Gettin' My Fix with Stitch Fix {#3}

I love putting my Stitch Fix posts together for everyone almost as much as I enjoy looking at other people's fixes!  And it's that time again.  Let me know what you think of this month's fix.  And I've decided after this 3rd fix...to turn it into a monthly subscription.  P.S.  What I love about Stitch Fix is I can cancel or hold off on a month if I ever want to!  

My 3rd fix came about a week ago and I am finally getting some spare time (not really spare, when you are supposed to be writing lesson plans for the week) to put it together and show it everyone.  Here are my 1st and 2nd fixes in case you just found your way over to my little blog.  My awkward fashion show for one (technically 2, since my hubby takes all the pictures) was a bit rushed this time, so the pictures are sort of mish mashed...you'll have to pardon the blurry pictures, weird poses, and faces! LOL

In case you've never heard of Stitch FIx, go ahead and check out these quick tidbits...

• Sign up using this referral code and get yourself on the calendar.

• Take a styling quiz so your stylist can see what you like, dislike, your body type, sizing, etc.

• $20 styling fee (you don't pay it till your fix is put together) gets you a personalized box of 5 hand-picked items from tops to bottoms to necklaces to everything else you could imagine

• Sign up for a monthly fix or whenever you'd like as often as you'd like, it isn't a subscription service...which is a PLUS!

• Keep all 5 items and get 25% off your total and also get your $20 taken off the price

• You have 3 days to try everything on and send it back in a pre-paid envelope

• If you don't keep anything, your $20 is well...wasted. But there are ways to ensure your fix is right for you. (see first review or the pro-tips I give each time)

• Feel pampered and like a bit of a celebrity as you try on items picked just for you!

First Look 

I liked the color I saw peeking at me from the box when I opened it.  But as I pulled each item out, I became increasingly uneasy.  Nothing really stood out to me, except the patterned blouse.  Sadly, this was my least favorite fix because it lacked uniqueness.  The prices were much more on point though, so I'm glad my stylist has figured that bit out about me.  I can't help it!  I'm used to shopping at Forever 21, JCPenneys, and Kohls.  

{Stitch Fix Pro Tip #2}

I really liked my stylist from my 2nd fix, so I really wanted to get him again.  Best way to do this, in case you fall in love with your stylist, write a quick note in your comment section on your style quiz. You can go in and edit this any time you want.  I also mentioned it in my return/keeps section just to make sure Brent would be my stylist again.  It works!

Look #1

41 Hawthorn Bixby Ladder Print 3/4 Sleeve Blouse | $48

 

At first glance I really really loved the pattern and the color combo.  I am a sucker for navy.  Plus, it's my favorite!  Blouses!  Not to mention it is from my new Stitch Fix favorite brand, 41 Hawthorn

Okay, so.  I have a feeling some ladies will think this looked fantastic on me and some will agree with me and say it is too boxy.  I swear to you all out there, it photographed much better than it looked in person.  It was baggy, so I tucked it in (my favorite flattering way to fix any top) but the sleeves are meant to be straight and baggy.  Unfortunately, they can't be folded up either and they hit me in a weird spot on my arm.  For some reason, the neck line area looked weird in real life as well...it gave me a sort of uniboob look.  Meh.  Even if it did look decent, I didn't want to keep it.  

Status:  Sent Back

Look #2

See?  This is one of those "deer in headlights" shots I mentioned earlier.  Whoops.

Kensie Benzer Mixed Material Sweater | $78

This picture is HUGE, but I wanted you to be able to see the buttons and the different materials.

I wanted to love this top because it was a thin but warm material with a sort of silk type peekaboo fake blouse hanging out at the hem.  But sadly, you can hopefully see how it is too baggy.  While I didn't need to be fitted, I certainly didn't like the way it didn't cling all around.  From the front, you can see it was pretty flattering.  But from the back, you could really tell how ill-fitting it was.  This was a size small and fit in my chest and was tight in the sleeves.  So, it was definitely meant to fit in this way around the midsection.  Not somethingI wanted to rock...but I loved the idea of it since it meant not having to wear a separate bulky lumpy blouse under the sweater.  Since I am a pear shape, I need tops to have some sort of a fit or be nipped in at my natural waist.  Oh well!  The $78 price tag was also a bit of a turn off for something that was too simple and ill-fitting.  

Status:  Sent Back

Look #3 and #4

Like the way I threw on textured tights so I wouldn't have to shave and lotion up my legs?  Whoops, I probably should not have announced that.  

41 Hawthorn Wrenn V-Neck Cap Sleeve Jersey Top | $48
and 41 Hawthorn Jordanne A-line Skirt | $68

 

These two items paired well together, but I felt like both together aged me like crazy.  The length of the skirt and the A-line cut were not flattering on me.  I also think it was the thick jersey-like material.  Even though the skirt has darts, it was not flattering from the back either...not sure why there isn't a picture of the back.  But if I recall, it might be because it was that bad and I didn't want to show that view off.  This top was short enough to have kept untucked, but it looked too sloppy.  So, instead I paired it with my black skinnies from my 2nd fix and it looked much better!  I thought of keeping the top, but the price made me think otherwise for how simple it was.  

Status:  Sent Back

Look #5

Mak Jaclynn 3/4 Sleeve Button-Up Cardigan | $38

Thank goodness!  By the time I got to this piece, I was seriously wondering if I would have to settle for one of the other items in order not to lose my $20.  I used to wear cardigans a lot, but it gets so warm in my classroom that I don't wear any type of sweater material anymore unless the sleeves are shorter like this one.  I can see myself wearing this with a dress in the spring and I just love the color.  Surprisingly enough, I do not have anything in this shade in my closet.  Plus, I LOVE the way it looks with my new favorite jeans I got at the after-Christmas sale at American Eagle.  I've never liked shopping there since it's not my style...but they were having a half-off jeans sale and since their jeans are about normally $80, I wanted to take advantage!  Is it weird that I have basically lived in them the last month? They are so flattering!  I digress.  Anyway...

Status:  Kept

All in all, this was a fix I was not expecting.  My stylist, Brent, did such an awesome job last month. So, I was a bit surprised to find things that didn't seem to fit my body type well or lacked that sort of uniqueness I love about Stitch Fix.  But, I really emphasized how I wanted the items sent to me to be more inexpensive than previously and I really think he tried hard to do that for me.  It seems you forego the unique bits for the more inexpensive items.  Although, I don't know this for sure...it was just something I was wondering.  

I still requested Brent for my next fix and will give him another shot!  Not only that, but I decided to start getting my fixes monthly and so we shall see how that works out.  I may be canceling my POPSUGAR Must Have box since I would much rather get clothes for about the same cost.  

Oh!  I did indicate I'd like him to visit my Pinterest board because I've been updating it and pinning things with notes just for him.  I decided I'd like him to try and find a top to go with my new boots I bought myself after Christmas.  

{source}

Here's hoping he finds something I love and can afford!  

Have you received a fix from Stitch Fix?  What kind of items have you received?  Leave a comment and include a link to your posts so I can partake in your fashion shows too.  It's just as much fun to see others' fixes as it is to play with mine.  

Time to Pass it On! Text Features Are Coming Out of Our Ears

Is anyone else having moments of realization?  You know...those kind that us teachers get this time of year when we stop and realize it is that time of the year.  The big bad test is just around the corner and we have to shove all kinds of standards in to a period of time the size of my pinky nail?!  Please tell me I am not the only one who keeps having these little moments of insanity during the school day.

I had so much fun sharing what I did in my classroom to help my students engage in fact and opinion learning so I really wanted to keep this momentum going and pass on another lesson that worked well again.  

We needed to cover both text features (or organizational features...I hate that they have different names depending on who you ask) and reference sources within a pretty short amount of time.  This means, I had to find a way to give my kids the biggest bang for their buck.  So, I took to a little bit of Google to help me in my time of teaching need.

I stumbled upon an old pin, a dead one...so I had to scramble to Google to find a similar idea and thankfully I found a couple strategies I could easily implement and adapt to my group of kids and our experiences.

Miss Bonger had an extensive blog post HERE.  Take a look at the post if you want to scroll through. But what I took from it (mainly the anchor chart graphic organizer and the examples tacked to charts) and tweaked for my kids is what you can see below.  And I hope you are able to take what you see and bring it in to your classroom for your students!!  

So, because I hate throwing so much vocabulary at my kids all at once...I separated it into 2 days...because when I'm bored, they are bored!  We put a graphic organizer/anchor chart together and students wrote their own in their reading notebooks (via Miss Bonger's post).

Each time we added a reference source to the anchor chart, my kids had to go on a hunt for the reference source in our Social Studies textbook or our Reading basal textbook.  I wanted them to also be able to explain how they knew what they found was that particular reference source as well as share a piece of information they gained from the source.  This was extremely successful and the kids really liked the short chunks of boring vocabulary mixed with quick bursts of hunting and discussing.  It kept us all sane.  Oh...it also helped to stand up and create a TPR (total physical response) motion for each source.  I wish I could post a video of us doing all of them.  They were hilarious!

On the third day of our reference sources lesson, I put together an anchor chart for each reference source with the definitions we had discussed in the previous days, with examples copied from different nonfiction texts in our classroom, and several scavenger hunt questions at the bottom (I tried to include higher-level thinking questions when possible) and posted them around our classroom.  

Hey...the more I can get my kids out of their seats, the better.  The idea was to have them use the reference sources in order to read and understand information!  I stamped this one as a big success as well!  

Since we have to conserve paper at our school, I try to use as few copies as possible.  I did a quick model of how I wanted students to record information using our ActivBoard...and our bulb is almost dead from so much use each day.  My students were away on their scavenger hunt for up to an hour during the next 2 days.  I walked around and visited with students to ask them a few questions about information they were locating and learning from.  I tried to check in and see if they could tell me why the particular reference source was useful as well.  

By the end of our 4-day scavenger hunt and trek, my kids made Me Reference sources.  This was an idea I found via Google.  If you'd like to take a look for yourself at Sarah's original blog post, you can find it HERE.  Again, to save paper, I had students make their own pages in their notebooks.  They just had to follow a sort of template I placed up on our board.  The pages also included areas for text features to enhance the information on each page of their Me Reference sources.

The covers were pretty fun to look at because of how creative they got with their selfies.

Just like any reference source students use, they had to create a Table of Contents (as short as it was)

One of the pages I liked reading the most were their encyclopedia entires since I learned a large variety of facts about my students I may not have known before.  Within the different reference sources, I also asked them to use text features we had already studied as well.  If they included an illustration or photo, it had to have a caption.  All of the entires (except the atlas) had to also have guide words at the top.  

  

For the dictionary page, their definition had to be about the origin of their name.  There were some great stories, such as Sebastian's above, that caught my attention.  Many of my students didn't know the origin of their names, so they were able to ask their families and bring that information back to school with them.  

I made copies of both the United States and Mexico since all of my students were either born there or visit there quite often.  They were allowed to choose how they labeled their map as long as they included text features such as a legend, compass, etc.  

So there you have it!  It wasn't a super fancy lesson, but it allowed my students to get in those extra practice sessions and anything that gets them out of their seats brings it home!  What have you done in your classroom to teach reference sources and text features?  

Currently February

How is it that January seemed to go by sooooooooo slowly, yet February is already here?!  It's my birthday month, meaning I won't even mention how old I will be, and that also means things like parent conferences are around the corner as well as state testing.  Here is my link up with Farley for this month.

Listening:

Our cats are hanging out on the couch with us as we unwind from the week.  They are snoring up a storm and quite LOUDLY.  And yes, I'm a reality TV junkie and even though I tell myself I will stop watching Real World, I always seem to watch it anyway...because it is there to watch.  When nothing else is on, then it keeps me company.  Although, the San Francisco season on right now is quite the trainwreck.  Trainwreck.

Loving

I also scored myself the signature color, Over and Over-A-Gwen, from OPI's Gwen Stefani collection the other day via Amazon.  It's the little things that seem to make me excited these days and I can't stop playing with and looking at this gorgeous red bottle.  It also came with studs and Swarovski crystals. Score!!

And we were supposed to get in the 80s here by today and I am sooooooooo happy to have woken up to cloudy and overcast skies, a nice cool 60 degrees, and a cold breeze instead.  The winters here are lousy and most people who live here want to have a true break from heat.  But we have only had true cool temps for about a month.  It's been jumping up into the 70s and 80s the last week and I'm irritated!

Thinking:

See the above.  'Nuff said.

Wanting:

I seem to want fruity (not chocolate) candy like a crazy person lately.  There isn't any in the house, which is a good thing. But that doesn't mean I don't want it!

Needing:

I already have a sub secured, but the thought of having to put together 3 days in a row of sub plans is stressing me out.  My team is deconstructing on Wednesday (on campus) and then I have my first Gifted conference on Thursday and Friday.  But the sub plans are definitely daunting.  Who wants to do them for me?!

2 Truths and a Fib:

I'm falling back on my typical answers to this one.  It's too late at night for me to think of some new ones.  

YEP - I have visited 12 countries...England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Netherlands, Mexico.  Aaaaaand, I totally can't think of the last one.  Maybe I need to go to bed.

YEP - I grew up in San Diego and the community I lived in was a quick 10-minute drive from the beach.  We were also only about 30 minutes from the mountains and desert.  I definitely miss living in California.  BIG TIME!

NOPE - Not tap and jazz.  But I actually danced hula from the time I was 5 to 19 and I also danced tahitian from about 9 to 19.  

Understanding Fact and Opinion {Part 2}

Welcome to part 2 of our fact and opinion exploration!

You can read about part 1 HERE!

We picked up where we left off the day before with a seriously awesome animated video from 1989, called "Red Riding Hood and the Well-Fed Wolf" (Churchill Films), that I found via the lesson I shared yesterday (you can read more in part 1, but you can find it here just in case).  I really wanted my kids to practice identifying fact and opinions outside of text first so they could become comfortable with listening for signal words and paying close attention to items they know to be certain rather than pushing them into a book straight away.

This is where this blog post is going to come in handy...you see, the video the Beacon Lesson Plan calls for is not one you can just find on YouTube.  Believe me I tried and tried again this year before I taught this lesson a 2nd time.  I searched online high and low last year and thankfully found the clip needed (you won't even need the entire thing) on the animator's website.  HERE it is!

I've included some screenshots from Joel Fletcher's (the creator's) website for you to get an idea of how seriously neat and hilarious the video is.

If for some reason you don't have access to a computer and projector, you can actually find this at your local library.  I did a search through my local library's system and actually found it via Overdrive.  So, hopefully, you will find a way to show this in your classroom as my students find it quite entertaining...and even more important?  It is challenging!  The facts and opinions aren't so easy to pull out as one might think.

Before watching the video, my students got a T-chart ready in their reading notebooks.  They are very much used to holding partner and group discussions with each other after we watch videos, so they knew the expectation right away.  I stopped the video after every food group character made an appearance, which made it much easier for students to stop and jot down facts and opinions they had identified.  After a couple minutes, I gave partner groups a chance to Rally Robin back and forth to share items they had recorded.

Once the video was finished, we came together to share different facts and opinions.  I recorded them on our class anchor chart as students added them to their own charts.  Before recording each one on the chart, we did a quick check by throwing up thumbs up if they agreed with the fact/opinion being shared or a thumbs down if they disagreed.  We stopped to discuss why or why not.  The more we did this the more comfortable they became and by the end of the discussion, we had an even better list put together than my students last year.

**And wouldn't you know it?!  While I was posting this, I just noticed I placed a fact on the opinion side and my students didn't even notice!  Gah!!! Maybe you can post this and ask your students to find what doesn't belong?  LOL.**

In my defense, we were about to run off to P.E. that day, so I seriously must have just checked the clock and started writing in on the wrong side when I turned back around.  Sigh.  Oh well.  I can totally revisit this with my kids tomorrow to see if they can identify the misnomer.  

To practice it within text, the real part of our reading standard (our district is still using state standards at this time), I downloaded the extension file (you can get it HERE) included in the Beacon Learning lesson in order to have my students read the restaurant review article.  

Attachment is included with the Beacon Lesson Plan

Using two different colored highlighters, we did the first section together while I modeled the highlighting on the board.  My kids then worked on the second part together.  The two colors made it easy for me to walk around and check-in with students in order to see if I needed to intervene at all.  

To step it up a notch, I showed my class a Discovery Education video downloaded from Discovery Streaming all about tornados.  At the end of it, I asked my students to take the opinion, "I think tornadoes are dangerous," and improve it using facts.  They wrote up and discussed short paragraphs by naming at least 2 facts they learned from the video in order to support the opinion.  My kids did well with this exercise, showing me that they are able to recognize how facts and opinions work together as well as how to decipher them.  We extended the practice opportunity by having students pull an opinion from a text we had recently read (during Close Reading) and supporting them using facts quoted from the passage.  

Screenshot from Discovery Education video

Screenshot from Discovery Education video

As the gifted cluster teacher, I try to give students a chance to make a product to show me their learning.  Most times they are given a choice menu, but for this one I was looking for a quick and easy way to wrap up our unit.  My awesome teammate put together a product rubric and description for making fact and opinion placemats and shared it with me.  Here are some of the placemats students made which included facts, opinions, with supporting facts, and matching illustrations from one of our basal reader's Time for Kids articles called "Forests of the World."