Favorite Book Series

We hope that you are having a fantastic Teacher Appreciation Week.  Join us as we share some our favorite book series that help us teach reading comprehension and research strategies.  Share in the comments what series your students find the most interesting. 

First up is Emily from Curious Firsties.
As I reflect on this year, I think my favorite book series that I have used is Otis by Loren Long.

I really believe that the list of lessons you could create using these books is endless.  Loren Long has created a character that you immediately fall in love with because he is kind-hearted, brave, and caring.

After I read the first book, I knew my students would really enjoy the story.  So I bought Otis and Otis and the Tornado.  This did not satisfy us...we needed them ALL!  My first graders made so many thoughtful and deep connections between and within the texts (some that I did not even make).  The books really allowed us to work on our metacognition skills; however, lessons could evolve around inferring, characteristics, or retelling.

If you have not had the opportunity to read these books....I highly recommend them!

Next up is Pixie Anne from Growing Little Learners.

Nature Storybooks (Walker Books)

While there are so many amazing collections of books out there, when I sat down to think of a collection that I use over and over and in so many ways, I realised that the Nature Storybooks are one of my favourites. I love the mixture of fiction and fact along with the beautiful illustrations and my children always do too!

I am sure many of you are aware of these great books and use then in your classrooms already. If you aren't then go hunt them out and introduce them to your class...Now!

They are perfect for reading aloud for the pure enjoyment of sharing an interesting and sweet story; for younger readers access information about animals; as a starting point for further research; discussion of fiction and facts and a stimulus for writing about animals (narrative or non fiction). 

I know The Emperor's Egg is a firm favourite with many teachers when teaching about penguins and polar regions:

I always use Growing Frogs when teaching life cycles in science:

And I plan to write riddles with my class next week after reading White Owl, Barn Owl:

Do look up this collection of books (there are so many more than I have had a chance to mention!).

If you haven't already seen them - you'll be glad you did! 

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week!

Teacher Appreciation - Organizational Tips

Today we're celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week by giving you a few tips to help you stay organized.  Procedures and preparation are the key to behavior management and we hope these ideas will fit nicely into your 'teacher toolkit'.

Since it's Teacher Appreciation Week, I thought what better gift to give teachers than a list of websites that will save you time.  I love go-to places, and these five websites are fabulous and free! 

Read Works is the first one I'll share.  It has a database of reading articles that you can search by topic, by genre, by reading level, and by comprehension skill. I love that I can see the readability level so that I select material that hits my students' needs. Comprehension questions are included with each passage, so teachers have the option to use/not use them.


Reading A-Z is a subscription site (almost free), and most likely you are using it, have tried it, or at least heard of it.  I'm did a long post about tips you might try with it.  You can read that post [here]. Reading A-Z offers materials for all levels K-6 as well as poetry, reader's theater, close reading articles, and lots of manipulative printables.

The Writing Fix is a free website that ties reading and writing with mentor text lessons, anchor papers, lots of printables to guide student writing, and even apps to help you as a teacher.  [This post] will help you learn a bit more about the mentor text lessons it includes.

Read, Write, Think is a fantastic place to see model lessons on a multitude of skills and for a wide range of levels.  The lesson database is deep with teacher made lessons and materials. It offers interactive activities teachers can use with their students as well as lots of printable reading projects students can print and make or make online, print, and put together.


The last website is fairly new to me, and it's all about the news! Newsela offers current event articles and questions to teachers that are geared to student interest and to student needs.  You can check it and all of the other websites out by clicking the image to the left of each description.

I hope these time-saving sites will provide you with lots of great planning ideas. Have a happy week!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  As a teacher and mom, I know how important it is to spend time with your family.  I hope that my tips today will help you manage your school day so you can spend more time with your family!

I really like to be organized, but it definitely doesn't come naturally to me.  I had the bedroom growing up that you couldn't walk through without tripping on something… I’m sure you have never been there…BUT, over the years I have longed for organization and I have gotten better at it every year that I have been in the classroom.  Sometimes I think back and wonder how I found anything in my first few years of teaching because I was really laking in the organization department.  It’s still not perfect and I know that from year to year it will get even better.  For now, this is what works for me.

During Guided Reading, I call groups up to read with me.  I have “stools” that open up and all of my supplies are inside.  The kids think this is just AMAZING!  I love the stools, but I just got them this year and they aren’t holding up as well as I had hoped.  As you can see, each “stool” has a caddy.  Each caddy holds many supplies including dry erase markers, erasers, word windows, magnifying glasses, scissors, clue sticks etc.

I also use my FREEBIE Guided Reading Binder to stay organized.  I have all of my groups in my binder.  I LOVE that when I change my groups, I can easily change move them with the Velcro strip in my binder.  I also keep all of my Guided Reading Lesson Plans by level in the back.  I have tabs with each letter using Fountas and Pinnell reading levels. I can easily get the plans that I need from my binder.

I also have The Ultimate Guided Reading Toolkit that allows me to have the resources that I need at each level to have an effective Guided Reading Lesson.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  You deserve it!

Top Tips for Maximum Results

Two quick classroom organization tips from Wendy from Ms. D’s Literacy Lab. I work as a full-time K-6 Reading Specialist at a Title I school in the suburban Boston area. I can easily have 8-9 classes/meetings each school day with back-to-back classes so organization is a must !

My first tip is color coded folders and labels for 3 drawer carts !

I have 11-12 groups this year. Each reading group has color-coded folders with stickers on it. These folders match the label for the drawers on my 3 drawer carts that I purchased from Target.

My 2nd quick tip allows a busy teacher to keep their files in order for multiple classes or grade levels. I purchased these brightly colored labels from Lakeshore Learning. I use a different color for each grade level each year. For instance, yellow may be Kindergarten, green may be First Grade, and melon may be 2nd grade. As grades move onto middle school, incoming Kindergarten gets the exiting 5th graders’ color for their first year. It makes it very easy to locate a child’s folder for parent conferences, a meeting, and filing assessments !

Have a wonderful end of the year !

Hello, I'm Jessica from Hanging Out in First.  I am here to share with you a great organizational tip for your guided reading time.  So many people have a hard time knowing what to do with the rest of the students while you are meeting with your guided reading group.  Center time can be a chaotic mess at times!  My recommendation is to use heterogeneous groups for your center time and take whole group breaks in between your groups.  

Take a look at my center schedule:

 

My students sit in groups.  They work with these groups during center time.  They are heterogeneous and when arranging my classroom I consider their levels as well as behavior.  This helps students with supporting one another during center time.  If your students are homogeneous, then often times you are left with a low group that is unable to work independently and a high group that is bored and finished early.  Heterogeneous groups allows for students of different levels to support one another so that students stay on track.

If you want more tips on guided reading, check out my new guided reading series.

Tomorrow teachers will share their favorite series of books to read with their students.  Leave us a comment and let us know if you're enjoying our tips this week!

Teacher Appreciation EOY Books

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  We love and appreciate teachers - classroom teachers, pull-out teachers, special areas teachers, teaching assistants and student teachers.  This week we're celebrating educators and giving lots of tips to help busy teachers. 

Today experienced teachers have hand picked some great reads for the end of the year.

Hi, everyone, it is Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars!  When I was in the classroom, I loved reading aloud to my students.  It was our down time after recess, and they loved it.  Many times we went over the allotted time, but it was so worth it.  

My students especially loved the Herdmans, so I read all three of them as the year went on.  I really love the message in The Best School Year Ever.  In the book, the Herdmans all learn important lessons, as well as the other students in the book.  I used to read this at the beginning of the year, but I think it is also perfect for the end of  the year too!

*Quote from Reading Rockets

I'm Tara from Looney's Literacy.  Reading Aloud is a critical part of literacy learning. This simple act provides children the opportunity to hear expert readers. It models fluency and expression. It opens opportunities to hear and find new interesting words that are not necessarily apart of their vocabulary. And it is just fun! It gives us the opportunity to enjoy a story with one another.

Over the years I've found many books I've fallen in love with, and love sharing with my kiddos. As my appreciation for you, another dear educator who gives it your all for the good of our future, I want to share a list of some books you and your students might enjoy from now until the end of your year together.  

Here’s to the birds and the bears and the bugs! Here’s to the weird and wacky, the cute and creepy! From toothy fish to get-you-when-you’re-sleeping cats to lick-lick-lick-lick-lick-lick dogs, every creature is unique and lovable . . . especially you! David Elliott’s infectiously joyful poem and Randy Cecil’s brilliant, amusing artwork invite us to celebrate the world’s vast diversity — and feel pretty happy with our place in it, too.

Woolbur is not like other sheep. He hangs out with wild dogs, cards his own wool to avoid the shearing barn, and even dyes his wool blue. "Don't worry!" says Grandpaa when Maa and Paa fret that Woolbur is different. But when they tell their son to follow the flock, the opposite happens—the flock follows him! Soon everyone is copying his wild hairstyles and taking turns on the spinning wheel. Leave it to Woolbur to find a new way to step ahead of the herd.  Spunky, funky, and refreshingly distinct, Woolbur will strike a chord with anyone who's ever felt different. And that's all of us! Written by: Leslie Helakoski

From Booklist

K-Gr. 2. Classroom clutter and chaos are fun in this picture book, and so is the sense of everyone in a small town pulling together. Mrs. McBloom has taught at Knickerbocker Elementary for nearly 50 years, and she has never once cleaned her classroom. Now she is due to retire, and everyone wonders how she will ready the room for the new, young teacher. One small pupil comes up with the solution, and every former student in town comes to take something away. The comic pictures are packed with all kinds of objects, and the cleaners uncover more things when they begin work, including a library book 35 years overdue and three buffalo nickels. The beloved, eccentric teacher gets a fond send-off. The nostalgic images (a picture of Elvis on an old lunch box) will mean more to adults than kids, but children will still enjoy the messy farce. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

It's the last week of school, and Mrs. Hartwell's class is excited to leave for summer vacation. The only problem is that the kids don't want their teacher to miss them while they're gone. Once again Julie Danneberg and Judy Love bring to life the crazy antics of Mrs. Hartwell and her class and show that teachers and students are more alike than different.

Hi, Literacy Land readers!  It's Lauren from Teacher Mom of 3 here to share my favorite book for the end of the year.

I Knew You Could! A Book for All the Stops in Your Life 

by Craig Dorfman

A few years ago, I bought all the first graders a copy of this book as an end of the year gift.

  This delightful little picture book features a spin on The Little Engine That Could with a reminiscent theme found in Seuss' Oh, The Places You'll Go!  What an inspiring and encouraging tale for the end of the year and for graduates of all ages!                 

The picture book is filled with metaphors relating to making changes and new transitions.  Young primary children may not totally understand these metaphors, but they will enjoy hearing the story read aloud, especially if the are familiar with The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper.  Plus, students will understand the simple message of I knew you could do it and that Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

As an end of the year activity, an idea is to read aloud both this book and The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper.  Discuss comparisons and why we should be like this little blue train.

 A few follow-up activity ideas:

Use the story to reflect on students' growth and achievements such as the following:  

• What was their "I think I can"?  This is something that was hard or challenging for them at the beginning of the year.
• Share with students an "I knew you could".  Discuss the potential you saw in students and an example of what you thought they could do.  For my first grade reading group, I discussed how I knew that they would make reading progress and was specific (e.g., reading on grade level). 
• Have students share their "I knew I could".  What was something that was hard for them at the beginning of the year?  This is something that they kept working on, they were persistent, and they didn't give up.
• Depending on the age and ability level of your students,talk about the metaphors in the book.  Metaphors include the train track (find your own track), the stops along the way, the rivers, valleys, mountain tops, and tunnels.
• Talk about the messages/themes in the book:  Find your own track, enjoy the trip you'll make as a train, don't wish to be an airplane or a car, toot your own horn, have faith in yourself and stay positive, and running out of fuel.

  I just know that you and your students will love and cherish this little book as much as I do!

Graphic by Classroom Collage.  Fonts by KG Fonts

What is your favorite book to read at the end of the year?  Join us tomorrow, when teachers share their tips for organizing stations and guided reading.