Dancing With the Stars

It's that time of year again!  Back to school and one of my favorite reality television shows has begun!  Dancing with the Stars is a dance competition that features many different types of celebrities.  Each celebrity is paired with a professional dancer and together they perform a new ballroom dance each week on live television.  The dances performed so far have been the Jive, the Quickstep, the ChaCha and the Waltz.  This year celebrities include former talk show host Ricki Lake, Los Angeles Lakers player Ron Artest, reality television stars kristin Cavallari and Rob Kardashian, actresses Chynna Phillips and Elisabetta Canalis, actors David Arquette and J.R Martinez, U.S. World Cup Soccer Team goalie Hope Solo, talk show hosts Nancy Grace and Carson Kressly and LGBT activist Chaz Bono.  After each performance in their glittery costumes and ballroom shoes, the celebrities and their partners fall victim to the the criticisms of the three judges, Carrie Ann Inalba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.  Celebrities must wait with co-host Tom Bergen while they hear the judges' critiques of their performances.  They are then sent backstage to be interviewed by co-host Brooke Burke and to receive their scores.  Each judge gives a score of one to ten with the best possible score being a thirty out of thirty.

Vocabulary 

1) competition: contest between performers
2) celebrity: famous person
3) professional: an expert, or someone who does an activity for work
4) ballroom: a large space where dancing is done in groups of two or partners
5) criticisms: what the judges think of the dancers
6) interviewed: to be asked about

Cloze Activity


1) The news reporter _______________ the winning team and asked them many questions about the game.
2) Justin Bieber is a famous ________________ because he is known around the world for his singing career.
3) This weekend, there will be a dancing _______________ and all are welcome to compete.
4) You should take dance lesson from Stephanie because she is a ________________ and knows what she is doing.
5) The contestants need to listen to the judges' _______________ and improve their dancing if they want to stay on the show.
6) I arrived early to the ________________ for my dance lessons with my new partner.

Grammar Point
Proper Nouns- We have learned that a noun is a person, place, thing or idea.  There are also proper nouns.  A proper noun is a name of something or someone.  For example, in this paragraph, the ChaCha, the Quickstep and the Jive are all proper nouns.  They also all have capitol letters because names are capitalized in English.

Grammar Assignment
Can you identify the proper names from the list?  On the lines that follow, write P for a proper noun and C for a common noun (which is a regular noun, not a name of something or someone.)

1) Ricki Lake ________________
2) the judges ________________
3) the celebrities _____________
4) Carrie Ann Inalba __________
5) the Waltz _________________

The First Day of School

On September sixth, I, like many teachers and students around the country, started the school year.  This is my fourth year teaching at Robert Frost Middle School in Deer Park.  I jumped up out of bed around 5:30 am, which I had not done since June.  I jumped into the shower and got dressed.  I ate my breakfast, prepared my coffee with french vanilla creamer and I was out the door.  Even though I was dragging my feet when I first woke up, as I started my commute, I felt lucky.  I felt lucky to have a job and especially one that I was just as happy to go to in the morning as I am leaving in the afternoon.  As I walked into my building, I saw many familiar faces that I had not seen all summer.  After many hellos and last minute decorating, the bell rang and I was ready to welcome this year's students.  I hope I can inspire them to learn and to care about their education like so many great teachers have inspired me.

Vocabulary:

1) prepared: got ready
2) dragging my feet: moving slowly
3) commute: car ride to work
4) lucky: better off
5) familiar: people I know
6) inspire: to make someone want to do something


Cloze Activity: Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word from above.


1) I hope to ______________ the next generation of children to become caring adults.
2) I was ___________________ to science class because I knew it was going to be boring.
3) I feel ______________ because I have lunch with all of my friends.
4) I am ________________ for today's test because I studied all night.
5) I live very close to my job so I do not have a long ____________.
6) My teacher looked so ______________.  I think I met her last year.


Grammar Point:
Adding the suffix -ed to a verb makes the verb in the past tense.  This is called the regular past tense.  For example, the phrase "I prepare," indicates the present tense or something that is happening right now.  When -ed is added to "I prepare" it becomes "I prepared". "I prepared" means that I got ready in the past.

Grammar Assignment:
Can you change "learn" into the past tense?  Write the verb ______________________.  Now, write a sentence using the verb in the past tense. __________________________________________________