Book Share!

Do you ever come across a book or two that you read and it just sticks with you? Like it moves into a place in your heart and there's something that reminds you about it every day?  

I found three of those books earlier this year thanks to some amazing bloggers, Mr. Schu who is a teacher/librarian in a K-5 school and Colby Sharp who is a 3rd grade teacher in Michigan.  You can click on the links below to visit their blogs:

http://mrschureads.blogspot.com

http://mrcolbysharp.com

When you visit their blogs, you're probably going to want to start following them on Twitter too.  They are always, always, ALWAYS sharing new books for kids of all ages!  So let me share the books they introduced to me!  I've linked each book to a site for you to get more information.

My first share is the 2014 Newberry Award Winner, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo.  Holy bagumba!  Every time I see a squirrel I think of this adorable book!

http://www.katedicamillo.com/books/flora.html

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd.  Talk about MAGIC!  Another story full of friendship and imagination.  It's just a great read!

http://natalielloyd.blogspot.com/p/fiction.html

 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate...oh. my. gosh.  I read this story in one sitting on one of our deep freeze days this past winter.  Every time I see an elephant or a gorilla, I'm reminded of this story.  This one really tugged at my heart strings.  A picture book version of this story is coming out this fall and I can't wait!  It's just an amazing story.

http://theoneandonlyivan.com

I would love to read these books to my first graders this year but I need to meet them first to see if they'll be able to handle them.  If I were teaching 3rd grade though, these books would definitely be a part of our year together.  Don't take my recommendation alone though, read them yourself first and make your own decision.

It's a gloomy, rainy morning and I overslept and won't be making it to church in time so I plan on starting this one next:

http://carolinecarlsonbooks.com/books/

I'm on the hunt for some new chapter books for read alouds this year!  If you know of anything new that would work for little ears, please let me know!

Hope all is well!

We're Off to See the Wizard...

Hello again!

I wanted to share another unit I created earlier this year.  

I read The Wizard of Oz with my children each year.  I love reading it aloud to my first graders and they always seem to be glued to it.  Thanks to some amazing teachers, I've been able to purchase several of their units and it's always fun to pick and choose from each of them.  I don't like doing the same exact thing each year so it's nice to have a "stash" to pull from.  I love being able to do all of the different activities they develop, but I wanted to have more of a comprehension based unit for my students.  This way, we could read a chapter and then complete the complementing comprehension page(s).   Here's a little peek at what I created:

You can click here to see it in my TPT shop too.

I am so grateful to all of those teachers that have created Wizard of Oz units that I included a "Shout Outs!" page that shows each unit I've purchased as well as the link for you to purchase it too.  The unit includes a cover page and then additional pages that complement each chapter in the book.  There are also a few writing activities for the children to complete at the end of the unit too.

I read Frank L. Baum's original version of The Wizard of Oz to my students.  I chose this version, published by Penguin (Penguin has a whole line of classical literature called Puffin Chalk...the covers look like they were created on a blackboard with colored chalk.)  

I just love the look and feel of this version.

I love exposing my first graders to classical literature but I was also reminded the hard way that it's very important to read the entire book first.  I know...that was rule #1 in our undergrad courses but I was on a time crunch at this particular moment during the year.  We started reading the original Peter Pan during the winter but I had to make a quick switch to a different version after we started reading a few chapters...that Tinker Bell has a real attitude in the original version!  :)

So, I'm trying to change and update what I'm using as read alouds in my classroom this year.  I've read a few great books that I've fallen in love with but I think they have parts that might be a little too heavy for my first graders.  I'll post about those later...because they were amazing.

Have you read any new chapter books that would be a good fit for first graders?  I'd love to hear what you're reading!

Have a great weekend!

Book Bargains!

Hello friends!

I'm sure you've seen this, but just in case you missed it, I found some $1 STEALS at Scholastic's Teacher Store recently!

Our school mascot is a pirate, so I picked up a class set of Corinne Demas's Pirates Go To School to use as my "Welcome to First Grade" treat for next year's class at my Open House.  Now I just have to make sure I don't lose them or forget I bought them between now and August!

Pirates Go to School

 For literature circles next year I purchased a set of Felicia Bond's The Day It Rained Hearts:

The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond

And, then I found Robert Munsch's The Sand Castle Contest:

The Sand Castle Contest by Robert Munsch

Don't tell, but this is going to be the book I'll give to my children at the end of this year.  We usually do a Beach Day and this will be a perfect gift!  I actually bought several more copies to have on hand to use as literature circle books at the end of the year too.

I had to have a little self control (which is not my best quality when it comes to children's books)!  I picked up a few more $1 books for our classroom library too...the books are only priced like this until February 28 so go and take a peek!

Have a great day!

Valentine's Day Recap and a Freebie!

Hello Friends!

Well...we're home with another snow day today!  I believe this is #9 for my district.  We haven't had a normal full week of school since before Christmas!  It's hard to believe, but it's true!  No wonder we're all a little "off" lately!  Hopefully winter is just about done and we can try to get back to normal.  There's so much to do before our year end assessments (which are scheduled for the first week of April...)

I know it's late, but go ahead and file this for next year...I did Valentine's Day in my classroom a little different this year...and it was fun for all of us!

The first thing I found was Natasha Wing's The Night Before Valentine's Day for $1.00 at a discount store in my town called Ollie's.  I thought, why not and purchased a book for each of my kiddos.  They were so excited!  There's something about giving everyone the same book...it's their own, but they can still work with a friend and not have to argue over who holds the book or turns the pages.  :)

 I then decided to make up a few activities to go along with the story.  To be honest, I had fluency checks and progress monitoring to do and needed a few things that my children could work on quietly while I was doing 1:1 assessments.  Even though I developed these activities for my children to do with their own copy of the book, they would work well as a whole group activity too.

 

At the end of the book, the principal arrives to the classroom dressed as Cupid with a surprise for the class.  I made up a worksheet that the children could create a Cupid costume for our principal and draw what kind of surprise they would want from her.  Their drawings were super cute!

If you're interested, I uploaded a FREEBIE in my TPT shop that includes all of the activities we used to go along with The Night Before Valentine's Day!

A Little Fun with Natasha Wing's The Night Before Valentine's Day!

I also found some fun "Minute To Win It" games with a little Valentine flair on Pinterest!  These were so much fun!  You can just search for "Valentine Games" and a ton come up.

Heart-a-Stack...we used the Heart Marshmallows to see how many we could stack.  Definitely harder than what we thought!

Valentine Shoot-Out...We used the Heart Marshmallows and tried to toss as many as we could into a small bowl.  (I love this first picture...true teamwork...if you could have only heard them helping each other.)

The Cookie Shimmy...the children had to start with a cookie on their foreheads and shimmy it down to their mouths without using their hands...too fun!

And of course, our Valentines...I love watching them open their Valentines.

Hope you all survived your Valentine's Day!
Take care!

"The Day the Crayons Quit" Extension Idea

"The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers is making quite the impact on teachers and children this summer!  I've seen a lot of posts on how teachers plan on using this book in their classrooms this year.  

Click here for my original post.

It's such a fun read aloud!  I read it to my Story Time group a few weeks ago and they loved it!  I'm sure they'll think twice before tearing off the paper on their crayons now that they know that crayons don't like to be naked.  Yep.  Naked crayons...who would have thought!

In my original post about this book, I said I was going to whip up some letters written by other supplies in my classroom.  Here's what I've come up with so far...

Maybe I'll do a few more once I get in my classroom and see how things look.  Our custodians are waxing our floors this week so we've been grounded from working in our classroom this week.  I think I  might let my kiddos help me write some letters too.  What better way to model letter writing and point of view at the same time during the beginning of the year?

Oh...by the way...The Lion King was awesome!  My nieces were glued to it the entire time...every child should experience the theatre and The Lion King is a great one for the whole family!  If it's showing in your area, you should try to get tickets (an aisle seat would be my recommendation) and take someone little with you...so fun!

Hope all is well!

I Found a New Book for Us!

Hello Friends!

So we haven't had sunshine for a full day in practically a week now!  I actually lost track of the time...it is seriously gloomy outside.  The sun will pop out for like a minute or two and then it's cloudy and raining again!  What gives!?!?!  I think my flowers are actually drowning!

Needless to say, I've been busy organizing things for next year at home and am starting to get the itch to get into my classroom.  It's still a little too early for that though, right?  My classroom is being used next week for Safety Town (a pre-k "safety school" taught by our local police and firemen) and since I don't need everyone seeing my mess, I'm going to avoid the temptation to get in there and start setting things up.

I went to the book store in our mall (which is not my favorite book store...the books are shelved so poorly and I always cringe when I see poor displays of amazing books for kids).  Anyway...surprisingly, I found a new book for us!

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

The story begins...

"One Day in class, Duncan went to take out his crayons and found a stack of letters with his name on them."

Each crayon has written a letter to Duncan explaining why they have "quit".  The red crayon feels overworked because he's used all of the time...even on holidays (Christmas and Valentine's Day). The purple crayon is on the verge of a nervous breakdown because Duncan will sometimes color outside the lines and purple feels that he is just too gorgeous to be put outside the lines.  Beige is sad because he's always a second thought to brown.  The white crayon feels empty because althoughDuncan uses him, without a black outline no one even knows he exists...and the black crayon is tired of being used just for outlines.  

 Each color has a complaint which is written with tone and humor.  The illustrations are great...each letter is written in a handwritten font and has "kid-like" drawings as the illustrations.  

Sorry this isn't bigger for you to see...it got blurrier and blurrier!

I think I'm going to use this book at the beginning of the year when teaching my kiddos that first graders use a lot of details and colors in their work.  I love the letter idea so I'm thinking about having letters posted around the room with other supplies...like maybe the pencils will write a letter like this...

Dear First Graders,

I am very fragile.  I love to be sharpened with your teacher's favorite pencil sharpener, not chewed by humans.  Please don't eat me this year.  I'm not good for human teeth or stomachs.

Sincerely,

Pencil

Or...

Dear First Graders,

I know you love to use me to create things, but please don't use me as lip gloss or a lollipop.  I do my best work with paper and can't wait to help you create some fun art projects this year.

Your friend,

Glue

I paid full price for the book but just found it on Amazon for $11.30...check it out!  I really think it's a winner!  I linked the picture above to Amazon to make it easy for you to add it to your cart!

I'm going to start brainstorming some letters for other supplies and areas of my room...oooh!  I could even do the drinking fountain...

Dear First Grader,

Please don't lick or kiss me, I'll bring the water to you...

(Ha! Ha!  School drinking fountains seriously gross me out!)

I'll be sure to post what I create!

Hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods!  

If it is, send some of it to Northern Ohio!

We Have a Winner!

Did everyone survive their Valentine's Day Parties?

Holy cannoli!

Thanks to all of the wonderful ideas being shared out there my kiddos had a lot of fun today and they were sugared up and sent home with more sugar...sorry parents! It was crazy busy but all of the hugs on their way out the door and the following note left behind for me was the icing on the cake.

Awww! That melted my heart a bit! :)

We received our package of love from Texas! Thanks to Caitlin and Sarah @ Teacher Blogger Exchange for organizing a fun time!

When they opened their Valentines all I heard was, "Glitter!!!!!" Like they've never seen it before! It was so funny! Thanks to Jen and her cuties over at Rowdy in First Grade for a fun package! We loved the book too!

And then it was on to our ice cream sundae party!

Yeah...some of us may have overdone it on the toppings! I'm sensing belly aches all over town tonight. :( Sorry again parents! I tried to warn them!

Now onto announcing the winner of my first give-away! So I used that random generator that everyone seems to be using and Ta Da!!!

My second comment was from Laura @ Peace, Love and First Grade! Here's what she wrote:

Hey Laura! Send me your address so I can mail you your prize!

I think I'm entering a sugar coma myself!

Hope all of you had a great Valentine's Day!

Happy Weekend!

So I just love my new look! To celebrate I want to do a little give-away! I'm not exactly sure what I want to give away but it's going to be fun! I put a lot of thought into my gift giving! And because this is my first, we're going to make it simple! I totally appreciate all 76 of my followers so I want to give you a chance to win something that will show you I appreciate your sweet thoughts and comments.

Here's all you have to do by Monday, February 13:

1. Show Lauren @ The First Grade Diaries some love! She is the guru behind my new look and she has some cute clip-art of her own. Become a follower...if you aren't already!

2. Get lost for a bit in Pinterest heaven! It's okay...go ahead...curl up on the couch...the papers and lesson plans can wait...So many amazing ideas! (If you need someone to invite you leave me your email address and I'll invite you!)

3. Leave me a comment that you've done both.

See? Simple...and relaxing too! I could spend hours searching on Pinterest! It's so addicting!

I'm already planning my give away for when I reach 100 followers! I think I have a pretty cool idea of what I want to do with that...so hang in there! Keep following my goofy posts and if you feel like spreading the word...go ahead! :) (I think I just left a hint.)

I totally forgot about my Tech Thursday post...I was too excited about my new look! Check out what my friend and Technology Integration Specialist, Mrs. Kania did with the kiddos using Pixie this week! We read the book, My Heart is a Zoo by Michael Hall and created our own version! All of the illustrations are created using hearts.

Here's what a few of my kiddos created! You can see all of them on our website.

If Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade, is reading this post...they're on the way to you! We finished up our Valentine Exchange package yesterday and I got it to the post office just in time! Whew!

Okay...well that's it for today! You have until Monday evening to enter my give-away and I'll post the winner sometime on Valentine's Day! Yeah!

Hope everyone has a great Saturday!