Word family tubes to practice real and nonsense words

I made these tubes for my first grade reading students to practice reading word families. The kids absolutely love them. These rolls are made out of brown paper towel tubes (cut in half) with white toilet paper tubes on top. I also tried using toilet paper tubes with paper to spin around but they're not very sturdy.

The tubes have one word family ending on the front and one on the reverse side, so each roll has two sets of words on it. Some are real and some are nonsense words. To read the words, the kids spin around the white tube.

The students use these as a warm up. While I am getting out our lesson materials for the day, they pick up one of these and read the words until I say stop.

Happy New Year!

As a New Year Commitment, my boyfriend and I have decided to take on a 21 Day Healthy Eating Challenge. I say "commitment" and not "resolution" because the latter always seems to be broken!

Daniel and I started out with an idea to do a 21 Day Cleanse. Most of the cleanse plans I found were pretty extreme, eliminating all carbs, sugars, beans, nuts, and even certain types of vegetables such as eggplant and tomato. This would be an interesting challenge sometime, but we were hoping to find something a little less restrictive.

What we settled on was a further modified version of this healthy eating plate from the Harvard School of Public Health:

In addition to the recommendations here to avoid refined grains, sugary drinks, and processed meats, we are also avoiding any processed foods (meaning any ingredient on a label that we don't recognize), fried foods, and alcohol.

I cleaned out our cupboards today and took out all the boxes, cans, and bags that didn't meet these requirements. Actually, I already eat a fairly healthy diet, so it surprised me how much junk I found! There was the stuff you might expect - packages of cookies, canned soup - but also some stuff that I consider to be "good" choices, like Cliff brand energy bars.

We also stocked up on bags of frozen vegetables at the store yesterday. Fresh fruits and veggies are so much tastier, but the frozen ones are convenient when you're hungry and in a hurry.

Today I made roasted chick peas for the first time! The recipe I used was from the blog How Sweet It Is (www.howsweeteats.com). They were easy, good, and one cup of them has 50% of recommended daily fiber!

I hope to keep this blog updated with posts on how it goes for us. Does anyone want to join us? It's only for 21 days!

Finally, here are some websites with great information on whole foods and healthy eating:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
http://www.doctoroz.com/topic/nutrition
http://www.biggestloser.com/nutrition/search-recipes


Happy New Year, and cheers to 2014 being the best yet!
Haley

My Top 5 Most Popular Pins on Pinterest

I'll admit it, I'm a Pinterest addict. For those who aren't familiar with the site, Pinterest.com is a website that allows users to create virtual bulletin boards with their favorite websites and pictures, and view the boards that others have created. When someone "repins" something that I have pinned on one of my boards, Pinterest lets me know with a notification.

Here are my pins that are the most popular for others to repin:


http://pinterest.com/pin/59883870017741462/
Big Ideas Math - Game Closet

http://pinterest.com/pin/59883870018674858/
Spooky Halloween Recipes

http://pinterest.com/pin/59883870018487990/
Orange Cream Fruit Dip Recipe

http://pinterest.com/pin/59883870016513759/
DIY Beach Candle Holder

http://pinterest.com/pin/59883870015767528/
How to Make Healthy Smoothies

There they are! It's interesting to me to see which ones turn out to be the most popular. The seashell candle holder is often repinned and I don't really even like it anymore. What about you? What are the top 5 repins from your boards?

Seen on Maui! - Island Plants and Animals

I am in Maui this week and loving it! Everything here is so incredibly beautiful. I enjoy taking pictures of plants and animals. Here are a few photos that I have taken so far. I will post a Part 2 later in the week. ♥ Haley

 Java Sparrow - Lonchura oryzivora

 Double shot - two in one! I didn't notice the little guy at the bottom until after I was zooming in to take the picture.

 Bird of Paradise - Strelitzia reginae

and

Gold Dust Day Gecko - Phelsuma laticauda
(I really like this gecko's name)

Hibiscus - Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 

I need to take a better picture; it's really a pretty flower

Bougainvillea Tree - Bougainvillea arborea

Sonoran Carpenter Bee - Xylocopa sonorina
I thought this was some kind of flying beetle until I noticed it was going from flower to flower collecting pollen.

Hibiscus (possibly Hawaiian Sunset variety) - Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

House Gecko - Hemidactylus frenatus

Infographic: Title Capitalization

I love infographics! I was searching for a simple list of words that shouldn't be capitalized in titles, but couldn't find one. It occurred to me, "That sounds easy enough, I should just make one!" So here it is folks.

If you are interested, I used the website infogr.am to make it, and it took me around five minutes. The website is free to use, but if you want to download a quality image of your infographic, you need a "premium" (read: paid) subscription. I'll be searching for a program that is free and produces a higher resolution image. If you know of one, please leave me a comment!

Goodwill Outlet Store

I found the coolest store today!

I've driven past a Goodwill warehouse in the Sellwood area of Portland several times, and have always been curious. The sign says “GOODWILL – Outlet Store and Donation Center”. It is by no means flashy or exceedingly inviting – I drove around the block to get there and once in the parking lot I wondered if I was in the right place. The building takes up at least city block or so, it is huge! Goodwill donation trucks are lined up in rows.

Going inside, I was amazed. Lines and lines of bins filled with everything you could imagine in no particular order. Workers yelling out “Careful! Careful!” as they push the giant bins down the aisles. Over the intercom, there is a reminder to stay out of the way of the bins and to not begin sorting through the bins until they have come to a complete stop. The place is a complete frenzy of bargain hunters and resellers. People had their carts piled high and were sorting through the bins at an intimidating pace.

Items are sold by the pound. Literally. Loads between 0-10 pounds sell for $1.59 per lb., and if you buy more, it gets cheaper, down to over 25 pounds for $0.89 per lb. Glassware is $0.39 per lb. Bigger items like furniture are priced separately and are fairly cheap too, at least half the price of a regular Goodwill store.

My haul for the day? I didn't fill my cart like many of the savvy shoppers there, but I did get some cute things.

1 – Disney's Brave reusable shopping bag

2 – Scarves

1 – Fabric panel with an image from Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar

1 – Leather purse

1 – Sweater

Total price: $3.40

What a deal!

If you get a chance and like a good bargain, stop by and experience it! It's worth a visit for sure.

The address is:

1740 SE Ochoco St
Milwaukie, OR 97222

Hours:

Monday through Saturday 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Sunday 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Best of luck on your treasure hunt!

~ Haley

(Very) Healthy Banana Muffins

It’s been a “use up what’s in the fridge before it goes bad” kind of cooking day, and so far I’ve had some good results. First was kale chips, then roasted veggies, and now, (very) healthy banana muffins.

I loosely followed this recipe but was missing a bit of this, and added a bit of that instead. Here is the recipe of what I actually made.

Recipe: (Very) Healthy Oatmeal Banana Muffins

Makes 12-18, depending on the muffin size you choose

2 ripe bananas

½ cup Greek yogurt

½ applesauce (I like to keep the individual size cups around for recipes like this)

2 ½ cups oats

1 tablespoon coconut oil

A good squeeze (1 ½ tablespoons?) of agave nectar

2 eggs

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

Mix everything together.

Spoon into greased muffin tins.

Put in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

The verdict: These were good! They were a bit different than regular banana bread, but also way healthier - no flour, butter, or white sugar! They will make a great easy grab-and-go breakfast. The next time I make them, I might try grinding up the oatmeal in a food processor or blender to make an oat flour.

UPDATE: I froze these since it made a lot of them. They're a good quick breakfast or snack, taken out of the freezer and put in the microwave. I liked them better heated up after being frozen; they were softer.