Books Bloggers Love: September Edition!

Hey all! The talented ladies above and I are back again this month for Books Bloggers Love! This is where we share one our favorite books with you in preparation for the upcoming month (September)... It'll be here before we know it! We also give away FOUR books!!
You can read last months post here.

I am so excited this month to be sharing a book with you that I have recently become obsessed with! 

The book I wanted to share with you today is called, "Bad Apple - A Tale of Friendship" by: Edward Hemingway. This book is perfect for back to school time -or- our ever so favorite apple week!

This book is about an apple who stays firm in his friendship with his worm friend, Will. He was getting bullied by some other apples because apples aren't supposed to like worms. He got called, 'rotton' and 'a bad apple' because of his new worm friend, Will. After all of the bullying, Will left him so he wouldn't get bullied anymore. But, Mac, the apple felt lonely without him. So, he decided he would rather be a bad apple than a sad apple without his worm friend Will!

This book sends such a great message to students about friendship and bullying.

This year, I will be using this book for a week long whole group literacy unit.

We will not only be focusing on the moral of the story, but also other important story elements! 

When teaching my whole group literacy units, I love to use anchor charts during my mini-lessons. After my mini-lessons we complete a quick graphic organizer that is quick and to the point!

I'll be using in with our apple week activities while also hitting on the importance of being a good friend. It'll be a great time to bring that message around again after all of the back to school madness!

Feel free to grab this little moral of the story freebie anchor chart by clicking the picture below!

You can also read more about this unit here.

If you are interested in the entire unit, click here!

If you want to win THIS BOOK along with three other books being blogged about, then enter the rafflecopter below! Then, go check out Jen, Meredith and Emily's books!

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Also, be sure to hop around and read other AMAZING posts about some great books to use in September!

An InLinkz Link-up

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I love Literacy Units!! Bad Apple!!

I love, love, love creating literacy units. It was always my favorite thing to do in college... go to the library, find a good book and just brainstorm! I am big into teaching with themes, especially now that I am back in first grade. So, I am getting ready for the year with this little goodie!

Have you ever heard of the book "Bad Apple" by: Edward Hemingway? I hadn't. It's a wonderful tale of friendship! I fell in the love with it right away and knew it would be making a grand appearance in my classroom this year. Naturally, I created a literacy unit to go along with it.

I use my literacy units as a part of my whole group reading lessons. I plan to implement Cafe in with the comprehension strategies that I introduce to my students this year (and years after). I use the same book all week long (or more if I need to).

Here is a look at what the literacy unit looks like!

Each day focuses on a different comprehension concept. I organized them in a way that builds on top of the next. Each day has a simple to follow lesson plan, anchor charts and on this day, differentiated graphic organizers!

On Day 1, students will focus on predicting!

On day two, I wanted to introduce new words to the kids. It is SO important that students know the vocabulary from the text in order to gain a full understanding of the story. It also helps expand their vocabulary. (Hello, Cafe strategy!!)

On day three, the kids will learn about setting. I know that I will probably use this book towards the beginning of the year, and setting will be something that we'll need to get a good grip on!

To provide extra setting practice, I'll be using these cards in my guided reading groups, or independent stations for the kids who could complete this independently.

Students will focus on analyzing each image to identify WHERE and WHEN the setting took place.

Next up! It's all about getting to know our main character! We'll identify the character and also have partner discussions about him.

The graphic organizers are also differentiated here!

After we have learned many important elements, we will work on retelling the BME!!

I broke this lesson into two days, because I want the kids to learn to THINK about retelling first and what needs to be included! 

On the first day, the kids will answer questions about the story. This will help the kiddos think through the story.

Then, afterwards students will get to complete this simple, yet cute retelling booklet!! 

This book lends itself to EASILY talk about the moral of the story! There is a great lesson about friendship embedded in this text. This is a lesson you could easily do at any point of the story. It may even come up naturally.

This lesson helps the kids think even deeper about the message given.

After all this fun is over with, you may want to assess students understanding of the story.

I love end of the week comprehension checks. It's a great way to see who 'got it' and who still needs some help with comprehension.

I like to take a grade on these and keep track of how students do each week. Great data tracker! ;-)

If you are interested in this unit, then just click the image  below!!

Stay tuned for many, many more of these literature units this year!

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Books Bloggers Love: October Edition

The book I am talking about this month isn't an 'Octobery' one. It's one that can definitely be incorporated into the October fun, but can also teach students a great lesson. This book was introduced to me in college, and I fell in love. I've read it every year! I don't do anything crazy with it, but the possibilities are just endless! I wanted to share some ideas with you this month!

The book is called, "Paper Bag Princess."

Here is a little summary of the book:

Elizabeth is a beautiful princess who is going to marry a prince named Ronald. One day, a dragon takes Ronald away. Elizabeth sets out to get Ronald back from the dragon. Because the dragon had burned all of her clothes, the only thing she could find to wear was a paper bag.

Princess Elizabeth went to the dragon's cave but the dragon would not let her in. Elizabeth tried talking to him and asking him to show her what he could do. He showed her how he could burn down forests and tried to impress her with how fast he could fly around the world. Elizabeth giggled. She had outsmarted the dragon by getting him to use up the rest of his fire and energy.

When the dragon fell asleep, she walked into the cave and rescued Ronald. When Ronald saw how Elizabeth was dressed, he told her to come back when she looked like a proper princess. Elizabeth realized her unappreciative prince was not the one for her and she didn't marry him after all.

I love to use this book for respond to reading activities. It has great situations that can really cause students to think. There is also a great moral to the story!

This book can be used to work on summarizing skills!

I love to tell the kids that they are going to pretend to be newscasters! They have to fill in the TV screens with the major events from the book.

Then, students use those events to write a summary!

I also like students to think about a 'what if?' situation!

It's great to get those wheels turning and to get our pencils writing!

A little grammar doesn't hurt either! ;-)

Then, to top it all off.... you can't read this book without talking about the meaning of the story!

Does it really matter that the girl wore a paper bag? Does this make her a bad person? NO!

So, as always...

Use these as simple bookmarks. Have students think about this and write about what it means on the back! Laminate these for durability! :-)

If you love all of these activities, you can grab them here for FREE! :)

To read my past posts about other books I love, click the post links below:

Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship

The Night Before First Grade

Now, it's time for you to read about even more fabulous books!!

Visit these ladies below, and don't forget to enter to win 4 new books this month!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

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Fitting it all in - My Daily Schedule!

I wanted to pop on by today to give you a peek at our schedule each day. It's always so tough to configure these things and I love gathering ideas from other bloggers to help make the most of my time with the kids! Some of my favorite bloggers that I gathered ideas from for my day were Fabulous in First and First Grade Critter Cafe. I don't have any pictures yet of the schedule in place since we just finished up week 2. Once we get there, I'll be sure to update you! :)

Rise and Shine

Daily Language

Spelling Bee: Give students a whiteboard and dry erase marker. Give them a practice spelling test! 

Spell Orally: You spell a word orally and have students tell you what word you spelled. Tell students a word to spell orally and listen as they spell.

Clap/Snap Spelling: Clap low for letters that hang below the line when you write, clap in the middle of your chest for letters that are small, clap above your head for letters that are tall. Snap on the vowels!

Sight Word Game ideas from Fabulous in First!

Eraser memory game: Write new sight words on the board. Show students. Erase one. Have students write the one you erased on their whiteboard.

Hot Potato: Pass around a bag with paper potatoes. Students pull out a potato. If they can read the word, they keep it. If they can't, they put it back in the bag. If students pull out a hot potato, they lose that turn.

Link to a printable for the potatoes!

I included all sight words that we will learn in the first quarter. Perfect review!

I have/Who has: I just made some quick I have who has cards with our sight words on them. I am just changing the cards by the quarter. Download them here. Feel free to change the words!

Mind Reader: Give students clues to the sight word you are thinking of. Have them write their guesses on their whiteboard.

 Example: 'good' - I am thinking of a word that starts with a g. It means the opposite of bad.

This week we did, Pete the Cat!

Here are a few more:

Bad Apple Literacy Unit

Dino-Basketball Literacy Unit

Coming Soon: The Runaway Pumpkin!

I also love the units from Fabulous in First!

Our stations include: Listen to Reading, Word Work, Read to a Partner, Skill Work!

Skill work is where students complete activities that require a recording form.

They have 2 must turn in activities a week. Then, they can play word games!

There you go! I hope this is a helpful little post! :-) Have a fabulous weekend!!

I'll be back with some visual plans for our week 3!! :-)

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