Snuggle Up and Read Day

     This Friday was my favorite day of teaching thus far! We had a half day of school plus it was Snuggle Up and Read Day plus it was Valentine's Day. Special days just seem to not go well with my class thus far. I've planned fun things to do on other days, and they either end up hating it or someone ends up in tears (usually more than one person, and yes I do have upper elementary kids; maybe I'll have time to go back and share these stories later; for now, I'm just glad to be blogging again). Anyways, Friday was perfect!

     Since it was Snuggle Up and Read (part of our two-week long Read-a-Thon), I focused most of our day on reading. I knew that some of my kids thought they were too old and cool to wear their pajamas to school, but I still wanted to make this day fun with lots of reading. So what did I do? Bring a tent to school! My roommate had a tent and graciously allowed me to borrow it so that my students could read inside of it.

     At the beginning of the day, I didn't have it set up. I wanted to be sure that we were clear on rules first. It was treated as a privilege that most of my boys didn't want to lose (this helped with the no tears part). Then, my class was sent to take their Bible verse quiz and a math quick check (might as well get the boring stuff over with) while I set the tent up with help from students who were called upon (everyone wanted to help or at least watch). Our tent was huge! Everyone who walked past our room commented on it. The rest of the day, we did our version of Daily 5 with Read to Self and Read to Someone in the tent, read with our little buddies (taking turns in the tent), had a small Valentine's celebration, and finished by fitting our whole class into the tent to read Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg (the author that we are studying for Read-a-thon).



Read to Self



Read to Someone

Reading with Little Buddies

Why did Friday go better than other days? (a little reflection)
-Having a tent to read in acted as positive reinforcement of behaviors. They didn't want to lose that privilege.
-It was still in routine, even though it was special. We still did our work; we just added a fun twist to it. This worked to keep my students focused  while having fun and enjoying the day.
-I was excited, but cautious. My students responded the same way. They weren't overloaded with excitement to make them crazy, but they were still excited enough to have more fun than a typical day.

What makes some days more fun than others for you? How do you balance fun with work and behavior boundaries?

Because of Mr. Terupt

     I spent this afternoon consumed in the book, Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea. I originally bought this book for my classroom, but as I read it I felt that it was worth it even if I end up being the only one to read it. I found this book when I was searching for others on Amazon. It kept coming up as one of the most sold ones. After reading the description (copied in italics below), I knew that I need to read it and some of my kids did too.

 

     It's the start of fifth grade for seven kids at Snow Hill School. There's Jessica, the new girl, smart and perceptive, who's having a hard time fitting in; Alexia, a bully, your friend one second, your enemy the next; Peter, class prankster and troublemaker; Luke, the brain; Danielle, who never stands up for herself; shy Anna, whose home situation makes her an outcast; and Jeffery, who hates school. Only Mr. Terupt, their new teacher, seems to know how to deal with them all. He makes the classroom a fun place, even if he doesn't let them get away with much... until the snowy winter day when an accident changes everything - and everyone.

     In my class, I have at least one student if not multiple students that could fit into each of the bolded names above. Reading this book and seeing how these kids' lives affected them in the classroom was like watching a scene play out from my classroom. I'm willing to bet that many teachers would also relate. After all, I only have 14 students and if they can fit into these 7 kids lives, wouldn't a class full of 20 or more students fit even more so?

 

     This book does an excellent job showing how kids' emotions, home lives, friendships, and pasts all intertwine to make up who they are. This background is so important and can't be overlooked by teachers, who are sometimes more concerned with test scores. Impacting a child's emotional side, including friendships and relationships with their parents, can leave a much greater impact than simply teaching what they need to learn to move on to the next grade. This book was a great reminder for me as I begin our third quarter on Tuesday; it definitely has made me stop and think.

 

     My students come from all kinds of backgrounds. Some have lived all over the world: Canada, China, Nigeria, South Korea, and the US, just to name a few. Many only live with one parent. Some get to see the other parent; others don't. I have had students cry in class about this. They don't feel understood by their peers, yet so many peers just fail to admit to them that they feel the same way. Other parents are in the midst of a divorce. Some students feel loved, but others don't feel that way at home. Some parents push their students too hard in school; others don't even seem to care. Each precious child comes from a different background, has different opinions, and needs to grow emotionally in different ways.

 

     The description for Jeffery says that he hates school, but it is so much more than that. He has a broken family with parents who are experiencing such grief that they can't get out of bed. There have been three points this fall when I had students saying that they hated school too. They refused to come. Thankfully, two of the parents didn't let their kids push them over and not come to school. All three of these children didn't want to come because of a deeper issue, either with friends, at home, or both.

 

     This book also talked about girl wars. I know girl wars all too well. This fall has been roughest emotionally on my girls. One of the group leaders from last year left, and two grades were combined into one class. This lead to a beginning of the year fight to see who will control the classroom dynamics. Like Alexia in Because of Mr. Terupt, one girl seemed most popular at the beginning and used this power to be friends with one girl one day and her enemy the next. By the end of December, all of the girls realized what she had been doing, and her world came crashing down. Some felt shunned by the other girls, which led to equally bad problems, which were made worse by things happening with other friends outside of school. I spent more days talking with girls about friendships and conflicts at recess than I can count. There are only 6 girls in my class, so they need to at least cooperate with each other and respect each other to survive the day.

 

     How do I handle this all as a teacher? Do students respect me even though I'm a first year teacher? Are there things I let slide that I shouldn't? Do I care for each child's emotional growth when dealing with them? Do I show them how much I care and love them?

 

     The last two days before Christmas break, the president got on the t.v. and announced that school was cancelled until January. I was heartbroken! How dare he cancel my two fun days that I had planned with my class?! They had worked so hard and earned so much. I had been looking forward to these days to show them how much I appreciated their hard work and loved them. Then the president cancelled them. What could I do? After sulking over the weekend, one of my roommates suggested getting together with them because that actually is a perfectly acceptable thing to do at my school. So, I invited them over for a Christmas cookie party. 9 of my 14 kids came. I gave them recipes for chocolate chip and sugar cookies. Then they ran off their energy outside and came back in to play Apples to Apples while we ate our cookies. After the party, one of the other teachers said to me, "Wow, you must love your kids a lot to have them all over." One of the students commented, "I bet the other teachers are really jealous that you get to have your class over for a party but they don't." Haha. I loved the difference of opinion. What's most important, though, was that my kids and I left for break knowing that we loved and cared for each other. Now, parties aren't the only way to show kids that I care (it's just the most recent). Earlier this fall, I made one child's month by asking him to do a video editing project for me.

     I highly recommend this book to teachers and students. Although with students, I would note that on the second page one of the boys talks about goofing off in the boys' bathroom and urinals, which I know some girls could be mortified to see a book talking about the boys' bathroom. This book also deals with special needs as becoming buddies with a self-contained class in their school changes several lives. There are lots of family situations represented. This is a great book for teachers to reflect on and students to learn about emotions, friendships, and family lives. Plus, there's a sequel, which I can't wait to read: Mr. Terupt Falls Again.

Turkey Book Reports - Freebie

      Starting in November, I realized that many students in my class were reading their required twenty minutes at home, but they weren't reading an entire book or a book at their level. To keep them accountable for doing these things, I started giving a monthly book report. I keep it simple since my purpose isn't to test comprehension but to make sure that they are reading at least one whole book every month (not counting their literature circle) that is at or close to their level.
 
     For November, I made them do their book reports in the format of a turkey. My students enjoy projects, so many of them enjoyed making this turkey. Since we were learning about writing paragraphs, three of the five feathers required a complete paragraph. The report covered setting, problem and solution, favorite part, and characters. Overall, it went well, except for a few students who didn't read the directions or simply didn't do the project (yep, that was a big 0).

If you want a copy of the instructions, click the picture below.

Suzanne Collins Author Study

     One of my favorite parts of being in an elementary classroom is children's literature! In fact, if I wasn't going to be a teacher, I would probably be a children's librarian. It also helped that I had the best children's lit. class in college, where the professor did a wonderful job getting us prepared to teach and excited for children's books. In that class, I learned that knowing about the authors is important and can teach students many things. My favorite way to do this with a class is to do an author study. David Shannon has been one that I have done with multiple primary classrooms, focusing on how he wrote the first David book when he was five and how he includes his dog, Fergus, in at least one picture in every book he illustrates. You can read more about this here. Well, since I love doing author studies, I thought I would start a series of author studies on my blog, so you can learn more about some superb authors. I'm hoping to feature some information about them, books they have written, ways to use it in the classroom, and other resources I have found. Without further explanation, here is an author's study on Suzanne Collins!


Meet the Author
     Suzanne Collins was born and stills lives in Connecticut. Although she now lives in the same state, she moved around often as a child since her father was a U.S. Air Force officer. She is using this experience to write her newest book, which I wrote more about below. She graduated from Indiana University with degrees in drama and telecommunications. In 1991, she began writing for children's television and has won many awards from this. This start to her career and her major would be an interesting topic to discuss with upper elementary students who have read her books. It doesn't appear that she began writing with the intent of writing a young adult literature, but I'm sure this experience surely helped her.
     According to her website, Suzanne came up with the idea for The Underland Chronicles after thinking about Alice in Wonderland. She wrote this series between 2003 and 2007. In 2008, the first book of The Hunger Games was published and quickly became internationally known, read by all ages, and on the top of many bestseller lists for many weeks. Now, movie versions of this series have been coming out, and Suzanne has been writing another picture book. She lives in Connecticut with her family.

Books
     When people think of Suzanne Collins, they automatically think of The Hunger Games, but that is not the only series she has written. She actually started her writing career by writing stories for children's television like Little Bear, Oswald, Clifford's Puppy Days, and more. It's hard to imagine that someone who wrote something as intense as The Hunger Games has written lots of preschool level shows, but it's true, and I think it's important for students to realize this. In this section, I'll feature her books. She has two series and one picture book with another picture book coming out in September.

 The Hunger Games series
     This series is very well known, so I won't spend too much time on it. These stories take place in Panem, where 12 districts rebelled seventy four years ago. As a result of the rebellion, the Capitol show their power by holding a Hunger Games every year in which two twelve- to eighteen-year-olds from each district fight each other to the death, hoping to be the last one standing. These books are stories of rebellion, freedom, war, and love. Teaching at an elementary level, I probably would not use these books in my classroom (as much as I love them), but I know many fourth and fifth graders who have read them.

The Underland Chronicles

      This series is lesser known, but just as good as The Hunger Games. I listened to the first few on audiobook on my way to and from school this fall, and each time it would leave me on a cliffhanger! Then I read the last few so fast because I couldn't put them down. Gregor is an ordinary 11-year-old kid from New York City until one day while he is doing laundry. His little sister, Boots, crawls into a vent and falls down into the Underland, which is a whole new world with giant rats, cockroaches, spiders, and bats. Trying to find a way back home, he meets some unusual humans that live down there and have never seen the light of day. Gregor discovers that there are prophesies that the Underlanders expect him to fulfill. Throughout the series, Gregor keeps being called/sent back to the Underland to fulfill yet another prophesy, which always includes many adventures and war.
     According to Scholastic, these books have a fifth grade reading level. Personally, I loved these books but would be careful which students read them given the content. I am usually overprotective about potentially scary things in the content because I was the child who would have nightmares after reading something this thrilling. There is violence, war, and death, but it is tastefully written. I would still be cautious, especially for kids with vivid imaginations. I really enjoyed these books as would many upper elementary/middle school boys, and I am hoping to have a set for free reading in my fourth/fifth grade classroom this fall!


When Charlie McButton Lost Power
    This rhyming picture book has a wonderful meaning behind it. Charlie McButton loves electronics and plays on them all the time until one day when the power goes out. Desperate for a single battery to play an electronic game, he tries to steal one from his three-year-old sister. In the end, he ends realizes that he can have fun without electronics, which is a message so many children need to hear these days. This book would be good for all elementary ages.

Year of the Jungle
     Year of the Jungle is Suzanne Collin's latest book and will be released on September 10th. Since I haven't read this book myself, I'll let the description from Publisher's Weekly that is quoted on her website tell you about it: “In this picture book, Collins sensitively examines the impact of war on the very young, using her own family history as a template." This sounds like a good book to have in my international classroom this year. I can't wait to read it!


 Resources You Can Use

• http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/
• http://www.hungergameslessons.com/
• http://www.scholastic.com/underlandchronicles/ 
• Word Problems for When Charlie McButton Lost Power on Teachers Pay Teachers - Costs $1 by Mrs. Simmons
• Resource Pack for When Charlie McButton Lost Power on Teachers Pay Teachers - Costs $4 by Sarah Kirby
• Teachers Pay Teachers Resources for Underland Chronicles

Fun in First!

     Today was so much fun! Well, at least the end of the day was. During specials, we had a BIP review meeting. It was running late, so I went to pick up the students from specials. When we were back in the classroom, I knew my teacher needed to finish the meeting for a few minutes, so I picked up a book that I was looking for a time to read. It was Duck on a Bike by David Shannon. I have been trying to familiarize my students with David Shannon. We have talked about how he wrote his first David book as a young child and how he draws from personal experiences. I even shared how you can find his dog, Fergus, in each of Shannon's books. Anyways, this book was such a fun read aloud. I used character voices, and my students were very involved. They even found Fergus, and this is a harder book to find him in! When my teacher came back in the room, I saw her smile. Then, she gave me another book to read, Bear's New Friend, and she told the students to listen to my character voices. I love reading aloud!

     Tonight, we had a rollerskating party. I went and saw seven of our students there (plus my teacher and principal)! It was hysterical watching my students skate. I even put my rollerblades on and enjoyed skating with them. Some were begging me to skate with them more. I loved seeing our students outside of a school and meeting their families again.

     Another fun thing about today was that my students found pencils in their Writing Workshop folders that were left by Sam (see this post for more info.). There is nothing like a bunch of first graders trying to thank Sam the library mouse loud enough so that he can hear them.

    Of course, today had some frustrating parts, too, like math. I just feel like I am not able to meet everyone's needs and the curriculum is too confusing for them, but that's another post. For now, I will focus on the things that remind me why I want to be a teacher, which is mostly the students.

Teaching Writing with Library Mouse - 1st Grade Ed.

     Last week, I started teaching Writing Workshop. When asked who liked writing a few weeks ago, most students responded saying that they did not like writing. I knew this was the first thing we needed to work on if we were going to get anywhere in Writing Workshop. They cannot all hate writing, so I decided my first week needed to be spent motivating them to write.

    When I was in a second grade classroom, I used the book Library Mouse to inspire a writing project, and I thought that this may also work with my first graders. On Monday, we read the book Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk. I had them listen to find out what the library mouse liked to do and how he started it. In this book, Sam the library mouse loves to read and decides that he will write books too. He begins by remember what he read in a book about writing: "Write what you know." He writes his first book about the life of a mouse. This fits perfectly with what I need to be teaching in Writing Workshop, since the first unit is about small moments from their own lives.

     I sent my first graders off to write a book about themselves. I let them know that if they needed more paper they could get more since stories about yourself can get long. I also told them that if they wrote a story that was at least two pages, then they could receive a cover later in the week. They immediately got to work. It was hard to get them to stop writing so that we could go to specials! They were so focused it worked like magic.

     On Tuesday, I told them that when I came in, I found a book that Sam the library mouse had left for us. I downloaded it from Daniel Kirk's website. They could not believe that Sam wrote them a book. We read it and talked about what Sam had starting writing first in Library Mouse, and they started writing.

     On Wednesday, Sam left another special gift. It was the Meet the Author box! When they looked inside, they saw a mirror, just like in the book. Some students were so surprised. One girl squealed, "It's me! I'm the author!" I also introduced "When I'm done, I've just begun" on this day, since some students were beginning to stop writing during Writing Workshop.

    I was amazed to see the difference in my writers from where they were at the beginning of school to where they are now. Most did not like writing, and on Monday, everyone could not wait to start writing. My teacher said that she even had students coming up asking when Writing Workshop is. A little motivation goes a long way. I'm thinking Sam will need to bring everyone erasers when we start working on editing skills.

    What do you do to motivate your writers and help them to view themselves as authors?

Author Study - David Shannon

     Last fall, one short author study I did with my second graders was on David Shannon. The students were very familiar with him as they love the David books and have a wonderful librarian. While doing research on him, I found that David Shannon hid a drawing of his dog, Fergus, in every book he illustrated (at least after a certain year).

    I read Good Boy, Fergus with my second graders. Then, we searched through many David Shannon book that they were familiar with to find Fergus. Some students found him twice in the book they were looking at. Here is one example from David Goes to School:

     Our class talked about how David Shannon draws from personal things when he writes his stories. Good Boy, Fergus! was after his dog, Fergus. His David books were based on a story he wrote as a young boy, when he only knew how to spell no and David. This is why No, David was the first book. Alice the Fairy is dedicated to his daughter, Emma. It's exciting for students to see how personal experiences can really play into their writing.

    This fall, I'm planning on using some of these ideas when I am teaching Writing Workshop to help motivate my first graders to write about small moments and personal experiences.

Click here to view a flier my friend and I made containing some more information that we found about David Shannon. Also, let me know if this link works well. It's the first time I have tried something like this.

A Long Way from Chicago - Inferences and Timeline

     With my fifth graders, I had the opportunity to lead one group during their literature circle time. We read a few different books while I was there including Ruby Holler and A Long Way from Chicago. My group of students contained all girls, and they loved Ruby Holler but were not as enthusiastic about reading A Long Way from Chicago.

      A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck is a book that chronicles a boy's week-long adventures with his sister when they visit their grandma during the summer. Each chapter is the story from a different summer. It takes place from 1929 to 1935.

      I found that my students struggled with comprehension with this book. Part of this was due to the fact that they did not find it as interesting as other books, but another huge factor was that this book uses inferences regularly. To help with comprehension, I decided we would make a timeline as a group. This worked very well for this book since each chatper was a different year. We would talk about each year, discuss any inferences, decide what they wanted to write for a short summary, and choose what to draw for a picture. Then, the students would work hard on it. This really helped with their comprehension and enthusiasm for the book. Making timelines to aid comprehension is definately something I would recommend and I will remember to use more in the future.

      A Long Way from Chicago is also a wonderful book to practice inferences with upper elementary, even if you just want to use one chapter as a read aloud ("The Phantom Brakeman" is a very good example)
.

Thanks for reading this!!!

Have a wonderful end of the school year or beginning of summer!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The Lord is risen!

      This Easter, my mom and I tried our first pinterest-inspired recipe, Bird's Nests. I love haystacks, and they have been my favorite Christmas treat for several years. When I saw a picture of this I knew I wanted to make it. Not only are they cute, but Robin's Eggs are my favorite Easter candy, so combining the two is so delicious!

     Also, this weekend I went to Goodwill and found some good children's books to add to my future classroom library including Merry Christmas, Geronimo and The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too. I'm excited to read the Geronimo Stilton as I have liked others I have read, especially since several words on every page are written in a unique font and color. Sometimes, though, I have found words that are probably too hard for the typical transition literature book, but that's probably because these books were written first in Italian and then translated. I love Pigeon books!

Happy Easter!

First Thematic Unit (Prosthetics) - Please Help

     I'm currently in the process of creating my first thematic unit (well, part of it at least). While my theme that would take several weeks would be the human body, focusing on bones, joints, and muscles, I only have to actually plan at least 5 lessons that I will teach the fifth grade class I am working with. For these lessons, my theme is prosthetics. This set of lessons comes at the end of my class studying the bones, joints, and muscles.

      The theme of prosthetics is based off of the Indiana Academic Standards under Science, Engineering, and Technology. The Core Standard is "Design a prototype that replaces a function of a human body part." Underneath the Core Standard is three other standards:

5.4.1 Investigate technologies that mimic human or animal musculoskeletal systems in order to meet a need.
5.4.2 Investigate the purpose of prototypes and models when designing a solution to a problem and how limitations in cost and design features might affect their construction.
5.4.3 Design solutions to problems in the context of musculoskeletal body systems. Using suitable tools, techniques and materials, draw or build a prototype or model of a proposed design.

    So far, I have brainstormed some ideas but am not sure how well they would work. Ideally, we would do a group project where they actually have to design a prosthetic based off of a problem (perhaps just draw, but actually building would be more fun). First, we would do some research and learn more about prosthetics through books. Then, they would have to determine factors to consider like cost, what function it should have,and how heavy it is. We would also study the history of prosthetics, making a timeline, to help them determine what technology has been used in the past that they might consider. Finally, they would draw designs of their prosthetic (and make, if I can find a way to do that).

    I have also found some books to supplement all of our learning about science. Some are just books about the human body, skeletal system, muscular system, and joints. Others were actual about prosthetics, whether on humans or animals. Some of my favorites were:

Artificial Limbs by Susan Gray

This book gives good information about the history behind artificial limbs/prosthetics. It tells how they had been made and what has spurred on new inventions. Prosthetics had only been designed by doctors in the past, but now a whole team of people designs them . It also discusses how artificial limbs have to be specifically made for the person who is going to use it, and they can be made for specific purposes. Several leading innovators are also featured. Overall, I felt that this picture book gave good information and was an enjoyable read. I would not expect most of my students to want to read the whole thing, but they would definitely be interested in parts, and it is a valuable resource for me.

Gretchen the Bicycle Dog by Anita Heyman

This book tells the story of Gretchen, who was an ordinary dog until one day when she jumped out of a bed. She landed awkwardly and hurt her spine, paralyzing her hind legs. She learned to scoot around using just her front legs. Then, her family got Gretchen her own cart, which gave her wheels for hind legs. On her new bicycle legs, Gretchen learned to get around and play like she always did before. Personally, I really enjoyed this book and think my students would love it, especially since it is about a dog. I'm looking into finding other books about animals with prosthetics such as Winter's Tale and Molly the Pony.

    If you have any ideas to help me with this unit, I would love to hear them! I would also be interested in any advice you have about writing thematic units in general. Let me know what you think.

Author Study - Mo Willems

       Last fall, I was in a second grade classroom, and we did a short author study on Mo Willems. The students already knew many of his books, especially the Pigeon books. I introduced them to some they did not know as well like Leonardo the Terrible Monster. We discussed how Mo Willems is also an illustrator but has not illustrated all of his books such as City Dog, Country Frog. If you have never visited Mo Willem's website (http://www.mowillems.com/), you need to. One of my friends and I also made a bulletin board to go along with this author study.

     The second graders were working on subjects, predicates, and punctuation, so we decided to make the bulletin board interactive (even though it was in the hallway) and give each of the characters have a speech bubbles, where the students could stick different subjects, predicates, and the punctuation on to make sentences. The really enjoyed this, especially since we had some very funny predicates.

     My favorite Mo Willem's books are his Elephant and Piggie books. I have been reading one of these with my 6-year-old cousin each time I see her, and we love them. They are hysterical! My favorite is We Are in a Book!, where Piggie explains to Gerald how they are in a book and can make the readers say things. At the end, they ask the reader to read it again, and my cousin always wants to in order to make them happy. As a beginning reader, my cousin often has a hard time focusing on reading, even though she loves reading, when there are too many words or when she is overwhelmed at the length of the book. I found that these books were perfect for her. There are few words per page, and it repeats the same words throughout the book. It is also nice that there are usually two parts, so she can decide which character she wants to read for, and I can read the other. The text is so engaging we want to read them over and over again. Mo Willems is an author that children definitely love.