CAUTION: New books!

A few weeks ago we had Fall Break and I was able to label and organize 20+ books for my classroom. I also purchased about 10 new (to us) books for my classroom.

I knew that I wanted to generate excitement with my students so I created this CAUTION sign!



I purchased black fabric from Hobby Lobby and caution tape at Target in the dollar spot (with the Halloween goodies). When students came back to school after Fall Break, they found our library like this: 

Y'all, they were SO excited! We previewed the new books before adding them to the library and they were SO pumped!

You could also do this when a Scholastic book order comes in, which would be another fun way to generate excitement! 

Book Talks

I have something to share today that is so easy to implement into any classroom. It is something that has made a HUGE difference in my fifth grade classroom!



I cannot express the impact book talks have had on my students. They are SO easy to implement into any classroom and only take a few minutes. Before we dig deeper, let's look at WHAT book talks are.

Who? Both my students and I participate in book talks. At the beginning of the year, I did most of the book talks. I placed a sign up sheet in the room and allow students to sign up voluntarily.

What? Book talks!

When? I know we are ALL pushed for time. One of the best things about book talks is that you get the BANG for your buck! It doesn't take much instruction time AND your readers will reap the benefits. I allot about 5 minutes at the beginning of every class for a book talk. Sometimes it takes more and sometimes it takes less.

Where? I teach Literacy and Social Studies. I implement book talks in my Literacy block. Even if you don't teach Reading, you can easily share books within the subject you teach! Just last week I shared a graphic novel about Henry Ford. Remember, EVERYONE teaches Reading!

Why? I have seen so many benefits in incorporating book talks this year!

1. After I do a book talk or a student does a book talk, that book is typically flying off the shelf. They are SO eager to read it!
2. Students are exposed to TONS of great books. Imagine if you are in school for 180 days (give or take) and someone shares at least one book per day. That is 180 books that students will be exposed to during one school year.
3. Students are practicing speaking and listening standards.
4. Students begin to truly see themselves and others as readers. Readers that talk about books. Readers that share books.
5. Need I go on? :)

How? I allow my students to fill in a book talk form if they'd like or they can practice what they'll say at home. I let them know which day I've assigned them to once they have signed up. Most of the time, the book we have shared is a HOT item that everyone wants. I do a book raffle if I have a lot of interest in the book. I have popsicle sticks in a bucket and will simply pull a stick. Students have two weeks to return that book so that other readers can enjoy it.

Here are a few books that I plan on doing book talks for in the next couple of weeks. I've read them all and they are GREAT!

Week in Review

Last week seemed like a short week for two reasons:

1. My son and I had pink eye and we were out of school one day.
2. We took our 5th graders to our first field trip on Friday.

The other three days we spent focusing on how to PLAN for reading and how to make TIME for reading. I sent out our first Scholastic book order and they were so excited to pick out new books to possibly order.

This week is Fall Break so we brainstormed ideas on how to make time for reading during break AND our everyday lives. 



These are the thoughts of the two fifth grad classes I teach.

We also celebrated International Dot Day. We read the book, watched the book on video, and made our own dots using coffee filters and markers. After they made their dots, I sprayed it with water in a spray bottle. They turned out so pretty when they dried.

I snapped this picture last week during our chapel. Seeing and hearing our students praise God NEVER gets old!

Literacy Week in Review

Last week in Reading we began our unit on realistic fiction. We began our realistic fiction read aloud be reading Fish in a Tree. If you haven't read this book yet, go get yourself a copy. You won't be sorry. It is such a good book!

Last week we discussed story elements and identified them in several read alouds. We discussed theme a bit, but I'll touch on that more in depth in a few weeks. 

The first mentor text I used was Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting. Granted, I used this text last week when we focused on asking questions, but we reread it this week with story elements in mind. 

Another day we read Annika's Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis. I read it aloud and students identified story elements in the story. 

The illustrator is Pamela Querin and she did a fabulous job. One of the first things I noticed about this text was the beautiful illustrations.

We had our first round of Flashlight Friday and it was a HIT! You could hear a pin drop in my room. I loved it!

 

A parent donated all of these books to my classroom and I was SO excited! LOVE new books!

Check back tomorrow to see what we did in Social Studies this past week. We had a FUN project! 

Books I've Read Lately

If you've read my blog for some time now, you'll know that I LOVE books. I love to read and I love to teach Reading! Most of what I read are books for my classroom. My to-do read list currently has 14 titles!

I've read a good bit over the last couple of weeks so I wanted to highlight a few of them. Anytime I finish one book, I always do a book talk with my students. Of course, I build it up and then we have so many that want to read it, we have a book drawing! If a book is a "hot item", I give the students two weeks to finish it so that others can read it.

I purchased Circus Mirandus recently and read it in one night. It was so, so good. Fantasy usually isn't my favorite genre, but it was a hit for me!

Last year I read Wonder and loved it! Auggie & Me isn't a sequel to Wonder, but it was so good. It is written from the perspective of three people to knew Auggie: 1) Julian - the bully, 2) Christopher - Auggie's oldest friend, and 3) Charlotte - a new friend at school. It was a great read!

Last weekend I stopped at a local thrift store to look through their books. I've gotten so many good books from thrift stores! I got this stack for $6.00. 

As I was reading Donalyn Miller's book, Reading in the Wild, I read a part where her students couldn't believe she hadn't read the classic, Shiloh. I remembered that I'd purchased it at the thrift store and I hadn't read it, either! It was so, so good. I think all students would enjoy this, but I could really see boys enjoying this classic.

Last week I was talking to a parent about books that her son enjoyed when she mentioned he liked The Puppy Place  series. I don't have any in my classroom library so I picked this one up at the thrift store. It was a cute story. Easy reads like this are great for reluctant readers!

Several years ago when Swindle came out, I remember it being a "hot item" in my room. I never read it until this past weekend. Mystery isn't my favorite genre, but I was interested in this novel and enjoyed it. 

What books have you read lately? 

Weekly Recap

Last week in Reading, we focused on asking questions. We talked about how good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. We also talked about WHY we do that and how it helps us become better readers. We wrapped up our fantasy genre unit and finished our read aloud of The Magician's Nephew.

I first modeled this skill with a mini lesson using the picture book Fly Away Home. As a class, we came up with questions before reading, during reading, and after reading.

We practiced this skill all week. Sometimes we used other picture books and sometimes we used our read aloud, The Magician's Nephew.

The Stranger is a great mentor text to use with this strategy.

In Social Studies, we began our study of early transportation. We focused of Henry Ford, the Model T, and Ford's use of the assembly line. We have a FUN assembly line activity tomorrow that I'll blog about later this week.

We started reading aloud Who Was Henry Ford? while we are studying about him. 

We watched this 5 minute video of the Model T. It was good for the kids to see an assembly line. We talked about other places we've seen assembly lines.

 We also celebrated my birthday! I was showered with kids words, sweet homemade cards, gifts, and more!

Five for Friday

Happy Saturday! I am enjoying a laid back, lazy Saturday morning here. It's crisp outside this morning. Fall is in the air and I am loving it!

{one}

This week in Literacy we focused on visualizing. We shared various quotes from our read aloud, The Magician's Nephew, and shared our "mind movies" together. 

Anchor chart inspired by The Teaching Thief

{two}

One of my goals as a Reading teacher is to foster a LOVE of reading. Most of my students came to me loving reading, but I do have several reluctant readers. We're beginning book talks this coming week and I can't wait to hear my students talk about their favorite books!

I've had pictures from the first week of school of my students picking out books and reading independently so I wanted a place to display those. To make our classroom feel more like home, I want my students pictures displayed around the room. I got the idea of the tagline "Building a community of readers"....

I made the most of my wall space and I created a mini bulletin board below my white board. I've added pictures to the board and will add more/rotate them throughout the year. Love it!

{three}

I added these letters to spell out "READ" in top of a bookshelf in my classroom. Love them.



{four}

I got an Amazon order this week of more books to add to my classroom library. Be on the lookout for book reviews soon! 

{five}





Last night Pre-K and Kindergarten got to run out on the football field before our football came out. My little one had so much fun! There is something fun about Friday night lights.

The Magician's Nephew

Happy Sunday! We are having a much needed day of relaxing around here and it has been wonderful. I've mapped out our week in my Day Designer planner. I had an Erin Condren and loved it, but I went with a more simple planner this time and love it so far. 

This past week we began our fantasy unit. I'll have to admit, I Fantasy isn't my favorite genre. I enjoy C.S. Lewis and I love The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, The Magician's Nephew was good, too. My students are loving it and that's what really matters. I thought I'd share with you how I'm using it in the classroom.

The Magician's Nephew is our read aloud during our fantasy genre unit. Throughout the story, we talk about elements of fantasy: teleportation, magic, talking animals, etc. In the first chapter, we identified where London is on a map and marked it with a push pin.

During chapters 1-5, we focused on making predictions. Those chapters were great for making predictions. Students made predictions after each chapter and then shared what actually happened after we read on.

This week we will be reading chapters 6-10 where we will focus on visualizing. I have marked various places where we will stop to think/share about our "mind movies" as we visualize.

The Magician's Nephew has a lot of vocabulary that we will discuss. Some of these are: keen, indignantly, solemn, peril, incantations, rampaging, throttle, impertinent, ostentatious, tantivy, sagacious, cockney, simpleton, and coronation.

Throughout the story, we will talk about similes as we find them in the text. We will also begin acquaintance and analysis lessons. This is where we'll look at a sentence, a few sentences, or a paragraph of GOOD writing and we'll discuss what makes it good. What about the author's writing makes this a good sentence or a good paragraph? You can find examples of acquaintance and analysis anywhere. I hope to find a lot from our read alouds, but they can be found in any type of text (magazines, articles, etc).

Literacy & Social Studies

Happy Saturday! I have had good intentions on posting throughout the week, but it hasn't happened yet. I am sure I'll get into a better rhythm soon!

This week in Social Studies, we have continued our map skills unit. We used these raised relief maps, flat maps, and globes to identify natural features.

We reviewed the terms equator, prime meridian, latitude, and longitude. We used THIS ACTIVITY to identify points on a map using latitude and longitude.

In Literacy, we began our fantasy genre unit. We started off by creating an anchor chart with the elements of fantasy. Interesting tidbit: Fifth graders at my school are required to write in cursive on assignments. So, you'll see a lot of cursive in our anchor charts. 

Our first reading skill we covered was predicting and that went along great with our fantasy read aloud, The Magician's Nephew. The first few chapters are great to use for making predictions. 

We kept track of our predictions with this chart in our Reading binder.

We are ready to take on week 3!