What is your madeleine ?

                                                  

In Marcel Proust's, "Remembrance of Things Past," readers are introduced to madeleines.
A madeleine is a small, spongy cake that leads you into a state of reminiscence. The introduction to the madeleine leads Proust's character into a magical moment where he revisits his past. The character seems to have an epiphany. One bite of this delectable treat and the journey begins. It is a magical ride into your past: the smells, the sounds, the sights, the tastes, and the touchable moments of those memories. Proust incorporates the five senses of our bodies to illustrate the magical moment. In the Pixar movie, Ratatouille, we see how a special dish stimulates the senses of restaurant customers, and even a rat! Everyone has a "madeleine." It may be in the form of a favorite dish, or a specific scent of a candle, or the sounds of a particular song that stimulates the memory that is "indexed" in our brains.

What is your madeleine?

VOCABULARY:
spongy (adjective)- soft and squishy, resembles the feel of a sponge
reminiscence (noun/verb)- the act of remembering past memories
epiphany (noun)- a moment when you see or feel something in a clearer manner
delectable (adjective)- very pleasant to taste or smell
illustrate (verb)- to explain with pictures
specific (adjective)- precise or exact
stimulate (verb)- to make something happen; to cause something to react
index (verb/noun)- file in an organized manner

VOCABULARY EXERCISE:
Please fill in the blanks with the appropriate word from the above vocabulary list.
1. Those chocolates that Peter gave you are _______________________!
2. After observing and touching the lung sample, the students decided that they would describe the lung as ______________________.
3. If you tickle your little brother, he will become very __________________________.
4. I don't quite understand the directions to the restaurant. Can you _______________________ them on this piece of paper for me?
5. Is there a _________________________ meal that you would like me to cook for your birthday?
6. It is fun to ___________________________ about our younger days as we get older.
7. Can you please _____________________ these papers into the student portfolios for me?
8. He stopped in his tracks, opened his mouth in surprise, and smiled.  He must have had an _________________________.

GRAMMAR POINT:
A pronoun is a word or phrase that may be substituted for a noun or a noun group. As long as there is prior conversation or the pronoun has an antecedent, you have the "green light" to use a pronoun.
For example: Mary went to the market and bought hamburger meat and buns, lettuce, one tomato, cheese, an onion, and ketchup. She bought nice hamburger buns and plans to toast them on the grill.
GRAMMAR ASSIGNMENT:
Please create 5 examples of using pronouns properly in the English language. Be sure to highlight your pronoun and the antecedent. You may also draw an arrow from the pronoun to its antecedent as well.

Halloween

October 31st is a well-known date in the United States of America. It is Halloween. This is a holiday that many kids throughout the nation love. It is a day where children and adults get dressed up in costume of their favorite character, food, concept, and walk from house to house, apartment to apartment, or building to building. The drill: Knock on the front door or ring the door bell, say "Trick-or-Treat", and hold open your bag for the candy. Don't forget to say, "Thank you!" Many kids carry a decorated plastic or plush container. Some prefer to carry an empty pillowcase in preparation for the several pounds of candy to be collected. As kids, all we wanted to do was eat and try out the candy that we just received. Please, please, please, make sure that you have a parent, relative, or friend, look over your candy before you eat it. Why? You want to make sure that your candy hasn't been tampered with and that you stay safe on a fun holiday. Most of the trick-or-treating happens at night or for the younger kids, during the day or early evening when there is daylight. Some older kids have been known to throw raw eggs or spray people with shaving cream. This is another reason why you should travel with friends and adults. I remember getting home with all of my candy and dumping my trick-or-treat bag upside down, so that all of my candy made a huge pile on our living room rug. The cool thing was that my brother and our friends would trade our goodies. The hardest candies to try to trade were the bigger items, like a full-size Hershey bar or Snickers bar. This is a holiday for all ages. You are never too young to still have some fun. I still dress up on Halloween and enjoy the candy. My children are young adults and tend to go out with their friends, so I enjoy handing out the candy at my front door and see all the creative costumes that come to visit. A couple of suggestions if you plan on trick-or-treating at night are to wear warmer clothing under your costume, bring a flashlight or a glow stick, eat a good meal to fill you up before going out, and have an agreed time and place to meet up with your group if you get separated. Be safe, Be aware, Be smart, have fun and most of all......HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Imagine that you are standing in a Halloween costume store. What costume would you pick out to wear for Halloween? Why?

VOCABULARY
plush (adjective) -- a thick, soft fabric
relative (noun) -- a member of your family
tampered (verb) -- to change the structure or arrangement of something
goodies (noun) -- sweets, candy, desserts
tend (verb) -- to go in a particular direction
*boogeyman (noun) -- a scary character that is not real
*creepy (adjective) -- scary
*ghastly (adjective) -- very shocking or horrible
*mysterious (adjective) -- unknown; strange
*supernatural (adjective) -- relating or coming from magic; the unexplainable
*zombie (noun) --  a dead person who is able to move because of magic according to some religions and stories, movies, etc.

* = word from the above video

VOCABULARY EXERCISE
Please "put the pieces back together." Using the clues, given below, try to identify the vocabulary word that is being described in each clue. After identifying the vocabulary word, piece together your crossword puzzle. Which words can intersect? Have fun with this challenge!:-)
Across
5. relating or coming from magic; the unexplainable
7. unknown; strange
10. a scary character that is not real
11. to go in a particular direction
Down
1. scary
2. a thick, soft fabric
3. very shocking or horrible
4. sweets, candy, desserts
6. a dead person who is able to move because of magic according to some religions and stories, movies, etc.
8. to change the structure or arrangement of something
9. a member of your family






GRAMMAR POINT
An adjective is a word that describes a person, place, or thing. In my above post, I use many adjectives to "paint a picture" and help my readers understand what children in the United States of America do on Halloween. Please tell me about a holiday or special event that is tradition in your family or your culture by writing a 10 sentence paragraph that includes at least 5 adjectives. Underline the adjectives in your paragraph and add an illustration once you are done with your paragraph. The illustration must relate to your paragraph.

Ironman 2016 at Lake Placid

             

I love to volunteer! Four years ago, my family started to travel to Lake Placid, NY in the winter to ski and to see the annual ice festival. We loved Lake Placid so much, that we started to travel there in the summer months. Our family is an active family and have been to several Half-Ironman events. We have had friends from the running and biking community that we wanted to support in the full Ironman event at Lake Placid in July. So, it has been tradition to register, in February, as a volunteer at the Lake Placid Ironman event. If you are not familiar with an Ironman, let me shed some light on the topic. An Ironman is a triathlon, which is a race that has 3 events, one after the other. They are: swimming, biking, and running. The swim is 2.4 miles, 112 miles of biking, and a full marathon, which is 26.2 miles of running. That is a grand total of 140.6 miles. It takes many people a year to train for this race. For many, it is a bucket list event, but for others, it is their job. My family loves to volunteer at this event for several reasons. They love that volunteers get fed all day long. Well, maybe my teenager seem to love the food a bit more than I do. The aura in the air at Lake Placid is contagious and inspiring to athletes and non-athletes. Lake Placid is known for hosting the 1980 Winter Olympics. Many sport teams go up to Lake Placid, year round, to train for their sport. There are the ski jumps, the olympic museum, the famous olympic ice rink where the U.S.A. beat the Soviet Union in a hockey game, hiking trails, Lake Saranac, and great food to experience. For the past years, I have chosen the same volunteer station, Special Needs Bag Station for the cyclists. After riding one loop of the 112 bike course, cyclists may stop and dig through their personal bags for hydration, nutrition, change of clothes, etc. We are there to serve them. You can see in the above picture that we meet the athletes on the course and hold their bike steady as they rummage through their special needs bag. Many athletes want to talk, need encouragement, need nutrition, or simply want to say, "Thank you." To my complete surprise, some athletes give their bike handler volunteer a Ziploc bag with a $5 gift card and a note of thanks. The best thing about volunteering at this event is being able to work and serve the athletes and helping them become the next Ironman. It is truly an experience to be had by all! 

Do you do something that you feel everybody should experience at least one time in their life? What is it and why do you feel this is an experience for everybody?

VOCABULARY

annual (adjective) -- happening once a year

tradition (noun) -- a way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, etc., for a long time

familiar (adjective) -- heard, seen, or experienced often

aura (noun) -- a special feeling that someone gets from a place, person, or thing

contagious (adjective) -- able to be passed from one person to another by touching; able to get something like a feeling from a place or experience

inspiring (adjective) --  causing people to want to do or create something or to lead better lives

cyclist (noun) -- a person that rides a bike

hydration (noun) -- having a healthy amount of water in the body

rummage (verb) -- to search for something; to dig deep in search for a specific item

VOCABULARY EXERCISE

Please unscramble the following vocabulary words.

1. raau _____________________________                     6. margemu _______________________

2. nythorniad _________________________                  7.  ulnana     _______________________

3. lairmifa   __________________________                   8. dirttoina   _______________________

4. lyitscc  ____________________________                  9. springiin  _______________________

5. goatscinuo _________________________

GRAMMAR POINT

An adjective is a word that describes a person, place, or thing. Possession is the state of owning something. Put these two items together and you have "Possessive Adjective". A possessive adjective shows that someone owns something or someone. My, your, his, her, it's, our, your, their are all possessive adjectives. Please reread my above post about Ironman. Find and list the possessive adjectives in the entry. How many of each possessive adjective did you find? Use 3 different possessive adjectives and compose 3 sentences that are of the same topic. For example, you may want to write 3 sentences about your summer vacation, or last night's dinner, or a difficult class.