Five for Friday

I've been a busy reader on my summer break. Here are my most recent reads. I really enjoyed Whistling Past the Graveyard. What have you been reading?  I need more ideas.

I've been enjoying my time with Harley too this summer. Just as the school year was ending he had to have his 2nd surgery this year. He's quickly becoming one pricey dog! He had a huge mass/swelling under his neck area that seemed to appear overnight. Surgery was done to get to the bottom of the issue. The vet thought it might be his salivary gland or cancer. After a biopsy, it showed that it wasn't cancer and just a huge infection of the salivary area. Now a side effect of Harley's surgery is one side of his lip hangs low and he can't control his drooling, so as a good mama I'm wiping his mouth several times a day. I wouldn't trade it for any other option though.  I even got this decorative pillow at Kohl's that has the cutest quote:  All you need is love and a dog.

I'm joining in with many other sellers to have a TPT Christmas in July sale.  You can certainly grab some great deals.  I've put my most popular bundles on sale with even greater discounts than the typical TPT sitewide sales. Shop on July 13th and 14th and search on TPT using the phrases:

ChristmasinJuly or #ChristmasinJuly (no spaces).

Any goose down pillow lovers out there? I've had them since a child and never considered anything else, but my current ones were getting a bit raggedy. I made the switch to a latex pillow my mom suggested and I'm pretty happy with it.

No soda for me since school ended and to be honest I haven't really missed it. I've been drinking lots of water and iced tea with no added sugar. For my water I've used a diffuser and have flavored the water with sliced lemons and grapefruit.  What other combinations would be good? Let me know.

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Ring in 2015

I'm linking up with Erica's Edventures new year resolution sharing.

Here are some of my 2015 goals

I hope to find more of a balance between work and my life. I've always given above and beyond in my classroom-so much so that it INVADES my deserved downtime. So my goal is to let go of not doing as much outside of my contract hours and realize that what I do accomplish is enough.

My goals related to health are in process right now. I am recovering from recent surgery and will be off work for a few weeks. I plan to get back into my walking routine with my dog (who also is recovering from his own surgery) once I'm up to it.

While on winter break I've enjoyed reading several books. I WILL continue this during the regular school year and not just for breaks!  I just wrapped up the book Big Little Lies this evening and started another one titled Defending Jacob. I love a good book and need to carve out more time to read regularly.

I also hope to focus on One Little Word during 2015.

My word of choice is RELAX.

My goal is to relax MORE at home, but also to remember to relax at school too!

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Interactive Notebook Organization

I'm going to try my hand with more interactive notebooking this coming school year.

I figured out this handy way to organize the many Common Core clip prompts I plan to utilize.

I cut apart each standard prompt and paper clipped them together as a set. 

Then, I labeled each corner of a sleeve protector with a Sharpie like this: RL 1, RL 2, RL 3 and so on.

All the standard prompts are then put in the matching sleeve.

I figured this system would help save me time.  I'll simply pass them out with an appropriate lesson and have students glue them into their response notebooks.

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Patricia Polacco Magic

Patricia Polacco is one of my favorite authors to use in the classroom.

She is such an engaging storyteller.  My class was riveted to this author study video today.

I plan to now have my students practice sharing a family story of their own with this assignment:

Which Patricia Polacco story is your favorite?


Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Gooney Bird Greene - Read aloud Activities in the Classroom

I must say that I adore Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry!
And my class quadruple adores Gooney.

I just finished reading this to my class last week and this one little story has SO many good teaching points for mini lessons. Plus, Gooney Bird Greene models wonderful story telling!

Here's one teacher's take on all the teaching opportunities for this book.

I've made a packet of activities for Gooney Bird Greene
Take a peek. 

 

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I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

I'm Back from Vacation!

Long time no blog, but I've got a good excuse. I just returned from a wonderful Mexico vacation.

No school distractions for me for a whole week. Just the sun, sand, and some good beach reads.

Here's where I was, Gran Bahie Principe in Tulum, Mexico

I enjoyed a visit to the Tulum Ruins too.

I'll be posting about some of my Mexico beach reads on the blog Best Endings, as I am now a contributor over there.

I did have to leave my precious pup home when I went on vacation, but I read this book that's great for dog lovers. Be on the lookout for my review over at The Best Endings.

On another note the winners of my $5 shopping credit for Talbott's Teaching Trove are

Misty, Allison, Ms. Patterson, Becky, Traci, Corinna, Amber and Andrea.

If you left an email I will contact you so you can choose the files you want. If you didn't please contact me. Also, I came home to over 100 emails, and apparently at some point my store went offline while I was having fun in the sun. So if you tried to shop at my store and couldn't, it's now back up and running.

Back to reality now...work tomorrow!

Traditions and Patricia Polacco Author Study

My class loved reading Patricia Polacco's The Keeping Quilt the past two weeks. It's such a special story about the importance of family and traditions. Students completed their own family tradition quilt square too and were proud to share a piece of their heritage.

After reading The Keeping Quilt, I read aloud some of her other books: Babushka's Doll, Some Birthday, Chicken Sunday, Thunder Cake and the most touching of the bunch, The Junkyard Wonders                      

To show our appreciation for her talent as a wonderfully inspiring author students wrote thank you letters to Patricia Polacco today.  

My class was "Over the Top" excited when we received a letter in return from Patricia Polacco.

There's no better way to bring letter writing to life than this!

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I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Favorite Back to School Read Aloud

One of my all time favorites to read to start the school year is Nobody's Mother is in Second Grade by Robin Pulver. It's a story about a mom disguised as a plant so she can go to school with her child. It's a great way to discuss the importance of being an independent third grader.

I created this literature prompt to follow my read aloud.  The student's responses are always good for a chuckle. This version posted is for 3rd grade, as that's the grade I currently teach. I just couldn't let this story go when I moved from 2nd grade. 

Enjoy!

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Book in a Can

Looking for creative ways to do book reports.  My grade level does this one every year and all you need is a great book and a can. Start collecting those coffee or baby formula cans! After reading their book, students decorate the outside of the can to resemble their favorite character or scene from the book. Then on index cards they write the following information with 4-5 quality sentences. The cards are stored inside the can.

Card #
1. Describe main character
2. Describe the setting
3. Describe the beginning
4. Describe the middle
5. Describe the ending
6. Describe your favorite part
7. Compare and contrast yourself to the character

Students then do presentations of their cans which turn out "Can"didly cute!

Magic Treehouse Pirates Past Noon and Bunnicula

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Fact Monster

Have you heard of Fact Monster?  It's an online research site that is very useful and I've used it the past few years with my students.  I have links on my classroom website with webquest style questions to use with Fact Monster.  The sheets are courtesy of Education World.  Go hunt those facts down!

For the Love of Literature

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."

Groucho Marx

If you have a love for literature like I do then I'm hoping you'll love the oodles and oodles of resources on these websites. I just spent the last 2 hours + searching and bookmarking them! And yes, I am on summer vacation. I just saved all my blogger friends that much more time to enjoy your summer.

Click on each screen snapshot to go to each site.

Happy, happy reading!