Tuesday, March 11, 2014

to blog or not to blog?

that is the question! for quite some time now, i have contemplated the idea of starting a blog. i'm an avid reader of all things blog. i read fashion blogs, lifestyle blogs, fitness blogs, blogs about blogs, and even mommy blogs (who knew?!). it's something a lot of people don't know about me, but it would be an understatement if i said i couldn't wait to get home at night, sit down on my citrus- green couch, ipad in hand, and click away at my little "blogs i love" folder. i get lost in them! they give me ideas- DIY projects easy enough to actually complete, healthy alternatives to my favorite comfort foods, they inspire me- inspire me to reach my goal weight, think twice about worldly issues, become a runner, become a photographer (which i hope to pick up someday soon!). i just love everything about them! anyone who enjoys reading blogs this much, must have one! i can think back to the livejournal days (oh, gosh!) and i would get lost in my posts, sometimes, multiple a day. i liked tweaking the fonts to have them look perfectly, adding pictures to my posts as to make sure they weren't boring, checking my comments, commenting on others. i like the informality of blogs. being a teacher,  i am certainly an advocate for proper grammar, but in the blogworld- anything goes!

what kind of blogger will i become? who knows? all i know is it's about time to publish post 1 :)

anyways- i wanted to show how cute my spring bulletin board came out. i get a lot of my monthly bulletin board ideas from old Mailbox Magazines. The Mailbox is such a classic teacher company. i like how they have many, many teacher resource books and also offer a magazine subscription. anyways, i love featuring poetry on my boards. poetry is always fun for students/other staff members to read. who wants to stand in a hallway and read a report or a five page biography anyways? plus, my students never fail to amaze me at their poetry writing skills! i decided to go the cinquain route since we have been doing some practice work with syllables. i added an extra challenge by telling the students they could not just list words, that the poem had to have phrases on each line, or the whole poem could be one sentence long. they loved the challenge and proved to be really good at it, too.


all you need is: one 8-inch black circle, one 8-inch red circle, one 3-inch black circle (for the head), two 3-inch long black pipe cleaners, and a few 1-inch black circles for the spots. if you google "____ inch circle template" you can find tons of printable ones. i traced these onto cardstock to use as a master tracer. then you can have the students trace and cut your own. if you're a perfectionist, like me, you will trace them and have students cut them out.

step 1: glue the two black circles together as the head and body
step 2: glue black dots onto red circle
step 3: draw a line with ruler on the back of red circle, cut down the line
step 4: glue both red halves on top of the body, leaving some black peeking out through the middle
step 5: glue (tacky glue works best) pipe cleaners for antennas

originally, you were supposed to put the poem inside the lady bug but it wasn't too much room. i opted for placing the work beside the bug. i also attached a short and simple paper about what a cinquain is. that way, the reader knows what they are looking at!

in other news- i have signed up for my FIRST 10k. sure, i only have two 5ks (where i actually ran) under my belt, but i am running at least 2-3 miles four-five times a week at the gym. i'm up for the challenge! everything about this 10k was perfect- the weather, it is right in front of my apartment, and you even get a finishers medal! so on june 7, you can catch me at the heartbreak hill running festival. run with me, cheer me on, or show up at the finish line with a cupcake and a bag of doritos.

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