Great Books for November!

Here some of my favorite read alouds for November and some new ones too!

A Special Visit from and Author and an Illustrator

On Monday, Susan Steven Crummel and Janet Stevens visited our school. These sisters are award-winning authors of popular books such as Cook-a-Doodle-Doo, And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, My Big Dog, and The Little Red Pen (check out my Shelfari on the right side-bar for more titles).

They were so fun and engaging! A lot of students got to go up front and pretend to be book characters. Other students performed Reader's Theater scripts of Shoe Town and Tumbleweed Stew.  A reporter from the Fort Worth Star Telegram was there too. The story was in the newspaper with a quote from The Frugal Teacher! Click HERE to read the story.

The visit was funded with a Target Arts, Culture, and Design Grant  our school received in August. Every student in the school (Pre-k-4th) attended 1 of 3 sessions. The sisters were great performers and kept even the youngest audience members engaged. Their goal is to encourage and inspire students to write their own stories and create artwork: The more you practice, the better you get!  Mrs. Crummel also stressed important writing skills like organization, character development, details, plot, conflict, and resolution. As a result of their day-long visit we now have a common school-wide language to use with our students when teaching writing or making connections in reading. We also have 3 beautiful new pieces of original Janet Stevens artwork to adorn the walls of our library!  For more information visit Mrs. Crummel's website.

Mrs. Crummel was my 9th grade geometry teacher. She was also one of my favorite teachers.

Janet Steven creates the artwork for the books. The bears she drew for us will be framed and placed in the library. She encouraged our students to use the bears as inspiration for a story.

Some of the 2nd grade students got to act out The Little Red Pen by wearing silly hats and saying some of the dialogue. 

This student pretended to be Mr. Mutt from Help Me, Mr. Mutt!

Book Review - Tale of a Baseball Dream

Tale of a Baseball Dream by Jerry Pearlman is a great read-aloud for elementary age students. I can't wait to read it to my 2nd graders while the World Series is taking place later this month! 

Summary: Tale of a Baseball Dream is the fictitious inspirational story of Dusty Hunter, a young boy who loved to play baseball. Dusty had an incredibly strong desire to become a great baseball player, even though he was undersized, and faced many challenges and disappointments. The story evolves to entwine Dusty's life, with "The Legend of Bubba 'The Brute' Brugosee," who was considered many decades earlier, as "The Greatest Baseball Hero of All Time!" Truly an exciting baseball story for the dreamer in everyone! Amazon.com

A Quick Read: I started reading this book on a Saturday morning and read it off and on throughout the day. I was finished by evening.  This will make a great read aloud over the course of a week.

The Plan: 

• Read the book to my students over the course of a week (it has 88 pages, so I will read about 20 pages per day)
• Students will keep track of the characters, setting, and main ideas in their writing journals
• Students will summarize each reading and pose any questions they may have from the daily reading.
• Students will post interesting words on our Daily 5 Cafe Menu.
• Students will generate discussion and questions about the story on their Kidblogs.
• Students will use a Think, Tac, Toe to select and create products to show what they have they have learned. 

Teachable Moments and Big Ideas:

• Hard work = Success
• The more you practice, the better you get
• Don't give up
• Little things make a big difference

Vocabulary Words:
enthusiastically
legend
traded
groundball
pop up
homerun
disgruntled
anticipation
determined
curse
miracle
intimidating
souvenir

Think, Tac, Toe

Tale of a Baseball Dream by Jerry Pearlman

For the plans and the Think, Tac, Toe please click HERE.

Looking for a good read aloud?

My class is participating in the Global Read Aloud 2012. This is a month-long, worldwide project created by a teacher named Pernille Ripp. The purpose of this project is for classes to read the same book and then share their thoughts, ideas, and projects via blogging, Skype, Edmodo, Voicethread and other web 2.0 tools.  My class is part of a K-2 group. We are using blogging, Edmodo, and Skype to discuss and share our thoughts about the book.  We will start reading the book on October 1st and follow a set schedule so everyone will be literally "on the same page". We have selected The One and Only Ivan for our read aloud, but there is another group doing Charlotte's Web. Before we start our reading the students will make predictions. On Friday, I showed the book cover and the students wrote in their journals what they thought the book will be about. They will post their prediction on their blogs on Monday.  As the week progresses, I will create an assignment on Edmodo that they will respond to. I can also create quizzes and polls on Edmodo so I can monitor their comprehension and engagement in the book. We will also Skype with other classrooms and discuss the book.

It's not too late to join in. Check out the Global Read Aloud Wiki and find a class to connect with!

Stealing Minutes

For the first time in 3 years, our 2nd grade schedule has changed - which leaves us with a 20 minute block between lunch and PE. I usually do a restroom break after lunch, but that takes at least 10 minutes. That leaves another 5-7 minutes of dead time before we go to PE. So, I decided that we would "steal" some reading minutes during our restroom break and just stay in the hall until it is time to line up for PE! We also have 15 minutes of hall time in the morning before school starts.  I just put a basket by our door with a variety of books and some math flashcards. No more "dead" time!

Chrysanthemum Activity for the 2nd Day of School

I usually read Kevin Henkes' Chrysanthemum on the second day of school because it's all about a little girl who loves her name, but when she goes to school, she encounters some unkind children who make her feel embarrassed about her name. This is a good book to teach tolerance, good manners, and kindness.  

To help learn and appreciate each other's names we sing the "Chicky Chicky Song". It's a really fun song that is fun to do even later in the year when you need to liven things up.

Another fun activity incorporates patterns. The students write their name continuously on a 10x10 graph and assign a color for each letter. Once the graph is completely filled in, the students will see the different patterns their names make.

Once the grid is completely filled in, the students cut it out and glue it to a colored piece of construction  paper. This is our first hall display for the year!

The example above is a 5-letter name, so the pattern is very easy to see. Students with longer names will have to wrap their names to the next line and it will take a little longer for them to see the pattern.

This 6-letter name has a more complex pattern that may take a little longer to see. Encourage students to keep going. Eventually, you will hear "Cooolllll!"

To download this activity page, please click HERE!

Not a Box

A friend of mine recently introduced me to Not a Box by Antoinette Portis. It is about a creative rabbit who turns a box into lots of different things and he makes it clear that it is NOT a box!

This book has so many possibilities in the classroom or it would make a great baby gift!

In the classroom I would use it for:

• A writing mini-lesson to inspire my students to use their imagination and think outside of the box. 
• Making predictions. After the first page or two, the students might be able to predict what the box is.  
• Modeling sentence structure: Ask "Is it a box?" and they would respond "No, it is NOT a box!"

I wonder if Caine of "Caine's Arcade"
 read this book?

Books for the Last Week of School

I am excited about my new collection of books for the last week of school. What will you be reading to your kids?

Gilbert is worried that he won't get an end of year award, but is surprised at the end when he receives the "Good Friend" award.

Companion to the "First Day Jitters". The students worry that Mrs. Hartwell will miss them over the summer.

Companion to "First Day Hooray!" captures the excitement of the last day of school.

A play on "The Night Before Christmas" as a family prepares for summer vacation.

I love this book - it reminds me to be grateful for what we have.

Makes me cry but I read it anyway.

A Visit From Mr. Morgan

We had a special visit! Mrs. Morgan’s husband came and read to us. A long time ago he wrote a story called “Two Socks” about a drawer full of socks who learned how to get along even though they were all different. Mr. Morgan is a high school teacher and took time to come and visit our 2nd grade class. He also makes really awesome comments on our blog posts. Thanks Mr. Morgan!

Daily 5 creates confident, independent learners!

I recently started having my students sign up to read for the class. Each day a student gets to pick a "good fit" book and read to the rest of the class.

This has been really wonderful for my reluctant readers. Because they are so comfortable with their classmates and confident in their ability, every student has willingly signed up. I truly believe that implementing the Daily 5 this year has allowed my students to take risks and push themselves further than a traditional guided reading program would have allowed. The Daily 5 gives students choices and creates independent learners. 

Our Daily 5 includes Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work. 

Using blogging for Work on Writing has also brought out the best in my students. They are no longer just writing for me with my red pen. They know that their friends, family, other teachers, principals, and classrooms around the world are reading their posts and commenting. They have raised their own bar and the results have been amazing.

At first I was reluctant to do Read to Someone because I was afraid the students would not stay focused and it would get too loud. But I discovered that because the students are so accustomed to the Daily 5 routine, that they were easily able to adapt these to the Read to Someone component. I usually allow up to 3 pairs at a time. They really enjoy this and I am glad I waited until the other components were in place before starting Read to Someone.

2nd Graders Experience Narnia First-Hand!

After Thanksgiving all of the 2nd grade teachers began reading C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to their classes. There are 17 chapters in the book so we were able to read 1-2 chapters per day for 3 weeks.  At the end of the 3 weeks, on our last day before Christmas break, we went to see a live musical performance of "Narnia" performed by Kids Who Care.

The students were very excited!

Since this book is beyond a 2nd grade level, we spent a lot of time discussing what was happening in the book and retelling the chapters as we went along. This was a great opportunity to use the Daily Cafe Strategies (Retelling, Back up and Reread, Check for understanding, etc)  Several of the students had seen the movie and wanted to tell what would happen next, but they were good about waiting to tell.

We made wardrobe pictures of Narnia:

We made wardrobe pictures by folding the sides of 12 x 18 brown construction paper toward the center and decorating the outside to look like doors. On the inside we used, white, light blue, or dark blue paper to make a wintry Narnia scene complete with a lamp post (I cut these out for them)  and iridescent glitter. They look beautiful in our hall!

My daughter plays a Dryad (tree spirit) in the play

If you live in the DFW area, it's not too late to see this wonderful show. Tickets are available HERE.

The Daily 5 in Action!

Mrs. Morgan's Superstars have been working very hard since the first day of school learning how to be independent learners.  The Daily 5 includes:
Read to Self
Word Work
Work on Writing
Listen to Reading
Read to Someone
So far we have been working on the first 3 and how to do these things independently while Mrs. Morgan works with students one-on-one or in groups.

This student is doing a great job following along with his finger.

This student is "In the Zone"

Learning spellings words AND the QWERTY keyboard with Spell Texting! (Thanks Teacher Tipster!)

Word Work with Bendaroos!

Choosing the right spot helps make Read to Self more successful!

The Perfect Video to Inspire My Class to Read!

The first week of school is well under way and I am in full swing of the  Daily 5 introduction.  Tonight I was participating in #2ndchat on Twitter and @inspiremind shared this video.  What a fun video to show the students as we learn about "Good Fit" books and "Read to Self". I can't wait to show them this tomorrow!

DIY "Daily 5" Anchor Charts!

Student/teacher made anchor charts for the classroom help the student "own" the rules and will be less likely to break them:

To see more visit My Classroom...

Countown to the first day of school...

....and my Summer Reading Program is in full swing!


I have already read The Daily 5 and; Places and Spaces but I will be taking another look at them, along with the others, as I plan for the upcoming school year. Web 2.0 is a must read for any teacher who wants to integrate technology into the classroom.  It covers blogging, social networking, podcasts & vodcasts, applications, and much more! I started reading it in the bookstore today and couldn't put it down.  Unfortunately, the bookstore price was $35.00 but I was able to download it for $12.95.  Some of the other books are available for download at a lower price also. The Amazon widget above has links to books and downloads.  The links showing prices are for the books.  Generally, the downloads are at least 50% less!  Now that's a frugal find!

Join me as I count down to the first day of school on my Countdown to... page.  I will share my thoughts and activities leading up to the first day of school!


*I am an amazon Affiliate and receive a small commission for items sold. No compensation was received for this post. 
All opinions are my own.

Half Price Books - Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program

My family LOVES Half-Price Books. Teachers can get a 10% discount which has been very useful for building my classroom library. Here's some information about their summer reading program: Half Price Books - Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program

HAPPY READING!

Biggest Book Sale of the Year Near You: Print valuable coupons

Biggest Book Sale of the Year Near You: Print valuable coupons

I LOVE these warehouse sales. This is a great way to build your classroom or home library!

Free Webinar: Pam Allyn on Boys and Summer Reading

Free Webinar: Pam Allyn on Boys and Summer Reading