Summer Shelfie List

I was not able to write on Days 2-3 of

Big Time Literacy's Blogging Challenge.

We were out of town with family.

I was so glad to be able to write this post though.

Reading is one of my favorite things to do - EVER.

However, when the summer comes along,

I am very guilty of doing nothing but reading.

I always have a great "to read" list which usually grows

as the summer goes along.

Here are the books I really wanted to read this summer.

My oldest child has to read Gathering Blue for her high school honors English

class this summer.  I have never read it (and, sadly, she is not a big reader), so I thought 

I would read it with her.  She started today - I have not.

A few summers ago, I read Kiera Cass's series, The Selection, 

and fell in love.

My husband got this one for me.  

It was so different from any of The Selection books, but it was

wonderful!

Speaking of The Selection....

I am so sad that this series has ended with this book - The Crown.

I have LOVED this series.

I describe it to people as Hunger Games meets The Bachelor.

OH SO good!!

I kind of saw the ending coming, but loved each moment of it anyways!
I will be rereading this series again!

This book was one a friend had recommended.
I bought it.
It sat on my shelf for - forever.
I picked it up, finally, and read it in a day!
A.MAZ.ING.
Now, I am ready to read the next book in the series,

AND go to the Biltmore.

I do try to make myself a better teacher over the summer as well.
I have been looking/reading this book, The Reading Strategies Book.

I can't wait to be able to implement some of the strategies in it.
I bought this book in order to read this summer since it is the companion to
The Reading Strategies Book.
The day it came in was the day I found out I was moving to second grade, so....

I went home and bought this one.

I guess I need to get busy reading it since school begins soon!

I just can't bring myself to read it yet!

I don't know about you and your school, but 

our school system is making a big shift to writing.

I have been blessed to be part of a system wide book club this summer using 

this next book, The Unstoppable Writing Teacher.

It has had some great ideas and wonderful discussions have stemmed from it.

I think the best thing I like is having talks with teachers from 2nd grade-6th grade.

We really do learn from each other!

As you can see, I do LOVE to read!

What is on your to read list this summer?

Hurricanes

Many people believe hurricanes can be one of the most dangerous storms the earth sees.

These storms are fierce and leave nothing but destruction in their paths.

They have been known to wipe out complete towns with their damaging winds and water.

STUDENTS:  Many people believe hurricanes are dangerous storms.  Do you agree or disagree?  Use evidence from the text Severe Weather Alerts to support your answer.

A World of Art

Our world is full of all different kinds of art.

We have cave paintings from the earliest times that show us how they lived

and what they hunted.

We have simple pictures that were carved and used for storytelling as well as 

for trade.

Paintings are still treasured in museums and other places showing us how people looked

and celebrations from years ago.

Dances are done to celebrate, to show rites of passage and to entertain.

Storytelling has evolved into books, plays, movies and theater.

Music has taken us through people's emotions as they experience different times

in life.

All of these are different types of art that have been important over time to many different

societies in our world.

STUDENTS:  As you read the introduction to our text A World of Arts, you learned how art was and is so much more than just drawings and paintings.  You also learned how each one of these was important to people in our world.  Do you agree that art is important to the world in which we live?  Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Camp Read-A-Lot

We are always looking for ways to get more families involved at our school.

We chose this fall to do a school wide Camp Read-A-Lot.

When I say, "school wide," I mean every faculty member was there to help!

It was amazing!

Some of our special education and speech teachers greeted everyone at the front as they registered for door prizes and got their schedules for the night. The door prizes were stuffed animals you would see as you camp at night.

The third graders started off in the gym at the camp site.

Each child was able to choose a book to take home that night.

We had all kinds of books for them to choose from and they loved being able to have

a book to take home from the night.

Teachers and staff brought in tents, quilts and camp chairs to sit around the campfire.

The kids LOVED sitting in the tents with friends and parents to read.

We spent 15 minutes at each station.

Our next station was in the cafeteria were we enjoyed smores snack mix and water

while we watched a nature movie.

From the cafeteria, we went to our homerooms.

Every 10 minutes or so, Mrs. Kim, our principal, would call out a winner of 

one of the stuffed animals.

In our homerooms, we had the families sign in and we had a drawing of our own

homeroom students who had come.

Then, we went to the meeting room and fine arts room.

Here we split time making an "I Love Reading" camp bookmark with our librarian and other special education teachers.

Then we sang camp songs around the campfire with the other Mrs. Becky - the fine arts teacher!

                    

                    

                    

                    

It was a fantastic night!

The kids just kept talking about it the next day.

We are already looking forward to our next night in November -

Family Game Night!

STUDENTS: What did you like best about Camp Read-A-Lot?  Why did you like it the best?

Marco Polo's Travels

Some of us have been reading about Marco Polo and his travels.

The kids have been extremely interested in the culture of that time as well as

the importance of Marco's travels.

STUDENTS: Study the map below of Marco's travels. 

Click on the link to see the sequence of Marco's travels.

Go through the steps on the website as you learn about where Marco traveled 

as well as what he discovered in his travels.

To interact with the map, click here.

Marco's travels to the far East introduced him to items such as gunpowder, paper, printing, paper money, silk and coal.  These items at the time were only known to places like China and India. Marco was one of the first people to bring these new items to Europe for people to see and use.

PROMPT:

Based on the items listed above that Marco was introduced to, 

do you think Marco Polo's travels were important to the world?

Why?  Give reasons and evidence to support your answer.

** Don't forget to type your name at the end of the your answer.

Monday Made It: July 20

Well, I didn't make it last week, but here I am with my first

ALL SCHOOL

Monday Made It, thanks to 4th Grade Frolics.

I really have enjoyed this link up each week.

Next week I will have a ton (hopefully) because this is my last full week of summer break.

Last week we had 4 days of PD with our school and grade level from all over the county.

My first Monday Made It was suppose to be for that.

When I went to our Common Core training this summer, they mentioned this method to help students retell what they had learned.  It is called the GIST method.

You can get it in my TPT store for free.

(I promise to liven it up a little later, but I wanted to get it made.)

This is a great way for you to see if your students can answer basic questions about what they have read as well as summarize what they have read in 20 words or less.

I loved it and can't wait to use it!

So much of my teaching is done in small groups.

A few years ago, I realized I was not allowing the students to be leaders in these small groups.

So I found the TEAM method.

I have slept since then, and I have searched Pinterest high and low to find where I got this idea.

However, I cannot find it AT ALL!!!!

In the past few years, I just had the jobs listed and each person knew what they were.

However, with observations and make the learning more student centered, I figured I needed these jobs to be more prominent.  So, I made these last night.

I bought lanyards and badge holders from Amazon.

I did not want them huge, so they are smaller than some might like.

I am going to use these at the beginning of the school year, and then move into badges that just have the job name on them.  I just figured at the beginning they will need to be reminded of what their job is suppose to do!  Then, later on in the year, I can make them cuter as well!

You can get the set in my TPT store for free.

I can't believe the school year is here!

I can't wait to share my classroom with you and see what you all have been making as well.

Happy Creating!

Happily Ever... Madeover

While my kids have been at church camp this week, I have attended TN Core training which I will post about later.  I have been on MULTIPLE dates with my husband! I started working with the TPT Sellers Challenge.

Our first challenge was to do a makeover on one of our products.  I chose one of the very first things I had ever made for TPT - my Preamble unit.  I extended the sale on this one, so pick it up while it's one sale.

I loved how it looked and so I decided to do some more.

My other unit that I enjoy teaching at the beginning of the year is our Happily Ever After Unit.  I love teaching about fairy tales for so many reasons.  Last year, we bumped it up a notch or two and incorporated more writing into the unit.  This unit includes:

our plan for the unit that can last as long as you want it to 

anchor chart ideas 

fairy tale characteristic cards

a chart for the students to record the characteristics they see in each fairy tale

writing brainstorming papers 

fairy tale writing paper

I added some extra pages from this past year of teaching.

I redid the cover as well.

You can buy the unit on sale here.

To go along with the unit, I redid the Fairy Tale Characteristic Cards you can buy separately.  I made them a lot bigger, changed up some of the clip art and added a cover page to it. 

You can buy it on sale here.

I am looking forward to using this pack in the upcoming year. I will be sure to write about it on the blog when I do. 

Unit then.... I hope you live your summer

HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

FREEBIE: Junkyard Wonders

As part of our first few weeks of school, we put aside math and reading to concentrate on character education.  Each third grade teacher (there are 6 of us) chooses a book to read and do an activity that correlates with the book.  Then, each third grade class rotates over 6 days to each class to hear their story and do their activity.  This is wonderful in a lot of ways and we really enjoy getting to know all the third graders in the school.  The books that were chosen this year were;

The Giving Tree

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

How to Fill a Bucket

You are Special

Owen and Mzee

The Junkyard Wonders

I read The Junkyard Wonders and love reading it for so many reasons.  The kids are amazed it is a true story and have a ton of questions after reading it.  However, I love the lesson it teaches.  Many of my students feel like they are junk for different reasons.  As I read this to them, I see the light come on in their eyes as if they have never seen themselves as a wonder before.  It also teaches them to FIND the wonder in each person they meet in their lives.  I made this quick little activity for us to do after we had read the book.  It was very sad to see that most of them could not come up with a reason as to why they were wonderful. However, once we got started and friends shared with them why they were wonderful, some filled up every line and would have done more! Now my kids have been introduced to a fabulous author and know what makes them the great kid they are! I can't ask for anything better!  Next year, I want to have a whole unit made for this book because there are so many wonderful things about it! What do you do to instill character and self-worth in your students?

Summer Book Club: Reading in the Wild Chapter 1

I really am working on doing better about my blogging on here and one way I am doing that is by joining The Brown Bag Teacher as she and others host a summer book club.  We are reading Donalyn Miller's book Reading in the Wild.  I read her book The Book Whisperer this spring and have GRAND plans of implementing it into my classroom this fall, so when I saw this opportunity pop up, I had to go with it.

The point of the book is growing wild readers.  I will admit it - I AM A WILD READER!  I can't help it!  I read whenever I get the chance.  I will read to myself.  I will read to my two children at home.  I am the teacher that will read aloud to my children in my classroom for 2 hours when they are suckered into a book as well!  Guilty!  I want my children - all of my children - to leave my room with a love of books and reading.  I had never had the thought though of what I am doing in my classroom is developing them into lifelong readers and that hit home.

So, I have been wondering.... what can I do to instill that in my classroom this year?  I love the idea of teaching them to take moments to read.  It can be 5 minutes here or there.  It doesn't have to be for a solid 20-30 minutes.  Third Grade Bookworm has a great mini-lesson that I will be using for sure showing kids the times they can take to read.  I want this for my room.  I want to see kids pulling books out when they have just a second or two to sneak in a few pages or even paragraphs.  What has been the best way to monitor what your kids are reading (and to make sure they are actually reading)?

My question is how... We have DEAR time in our school.  The first 15 minutes of the day is set aside for everyone to read.  I have 2 90 minute reading blocks.  Each 90 minute block is divided into 3 30 minute sessions where the kids rotate from me to independent work to a third block of time.  During that time close to 35 kids will come in and out of my room.  I teach a structured reading series that is practically scripted for me.  However, my principal trusts me and is allowing me to use one of those 30 minutes blocks as a chance to sneak in some more independent reading time.  However, is that enough?  Will it work?

Help me... What has worked in your room?  I am eager to learn.  I am eager to try.  I am eager to develop wild readers in my room this coming year and every year.

I am just trying to cook up some success...

Our Reading Christmas Tree

To say that our principal loves reading and wants all of our children to love reading is a MAJOR understatement!!!  She is doing wonderful things to encourage everyone in the school to read and to love reading.  For our Christmas PTO meeting, she decorated this Christmas tree with all of our favorite book characters.  I thought it was just precious!!!

Isn't she great!!!  I have a lot of trees in my house at Christmas and one day I want to have a tree like this - doubt it will happen, but, hey!  Here's hoping!!!

Flat Stanley

At the beginning of the year, the third grade classes read Flat Stanley. After we read the book, each child got their own Flat Stanley to color and send off to someone.  They also included a letter telling what we were doing. We have had a wonderful turn out from our Flat Stanley adventures.  In the third grade hall, we have a world map and a US map to show where all Stanley has been.  The kids look forward to seeing where Stanley has been and what he learned while he was there.  

Some college students took Stanley with them while they were in Europe for the semester.  Stanley got to visit all kinds of neat places while he was there.  He was even on ESPN at the Belgium/USA soccer match.  One child sent her Flat Stanley to Afghanistan with her uncle who is a soldier there.  Stanley even got to go to Antarctica!! 

We can't wait to see all the other places Stanley is going to go this year.

Colonial Times Food

A few weeks ago, we read the book William's House in our reading series.  I love this story for many reasons, but I really enjoy it because of the history it teaches.  There were many vocabulary words in the story that we just are not familiar with because of the time period.  So, I brought a bit of it home  . . .

We made butter that morning as the children came in to the room.  I put whipping cream in some clean jars with marbles.  The children passed the jars around shaking them turning the cream into butter.  They LOVED this.  After the butter was made, we placed it in the refrigerator until it was time to eat it with our cornbread muffins (thank you, Jiffy!).  I had placed tomatoes, corn and lima beans in the crockpot to cook during the day for our succotash.  That day PTO gave us all a popcorn party, so we had a colonial meal anyone would be proud of!!!!  We washed it all down with a noggin' of apple cider just like William.

I was really surprised how much the children enjoyed their snacks.  More than one came back for seconds (and thirds) on the succotash!!!

YAY for food in the classroom to make things come alive!!!!