Books Teachers Love: The Night Before Christmas

Welcome to Books Teachers Love! A monthly, blog link up where teachers share some of our favorite read aloud for the upcoming months! This month, I am sharing the book, "The Night Before Christmas" by Natasha Wing.

This is an adorable book about how the night before Christmas, nothing would go right for the family. Unfortunate and comical things kept happening on the night before Christmas. It's an adorable book that any child would enjoy.

Right after I read this book, I envisioned that students create a present and on the present, write some of the things they do or would like to do on the night before Christmas.

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In each part of the present, students just write one of the things they would do a draw a simple picture. You could add little white pieces of paper so students can write on that and add color the their pictures if you would want them to. Sometimes, though I just love the simplicity of a black picture! :)

Making this present is super simple. You just need to cut out a square or rectangle piece of construction paper. Cut multiple strips of green for the ribbon. Then, to add the bow - bend four pieces of paper in half and glue - like the picture you see below.

Then, glue the ribbons to the back of the present! It's super easy and would make an adorable bulletin board in your classroom!

Last, year I did a post about the Gingerbread man.

You can find that post here.

To check out more ideas for the month of December, check out the posts below.

An InLinkz Link-up

To enter to win 4 books of your choice seen below, enter the giveaway!!

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Books Bloggers Love: January Edition

Welcome to the January edition of Books Teachers Love! 

I'm here to share a simple comprehension booklet with you to use with "The Mitten" by: Jan Brett!

You can find a copy of the book here if you don't already own it!

If you don't own the book, "The Mitten," then, you can always play it for your kids off of YouTube!

This version is read by Jan Brett!

As I read this story with my class, we work on recalling the animals that crawled into the mitten first. There sure are a lot of them, so it's great practice!

After our first read, we see if we can fit all of the animals into our own mitten! 

It's quite the challenge!!

Then, the next day, we focus on retelling the beginning, middle and ending of the story!

Other quick comprehension skills that we tough on are cause and effect and providing an opinion about the choice the boy made at the beginning of the story!

-Don't mind my misspelling of the word sneeze... ha ha! *Real World*

If you would like to grab this activity, then click here or the cover below!

It's completely free! :-)

This month, we are giving away these four books. To enter the giveaway, you'll need to hop onto Instagram to enter! Come find me @theteachertalk !

Now, hop onto these other fabulous bloggers to gather more ideas for January!!

Don't forget to enter to win these four books too!

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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!

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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!

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Books We LOVE!

Hey everyone!! If you're like me, you are always on the lookout for great books to use in your classroom. Once a month, a group of 12 bloggers and I will be bringing you books we love, and how we use them or will use them in our classroom.  Each month, you will have a chance to win 4 of the 12 books that we blog about!

Some are books you've heard of before, and then some are books you may not have heard of. We are also going to give you a chance to win a few books each month!! Yeahh!! I'm excited to get my read on!

The book I am going to be talking about today is, "The Night Before First Grade." I am sure you've heard of this book or even used it before.

I am going to be reading this book to my firsties this year and I am so excited! They love this book and so do I!

My first year of teaching I came up with a simple lesson, writing activity and craft. I finally put into a back to school activity unit this year so I could share it with you.

I don't have a picture of it all set up from past years, but I'll do my best to explain.

First, I read students the book. Then, we go right into talking about different types of feelings we could feel. I want to go further than just sad/happy. Why not start right in with the content?

So, we answer the question about each emotion. "Why would someone feel scared/worried/excited?"

I have the cards taped onto an anchor chart - or - on a board. Then, we write down a scenario as to why someone would feel that way. For example, a student may say someone could be worried because they won't get to see their mom each day. We write down each scenario and discuss it. Yes, this may take more than one day to do -or- you could always pick just 6 or so emotions to focus on. Perfectly fine. I want to start forming that classroom community, and working to understand one another is key!

After we talk about  emotions, we jump right into our writing assignment.

I give the students a sentence starter, "The Night Before First Grade I felt..." Then, students use what they learned about emotions to answer. Then, since we had a discussion, I will push them to try to provide a reason. Coming up with reasons before hand is always helpful too if they weren't written down by the emotion cards.

After the kids finish their writing, I then allow them to color their boy or girl. Then, we have a simple little craft! :) I'm all about those colored crafts!!

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Something else that I like to do with my firsties is talk about WHAT a first grader is?! Mine are coming in from half day kindergarten next year, and I am kind of nervous about it! The first few days may be a little rough. All I have to say is, Cosmic Yoga may give us a little relaxation break mid-day.

I set up a little poster that looks like this. These key words have also been big, big, big in my room. I always catch myself saying them, so I'm just going to jump right in and make it the basis for our year.

When I set up the board, I introduce each of the four words to the students. 

I use these scenario cards to get our brains thinking about each of the words. 

 We then use the scenario from the card to come up with ways first graders are, 'ready, responsible, respectful or problem solvers." Each card fits pretty well with one or two of the words, so by the end of all of the cards, each word can have plenty of information under it.

After we discuss each word, I write down our thoughts under the word.

When our poster is finished, we each get to finalize (is this ever finalized?) our learning with a little booklet! I love doing things like this because it allows students to internalize what they've learned.

Inside the book, students answer a prompt about each of the four words.

Example: "I can be responsible by..."

Students finish the sentence on the lines provided and draw a scenario to show they understand.

The kids love to share these, and they're always a great thing to keep when kids need a reminder mid-year! ;-)

I just love, love, love this book!! 

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Now, don't forget to ENTER to win the following books:

-There was an old lady who swallowed some books

-What if Everybody Did That?

-Magic Tree House- Dinos Before Dark

-You are Special

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Lastly, if you haven't read others posts, you will want to do that! They have such great ideas!!

Just click below to read on!

   

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Debbie Diller Encore!

Debbie Diller is quickly becoming someone that I completely admire! When I *was* going to be teaching first grade I posted about the Math Work Stations book that she has. Now, that I am moving up to third grade I came across another one of her books called, Practice with Purpose. I have been sticky noting and highlighting like a crazy person!

Now, that I am moving to a new grade I have been reading non-stop! I want to do my best this year--which means-- I have a WHOLE LOT of learning to do before August 19th comes and those cute 'thirdies' walk in my classroom door!

Practice with Purpose offers great ideas for upper grades (3-6) and explains how to successfully implement meaningful literacy stations into the classroom. Boy, are stations different in third than in first! Basically, I have gathered that students are reading and responding, reading and responding some more and becoming creative writers!!

So far, I have made it to Chapter 5 in the text and I am becoming SO inspired to make these stations meaningful for my kids! --You know what that means---Yes, creative ideas for TPT!! :)

These are some of the questions I have had answered so far since reading this book! Thought it may help you out if you have some of the same!! :)

As I stated above, the stations contain different rigor and materials than a first grade classroom. These are the types of stations included in upper grades and here are snip-its of two of them. (I haven't read the whole book yet-check back next week for updates here) 

Alrighty, that's it for me today... We are moving to Columbus this weekend and I need to pack... Which means... I better get off of the ever-so-distracting computer! :)

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Book Talk - Math Station Fun!

If you are anything like me then you are always thinking of ways you can be better in the classroom. I always strive to get better and better and I am doing just that... but, I know I can do eveeennnn better!! So, I decided for the month of June I wanted to focus on my math block (because in July I will be focusing on my wedding)--:) -- (with some school thrown in there I'm sure)!!

I purchased, "Math Work Stations" by: Debbie Diller. 

I have not yet read the whole book but woah man... There is a lot I can do to improve math time in my classroom!

I wanted to share some fun ideas that I found in the book and will be using this year!

In this book it makes it very clear that math work stations need to be activities that the students already know how to do--they can practice skills you have already taught them using like activities. I am one that changes the math stations every single week. That's a whole lot of laminating and cutting... let me tell you! Now, they learn a lot from these activities and I won't be totally disregarding them but!... I will be implementing activities we do in whole class into their math work stations.

Example: In the book, the teacher read a math story, they completed a pattern activity as a whole class and practiced drawing patterns. All of those parts were placed into a station tub. I love how the one tub will have so many different components to keep the students engaged.

Another component of it is the "I can" mat. This mat give students a series of activities to complete in ONE tub... it's a way of extending their thinking and taking the materials further and further. 

I made this one up really fast to give you an idea of how it provides students with an order of activities to complete within the station time.

This 'I can' mat is placed at each math station and the purpose of it is to extend thinking and get rid of the 'I'M DONEEEEEEEEEE' voice. (Ya like how I extended that?--ha ha you know how it goes!) It can be written on a piece of paper and slid into a page protector--it doesn't need to be typed up and all prettified... sometimes we just don't have the time for that.

The book also talks about how the math work stations begin with a whole group lesson and then breaking off into math work stations for 30-40 minutes. The students work with a partner and they are assigned two math tubs each day that are numbered. There are two rotations and all students go to their first rotation and the teacher pulls back students for remediation or enrichment. Students stay at their station for 15 minutes and then everyone switches at the same time. The teacher puts his or her name on the station board next to the students he or she meets and that takes place of a station--I love that!!

This is what a section of the math workshop rotation chart would look like. You would have two students names or pictures beside one another. That means the students will be working with each other on each station. I LOVE when students work in partners--- we want them to talk about their learning so don't make your room super quiet or else their poor little brains will not be able to extend their thinking as much. Just like adults; students need to talk things out in order to learn something--let them! (my rant) ha ha.

Then, beside their pictures place number cards. These number cards will correlate to the numbers on your bins. So, this set of students will first grab bin #1 and then when we switch.

Here is the kind of bins I am wanting to get--picture snatcher right here--this is from really goof stuff.

These bins have labels for the kind of activities. I don't think I will do that because I want them to be able to be changed into different kinds of activities. But, I do like the numbers and the bins!

Alrighty.. there is so much more I could share but I think it's good to stop here! I am off to read some more and I will be back next week with even more information for you! 

--NOW-- There is a summer blog hop going on and make sure you snatch up all kinds of AWESOME freebies and enter my giveaway! 

Click here to grab my freebies and find your next hop!

You can enter my giveaway right here!

You will win this...

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Have a Happy Tuesday and don't forget to check out other great books at Deanna's linky!

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