Oh, Vacation is Bliss! New Boots, New Books, and a Homemade Caramel Macchiato!

Have I told you that my husband makes the best coffee? OMG. The. Best. His espresso tops any drink I've ever had at Starbucks or Peet's. Don't get me wrong... I'm very happy with Starbucks and Peet's drinks. Love them, in fact. But Ken's drinks are even better. Several years ago, he started talking about buying an espresso machine. And then came the research... and one day he came home with an Italian, black and silver machine that cost... ahem...several hundred dollars.  I was aghast. All I could think about at the time were all the groceries and kids' shoes that I could have bought with that much money!

HOWEVER, when I drank the first mocha he made... I was immediately convinced! What a smart man! Omiword! So good! And now, several years later... maybe eight? The machine has more than paid for itself. And so today, I've been lounging in bed... a little reading, a little work... and a homemade caramel macchiato! (And he made the caramel, too!)



 

Bliss! Don't you love winter break?!

And I'm excited... I'm ordering these boots today!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My fabulous kindergarten and first grade families gave me all those gift cards, and one will make a significant dent in the cost of the boots. I have a brown pair already and I love them! Cannot wait for them to arrive! I've had my eye on these for ages!

And books... Books!

My kiddos know that I love books! I have more than 4,000 books in my classroom. I know that because one year I had my son tally the books in each book box... farm books, habitat books, school books, weather books, books by Mo Willems, Patricia Polacco, Mem Fox, Tomie dePaola, Donald Crews, Kevin Henkes, and the list goes on and on and on.

So those sweet kids told their parents how much I love books, and I was treated to some gift cards that I can use to buy books, too. And here are a few of the books I'm buying:

The Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Conner 



Such a fun story! And it is perfect to use with a paper snow globe project like the one I did with my students last week.

Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft



 

 

 

 

 

 

When we get back to school in January, my students will be learning about the ways in which different animals survive the long, cold winter. This book is a great resource, and I've been wanting my own copy!

And New Year's Day by David F. Marx



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone else feeling like they just can't have too many informational texts in the classroom? I love the Rookie series... good information for young children, and appropriate for their age!

I'll share more books tomorrow. I've got a long list, as you might have guessed!

Happy, Happy Winter Break to you all!

Happy New Year Emergent Reader for Kindergarten and First Grade

I'm trying to think ahead... to the week after vacation. We don't have students on the first day back because it's an inservice day... which is awesome! I'm going to be presenting, which is also awesome, but it means that I'm going to be pretty focused on that task! So I think it's best to do as much as I can right now to get ready for my students to come back the day after that.

One thing we will be doing is reading this little book about the new year: 2014!



 

The book uses high frequency words and has pictures to support the text.

In 2014 I will learn on the computer.

In 2014 I will be responsible.

In 2014 I will be a good friend... I will take care of my body... I will write new stories...

And more. It's a perfect "fresh start" kind of book, with affirmations for a positive and productive year. Click on the picture above, or click HERE to get your copy!

I made copies (love the staple feature!), cut the books, and they are ready to go now. My kinders and first graders love having their own books to read, and it will be a terrific focus for their first day back in 2014.

Now to survive the next four days!

 

 

Thanksgiving Fun in First Grade: Stone Soup

All week we've been reading different versions of Stone Soup.

 And we read some stories that were similar, but with some interesting cultural variations...



 



 

We made a chart (and I forgot to take a picture!) to compare some details in the story, and we've been talking about the way that characters in the story were tricked into working together, being helpful, and contributing to the well-being of others. We discussed what the villagers in each story might do next time they are faced with strangers coming to town and why they might react differently.

And today, we made our own stone soup.

Each child brought a vegetable to contribute. We had potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, sweet potatoes, green beans, mushrooms,  Korean sweet potatoes, garlic, tiny cherry tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and perhaps another vegetable or two that I can't remember in my "isn't Thanksgiving here YET?" state. My fabulous room mother organized several parents to help, and they appeared at the classroom door with their cutting boards, knives, peelers, bowls, and two crockpots! The students cleared their book boxes off their desks, washed their hands and got started! And let me tell you--- all those little choppers were adorable! They peeled, they chopped, they chatted! So cute. They worked for nearly half an hour. And when they were done, we piled all the vegetables into the crockpots.



And then came one of the most darling moments of the whole week!

One student was looking at the pile of vegetables, pointing, and talking to a classmate.

"See those carrots right there? I did those. And that piece of potato right there? Aidan cut that one. And Bryan cut that piece of celery right there, but he didn't do those other pieces over there."

PRECIOUS!

I was nearly rolling on the floor with laughter! There were 25 students in my room today (3 absent!) and everyone chopped a little of nearly everything. I just love the way my babes took ownership of the project!

Those fabulous parent helpers took the crock pots home to "babysit" them overnight. They'll add the broth, some salt and pepper, and maybe a sprinkle of herbs. I sent them with butter to add to the soup, too, because I think it was Julia Child who said that the difference between a good soup and a great soup is a tablespoon of butter. And the soup will cook for hours. Tomorrow morning, we'll plug in the pots, heat up the soup and eat lunch in the classroom. It's going to be great! (Families contributed rolls and juice, too.)

And as far as other Thanksgiving activities this week...

We've been reading books about real turkeys. And we created this chart to show our learning. I had a little lightbulb moment and decided to hang the chart outside my classroom so parents could see it at pick-up time. I think I'll start doing that more often!



One parent commented that unlike our Spider Unit, this chart didn't contain any misconceptions! We had noticed that in class, too, and one of my first graders hypothesized that it was related to the fact that we didn't really know much about turkeys to start with! Could be!

We also made some cute turkeys with coffee filters. I pulled out the liquid watercolor paint that I love because of the intense colors. I also let students use the metallic gold liquid watercolor, which had a nice effect... a little like the iridescence of real turkey feathers. Of course after that, we got all silly with googly eyes, so the connection to real turkeys pretty much stopped there! Haha!



And so I leave you with my favorite Facebook quote from last week!



I'm feeling pretty thankful for my awesome students, their awesome parents, my awesome colleagues, my awesome husband and awesome kids, and the awesome FOUR DAY WEEKEND that will be mine in less than nineteen hours!

Thanksgiving Literacy and Math: Reading Response, Interactive Journals, Graphing, and more!

First of all, I'm happy for those of you who have next week off. I'm not gonna lie, though... I'm a little jealous, too. Yesterday I told a friend, "I'd rather add three days to the end of the year than work next week!" But y'all know I'll be changing that story come May!

I spent some time updating my Thanksgiving: Math and Literacy for Primary Grades pack that is available on TpT. It's even more full of seasonal goodness! It's a cornucopia of Common Core activities!



 

The unit now includes several activities that you can just print and use. Immediately. No prep required. I've included activities to support Informational Reading and Literature standards. Simply print, read the book, and your kiddos will be good to go. And think. And work. And write.

Check the library or your own collections. These are some of the Thanksgiving books for which I've included lessons aligned with CCSS.







 

 

Thanksgiving at the Tappletons has a couple of different versions of illustrations, but they all have the same hilarious story!





 



I've been using Interactive Journals with my students for a couple of years now. This year, last year, and the year before, that is. At first, I was very, very careful about what I wanted to include. Everything that was added met my own, self-imposed, ridiculously strict criteria. Now, though, I include a much wider variety of activities, skills, formats, etc. I love looking back to see how much we've accomplished and how much my students' skills have improved. I've adopted the attitude that I can make almost anything into an appropriate entry for students' interactive journals. Last week, students added information about what life was like on the Mayflower. We read, and read, and discussed, and made a chart of important words/ideas, and then the students did their own writing. Did I mention that this year's class absolutely goes nuts for any kind of writing?! They love it!

I added some activities for Interactive Journals when I updated this pack. Check out the preview!

To my friends on vacation--- enjoy! You KNOW how fast it will fly by, and I hope you can savor every moment. For the rest of us--- our time is coming! Just a few more days until the long weekend!

 

My Creative Friend Gwen plus Her Fifth Graders plus Leaf Man equals FALL FUN!

My friend Gwen, also known as Curious Jones, teaches fifth grade, and her class and my class are buddies. She had the absolute best idea for a buddy activity, and we got together this week for a little FALL FUN! Have I mentioned how much I love my new school, and how thrilled I am to have Gwen as a neighbor? This project was all her--- and I'm lucky enough to have the finished products hanging in my room.

I read the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert to my class the day before the fifth grade buddies came to visit.



And the fifth graders spent a few days before our meeting cutting out leaf shapes.

Once we were all together, the buddies paired up and got busy creating leaf people and animals and mermaids! Yahoo! It was wild and fun and amazing... my 30 students plus Gwen's 30 students... all packed into my room with tiny desks and chairs! But we totally made it work and all the kids had a blast!









Every single project turned out amazing! And there's still plenty of time to do this in your classroom, too. I often have fall projects that go into late November! If you don't have a buddy class, just die cut some leaves and get started. Of course, I had my students write stories about their leaf people afterward, too. It all ties to literacy!

So happy it's Saturday! I've got some time to catch up on sleep, projects at home, and errands. I'm gathering materials for my Halloween costume, which is going to be a ton of fun, since my whole grade level is dressing alike! I feel like a kid---can't wait to dress up!

My Classroom Library

A year or two ago, my son was going through a difficult period and needed some activities to distract him from his own challenges. So I gave him a few jobs around the house and in my classroom. He fixed a couple of things, moved heavy furniture, ran some errands, cooked some meals ... and then I had him count the books in my classroom library. Haha! What a job!

My classroom library is organized into five sections. First, I have a lot of books that are sorted by level for guided reading instruction. I keep them in bins near my reading table, and I give them to students (and then students store them in bags inside their book boxes) when appropriate. Second, I have a collection of books that I use to teach lessons. I generally don't let students have access to those books. I know, selfish! But this set of books is very carefully organized and that's just how it is.

So two of my five sections? Really just for me. The students are exposed to all those books in some way, but they don't get full access. It's okay, though... there are plenty of books that the children have access to all the time! According to my son's calculations... there are nearly 4,000 of those books!

The third section of my library is organized by author. I have 19 book boxes, each one filled with books by the same author: Tomie DePaola, Kevin Henkes, Mo Willems, Audrey Penn, Patricia Polacco, Keiko Kasza, Steven Kellogg, Mercer Mayer, David Shannon, Dav Pilkey, Eric Carle... This picture only shows eighteen boxes, but I promise there are nineteen!



The next part of my library is organized by character or series... Pete the Cat, Berenstain Bears, Clifford, Magic School Bus, Dr. Seuss, Angelina Ballerina, Arthur, Curious George, Jigsaw Jones, Nate the Great, Magic Tree House, Franklin...



I store the coordinating stuffed animals in the boxes, and students are allowed to read to them at certain times.

The fifth and final section of my classroom library is organized by subject/genre/type. I have books about food, weather, friendship, families, frogs, mammals, reptiles, holidays, birthdays, math, inventions, bears, school... there is a Joke Book box and a Fairy Tale box and a Word Book box. One box is filled with Rhyming Books, and another holds all the ZooBooks.



Each of the three sections for students is organized in alphabetical order, either by last name (authors), character name or topic.

There are a total of 96 book boxes. How ridiculous!

I started collecting the boxes about five years ago. They were $2.95 at Lakeshore, and I never bought even one without a coupon of some kind. Most of the time I had a buy one, get one 50% off coupon, so the boxes were around $2.25 each. Not as cheap as the dollar store, but they are unbelievably sturdy. After a year or so (I had purchased about 20 boxes), the price went up to $3.95, but by then I felt pretty committed. Luckily I had a very large PTA fund that year, and I bought most of the boxes then.  Now the boxes are $4.99 each, which I think is pretty outrageously expensive. I have no plans to add new boxes. And if I really feel the need, I will likely regroup and use a box I already have (I could put all the Magic School Bus books into the Science box, or move all the Halloween books into the Autumn box.) I never would have chosen these boxes if the price had been $4.99!  That said, however, these boxes will last forever! They are in perfect condition after five years.

Actually, I have one more collection of books. They are organized by level, and they are for students to borrow and take home. I'll talk more about how I manage the take home books at another time.

Four. Thousand. Books.

Where did they come from? Many were acquired for free... public library giveaways, school library giveaways, the "free" section at garage sales, Scholastic bonus points, books my own children's friends grew out of. Most were very, very cheap... from RAFT or thrift stores or from clearance shelves. One nearby thrift store sells most of their books for 19 cents... and they frequently have 50% off sales. I've walked out of that store with 70 books for $7 plus tax on a number of occasions.  A few books I purchased from Scholastic (and then earned more free books), some are from Amazon, lots I cleaned off of my own kids' shelves.

One of my daughters organized all those boxes. Which was another job in itself! She sorted and alphabetized for a couple of hours and all it cost me was $30 in Think Geek t-shirts! What a deal!

 

 

Where Did the Week Go? Rain, Math, Library Mouse, and Essential Questions for Kindergarten!

Last week flew by... I was so ridiculously busy that I barely had time to do anything! It was a "Jamba Juice for dinner one night, and Freebirds for dinner the next night" kind of week! I've got some delicious vegetarian curry simmering on the stove right now. I'm already planning meals so I won't be wandering the aisles of Whole Foods with the "Five O'Clock Crowd," wondering what's for dinner next week!

Yikes!

I had so many meetings last week! A few conferences with parents just to check in, a couple of district meetings regarding evaluations and Common Core Language Arts (one of my FAVORITE topics!) and a grade level planning session with my amazing kindergarten team! I got home so late every night it was nuts. And I was just getting over whatever cold/virus my sweet little students shared with me so it was exhausting.

But that's okay. I'm recovered and ready to go!

Today, I spent some time with my husband and two of my kids, took a drive across the new Bay Bridge...



...had some quality time with Rose Kitty...



... and ran three miles. Funny... I had decided not to run outside today. I love the beautiful streets and trails in my town, but I love the data that the treadmills at the gym provide, too! So I opted for the gym. Good thing...



It started pouring! It just so happened that I was on the treadmill by the window, so I snapped a picture of the pouring rain while I ran. Silly, yes! It's been so long since it rained, I had forgotten what it looked like!

So last week... a few highlights...

Math journals... we have been working on shapes, and I created this little activity for my students to glue into their math journals. Specifically, we've focused on standard K.G.A.2 for the kinders and 1.G.A.1 for the first graders. For this journal page, I created a little "lift-the-flap" activity. Students listed defining attributes on the front, and then drew objects from the world that were the same shape underneath each flap. They loved those little flaps! Magical!



This is a picture of the supplies that I keep handy when I'm working with small groups during guided reading. I also squeeze a little guided writing into that time, and sometimes we create a small book together. A friend had asked for a picture of my basket o'goodies, so I thought I'd share here, too!



In that basket: scissors, glue, pencils, markers, highlighters, crayons, twistables, and paper. Also in there is a white board that I can use and some little handwriting "write and wipe" notebooks that I picked up at Target last year for a dollar each. Money well spent!

And a great moment from last week... my youngest daughter re-created the tissue box/meet the author box from Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk.



 

Just like in the story, I put a sign on the door of the classroom that said, "Meet the Author Today," and I left out some tiny books, tiny pencils (golf pencils and a few short ones I had saved for this!) and the box.



I tucked a little mirror inside the box, just like Sam did.

And when my students came in the door that morning? What happened, you want to know? Well, they went absolutely nuts! They peeked into the box over and over again all week long, and they never stopped looking for Sam. I just love that they feel so connected to a book!

And the last little thing today...

I created a set of Essential Questions for the Kindergarten Common Core Standards! They are pretty adorable, if I do say so myself! I spend a long time getting every little graphic just perfect!



The set has a question for every single standard, and the strands are color-coded. And to save space in our classrooms, the questions are just the right size for posting in pocket charts! A giant blank wall won't be necessary!

Click on the cover page above, or click here to get your copy!

Have a great week, friends! If all else fails... remember that a smoothie from Jamba makes a great, quick dinner!

 

Nearly Everything Links to Literacy!

I love books. I love teaching reading, and reading to my students, and talking about books. I love the Scholastic book orders, and all the choices there. I love the stuffed animals I have that are characters from books.

And so, without even knowing it sometimes, I connect things to literature.

A few years ago, I saw the idea of making a caterpillar to count the days of school. A friend of mine added a new segment to a caterpillar each day, and had a gigantic pastel-colored caterpillar that wrapped around one side of her classroom. I made a mental note to do something similar the following year. But, me being me, the idea had morphed a bit by the time the start of the next school year came along.

I decided to make my caterpillar be The Hungry Caterpillar.



And I decided to change the color of the caterpillar segments for each set of ten.

And I ended up with something like this.



Last year, the caterpillar wound up and down across two walls. The year before, it scurried straight and was on three walls. We'll just have to wait to see what happens this year...

My students this year have gotten onto the idea that that hungry caterpillar is gobbling up days of school!

Another way that I've incorporated literacy into areas of my classroom... my table groups.

This year, I have five table groups: Pigeon Table,  Lilly Table,  Pete the Cat Table, Rocket the Reading Dog Table, and Hungry Caterpillar Table.



I will sometimes say, "Pigeons, you can go line up for lunch," or "Reading Dogs, it's your turn to go get your book boxes." I excuse them for recess or to get supplies by tables, frequently. And sometimes I get a bit casual.

Last week, I cracked my class up. I'm not even sure where it came from, but I said, "If you're a Very Thirsty Caterpillar you can go get a drink now." They loved it! Silliness!

I've also decorated the bathroom that's inside my classroom with book jackets. But I won't post a picture of that!

Literacy and literary references... gotta love it!

 

Book Boxes and Texts for Getting Started with Readers Workshop

Do your students have book boxes? Book totes? Book bins? Book bags? The container doesn't matter a bit.  One year I used little plastic totes from the dollar store, but for the past couple of years, I've used plastic boxes. I purchased the boxes in three different colors to help each of my young students find the right box, and I labeled them with student names. I remind my kindergartners to remember which color their boxes are. Then, they have a fewer number of box labels to check. I know, it sounds pretty basic, right? It's not. Once students know which color box to look for, they can find the correct box more quickly.



It's sometimes challenging to find a place for book boxes in the classroom. Luckily, I have a very large room this year, and I was able to place them all in one area. In the past, I've had to put some on one side of the room and some on the other. It actually worked just fine! And there was an advantage to storing the boxes in different places in the room: no crowds when it's time to get the boxes out or put them away.

I usually begin the year by selecting books for each student for the first week of Readers Workshop. But this year, my class is pretty amazing, and I let them do the shopping. I presented lessons on how the library is organized, and then I let them go. At the beginning, I let them choose eight books for their book boxes. Later in the year, they are allowed to choose more.

After students had chosen books, I taught a couple of lessons on "Three Ways to Read a Book."  I got the idea when I attended a Daily 5 Workshop, but I've changed it from their model a bit. For one thing, when I read the books, I make a chart that includes a picture of each book I read. When I teach students the three ways to read a book, I like to use books that are similar in some way for each lesson. One year, I used three different frog books. One was appropriate for showing how to read the pictures, because it had complex illustrations and too many words for most first graders. Another was a book that had very simple, repetitive text, and I showed the students how to look and point at every word while the read. The third book was a story that we had already read for fun in class. I used it to show how to retell the story.

This year, I chose sets of three books by one author. This chart shows the books by Eric Carle  and the books by David Shannon. For demonstrating how to read the pictures, I used Mr. Seahorse and Good Boy, Fergus. To model how to read the words, I used Have You Seen My Cat? and No, David. And for retelling, I used Duck on a Bike and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.



 



 



 



I'll continue adding another set or two of books to our chart, because I think it's good to review those three ways several times at the beginning.

So after students selected books and I taught the three ways to read a book, it was time to get going on the important part: reading! I use the rules for Read to Self from The Sisters:

1. Read the whole time.

2. Stay in one place.

3. Get started right away.

I modeled and had my students demonstrate each one. My favorite rule is "Read the whole time." We had a little discussion about how you can't talk if you're really reading. And you can't look around the room if you're really reading. And we discussed what to do if someone else in the class isn't following the rules. In my class, I tell the students that they should ignore anyone who tries to talk to them during Readers Workshop. If the person is really persistent, I give them the option of showing the quiet sign (index finger held to lips), but not saying anything and getting right to work. I absolutely love demonstrating this each time. Today, I had a student sit and read a book while I was the naughty student who was trying to distract him."

"Pppssssssst!! Dean! Dean!... Dean! I'm talking to you! ..... Dean! Dean! Dean! Look at the cool pictures in my book, Dean! Look at the funny dog getting on the bus. Dean! LOOK! DEAN!"

Omg. It was awesome. Dean just kept on reading and completely ignored me. He did it so well. And then he finally showed me the quiet sign. It was hilarious, but completely effective. The kids got it.

Each day I assign places in the room to read. It takes a few minutes, but it's totally worth it for kindergarten and first grade. I have several comfy chairs, a few bean bag chairs, a couple of piles of pillows, two tiny tables and tons of floor space and many desks. I send students to different places in the room, and in the case of desks and the floor, I just try to keep the children separate from each other as much as I can.

The students are to take their book boxes to their reading places and "get started right away.

Omiword. Today was the second day of Readers Workshop in my class. My students are so thrilled with the books in their book boxes, and they got started right away. They all sat, and picked up books and... read. Yes, those were the instructions, but it just doesn't always happen as quickly and easily as it did today. Often at the beginning of the year, my students can't even read for two minutes without someone talking or playing or getting up to walk around the room. Today?! Eighteen minutes. It's unbelievable. This group loves books!

Happy Friday, Teacher Friends! The long weekend is nearly here!