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Catching Reception rehearsing for their class assembly was lovely - they sang me their ¡Hola! song.

Great face pulling in PSHE - some very scary 'jealous' faces! 

And a fun staff meeting doing ceramics. My effort is currently drying. Not sure what it is as we were just learning joining techniques. However, I'm sure it'll become something! 

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Today's smiles:

A lie in. 

I made biscuits and everyone liked them. 

Being deafened by husband and youngest as Tottenham scored five TES against Chelsea. 

My nephew is here for a sleepover and enjoyed his dinner including 8 carrots! 

Watching a film together.  

Twitter conversations with people I haven't spoken to in ages. 

A tidy desk! 

And I know I've shared this already on my website but this comment from a 104 year old Spanish lady when talking about good and bad things in life strikes a chord - 

"Lo importante es sencillamente eso - vivir."

(The most important is simply this - to live)

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"Never stop smiling even when you're sad as you never know who might fall in love with your smile." Gabriel García Márquez

An airboot rather than a plaster cast. 

A trip to the garden centre. 

And my little boy is coming home (although Eurostar nearly cocked up that one!)

:0)

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A round of applause for my magical paper folding skills. In fact, two rounds of applause; one from each class.

My regular Wednesday morning chat with the lad in 6CF who puts out the chairs, telling me all about his trip to London yesterday to see The Globe theatre. He told me last week about how much he loves Shakespeare and wants to go to Stratford to see a play. One of my favourite times of the week!

Cheerful greetings from Year 6 as they came into school, and the bemused enquiries about why I was sitting in the dark.

Being told that my teaching was outstanding and that my telling of a story was 'powerful and moving' - never heard Oso Marrón described as that before but as Frank Carson said "It's the way I tell 'em" ;)

And I finished my display so that the whole school can admire our new obsession with mini books and Spanish!

Another early night as I still have a splitting headache, 28 hours after it started. Boooo!

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On Monday I smiled because:
Y3 were amused by my collection of Tshirts worn in RE to demonstrate how what we wear shows belonging.
One of my Y5s who has mobility issues really got into the Spanish lesson and was having a whale of a time punching syllables and doing actions.
And this image!

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Busy busy day!

A child in Y3 told me that a consonant was 'a group of countries like Africa or America'; another suggested that 'un elefante' when I asked them to recall as many pets as they could. 

One class started singing in Spanish whilst they were working - that made me smile broadly!

Educating Yorkshire won at the National TV Awards - hurrah!

Cupcake production took up most of the evening - they are delicious but it'll have be a miracle akin to the feeding of the five thousand if 40 odd cupcakes feed 650+ people!!

I listened to the Spanish stories that Y3 at WCPS wrote using BookCreator App. Really pleased with them! (Hopefully the video above will work!)

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Smiles today came in all my classes at some point. Some funny answers, some very good questions, and some mangling of the Spanish language that led my native speaking Y6 and I to swiftly choose between wry smiling over crying in despair!

Coming home on a Thursday always makes me smile - no school on Fridays!

And the ball pit episode of TBBT is guaranteed to make the tiredest person giggle!

Today's photo is from this time last year. I miss Swiss shop displays. So amusing and quirky.

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(Gist translation: When life is all monochrome,  smile some colours into it)

A good run on a cold day.

Good news about yesterday's drama - so relieved!

New pink and green pens (so sad that I get so excited about writing implements!)

Jude has been nominated by his ICT teacher for a chance to go to the Gadget Show.

Two interesting (work related) invites.

It's the weekend!

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Curry night with TwinCR - lots of smiles at tales of running through mud, oddly placed bruises and continental races. 

And huge smiles when teaching year 5 this morning when they discovered the word for seal 'una foca' in Spanish - and asked my permission to say it!

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It always makes me smile when kids at school bring me things, and the smile is always a bit broader if it's Spanish so I was really chuffed when one of Year5 at WPS gave me some work she'd been doing at home after last week's lesson.

This follows two lots of beautifully presented work from a Year 4 at WCPS over the last two weeks of lessons. And lots of Día de Muertos calacas too!

Further smiles as I mountaineered up the shelves in Sainsbury to ensure the best Innocent Smoothie woolly hats for the mini cuddlies. Chichi Monchichi is particularly pleased with her raspberry bonnet with silver button detail!

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A cuddly meerkat with a hat. What more can I say? Made me smile! 

PS Innocent Smoothie woolly hats are well used in our house should you have any spare ;)

Another good day at school; I think I'm going to enjoy this Spanish unit with year 4, and Year 3 PE is always amusing albeit frustratingly like herding sheep at times!

And I've exceeded my steps target for the day without going for a run - possibly that "sheep herding" did it...

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I have a new 'gadget' - my last birthday present has finally arrived! So I've spent the day obsessed with how many steps I've done, and amused by how much sleep I apparently had last night (not much of it deep according to UP) I've exceeded my target by over 80% at last count (not difficult as I went for a run this morning and that got me up to 75%!) We'll see how it goes - certainly don't have time to chart ALL my food and drink intake when it's not half term!

And Jude found a new friend in Solihull. Shame he couldn't come home with us!

Reading through my university notes and essays this afternoon and I was struck by several things;

I had really neat handwriting once upon a time.

I typed them all, but before I did that, I wrote them by hand then literally cut and pasted them (Or stapled them to save glue/paper!)

My English lecturer was a plonker!

I miss Professor Heathcote et al - they were great times and I loved reading and studying when I had all my time to do it.

I must read some of these books again, especially the Golden Age ones.

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Just come downstairs to find John ironing whilst watching Victoria Wood on TV. Oh the memories! If you were to ask my university friends about me, my Victoria Wood impressions would feature high on the list if things they'd say - along with my love of Winnie the Pooh and possibly a mention of a purple shell suit...

I can see the smiles as I was asked to recite another sketch - usually about Kimberley and raspberry yoghurts!

And then there was Accrington Stanley... 

Also makes me smile today -

*a run in the rain that reminded me of running in the shadow of the Matterhorn in Zermatt. 

*the return of EdTechRoundUp - and embarrassing myself as usual!

*Jude's rendition of songs he learned on camp about bananas, teapots and Superman. 

*amusing exchanges on FB and Twitter. 

 Translation - There are always reasons to smile. Look for them!

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Many smiles today at school: the funny things that the children at school say and the questions that they ask (although no one asked me about living in Sweden today!), banter in the staffroom about residential trips and the sheer joy on the faces of Year 3 when they realised that it was OK to stick out their tongues at me! And the biggest smile of all at Jane's FB status informing me that she'd been practising a Spanish song to teach her class and that she hoped I was impressed. I am. And smiling!

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Penultimate Zumba today - and this song always makes me smile. It reminds me of Carolina and Maqui, and  I like the song. What's more, it's not too tricky a routine either!

Isaac's technology project was part of the Design Fair this evening - looked good. Also liked the automaton that Tabea and Diandra had made - Psy and his dancers.

No sunshine today but it didn't rain. So that's something!

Say cheese in other languages
In Indonesian you 'say cheese'  or Katakan keju!

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A picture from my Scoop it stream today (you can look at all the posts via the 'widget' on the right hand side of this blog.

For those of you that don't speak Spanish, it says 'Smiling is free. You should do it more often.'

May Day is a holiday in Winterthur so we had a family bike ride this afternoon to see the alpacas. The uphills were not popular with Jude and I but we enjoyed swooping down a hill towards the river!

And as we watched the football, Isaac once more commented that the name of Shakira and Gerard Piqué's son, Milan Piqué Mebarak, sounds just like festival. He has a point!

Say cheese in other languages

In German, you ask people to say Käsekuchen or cheesecake.

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I've got new trainers! And a list of exercises to do to correct my poorly aligned legs, lack of balance and the defects with my feet! You don't just buy a product here - it comes with analysis and advice!

And today the sun has come out so I took my trainers for a little 'breaking in' run. Admittedly it was a shorter run than I'd normally do (3 miles) and I avoided most hills, but my average pace was 8.24min/mile which is much faster than I've been for ages and ages, possibly bettered only by the good old days when my Nike+ gave me ridiculous stats about my speed based on a stride that I never properly managed to calibrate! As I've been feeling that I've lost my running mojo, this made me smile very broadly.

Zumba this morning also made me smile - I tackle it with great enthusiasm but just can't master the 'sexy wiggle' bits. Still, it's great fun and good exercise.

Smile in other languages
In Swahili - tabasamu
(This made me smile as, when asked in my Spanish lessons "shall I write it in Spanish?" I usually reply "Well, Swahili would be nice but as we're learning Spanish, yes, that would make sense!")

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My husband John bought me some red tulips. That made me smile broadly.

Things I heard today that made me smile
John referring to Isaac (our 14 year old son) as 'a man boy thing'.

Smile in other languages
In Spanish - una sonrisa