Books to Read Aloud for Grades 3-5 When I look back on my own elementary days (so very long ago), I can't remember what books my teacher read out loud to us, with one exception: My fourth grade teacher, Mr. Watson. Mr. Watson read us the best books and he always stopped at the most exciting part, with all of us begging for more. He read us The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and then I had to read the whole Narnia series. We traveled across the tundra with Julie, ran away the the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Claudia, learned lessons the hard way with JD and his brother Tom. So, this all leads to the question, what can you read to delight and inspire your students? Sideways Stories from the Wayside School by Louis SacharI always start the year with my 3rd graders with Sideways Stories from Wayside School. "Beginning of the year I always read, There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom; it lends itself to so many different discussion topics. -Georgia Koepke -Brenda Ronnebaum I do a Roald Dahl author study with my third graders.
Brave Books for Girls (Not Princesses) Last week’s Dara-Lynn Weiss debacle reminded me of one of the biggest problems with this whole, endless is weight health? debate: When we focus relentlessly on weight and beauty, we teach girls that their entire value comes from their weight and/or beauty. Just ask all those teenage girls posting YouTube videos about it. But it’s not enough to get the Fat Talk out of our health conversations. But when we narrow our girls’ options down to nothing but Pretty/Pink/Princess, we’ve got trouble. All of this is a long way of telling you about a fun baby present that I put together for my friend Amy, who is expecting a baby girl in June. Awhile back, Amy had mentioned wanting suggestions of books to read to the baby so I put together a collection of all of my favorite books from childhood featuring brave (non-princess-y) girls as the main characters. So here’s my list, pictured above and Amazon-linked below. And I can guarantee that none of them ever so much as mentions their weight. Jane Eyre
These Are Things / Fill In The Blank Card Set Say exactly what you mean with these six Fill In The Blank folded greeting cards. Just grab a pen and customize to your liking. This assorted set includes the following cards: Happy Blank Day, I Blank You, You Are My Blank, You Make Me Blank, You Plus Me Equals Blank, and You're The Blank. Printed with velvety black ink and shiny empire gold foil accents on smooth creme heavyweight paper. A2 folded greeting card measures 5½” x 4¼” Printed using black ink and empire gold foil Blank inside for your own personal message Fill in the blanks to customize Includes one matching envelope per card Inspected for quality and packaged by hand Designed and created with love in the U.S.A.
Confessions of a Teaching Junkie: My Teacher's SECRET Life! In an effort to add a little levity to the seriousness of testing week we did a reading/writing innovation lesson that I got from Cristie Fultz over at Ms. Fultz's Corner. I started by reading the book My Teacher's Secret Life by Stephen Krensky. Then they brainstormed about what MY secret life might be, and created circle maps to include any ideas they had. Then they created a flow map to create their "secret life" story. They drafted, peer conferenced, revised and edited their stories coming up with these priceless ideas... I have one of my students illustrating the cover to make a class book. Click here to get the free printable masters for the pages and cover. This was such a fun project! What great reading innovations do you have to share?
Top 100 Children's Books of All-Time Developing a love of the written word can begin while your child is an infant. Babies who are read to are much more likely to read earlier, understand concepts better, and be faster learners than babies who do not have the chance to experience books. It is never too early or too late to begin reading to and with your children. Choosing a variety of well written, colorful, and entertaining stories from some of the best children’s books ever will help develop a love of reading and a love of learning in your child. Sharing that time together and cuddling up with a story to share will also help build a bond between you and your child like nothing else can. Looking for chapter books? 11 to 20 21 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 50 51 to 60 61 to 70 71 to 80 81 to 90 91 to 100 Famous Children’s Books That Almost Made the List *NEW* 30 Best Children’s Books of 2012
Don't get booted! Follow these rules! Classroom Rules We will work to be our best every single day! Our school rules apply in our classroom- be safe, be respectful, be responsible. I have added one more important rule... have a positive attitude! It feels good to follow classroom rules! Not only do you have a chance to earn a special "thank you" from Mrs. Classroom Clip Chart We will be using a clip chart to monitor our choices in our classroom. Good choices mean you get to move up! Outstanding! If you move to the orange level on our clip chart, you will miss five minutes of recess to think about your choices. Sometimes I might send you to talk to our principal, Mrs. You may also be interested to read this e-book which gives more information on clip charts! Classroom Procedures We will spend a lot of time learning the procedures to make our classroom run smoothly. *Teachers- you can download my clip chart files here!
100 Best Children's Chapter Books of All-Time Chapter books-that final leap into the world of literature where pictures matter less and less. Young readers are now able to be spirited away to strange and far off places, without the limitations of what is drawn on a page. It’s a beautiful thing, to see that door open up for them. Below you will find a list of some of the best children’s chapter books, suitable for a wide range of ages. They are the ones that continue to be loved for ages upon ages because they are, simply put, quite wonderful. Looking for picture books? Top 10 Children’s Chapter Books Charlotte’s Web: This is truly a gem of a children’s book. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Although they weren’t written terribly long ago, the Harry Potter books have quickly become classics. A Wrinkle In Time: This is a simply fascinating chapter book for children to dig into. The Phantom Tollbooth: One day, a bored young boy named Milo unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth, which he decides to drive through in his toy car.
Kelly's Knack: Teacher Life I'm going to post on the main page of the blog instead, so it can be separated by posts. 2012-2013 I reorganized some parts of my room. Here are the latest pictures. July, 2012 First off, I wanted to make a poster that listed all of the things to do when you finish something early. It seems like I ended up posting it on my white board everyday anyway, so now it will be in one place for the students to reference. Secondly, using the other half of the poster board, I made a packing-up checklist. Thirdly, I made a pocket chart to put the Boggle and analogies mentioned on the early finishers poster. And lastly for now, I made a poster to display banned words in their writing. Here it is with words on it. I had to buy this from Target. More to come later.
Fabulous Fourth Grade: Favorite Sites Here are some websites that we enjoy. Just click on the title and the link will take you to that site. Interactive Reading Comprehension This site provides many different reading comprehension skills which are great for using during EOG practice. Math Essentials This provides math essentials for the students to practice on a regular basis. These are great for review or morning work. Math Week by Week Essentials This website provides week by week essentials for the students to continuously practice. Math Problem of the Day This sight provides powerpoints from kindergarten to fifth grade that have a problem for your students to work every day. Super Teacher Worksheets There are so many different types of worksheets that can be used in the classroom. Into the Book This is an awesome website that teaches students different reading skills. Mrs. Mini Writing Lessons This website offers ideas for different mini writing lessons. www.portaportal.com
Reading Journals I’ve started using reading journals with Sprite. It’s a way to encourage her independent interactions with the novels she’s reading. Lincoln Novel, Bookmark, and Journal I printed and laminated these bookmarks and made a simple single fold book for her Abraham Lincoln biography (shape template). Jericho’s Journey and Reading Journal Here’s another one for Jericho’s Journey with a covered wagon image. Of course, she already interacts with text but generally in discussions with me when I tend to pull things out of her. Reading Response Prompts Minioffice She can also use the reading journal to make notes about the plot or about new vocabulary words which may be helpful for notebooking pages or a writing assignment. She does both narrations and reactions in her journal. I’ve not given this reading response minioffice to Sprite yet. reading response minioffice direct link to letter size cut outs & direct link to A4 size cut outs
The Real Teachr: Strategy Grouping Template for Reading, Writing & Math Happy Friday!! Yesterday I talked about different types of lesson planning sheets, and even gave you a copy of my lesson planning sheets. Another thing I used last year was a Strategy Group Planning Sheet for Reading. I came up with the idea towards the middle to end of the year, and I wish I had come up with it earlier. This page will give you a way to plan your strategy/skill groups and what days you want to meet with them. Last year, I only used this template for reading. These were all fine and dandy, but I felt like I was missing something. Ok...don't get scared! Mahalo for reading,
Create●Teach●Share: Boggle Board w/ Printable!!! I have been working on some new ideas for my students to do during their Daily Five "Word Work" rotation. A couple days ago I posted about my Word of the Week Graphic Organizer. Another idea I had was inspired by a couple different sources. I first saw the idea for a Boggle bulletin board on Pinterest. Here is a picture of the Boggle Bulletin Board that I put up today: {I'll have more pics from my room when I finish later this week!!!} I printed up the following letters on card stock, cut them out, and laminated them. My plan is to change the letters {bi}weekly. {Click the pic to share!} This will probably be a "last choice" for word work. I have seen so many wonderful classroom pics.