Saturday, May 8, 2010

My Hair

My hair is brown and curly. It is no longer chemically processed. Like Alice Walker, I too believe that oppressed hair puts a ceiling on the brain. Everyone wants what they don't have. If a woman has straight hair, she wants it to be curly, if she has curly hair, she wants it to be straight.

If she has short hair, she wants it to be long and vice versa.

At this juncture in my life, I accept my hair for what it is. It's just hair; everybody has it. I have been relaxer free, with no chemicals for about 3 years. On hot and humid days, my hair tends to become frizzy. I use gels and pomades to tame it.

If I want to wear a straight hair style, I will blow dry my hair and use a flat iron. It looks perfect; and I love it.

I am happy with my hair.


Vocabulary
Curly: (adjective)- curly or tending to curl
Believe: (verb) - to have faith in
Juncture: (noun) - point of time
Accept: (verb) to take or receive
Frizzy: (adjective) - formed into tight, small curls
Perfect: (adjective) - perfect; without flaws

The dolls hair was ____ and blond.
You must always ____ in yourself.
At this _____ in her life, she was able to go to Paris for vacation.
It is very hard for Doris to _____ the truth about her son Pierre.
The are in love and they make the _____ couple.
Due to the humidy, her hair was _______.

Grammar Point
The paragraph above has several adjectives, which describes nouns (my hair)
Identify the adjectives and the words they are describing.
Write about your hair. Use at least 6 adjectives.

The Nook


Ever since I can remember, reading has been one of my favorite activities. Throughout the years, I have acquired quite a library. Books are every where. Lo and behold, Barnes and Nobles has launched a new e-Reader called The Nook. It is supposed to be in competition with Amazon.com's Kindle.

With an e-reader, all of your books are digital.

Just like with an ipod, all of your music files and CDs are digital.

I am excited. It can hold 1,500 books and it also can hold a memory card. This means I can add up to 5,000 books. Oh, the possibilities are endless!
This e-Reader has wi-fi and Android technology. I can check my email. I can borrow e-books from the library, it reads pdf files, I can lend e-books to friends, it is an MP3 player, it can hold photos.

It will take some getting used to, but I will love having the extra space.


Vocabulary

Remember: (verb) - to recall to the mind

Launched: (verb) - to send forth, to release

Excited: (adjective) - stirred emotionally

Memory: (noun) - Storage on electronic device or card reader

Borrow: (verb) - to take and promise to return

Lend: (verb) - to grant the use of something on the condition that it is returned
Practice
Tasha has so many photos in her phone she needs a ______ card.
John was so ______ about having a new baby brother to play with.
Banks ______ people ______ and they promise to pay it back
A space ship was ______ to Mars.
I do not _____ where put my keys.
Grammar Points
What is an adverb? An adverb is a word that can modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb, clause or phrase. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause or degree and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," and "how much."
Go to this website and fill in all the adverbs.

Dry Hair Care Tips


The most common reason for dry and brittle hair can be usually found within your hair care regimen. Over processing with chemicals, excessive use of heat, lack of moisture and using the wrong hair products are just a few things that can make your hair dry. So what can you do to solve this?


1. Increase your deep conditioning sessions. Condition for a least once a week.


2. Moisturize your hair and ends daily


3. Cut back on the heat. If you're using heat daily, try to reduce it to once a week.


4. Protect your hair with a silk or satin scarf at night.


5. Let go of the dead weight. If your hair is damaged, just cut it and get it over with.


6. Try protective hairstyling. Buns, braids, wigs or anything that will shield your hair and ends from harsh elements.
Vocabulary
Moisture: (noun) - liquid diffused
Increase: (verb) - to become greater
Cut: (verb) - trim or pare
Protect: (verb) - to cover or shield from exposure
Dead: (adjective) - deprived of life, no longer alive
Harsh: (adjective) - severe
Cloze exercise/practice
The rice was overcooked and it contained too much __________.
You must decrease your calories and _______ exercise to experience weight loss.
She went to the salon to get a hair ______.
Wearing sunscreen at the beach can _____ you from harmful rays of the sun.
No one was talking, the conversation was _______.
Bleach is a _______ chemical that is found in most hair dye.
Grammar Point
How many adjectives are in this paragraph? How often do you practice a hair care routine? Do you think that most people care for their hair properly?

Perfect Lemonade Recipe


Perfect Lemonade Recipe


Ingredients
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)
Method
1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.

2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.

3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.

Serves 6.

Vocabulary:

All of the following vocabulary words are nouns

Sugar: Sweetner
Pitcher: Container that holds beverages
Lemon: Citrus fruit that that has a tart taste
Sauce Pan: Small pan to heat or cook with
Juicer: Machine that extracts juice from fruit and vegetables
Ice: Frozen water made into cubes

Cloze Exercise:

The water was cold as ________.
Maura used the __________ to melt the sugar.
The __________ tasted sour.
Don decided to become a vegetarian, so he bought a _________ from Macys.
Can you please go into the refrigerator and bring me the __________ of iced tea?
Eating too much _______ can make you gain weight.


Additional Exercise:

Write a recipe for any meal and underline all of the nouns.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Are You A Prize?




Are you a prize? Do you put yourself on a pedestal or do you spend more time devaluing yourself?

This is not a promotion of vanity or self absorption. Rather
this is one of self awareness and self confidence.

One that can be a constant battle between the negative and positive whispers in your own head. I’ve noticed that as women we spend much of our time finding our own flaws and once we are done with that, then we proceed to find another person's flaws and point it out as well. Think about it. How much time do you spend finding your own flaws and comparing yourself to the images that you see in magazines and TV wishing you could measure up?


Tips To Help You Feel Good About Yourself:
For years, I spent energy in trying to fit into a mold that never fit me completely and comparing myself to others. The moments when I was happy with myself would quickly end because I would soon find something that I disliked about myself, whether it was physically or internally and my focus would zero in on that once again. What I am saying is that the time that you spend pouring down negativity upon yourself should be the time that you spend discovering all of the things that makes you special and indeed a prize.


Prize: verb (used with object),prized, priz·ing.to value or esteem highly,
to estimate the worth or value of

Monday, March 8, 2010

English - OH DEAR!


ONLY THE ENGLISH COULD HAVE INVENTED THIS LANGUAGE

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England ...
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns
down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT IF PEOPLE FROM POLAND ARE CALLED POLES THEN

PEOPLE FROM HOLLAND SHOULD BE HOLES AND THE GERMANS GERMS!!!

Vocabulary
Box: (noun) - container or a case
Imagine: (verb) - to think or believe
Explore: (verb) - to search for
Bunch: (noun) - a connected group; a cluster
Wise: (adjective) - knowledgeable
Alarm: (noun) - call attention; sound; outcry
Practice
Daniel placed the ____ on the floor
She set her _____ clock for 5 am in the morning.
Denise bought a ____ of grapes from the fruit stand.
Tom like to travel and _____ the world.
Jeffrey's grandfather is a ____ old man from Venezuela.
When Tony is stressed out at work, he likes to _____ that he is on Miami Beach.

Grammar Point
Write a paragraph using verbs to describe your day in school.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Two Eggs Over Easy Please


This is so funny to me. I can't help but to share it.I really laughed on this one. I could fully relate with it.

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.

“Careful,” he said, “CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt! USE THE SALT! THE SALT!”

The wife stared at him. “What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?”

The husband calmly replied, “I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving.”


Vocabulary

Funny - (adjective) providing fun, causing amusement or laughter
Burst - (verb) to break open or fly apart
Listen - (verb) to give attention with the ear
Hurry - (verb) to move proceed or act with haste
Couple - (noun) two of the same sort considered together
Show - (verb) to exhibit or display


Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary words:
She needed a ____ of minutes to finish her test.
He wanted to ______ to the radio.
George Lopez is such a _____ commedienne.
Charlotte was startled when the balloon _____.
They were late and had to _____ to school.
Can you _____ me the way to San Jose?

Grammar Points - Adjectives that describe feelings

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun. It is a word that provides more information about another word. This can be used to describe feelings.

Example: Funny and exciting
Practice: Can you come up with 15 words that describe feelings?


For more information about adjectives, please go to the following website:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm