3 Weeks In...

Week 3 was definitely one for the books! We spent 3 hours on Monday sheltered in place, meaning, from 2:40pm-5:30pm my students and I were hunkered down in the hallway in tornado drill position. When it was all said and done I think there was about 10 confirmed tornadoes in Central Virginia that day. Many parents rushed to pick up their children as soon as they were able to. My last child left at 6:45pm and most of the buses started pulling in around 7pm. They had to run their middle school and high school routes before they could even head to the elementary schools. I'm thankful for the safety of our students and all our families. 

I took some updated pictures on Friday of my classroom I wanted to share. 

Math Board

Addition Strategies Anchor Chart

Our Super Improver Board- They're moving on up!

We read The Bad Seed and made a Growth Mindset Craftivity. I'm also happy to say that all of my students still have their original pencil from the first day of school!

Books with a Common Theme Board

Our Bucket Fillers/Dippers Chart

We Learned about Nonfiction Text Features last week

Our Reading Posters

More Anchor Charts

Even More Anchor Charts

We started talking about Growth Mindset this week

Our first Wonders were about Hurricane Florence

We read The Jelly Donut Kindness and discussed ways to be kind to others

Close Up of Craftivity

Inside of Craftivity

Back to School Night was Thursday- waiting for parents was their child's Learning Handbook (study guides for every subject), a copy of my Parent Handbook with all policies and procedures, Movie Permission Slip, Computer Log in Card and a note they could leave for their child

4 for Friday: Favorite BTS Read Alouds

My 4 for Friday is pretty late today... my husband and I have been vacationing at Massanutten Resort this week. Indoor Waterpark, Ziplining, Tubing, Rock Climbing, Go Karts, great food and great weather! 
Now that my vacation is over and I resort back to work in one week, it's time for me to look at lesson planning. Here are my favorite back to school read alouds.
Back to School Read Alouds

1. Do Unto Otters- This is most favorite back to school book! It's a great book about manners and the perfect book for character building. Usually we would just discuss the book but this year I took it a step further and purchased the unit from Stories by Storie. I hope to include activities from this unit this year. 

2. Jelly Donut Difference- This is a great book about spreading kindness. It's become one of my favorite books. This year I plan to read it at the beginning of the year as opposed to middle and I purchased the unit off of Stories by Storie and will include activities from there. 

3. Potato Chip Champ- This is another book about spreading kindness and even explores empathy. Last year I read this at the beginning of the year and did the potato chip craft and displayed it for Back to School Night. 

4. The Bad Seed- I just discovered this book this summer, bought it from Scholastic. 

From School Library Journal-Corn kernels, pistachios, peanuts, and other seeds gasp and point as a "baaaaaaaaaaad seed" goes by. When others mumble about him, he can hear them because he has "good hearing for a seed." The bad seed tells "long jokes with no punch lines," lies "about pointless stuff," and never puts things back where they belong. But he did not start out that way; it was only after a traumatic experience that he became "a different seed entirely." 

After I purchased it, I found a great unit that tied the book to Growth Mindset. 

I'd love to hear about your favorite BTS read alouds, leave a comment here or hop on over to our Facebook page and leave a comment. 

2nd Grade Daily Math Review

It's Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer! I still have 3 more weeks of school but I'm already getting ready for a new school year.

One strategy that I've found to be very effective is spiral review. This year in 3rd grade I did a Daily Math Review and Daily Reading Review. I truly feel these daily reviews made the difference in their standardized test achievement given this month. I knew I wanted to do something similar in 2nd grade. 

Next year I've decided to create a Daily Spiral Math Review booklet using this resource Math Spiral Review. Even though this product is aligned to the Common Core Curriculum and I teach in Virginia and we don't use those standards, I still intend to use it. I love it because it's 100% editable. I'm also going to buy the 1st grade version and modify those for weekly homework practice.

I also received the rest of the Picture Window Books I ordered for the 2nd grade curriculum, I'm super excited!  

Character Education

For as long as I can remember, I've focused on character education in my classroom. I'm passionate about cultivating leaders and all around good citizens. I enjoy integrating character education into my morning meetings, writing block and shared reading block. 
My favorite books that focus on life/leadership skills are by Julia Cook and Maria Dismondy. For the first couple of weeks in school I read a different book (see this post) during morning meeting and we discuss the theme and message. I also spotlight one life/leadership skill each month. We discuss the skill in depth during morning meeting. As I see students demonstrating the skill, I reward the with the correlating SMART(Brag)Tag.

• September-Initiative 
• October- Organization
• November/December- Responsibility
• January- Cooperation
• February- Problem Solving
• March- Integrity
• April- Effort
• May-Perseverance
• June- Caring

While browsing Pinterest one evening I saw this Character Education Booklet. Rebecca, over at CreateTeachShare, created this wonderful resource and you can download it for FREE! I plan on using this booklet in September as we build our classroom community. Each page focuses on what the trait means and ways to show the it. I've included possible read alouds to teach each character trait below. 
Kindness-

• Recess Queen
• The Potato Chip Champ
• The Jelly Donut Difference
• Enemy Pie
• Have You Filled a Bucket Today

Empathy-

• Stand in My Shoes
• Amazing Grace
• Chrysanthemum
• Hey Little Ant
• Wonder

Courage-

• Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
• Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon
• The Story of Ruby Bridges
• Shelia Rae the Brave
• Scaredy Squirrel

Integrity and Honesty-

• Lying Up a Storm
• The Empty Pot
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf
• Eli's Lie-O-Meter
• Dessert First

Tolerance-

• The Name Jar
• Strictly No Elephants
• The Brand New Kid
• We're All Wonders
• Separate is Never Equal

Compassion-

• Those Shoes
• Christmas Soup
• The Lady in the Box
• Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen
• The Can Man

Teapot and the Dragon

Teapot and the Dragon by Nick Jordan

I had an opportunity to read Teapot and the Dragon by Nick Jordan this week. It all the elements that a fairy tale should have a [bored] princess, princes who want to marry her and a fire breathing dragon!   Right away the writing trait "voice" popped into my mind. Jennifer Jacobson, the author of No More I'm Done, gives teachers specific voice strategies to teach students. They are: 1-using interjections 2-fabulous word choice 3-drawing out sentences 4-using dashes.   I found these examples from the book... 1- Whack! Boofoom! Kaablumphh! 2- cheerfully, boomed, massive, swish, swash 3- Kerplonk! Whoosh...kerplonk!; Bonk! Whoosh...kerplonk! 4- flick-flack    You could use this story to compare how Princess Rosehip felt at the beginning of the book to how she felt at the end of the book. Of course there's always the story [fairy tale] elements to identify, sequencing and summarizing skills you can review as well.

Must-Read Monday: Geometry

 

I almost never do linky parties but I did read a great book today to my students during math.

 

 

I just started my unit on Geometry and I always read this book when reviewing plane shapes. Basically any book by Marilyn Burns is a great one!

 



I'll read this book tomorrow when reviewing solid shapes.

 

Have any favorites you read when teaching Geometry? 



Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

I LOVE this book! I read this book during the first three weeks of school while I was using childrens books to build character. Best of all, the author, Maria Dismondy http://www.mariadismondy.com/ , has an activity packet full of ideas to go along with this book http://www.mariadismondy.com/uploads/docs/Spaghetti-Readers-Guide.pdf.
It's about having the courage to be who you are, and children nowadays need all the encouragment they need in this area. It would also be the perfect Christmas gift for the child in your life how has or needs the confidence to be themselves!

Now for the awesome giveaway... I'm giving away a SIGNED COPY(from the author) of this book. All you have to do is follow my blog, and leave a comment including your email address, telling me how you would use it in your classroom. I will be choosing a winner on Saturday.

September Books

Since my entire classroom library is sitting in my dining room waiting for me to wisk them away to school, I figured I do some more blogging about books to read. I've already blogged about books for launching reading and writing workshop, I've also blogged about mentor texts for reading skills and stratigies. Below are a list of my favorite September Books. Leave a comment with your favorite book!

Character Building
A Bad Case of the Tattle Tongue
Bully B.E.A.N.S.
My Mouth is a Volcano
Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon
The Boy Who Wouldn't Share
Fill a Bucket
Have you Filled a Bucket Today?
HOw Full is your Bucket? For Kids
Do Unto Otters
Yes We Can!
The Recess Queen
Little Prickles
The Marshmallow Incident
Bullies Never Win
Jungle Bullies
Sweet Briar Goes to School
Sweet Briar Goes to Camp
Chester Raccoon and the Big Bad Bully
Back to School
The Berestain Bears Go Back to School
Brand New Pencils, Brand New Books
Miss Malarkey Doesn't LIve in Room 10
Ready, Set, School!
A Fine, Fine School
What Teachers Can't Do
I Know an Old Teacher
Amelia Bedilia's First Day of School
My School's a Zoo
How do Dinosaurs Go to School?
Library Mouse: A Friend's Tale
Miss Nelson is Missing
Miss Nelson is Back
First Day Jitters
The Kissing Hand
A Pocketful of Kisses
A Kiss Goodbye
Marley Goes to School
Seasonal
Johnny Appleseed- Jane Kurtz
Johnny Appleseed- Alyse Sweeney
Johnny Appleseed- Jodie Shepherd
We All Fall for Apples- Emmi Herman
Fluffy's Goes Apple Picking- Kate McMullan
A Day at the Apple Orchard- Megan Faulkner & Adam Krawesky
How Do Apples Grow? Betsy Maestro
Apples for Everyone- Jill Esbaum
Apples- Gail Gibbons
The Apple Pie Tree- Zoe Hall
Clifford's First Autumn- Norman Bridwell
Leaves- David Ezra Stein
Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane- Victoria Sherrow
The Biggest Leaf Pile- Steve Metzger
The Falling Leaves- Steve Metzger
The Falling Leaves and the Scarecrow- Steve Metzger
Little Red's AUtumn Adventure- Sarah Ferguson
Wild Child- Lynn Plourde

Books to Teach Reading Strategies

So I have a list of books for reading strategies listed here, but I thought I'd share the books that I actually use each year. Do you have an Ollies Bargin Outlet in your area? Well that is where I buy 70% of my books I use to teaching reading strategies with, most of the time it's not popular literature but it's great literature and the students haven't heard the story before! Leave a comment with your favorite teaching book.

Clarify:
The Emperor's Egg- Martin Jenkins
Deep in the Swamp- Donna Bateman
Making Connections: there are literally tons of books that can be used for making connections to self, world and text. Here are my ones for text to text connections.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs/Pickles to Pittsburgh- Judi Barrett
Too Many Frogs/What a Party- Sandy Asher
Amazing Grace/Boundless Grace/Princess Grace- Mary Hoffman
Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash/ Jimmy's Boa Bungee Jump Slam Dunk- Trinka Nobel
Visualizing:
The Gruffalo- Julia Donaldson
Lily Brown's Paintings- Angela Johnson
The Salamander Room- Anne Mazer
Questioning: again there are literally tons of books that can be used for questioning but this is my favorite it!
Tuesday- David Weisner
Predicting:
The Black Snowman- Phil Mendez
The Story of Ruby Bridges- Robert Coles
Lucky Pennies and Hot Chocolate- Carly Sheilds
The Frog Prince Continued- Jon Scieszka
The Nutty Nut Chase- Kathryn White
Seven Blind Mice- Ed Young
My Lucky Day- Keiko Kasza
Inferring:
Where are you going Manyoni?- Catherine Stock
Tadpole's Promise- Jeanne Willis
Sequencing:
When the Leaf Blew In- Steve Metzger
Ming Lo Moves the Mountain- Arnold Lobel
There Was an Old Lady Series- Lucille Colandro
Fact/Opinion:
Dear Mr. Blueberry- Simon James
Fluency:
Wolf!-Becky Bloom
Other:
Testing Miss Malarkey- Judy Finchler

Wordless Picture Books

So I've learned over the years to begin teaching a new reading strategy with a wordless picture book. I find that it works best with the following strategies...

• making connections
• questioning
• predicting
• inferring
• synthesizing
• summarizing(this is a key strategy using wordless picture books will enhance for your students)

Below is a list of books I use each year for various strategies.
Deep in the Forest- Brinton Turkle
10 Minutes till Bedtime- Peggy Rathman
Looking Down- Steve Jenkins
Carl's Summer Vacation- Alexendra Day
Tuesday- David Wiesner
Chicken and Cat- Sara Varon
Do You Want to Be My Friend- Eric Carle
The Snowman- Raymond Briggs
Anno's Counting Book- Mitsumasa Anno

I also found an artile here about them.

Launching Writing Workshop

I have a collection of books that I read to get students excited about writing. If you have any other good ones please share by leaving a comment!

The Plot Chickens - Mary Jane Auch

Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One - Kate Duke

Arthur Writes a Story by Marc Brown

Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book by Cynthia Rylant
What Do Author's Do by Eileen Christelow
The Alphabet Tree by Leo Leonni

Library Mouse- Daniel Kirk

The Best Story- Eileen Spinelli

Library Mouse: A World to Explore- Daniel Kirk

Show, Don't Tell! Secrets of Writing by Josephine Nobisso

Launching Reading Workshop

I have a collection of books that I read the first couple of weeks of school to get students excited about reading. If you have any other good ones please share by leaving a comment!

I Hate to Read!- Rita Marshall & Etienne Delessert
The Best Book to Read- Debbie Bertram & Susan Bloom
Goldie Socks and the Three Liberians- Jackie Mims Hopkins
The Best Place to Read- Debbie Bertram & Susan Bloom
A Quiet Place- Douglas Wood
The Best Time to Read- Debbie Bertram & Susan Bloom
Read All About It- Laura and Jenna Bush
Born to Read- Judy Sierra
Wild About Books- Judy Sierra
Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind- Judy Finchler & Kevin O'Malley