clair057

Mammy's little baby loves shot'nin', short'nin', Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread... If those lyrics don't immediately bring the song to mind, you can here a version here . It's one of the first songs I learned to play on the piano many, many moons ago. Most people believe this to be a song sung by slaves on the plantation, but it was actually first published with the lyrics I mention above in 1915.  It is considered to be a folk song. James Whitcomb Riley  is credited with creating an even earlier version in 1900. Shortening Bread is a  wonderful mixture of cornmeal, flour, hot water, eggs, baking powder, milk and shortening and instead of baking it you serve it fried.   Shortening is used to make various types of pastry and used for frying foods.  One of my favorite uses that I try to stay away from as much as possible is frosting such as the type of frosting on wedding cakes. Oh my!   What a wicked little pleasure that stuff is.... D...

When I was growing up the words said at bed time included ‘good night’ and ‘I love you’ along with the phrase ‘Tie-Tie’ and ‘Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite” ‘Tie-Tie’ came from me because as a little girl I couldn’t pronounce the words ‘night-night’…..all that came out was ‘Tie-Tie ‘and the phrase entered our family lexicon. If I said ‘Tie-Tie’ to my father or my sister they would know exactly what I meant. But what about that “sleep tight” thing? Where does that come from? Recently I posted a picture of a rope tightening key for Wordless Wednesday . The key was used to tighten rope mattresses common in colonial and post-colonial America. Here’s a video showing how the key was used to tighten the bed ropes. When you tour old colonial locations docents love to share with you the phrase “Sleep tight” came from the fact that you would want the ropes tight in order to get a good night’s sleep. It does make sense, doesn’t it? But upon closer study there is no definitive proof the ...

At some point in every young girl’s life she realizes the importance of silver. Perhaps it is when she has a female relative who is getting married, and she overhears other female relatives and friends inquiring about the silver pattern she has registered for. Perhaps it is when she is old enough…..finally……to attend a wedding or baby shower with her mother and sees the array of silver trays, silver flatware, and silver coffee and tea services on display making the perfect refreshment table. In my case…….it was when I was old enough to help my grandmother prepare the dining table for a family dinner…..more than likely Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can remember going to the drawer in the kitchen where the knives and forks were stored. My grandmother shooed me away and directed me in that constantly out-of-breath tone she had, “No, no…..go in the dining room and get the forks out of the box.” The box? As I walked into the dining room I thought, “What box? Then I saw the box where she had ...

Vocabulary is key when teaching any subject from Math ( integer….diameter….cotangent ) to Science ( antimatter…circuit…velocity ) from Language Arts ( compound sentence…simile…alliteration ) to Social Studies ( amendment…capital resources…inalienable ). If students are unable to master and manipulate the subject’s vernacular they will encounter difficulty reading various texts, understanding their notes, and once April rolls around the student might not be able to understand the questions on the all important state mandated test. Vocabulary acts as the foundation for each instructional unit. In fact, Marzano contends in his book Building Academic Vocabulary (2005), “…students in the 50th percentile in terms of ability to comprehend the subject matter taught in school, with no direct vocabulary instruction, scores in the 50th percentile ranking. The same student after specific content-area terms have been taught in a specific way, raises his/her comprehension ability to the 83rd perce...