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!

 

 

Hysterical Laughter While Reading the Word Wall

Oh my. Things just happen... in even the most innocent situations.

Read the Room... we do it every day. The Superkid is always first. He or she chooses a pointer and leads the class to a chart or poem or shared reading or anything else in the room that we can read together. There are definitely some "old favorite" poems to read, and the wall where we have all the color words is popular, too.







 

But the most popular choice BY FAR is the Word Wall. Great, right?! All those yummy high-frequency words?! Of course I want students getting extra practice with those! So every time a student chooses the word wall, I cheer a little inside!

Now normally, we read the words  from left to right, just like we'd read them in a book. So we'll start with the words that start with "a" and we'll read them from left to right, across one row and then down to the next. Then, we'll read the words that start with "b" in the same way. It's NEVER been confusing... until yesterday.

A darling little kindergartner got her turn with the pointer, and rushed to the word wall. She started pointing to the "a" words in a rather random order. The students didn't miss a beat and read the words, anyway. And the she started on the "b" words... and this time, she decided to read them column by column, which was fine, until we got to "big, but" and the class just completely lost it. I might have giggled myself. But the more the students laughed, the more I laughed, and then they laughed, and pretty quickly we were just a mess of hilarity. I love my job!



Oh. My. I think we're all ready for a little vacation! When does Winter Break start? That's right, kids.... SIX MORE DAYS!!

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, I am loving this weekend already! Is it possible that I feel rested and recharged already?

Yesterday was a great day at school. Even though it was short, there was TONS of learning and writing. Students finished their turkey books, which were loaded with facts! And the circular pages were a huge thrill!



Students ate the Stone Soup we made on Tuesday. Sometimes they don't like it, but this year, nearly all the soup was eaten. I did have one little boy look at the soup and look at me with a serious expression. "There's no way I'm going to eat that with all that stuff mixed together," he said. And then he told everyone that he was allergic to carrots. Ha!

The smarties also worked on an adorable little soup project to complete the unit. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to show, but it's a big construction paper soup pot with pages to flip. I'll try to post a picture soon. All week the poem was in the pocket chart with picture cards to show vegetables that can go in soup: potatoes, beans, carrots, onions, corn, etc.

Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!

The soup is getting hot.

I think it needs some ______

So I'll put some in the pot!

 

Students wrote and drew to show which ingredients they wanted in their soup pots. They were reading and chanting as they worked, which I loved! I had them working right up until 1:34 p.m.

And then school was out yesterday at 1:35 pm. I hugged my darlings, wished them all a Happy Thanksgiving, and dashed out my back door! My husband had taken the day off, and he met me in the school parking lot with all the kids, the packed car, and my favorite Jamba Juice (Pomegranate Paradise without the mangos!) We went straight to the freeway, where we found about five bazillion people headed the same direction. Sigh.

And so began a long drive. We stopped for coffee, gas, more coffee... and at the kids' request, we picked up some tacos. We never eat fast food except for when we're driving on long trips, and it was a treat for them. Funny, the part of the drive where there was the least amount of traffic? Right when we got to L.A.

We stayed up late laughing with family and got up early this morning to get to the Turkey Trot.



My sister ran her first 5K, and we all enjoyed getting some exercise! ON THE BEACH!! Some said it was chilly, but I thought it was excellent running weather!



It was a gorgeous morning!  And I love this photo with the seagull photobomb!

We got some coffee at Peet's, started breakfast preparations, and claimed our spots on the couches!

I think there are a few errands for tomorrow: a trip to the Sprinkles cupcake ATM, possibly a fun run at the local Fleet Feet, and maybe one or two others. But there will be no Christmas shopping! Nothing but relaxation, lounging, eating, reading and sleeping.

Just what we all need.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day with family and friends!

 

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!

Two More Days of Thanksgiving Activities: Reading Response, Addition Practice, Writing and Tons More!

I discounted my Thanksgiving Literacy and Math Unit on TpT. It's on SALE just until Thanksgiving! There are just a couple days left until Thanksgiving, and you will for sure get your money's worth! And if you're already on Thanksgiving Break, you will be all set for next year. Click on the picture for the link!



 

There are several quick-to-prep (or NO prep!) activities that meet rigorous Common Core Standards, and your students will love them!

Watch for my Cyber Monday sale on TpT next week! How can the holidays be coming so quickly?!

Happy Monday, Teachers!

Thanksgiving Unit On The Way ... And A Beanie Baby Reading Strategies Giveaway!

First of all. Happy THREE day weekend. Three days! Okay, so it did fly by... but I got a ton done! I spent some much needed, relaxing time with my husband and kids. So. Good. But besides that, I got tons of errands taken care of! My car was so filthy, I was embarrassed to drive it. Black cars just look awful when they're dirty. So I checked that off my list. I gathered some items at Target and JoAnn's and Michael's. I went to the grocery store, picked up clothes at the cleaners,  and bought my ridiculous-but-I-love-it-so-I-don't-care-how-much-it-costs shampoo. I washed, dried and folded tons of laundry. I had two lovely coffee dates with my husband, one fabulous coffee date with my friend Teacher Nina, and went to my wildly fun book club meeting. And if all that wasn't enough, we also squeezed in a Saturday night dinner with my fake sister and her husband. Haha! It's amazing how rejuvenating a few hours of laughing can be!

Did I mention I also finished some sewing projects? And watched hours of Mad Men? I'm tellin' ya, it felt like more than three days and I'm so grateful for the time off of work!

Well, speaking of work... I did a little of that, too. My Thanksgiving Unit is nearly complete, and y'all will be the first to know. I'll be giving away a copy of it this week, so check back.

But since I know you love giveaways...

My two Beanie Baby units are both best sellers on Teachers Pay Teachers, and if you don't have a copy yet, you should have one! Here's you chance to win one!

One unit focuses on Decoding Strategies...



And the other focuses on Comprehension Strategies.



Both include posters, bookmarks, and strategy cards.

And one of these little beauties could be yours before the end of the week!

I'll be randomly choosing two winners from my group of followers and two winners from comments posted this week. So I'll be giving away four sets total. If your name is chosen, you'll get to choose which unit you want. If you're a follower and you leave a comment, you could win twice and get them both!

Leave your comment and become a follower before this Thursday, November 14 at 6:00 pm Pacific Time to get your chance! Be sure to leave your email address in your comment so I can let you know if you win!

Have a great week and check back soon! Because I'm in one of those moods: I'll be giving away a copy of my Thanksgiving Unit just as soon as it's finished, too!

 

Reading Comprehension Strategies with Beanie Babies

You asked for it, you got it!

Several months ago, I posted my Beanie Babies: Strategies for Reading unit on TpT.



 

And the accompanying comprehension strategies are now posted! So many people have asked for these, and here they are!



 

Happy reading to you and your students!

Gigantic Pack of Vowel Activities

I just posted a huge unit on TpT. It all started when I first saw some cute short vowel songs. Except that after I read them, and tried to sing them, I realized that I really didn't like the words! Haha. So I changed the lyrics. And then I thought, "Why wouldn't there be long vowel songs, too?" So I made those. And then I made posters, and student pages, and materials for interactive journals and pocket chart cards and all of a sudden, I had 91 pages of vowel goodness.



I tried to incorporate a variety of vocabulary words ... and also different spelling patterns for the long vowel sounds. The graphics are adorable, and I included suggestions for use. All the songs are sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques."

Check it out HERE.

 

 

Close Reading

Last week I presented a professional development session on Close Reading to my own staff. Though I've presented dozens of times before, I was nervous this time. I like to have some knowledge of my audience and their needs, and I felt pretty uninformed. Because I started at my school at the very last minute, I hadn't even met all the teachers! And I was presenting to all teachers, K-5.

I was provided with a partner, who would present with me. That made me even more nervous, because I hadn't met her until two days before the presentation, either! It can be challenging to present as a team, especially the first time.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried at all. It was a great day, great presentation, great audience! I was amazed that my partner and I worked together fabulously, as if we'd done it many times before.

So have you had a chance to learn about Close Reading? Not even sure exactly what it is?

Watch this: VIDEO of Douglas Fisher

Read this: ARTICLE by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Read this: ARTICLE from ASCD

And if you're hungry for more, order this book:



 

It's a great resource!

Close reading is just what it sounds like: Reading something closely. Of course, there is a lot more to it than that, but a name that matches the strategy is a great start!

When teaching a Close Reading lesson, there are a few components to keep in mind.

1. The lesson should use short passages. Of course the definition of "short" varies, depending on the age of the students. For my kindergartners and first graders, a few sentences can be appropriate, but for older students, it might be a few paragraphs. The text can be something that stands alone, or it can be an excerpt from a longer piece.

2. The text should be complex. The whole point is to help students learn skills and strategies for deep understanding, so the text should be challenging.

3. The teacher should provide limited frontloading. In recent years, there have been times when teachers have been encouraged to spend a lot of time helping students get ready to read. But in a Close Reading, students are expected to do more of the work. There may be texts that require a bit of frontloading, but there shouldn't be too much. Students are learning how to understand text on their own.

4. There should be opportunities for repeated readings. Students should read and re-read and re-read. Each time they read, students will have gained a little more background knowledge from the previous reading, and they will understand more.

5. The teacher should be asking students text-dependent questions. This is all about providing evidence from the text to support their answers, which is what the Common Core Standards are all about.

6. The students should be annotating what they read: highlighters, Post-It notes, circled words, and notes in the margin are all appropriate! This is one piece of the Close Reading lesson that requires some guidelines ahead of time! If students don't know what to highlight, they might highlight everything! I began my close reading lessons with a mini-lesson on how to highlight, especially the idea of one line, not "coloring." If older students will be numbering paragraphs to aid in discussion of a text, they'll need to know how to number paragraphs (in our presentation, a few teachers didn't number the paragraphs correctly, which led to confusion!)

One part of all of this that some teachers expressed a little anxiety about: asking text-dependent questions. I created this handy bookmark/guide that teachers can use to help them generate text-dependent questions. It's perfect for the Common Core!



You can download a copy HERE.

Have a great Monday!

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!

 

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!

Who Doesn't Love Pete the Cat?

Pete the Cat is such a darling little fellow, and my students love the Pete the Cat books! I have several copies of each title in the classroom, and they are always in use! If you don't have the books, click on the book covers to get them!





I created a set of pocket chart sentences to use with the book, as well as two different mini-books for students. They were perfect for my kindergartners and first graders!



Click on the picture for a link to these materials.



There are lots of perfectly-sized sentence strips to use with students. We had tons o' fun pretending that Pete stepped in bubble gum, lettuce, cherries and more. The materials also work well for oral language practice with English Language Learners.

I just love Pete! He makes my students smile and giggle, and it's infectious! We had a great week of Pete the Cat fun!