Getting ready for 2012

The kids return back to school on a Wednesday. Since I will only have two days of classes I don't want to jump into anything new.

I'm looking forward to sharing Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller with them! I got the book and CD from Scholastic Book Club and if I remember correctly there are some comprehension questions on the CD. It turns out this book made the cover of Library Sparks January 2012 cover. Since squirrel, and probably a lot of our students, don't know what a resolution is they head to the library (where else!) to begin their search.

To librarians the name Pat Miller may sound familiar. She is the author of library related books including one of my kindergarten favorites, We're Going On a Book Hunt. She also write the Stretchy Library Lesson books. A must have for any librarian.

Check out Pat Miller's website. It contains a lot of great information and activities about her books along with a biography and "Writing lessons learned over a lifetime". I also plan on checking out some of her handouts on the homepage.
http://www.patmillerbooks.com/index.htm

Holiday Favorites

My holiday read-aloud favorites.

Kindergarten
What is Christmas without Gingerbread Men! There are a lot of great gingerbread books out on the market and they provide a great opportunity for the kids to compare and contrast the story. I also found a gingerbread man glyph. I enlarged the gingerbread man and then read the directions. It's a good listening and following directions activity.


Printable Glyph w/directions
http://www.kidzone.ws/thematic/gingerbread/index.htm


Favorite Stories
* Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett (www.janbrett.com)
* Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires
* Gingerbread Boy by Richard Egielski (takes place in the big city)
* Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup
* Gingerbread Girl and Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst
* The Library Gingerbread Man by Dotti Enderle

First Grade
We are doing a Jan Brett author study and reading some of her gingerbread and winter books. I created a PowerPoint about her that I shared with the kids then showed them what books we have of hers. I also showed them how to identify her call number so that they could find her books on their own.


Fabulous Website - www.janbrett.com

Second Grade
I probably look forward to this set of books the most during December.


Favorite Books
* The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza by David Shannon (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!)
* A New Improved Santa by Patricia Rae Wolff.
* If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff
- I few years back I bought this with a CD. Jason Alexander, from Seinfeld, is the reader. It comes with 2 popular Christmas songs that have mouse related lyrics to them. Very cute!

I will continue the Jan Brett author study when we return from school and include second grade in the unit.