So its been awhile...

So yes, it has been awhile since I posted. I'm hoping to get back on track. I wanted to share with you one of my favorite "Beginning of the school year" reads for first grade. It's called Stella LouElla's Runaway Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

It's the cute story of Stella who looses her library book. As she tries to backtrack she is joined by many people in the community who try to help her. I always tell kids before I start to listen to the clues. The story never tells you the title of the book she misplaces but if you listen carefully you can figure it out. What's also cute is that the favorite part of the book goes with each person's profession.

Other curriculum tie-ins.
* People in the community
   - In this story it's the mailman, a police officer, a waitress, etc.
* Time
   - Stella must get her book back by 5:00. Towards the end of the story it mentions that it's 3:00 then a    
     few pages later 4:00.
* Proper book care
   - If you look at the title page you will see that Stella reads her books everywhere, even in the bathtub!
     This can spark a discussion on proper book care.

          

Website: Teachers pay Teachers

I have found a great new website - Teachers pay Teachers
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup?ref=murphy1620

Teachers pay Teachers is a website where teachers go to buy, sell and share their original ideas. Every grade and subject level is represented so its worth taking a look at. You can even post an "ad" to hire someone to make a lesson plan for you. I am finding quite a few free lessons and any of the ones I've paid for have been under $10.

Here are a few of the lessons I have posted. The Tales From the House of Bunnicula outline is free and the rest are priced $5 and under.
* A Day's Work by Eve Bunting : Discussion Questions and Observation
* Arranging Fiction and Non-Fiction Books
* Camp Read S'More Reading Program and Grant
* Grant for PebbleGo Animal & Earth Science Datebases (K-3)
* Grant: 6 Barnes and Noble Nook Colors or Kindle and Math and Science eBooks
* Scrapbooking in the Curriculum Power Point Presentation: K-3 Grades
* Tales from the House of Bunnicula Series - Writing Terms and Tips
* Vote for Books Election and State Book Awards for Teacher or Librarian

I hope to get some more lesson plans up. Now that we are debt free, except the house, I am working towards saving money to surprise my husband with a vow renewal ceremony when we go on our trip in June 2012!

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.

How I Use Scholastic Book Clubs

Bonus Points, Bonus Points, Bonus Points…Being a Scholastic Book Club member offers lots of bonus point opportunities.

http://clubs.scholastic.com/

Become a new member and earn 350 Bonus Points. Please use my referral code 511467482. 

Each book that is ordered has a point value attached to it. You accumulate the points and "cash" them in on anything in their inventory.

I use my funding or bonus points

* To purchase hardcover books. They have the latest and greatest

* To purchase paperback books with CD’s (very cheap)

     - Great for days when I’m sick and don’t want to talk much.

     - Great for teachers to use at listening centers in their room.

     - They have seasonal sets of books with CD's. You get a small discount when buying the pack.

* They have fabulous teacher guides that I purchase for our professional library.

 What Scholastic Book Clubs offers for teachers

• Some teachers may not get enough, or any, orders when they send the flyers home. So by placing an order through me they can still get books they want for their classroom.
• I pass flyers out to our intervention teachers, resource teacher and school guidance counselor. I ask them to return their order to me by a certain date.
• When the books come in I organize each persons order and pass the books out. I also submit a total to our bookkeeper.

 What is offers for parents

• Parents can submit orders online using your special teacher code.
• You can go in your teacher account and set up the flyers you want parents to shop from.
• By doing this they have access to more books to purchase.
• Their credit cards get charged when you log in and request the order to be shipped to you.
• They get free shipping.

Anytime a parent places an order on the web you get a $3 book voucher. Send out a letter to the parents and share your code. You get bonus points for orders placed on the web too. This is a great way to get orders because not all teachers participate in the book clubs.

If a book is ever on back stock and it ships later then you usually get a $3 voucher for the inconvience.

I have even created my own parent account and I go in and buy books for my boys. School gets $3 J

Become a new member and earn 350 Bonus Points. Please use my referral code 511467482. 

"To the Book Fair and Beyond"

I had a great time with this years book fair theme..."To the Book Fair and Beyond"! Thanks to a great EA and some parent volunteers I was able to replicate some of the decorations on the guide. What an entrance!

Styrofoam plates that were spray painted silver then stapled together. Alien was photocopied from the Book Fair online toolkit.

Oriental Trading product hanging down from the ceiling over one of the product tables.

Oriental Trading never lets me down. www.orientaltrading.com
I got some great space themed decorations from there including planets, space bouncy balls and planet note pads. I will have various contests during Family Night.
* McDonald's lunch with our principal
* Announcements every morning for 1 week
* Space Bouncy Balls
* Planet Note Pads
That night you get a ticket for every BOOK that you buy. You then go over to a table and write your child's name and teacher's name on the back of the ticket and drop it in the bucket of the contest you want to try to win.

I also have a contest that doesn't require a purchase. I usually pose a trivia question. The first student I find that answered the question correctly wins $25 worth of free books from the Book Fair.

We also sell food that night so that families can come eat. Typically it's pizza and then I have teachers donate drinks, desserts and paper products. We also sell popcorn. It's a great way to encourage the families to come. I sold out of 8 pizzas within the first hour and probably could have sold a few more. We were open from 5:00 - 7:00 pm and the whole book fair was moved to the gym.

Blog name change

I have decided to change the name and address of my blog since there was another blog with a very close url. I am now "What Kids Are Reading" and the address is
http://www.whatkidsarereading.blogspot.com/