Book Reviews

A while back, Tammy at Forever in First shared some book recommendations -- for people like me, you know, over the age of say 8 or 9.  So I did a quick little post about some of my recommendations.

But part of that conversation included the idea that part of the reason we read what we read is because somebody recommended it to us. And how do we do that with our students? 

Every month, I do a Scholastic Book order. I always get either some freebie books or have bought some with points. I try to let some kids who didn't order be the special first student to read one of these new books. And then I like to have them write a little about the book on an index card. Then I want them to get up and share a little about the book with their classmates. Well, they do share, but it didn't seem like that was enough.

So I made a Book Review notebook.

So if they want to read what Belen thought about the Fly Guy book she read, they can go check it out. Or if they want to read what Emily said about Ready Set Boo, they can. 

I just tape their book review cards to a piece of colored paper, put it in a three ring binder and put it in our class library. I don't know how much difference this makes to my students and what they read.I do think it makes my students who review feel a little important. And that's nice.

Five for Friday 9/19

Happy Friday all my bloggy friends!

Five Good Things that happened this week:

1 - Well, this is a little old - but I'm sharing anyway, because as I took them down yesterday, I just thought they were so cute - 

So, the background. At the beginning of the year, I read this delightful book,

 

And then we talked about how we all get T-shirts when we go visit someplace. I gave each child this T-shirt cut-out, and they drew a picture and added a sentence about something they did this summer. I thought they turned out pretty nice - and it was a fun back to school project.

2 - No pictures - boo hiss - I even wrote myself a note! We read about dragonflies, then wrote about them and drew pictures. Some kids even wrote "Dragonflies" really fancy. I hung them up to replace the T-Shirts. Oh, I hope I can remember to snap some pics next week! 

3 - I had one little friend that "forgot" the rule about not hitting other people at recess, and he spent the day in in-school suspension and the next day at home. When he came back, he body-slammed other students - the first time on accident, but then.... So another day in in-school suspension. Thursday, this little friend told me, "You guys sure did a lot while I was gone." Umm, yea, I think we did. 

4 - We are doing measuring in math right now - and the kids are loving it. Today we got to measure with yard sticks, so they were up and out of their seats - measuring book shelves, desks, books, chairs, etc. {A horrible aside - our district is using Engage NY and our supplies for this include rulers in inches on both sides, and  yard sticks. However, Engage NY is asking us to use centimeter rulers and meter sticks. How does that work???}

5 - I have four little friends that are low, low, low - So for our sight words, I made some cute, silly little stories using some clip art I had bought. {Now I know why the textbook companies get so much money - it's really hard to figure out sentences that low readers can read!}

I just clicked these pics off my computer; I need to print them and put them in these old, little photo albums I have. I'm sort of excited to see if my low kids will like these. 

Have a great weekend everybody!

Character Building Books

Two weeks in and I'm doing a little silent scream - aaaack! 
It seems like all I'm doing is treading water.
Part of it is that I didn't get excited about school early enough.
Part of it is that College Girl was home - and I was trying to spend every minutes possible {or what she'd let me} with her.
Part of it (an enjoyable part) is I'm mentoring a newbie teacher - and I love helping her, but it does take time.
A BIG part of it is we are using Engage NY for math - and it is taking me a lot of time each day to figure out what I'm supposed to do there. 

So -- Deep Breath!

Here's a little of what we've been doing -

I was trying to read some character building books and these are two I used:

In Pigsty -a boy's mother tells him his room looks like a pigsty, and he decided he's OK with that... until, it really does become a pigsty. This book was recommended by Cooking Up a Great Year Together {a tasty back to school activity}By Fourth and Ten for responsibility.

In Lacey Walker - you guessed it, Lacey Walker is a nonstop talker. But then she loses her voice! I was using this book to show being a good friend.

I haven't done a very good job of tying the themes of the books into character traits. So my idea is - tomorrow and Friday - we will be discussing what makes a good friend and somebody we like to be around. 

And the worst possible thing happened today. I confiscated a little toy car from somebody who couldn't keep it out of sight - and now I can't find it! I even stayed after school and looked for it. Yikes!

What I'm reading on a Tuesday

Hello!

Wait, you might say. It's not Monday, it's Tuesday. And I would answer, yes, but it's summer. And really, who can argue with that?

I am reading this great summer read book --

{Please don't google Silver Girl, because apparently that's a "thing" - a bunch of things I'd rather not see!}
Anyway, to me, this book is a fictional version of Bernie Madoff's wife. And in this book, nobody wants to talk to her, or help her, or anything, except for one old high school friend whom she hasn't talked to in 3 years. I'm enjoying reading this book at night until I get too tired to read any more.

This is on my Kindle:

yes, the title is so tiny that who can read it? It's "Composing Amelia." Amelia is a young woman who wants to be a concert pianist. Her husband wants to be a pastor and he gets a job offer in Nebraska. Well, that's all the further I've gotten because I've only been reading this when I've been waiting. 

I love my Kindle!

 

 It fits right in my purse and is light weight, so when I get stuck some where, I can just pull it out and start reading!

I'm also reading this:

still, for my summer class. It's a bit thought provoking, but I definitely wouldn't be reading it except for this class. 

I have not gotten to my own stack of professional development books yet. Crossing my fingers for this week. 

And that's what I'm reading!

Guided Reading Question

Oh, I have so much to tell you! 

First - another round of thinking out loud. {I got really good feedback on my desk question! Thanks!!} Do you do this? In Guided Reading, I jot little notes while my students read.  I've been putting it on a form like this:

{And you may be saying, of course I do that! Jump into the 2010's Mrs. S.!} I have each students' number and I put my little notes there. I try really hard to jot something about each child at least once a week. 

As I'm jotting these notes, it's good because it helps me stay focused. And when my student gets done reading, I have something to say besides, "Good job." But I've been thinking that I don't really refer back to that too much - I think because each student is on there - so I'm not really able to see what a particular student has been doing over the course of a month or whatever. So I made a form like this:

 And my thought was I could have a sheet for each child and basically have 9 weeks of data about one child on one page - and might see some patterns, etc. But then I started thinking - this year, that would be 18 piece of paper. I was sorta imagining myself trying to keep that organized - and finding the one child that is right at that second reading to me. 

So I'm wondering - any thoughts. Do you jot about your students while they are doing guided reading? How do you do it?

And this is pretty cool to me. We had indoor recess at least 3 of 5 days last week. And 4 of my little sweeties made a book. {I really wonder about their choice of a cover, but whatever!} I think it's about volcanoes - they are learning about that in science. Anyway, they wanted to put it in the class library. And what teacher wouldn't say "sure" to that! So not only do we have some class books {thanks to some posts at Forever in First}, but we also have one totally created by students book. 

I know I said I had a lot to tell you, but I'm going to save the rest for later. Heck, I might post every day for the next couple days. Ha! 
Happy Friday - and one more week to go!! Ho Ho Ho

Thanksgiving Books

Ooh, I so wanted to join this linky party:

Because this book:

 

Is cracking me up - I mean literally Laugh Out Loud! I was laughing and just about couldn't read. It's the part where the little boy is supposed to have something in his thankful bag, but he forgot, so he says he's thankful for the bag. And the teacher is like, "Really?" So the boy decides he is thankful for his shirt. And then I was just picturing him turning his shirt all around so he could read what was on the tag. 

Really, who couldn't love a book where people are thankful for Exploding Biscuits, Jelly in a Can, Rainbow Sprinkles, and of course, Toilet Paper!

I have a couple others I like - 

We are having a cold, blustery day today - and it's our Thanksgiving meal at school. I'm eating with my kiddos, because nothing says teacher love like sitting in the middle of a bench table eating pressed turkey :)

Ah, really, it's something I wanted to do - and boy, do they love to talk to me when I eat lunch with them! 

Happy Week until Thanksgiving!