This morning on my way to work, "When will My Life Begin" came on my Pandora station. Listening to the all too familiar lyrics I had a realization. RAPUNZEL IS ALL THE PRINCESSESS!  I mean think about it. She spends her days trapped inside (Snow White) cleaning (Cinderella), reading (Belle), and dreaming of exploring the world (Merida,Jasmine.) Not to mention....well let me just show you.
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Rapunzel has to do something with her time. Can you imagine how DUSTY her hair must get?! Dragging on the floor like that!
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While Cinderella, still using the broom to clean, tends to talk to it as well. All the same, both spend a good portion of their morning cleaning.
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Here he have Rapunzel baking some tasty cookies. With some animal help of course!
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Snow White also likes to bake. Also with animal help. (I've heard chipmunks are fabulous bakers!)
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it's boring in that tower for so many years, so Rapunzel reads. A lot. She says so in the song!
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Belle also reads. A lot. Also says so in a song! (Side note, what's with the animals everywhere?! Can no princess survive without animal buddies constantly surrounding them?)
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Speaking on animals, Rapunzel has a chameleon buddy named Pascal. He followers her everywhere. He's adorable.
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Pocahontas also has an animal buddy; a raccoon named Meeko. Also followers her everywhere. also adorable.
Also other princess animal buddies; Mulan and Mushu, Cinderella and the mice, Ariel and Flounder, and Snow White and the whole forest!
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She can kick some butt in a fight! Ok it's with a frying pan but still. She did knock out her Prince. That's something! Plus she's an expert of the whipping hair attack.
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Rapunzels tower is full of stuff. Pictures, games, books, clothes, stuff! While I couldn't find a great picture, you know she had to accumulate a ton being never able to leave her tower. Speaking of not leaving, she also has this whole "Part of Your World" complex. Longing to be "out there" where the action is! LET'S LEAVE THIS TOWER PASCAL!
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Also kicks all sorts of butt! Mulan is a true fighting princess. Only she uses a sword instead of a frying pan. Though I'm sure she'd do a ton of damage with any cooking utensil!
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The epitomy of collecting "stuff", Ariel has a bit of everything. So much so, she has an entire GROTTO just for her things. (Hording much?) And as for a "Part of your World" complex....she was the first! All fins and no legs...well you know the story. LET'S LEAVE THIS OCEAN FLOUNDER!
So there you have it. Rapunzel is a mash up of all the Disney Princesses. So I guess she would be the ideal Princess? Hmmmmm.......
 
Several months ago I posted about how the definition of certain words are derogatory and mean, and often outdated.  (You can catch up on that post here.) I mentioned having an activity where students rewrite definitions for words they dislike or find hurtful. 

About a month ago I was actually able to impliment this activity and the results were impressive! For our weekly homeroom meeting, i tasked a group of 5th graders with creating new definitions for words they'd been called, had called others, or imagined would be hurtful to hear or say. In truth, this group of students get along unusually well with each other so getting them to come up with a hurtful word was the hardest. Once they got rolling though, some great things happened. 

Here is a video of the power point I made with just some of the results. Enjoy and please leave comments! I want to share this with others teachers at school and the more ideas the better :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZPpyrlM3KQ&feature=youtu.be