotty, Stripy, Swirly, the pictures are equally vibrant and fascinating. 

I know that I'm going to be on the look-out for patterns when I'm out and about.

If you want to learn more about this amazingly talented photographer, author and blogger, she has her own Substack.

That's it for now!  I'm looking forward to more sun and daylight.  What are you looking forward to?

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Marvelous March & More!

Happy March everyone!  Thank you for popping in for a visit as I link up with Anne from Anne in Residence          for:

Fixing

After returning from our weekend in Tarrytown, NY, I realized I needed to fix the state of my closet (one of my least favorite jobs).  Luckily for the state of my closet, I was under the weather during February school vacation week so I tidied it up a little bit every day.  Check out the finished product:





Hearing

Did you hear that the newly renovated Mayflower II is coming to Boston in May?  Here's the best part ~ I have a ticket to go onboard the ship!  This event happening from May 14th to the 19th, includes presentations by educators from Plymouth Plantation as well as plenty of fun activities!




Borrowing

Right now I'm reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  In this book, Hiram ~ the main character and a slave ~ meets and eventually works with Harriet Tubman, a.k.a. Moses.  It is a very fascinating book that is full of adventure and sadness.  You can read more details by clicking on the book cover. 

Feeling

I am happy to share that I am just about fully recovered from my recent bout with the cough virus.  It seems like a lot of my students had it before February vacation, and then I got it during vacation week.  The good part is that it forced me to rest and relax ~ which is something that doesn't come naturally to me.


Recommending 

For this WIN (What I Need/Intervention) Block, I am teaching a small group about writing summaries for non-fiction.  On the first day, we took a "field trip" to the school library and borrowed some encyclopedias.  The students had never heard or handled books like this!

Growing up, I always wished my family had a set of encyclopedias so I didn't have to go to the library or a neighbor's house.  Now encyclopedias have gone the way of the dinosaur, but it's still useful and helpful to know about their existence.  We used the encyclopedias every day last week, and all the kids said it was their favorite part of WIN Block.  Consequently, I'm recommending introducing your children/students to encyclopedias as well as browsing through them next time you go to the library.

As always, I'm so happy that you visited my blog!  Have a marvelous March!  Make sure to visit the Anne in Residence Blog to check out more bloggers' Currently March stories!

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Wow, it's 2018!  The first day of a new beginning is worth celebrating with some good books, and that's why I'm linking up with Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for:

Great Non-Fiction with a Great Message!

This book is a simply amazing must-read for everyone!  I love the message that we must never stand still in our pursuit of freedom!  Who knew about the Statue of Liberty's right foot?  I want to revisit the Statue and see her foot!

Click on book cover to read more at Amazon.

You can read more about this book in a blog post I wrote  here.

Fun with Figurative Language!

Just from the title alone, you know you're in for a fun-filled, laugh-out-loud adventure with sheep Baabwaa and Wooliam who meet a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing!  If you love reading,  puns and creative use of language, this book is for you!

This Is How We Do More Educational Non-Fiction!

Ever since I was young, I've been fascinated about how other people around the world live.  This book tells you how with fun facts, colorful illustrations and interesting details:

My good friend, Patty, gave me a gift card to a brand new, independent book store Whitelam Books in Reading, Massachusetts, and this is the great book I chose!

My forever resolution includes reading more non-fiction read-alouds to my students.  Do you have any reading resolutions?  Please let me know in the comments ~ I'd love to hear them!

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Fun to Read Books - One Featuring a Curious Monkey and the Other a Sheep!

Happy Last Day of July!  It's even a Monday which means it's time to link up with Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers for:

Curious George Discovers Series

There's a whole series of these fun books, but this is the one that was at my library:

 I enjoyed this book because it included interesting facts about the seasons as well as experiments.  Of course, who doesn't like Curious George?

I love reviewing how the seasons are opposite on different sides of the equator!

 Check out one of the experiments!

Now that it's summer, winter seems so far away, and that's the way I like it!  Luckily, you can try out this activity any time!

The Sheepover

 Sweet Pea, the sheep, is an orphan:

She gets sick, and the vet has to come check her over.  At last, Sweet Pea is well enough to have a "sheepover!"

You can read more about Sweet Pea and her friends here.

 I especially enjoyed the personal note from the authors/farmers:

 Both of these books combine fiction and non-fiction in a fun way, and both include follow-up activities!  Also, kids will love these books because of the main characters - especially Sweet Pea, the Sheep - too cute!


Enjoy the last day of July!

 

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