Book Review: Banana!

Book Review

Thank you to NetGalley, Words Pictures Book, and Quarto Kids for providing me with

the ebook of Banana!

Oh My Gosh!  This book is so cute.  It is perfect for the little one in your life.

  My grandson and I read the ebook together, therefore we did not have the benefit

of the “dangly food items” that the book description talks about.  However, we had

so much fun guessing what we thought the animals might eat.  My grandson loved

the use of onomatopoeia in the book and I enjoyed the colorful illustrations.  At the end

of the book we had a wonderful discussion about what we guessed the animals would

eat and what the illustrations had created.  All said and done, Little guy and I had a

wonderful reading experience together. 

I definitely will keep this book in mind as I purchase books for friends and family.

It will be coming out in April of 2021 so please look for it.

I know you and your little ones will enjoy it.

A Little Decorating for the Holiday Season

I was a bit inspired by Instagram with the Christmas book decorating.  I only have a short amount of time with my reading groups so I didn't have time for my students to create something.  Therefore, I put together something quick and simple for my reading classroom door.  As you can tell from my lack of blogging my time and focus right now is divided between family and school.  So this door had to be simple.  I cut out stars with the paper cutter at school and used some old dust jackets from some books.  I added some ribbon and there you go, so simple Christmas door.  

I did take some "me time" to do a project I wanted to do for some time.  I had this idea in my head and it took me a while to pull it together.  However once the pieces fell in place it came together so easily.  I traced book characters on Shrink-E-Dink material using Sharpies.  Before I put the characters in the oven I punched a hole on the top so I could place a ribbon through each one.  

Now these adorable characters are hanging up in my reading classroom.  I enjoy watching the children come into the room each morning to look at the characters on the tree.  The younger students seem to be surprised each time as if new characters are added.  

  

  

Sight Word Organization

I found this cute container at Michael's and I purchased it without a plan.  It took me some time to come up with an idea however I did finally decide to organize my sight words by levels.  I created flashcards and a stick bang game for each level.  

I coordinated each box with matching fruit graphics.  For example, the red container has an apple, all the level one words have apples on them as well.  This makes it easy for clean up when the levels get mixed together.  

 On the stick bang game, I put color coordinated washi tape on each stick to keep the sticks organized as well.  

So far the response from my students has been positive.  I work with many children at lots of different levels and they love the cute graphics and the fun colors.  Several of the students who have moved levels are very excited to go to the new colors.  

The best part of the box is that it fits perfectly between my teaching binders and the shelf above.   

If you would like the covers and flashcards I made you can pick them up at my TPT store.  

Author Robert Munsch Listening Center QR Codes

Boys and girls just love Robert Munsch books they are extremely humorous.  Robert's books are excellent examples of story telling.  
I love to use his stories for a variety of reading and writing lessons.  I am not going to pretend to reinvent the wheel when it comes to these lessons.  There are some excellent lessons on Pinterest.  I put some links on my teaching website with some suggestions.  

This year I plan on printing out the book covers and QR codes and will hang them up on the back of the classroom door. That way the students can walk up to the door and scan the codes and begin the listening to the stories.  The book covers, codes and reading response sheets are free at my TPT store.   

Author of the Month Eric Carle

 Spring is the best time of the year to read Eric Carle's books.  Caterpillars, butterflies, clouds, flowers, ladybugs, fireflies and crickets are all things that make me think of Spring.    The kids love listening/watching stories on the ipad and that is why I like to have the Listening Center fresh and new each month.  I put something new in this pack.  There is a clip from youtube on how Eric Carle creates his illustrations.  I think it is important for the children to see the authors and illustrations as real people.

 What I like about this layout is that the posters make a nice display with the covers of the books that Eric Carle wrote.  I have them hanging low on the door where the students can reach and scan them in the Reading Center.  

I have some follow up sheets as well.  There are three different levels of sheets so you can pick what will work best for your students.  

You can pick this up for FREE at my TPT store. 

Happy Spring! 

Teaching Letter Writing and Story Elements

I use the bookmarks as a guide to help my students with spelling and as a reminder of what I expect in their letters.

On Monday each child picks a book at his/her reading level.  Then they practice reading it in class by themselves and with

their friends each day. They take the books home each night to practice with their families.  I also try to check in during the week.  

On Thursday the students begin to write their letters to me.  When I introduce this project each year I start simple with

one or two elements and we add a new element each week as we feel comfortable writing.

When the students complete their letter they sit down and conference with me. We talk about each sentence and we discuss the positives and what we can work towards next week.  After our conference the children draw a picture on the back of the paper.

You can get your FREE copy of the bookmarks and letter writing papers at my TPT store HERE. 

Author of the Month Helen Lester

I can honestly say the Helen Lester's books are some of my favorite books for teaching young children.  The children love the humor and illustrations in the books.   What I like about the books as a teacher is that each story has a lesson to learn.  

Helen Lester has written so many wonderful books it is really worth your time to look at her website and see which of her books will work in your lesson plans.  

I have been working hard each month creating links for the teachers at my school on our share website.  I also put a couple links for a few free resources I found on Pinterest as well.   I have created qr codes for the classroom with ipads.  

For each of the Helen Lester books I found on youtube I found the cover on google images.  Then I created a qr code.  

I created mini posters that I will hang up by the author board and it will have a dual purpose.  It will look good and the kiddos can get the qr codes to listen to stories. 

I also created some reading challenge sheets for advance students.  You know who I mean, those students who are the first to finish everything.  

   You can find everything FREE HERE!

Thank You Notes

I am sure most of you are familiar with the Flat Stanley project. It is a fun activity I have my first graders do toward the end of the school year.  We send out our Stanleys and wait patiently for our family members and friends to send them back.  While we are waiting we read a variety of Flat Stanley chapter books.  

After all the Flat Stanleys are returned it is time to write to our family members and friends a thank you note.  Thanking them them for all their efforts in writing back about Stanleys' adventures. 

I think is a good chance to teach the importance of writing a thank you note as well as teaching how to write a letter.  

Who's In Rabbit's House?

I have been so busy lately.  For the last two weeks my first graders and I have been working on our play, Who's in Rabbit's House?  Lots of reading and practicing our parts.  We made our masks during recess and practiced every morning.    

Are You Kidding Me!!!

I have read all the books on how to create the perfect reading center.  I thought I had done an amazing job.  I have a variety of books for the children to pick from.  

All my baskets are labeled and neatly arranged.  I have pillows, chairs and tables for the children to read at.  

I even have two separate areas so the children can spread out and read with their friends.  I put a lamp in the center to make it look warm and cozy.  

At the beginning of the year I spent several weeks teaching the children how to find good books and helping them learn to take care of the center.  The children help me change out the books each month so they are aware of all the new books in the center.

Today we had a STOP, DROP and READ day and look were my class was excited to read.  

REALLY…..under their desks!

I guess this proves you don't need a fancy reading center to get your students excited about reading!  Just good books and time!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

This week in first grade is all about SNOW and Cold!  We started the week learning about what is snow...

I purchased the book, The Story of Snow, however my partner teacher found it on Tumblebooks.  So we watched it on Tumblebooks.  It was a bit long and lots of information but the kids enjoyed and learning some facts from it.  

Then I read, SnowFlake Bentley to them.  The book had a lot of information in it as well.  The first time I read it to them we focused on the story then later in the day we went back through some of the facts.  We are waiting for another snowy day to collect our own snowflakes.  Right now it is too cold to go outside for recess, -11 degrees today.  

During Shared Reading we read Snowflakes Fall, this is just a cute story.  I love the illustrations.  

Next we make our own snowflakes in science class.  The idea is from dellacreates that I found on while searching on Pinterest. We used different colored pipe cleaners so our snowflakes are fun colors.   Finally we hung up our snowflakes on some sticks with lights in the classroom. (My class wanted the sticks to have lights, luckily I found something in my basement.) 

QR Reading Center

This QR Reading Center has been a vision of mine for a long time.  I just did not know how to pull it off.  After reading the book, Reading in the Wild, I was invigorated to find a way to make this project work. With the guidance of the computer teacher at my school and some advice from the blog Reflections of Teaching, Learning and Technology I was able to make my vision work.     

I worked with one reading group at a time.  For the first time I let them pick any book they enjoyed reading, so we have a lot of Mo Willems.  They practiced reading their book for a week.  

Then I used my ipad and took their photo with the book.

Then I took a video of them reading the book on the ipad.  I had them sit down in a chair and I tried to get as much of the book as
possible.  I want the children who view the video to read along. 


Next I downloaded the youtube app on my ipad for free.

source

Then I uploaded the videos to youtube.  I checked the unlisted box so that only I could view them.  This uploading process takes a long time.  Once the process is done I click on share so I could get the link code.  

Once I got the code I copied it and took it to ViewPure.com

Then I purified the video so the children will not have ads around it.  Now I have a new link code.  Again I copy the new code and take it to a qr generator.

I use QR Generator.com because it is FREE and it works great!

I created a code and printed out the code.  

Then I put the code and picture on the file cabinets.  

Now my students can go to the reading center with the ipads and scan the codes and read along.  

In my classroom we use the scanner i-gnima on the ipads. Again it is free and kid friendly.  

One theme you may notice with the sites and apps I use is that they are.....FREE.  I don't know about you but I have an extremely limited budget of $250 at the private school I teach at. So I try to stretch my money the best I can. I appreciate companies who realize there are teachers who are trying to create fun learning activities with limited funds.  

My first lesson with a QR reader

One of my "sick goals" during my time off is to create a lesson using a QR reader.  It was not easy to find directions on how to create a lesson.  Of course I want to do this for free. One of my biggest obstacles was staying focused and awake.   It took me a while however finally I found a blog with great tech ideas that pointed me in the right direction...Reflections on Teaching, Learning and Technology.

Sara had a post where she wrote about creating a lesson about QR codes for kindergarten....so I followed her suggestions and after a few misses I created a lesson of my own.  

Here is what I learned in the process of creating a lesson using QR codes!!

1.  Never Give Up.....
The first couple blogs I read were not helpful, thank goodness the sixth one was.

2.  Start with Kaywa. I had to sign up but it did let me try for free with joining.  I was able to download the codes I made without paying.  

3.  I had to click the "more" button and look for the word text.  Then I could type whatever I wanted.  Next, click Generate and download the format you want.  So simple!!!

4.  Following the suggestion from Sara at Reflections on Teaching Blog, I downloaded the app i-nigma from the app store.  Yeah, this was free and it is perfect for the kiddos.  Very easy for kindergarteners and first graders to use.   

5.  Finally I created my lesson.  I imported all my qr codes into word document and printed them.  I cut them out and put them on apple cut-outs because that is what I have at home.

6.  I created a simple recording sheet for my students. 

7.  Now Monday on my first day back at school my students will have a fun activity to do for spelling.  If you are interested in trying my lesson you can get a FREE copy HERE!  Enjoy!

Minty Chocolate--2015 Class Pet

When I taught kindergarten I always sent home Mouse as the class pet.  When I was promoted to first grade my partner teacher had a different tradition.  She picks a different animal each year for the children to adopt and name.  Last year my class had a brown dog called Fluffy. The children absolutely loved taking the dog home and writing in the journal and reading it to the class.  

So this summer I found another dog for the class and put together a journal. On the first day of school I introduce the dog to the children and they brainstorm a list of names for the dog.  I thought they came up with some cute names.  However in the end they vote for the name they want.   

This year I am putting the journal in a binder with plastic sheets because our notebook was damaged last year.  Hopefully this will protect the pages so I can give them back to the children.  

The first page is the introduction on getting the dog at Target.  I also wrote the directions for writing in the journal and returning the the class pet to school.    

Then I wrote an entry about Minty and my weekend with my granddaughter.  Hopefully this will give the children an idea of what to do.