The Frog in the Well Alvin Tresselt ~ Roger Duvoisin ~ Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1958 Just when I thought there were no more Duvoisin tit...
Haven't tried a book tasting with your students yet? This fun reading activity is an awesome way to introduce genres in your elementary classroom or library!
Last week we sent a bunch of Scout Books to SXSW in Texas with @rohdesign and @austinkleon for their Visual Notetaking 101 Panel. These guys take awesome notes, and they designed this pocket notebook to offer you a chance to create beautifully illustrated notes, too. The cover features illustration exercises for better notetaking. Count yourself lucky if you were at the panel and received one of these! They ran out right away! Collectors item.
10 reasons to teach Wonder the book by R.J. Palacio to your students. It's an amazing story you'll love! Plus Wonder Book Quotes to live...
I love using interactive lapbooks in the classroom. They are fun to create, engaging and can be used throughout the year to review skills taught. I finally completely my Lapbook Bundle and I am happy to share the lapbooks included with you. Whether you think your learners will enjoy creating all of the lapbooks, if you
Discover the perfect All About Me preschool activity designed for young kids! Get a free printable worksheet that's simple, engaging, and ideal for emergent readers. Download now!
My favorite part of doing preschool with my little ones is our daily Bible time together. It is so sweet to watch them learn about some amazing Bible stories and famous people in the Bible.
Let's say goodbye to boring book reports for good! Today, I'm sharing 7 of my favorite ways to get students to report on the books that they have read. These ideas combine creativity, rigor, and engagement so that students actually enjoy reporting out on their reading. And...there's enough variety in these activities that you'll be able to tap into a variety of learning styles all year long. 1. Doodle Book Review - Exclusive FREEBIE! Oh baby! There's nothing better than doodles to get students excited about learning. In the doodle book review, students complete planning pages before creating a doodle-themed, one-page book report. This book review is accessible and fun...and since I know your students will LOVE IT, I'm providing an exclusive FREE DOODLE BOOK REVIEW. 2. Book Report Mobile Here's a fun twist on a classic book report. It's a paper book mobile. The Clothes Hanger Book Report works with any fiction book. The highly detailed planning pages are designed so that students can work on the project in class or independently outside of school. The end result is a vivid, comprehensive book report that students love. 3. Book Talk Book talks are a wonderful way for students to demonstrate their understanding of the books they read while practicing their writing and speaking skills. The only problem is, students often don't know where to start. That's where this FREE Book Talk resource comes in. Students learn about book talks before completing a pre-write. Then, they write a final copy. After learning about how to give a book talk, they're ready to report on their present their book talks. 4. Literature Circles Looking for a fun way to get students involved in their reading? Then, you are going to love the Doodle Literature Circle roles. A literature circle is when a small group of students gather to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students’ responses to Literature Circle Role handouts. Each doodle-style handout will have students thinking critically about the text and of course, doodling to heighten their engagement and connection to their reading. The handouts are completed before the literature circle discussions. Then, during the literature circle, small groups gather and engage in critical thinking as they read, discuss and respond to texts together. 5. File Folder Book Project I love this book project because it's designed for students to complete all on their own. That means that they can create a unique file folder covered in plot details, character analysis, setting description, a personal reflection as part of an independent reading project. This project is super adaptable too. You can also use it for a class-wide novel study or even a summer reading project. And my favorite part is that the final file folders are a great addition to your classroom library. Future readers can easily reference the file folders to get a review of a book before reading the book on their own. 6. Creative Reading Response Tasks Here are 20 creative ways to get students to report out on their reading. These creative Reading Response Tasks give students an opportunity to share their thoughts and interpretations about their reading in engaging ways. The activities tap into current social media trends as well as traditional writing styles. Along with the 20 fun and educational reading response activities, you’ll also find everything you need to set up a reading response program or journal in your classroom. Let the reading (and fun!) begin! 7. Task Cards and Doodle Poster What happens when a great book, creative task cards and engaging doodle notes combine? A Doodle and Do resource, of course! I've created Doodle and Do resources for Freak the Mighty, Walk Two Moons, Wonder, and Tuck Everlasting. In each of these resources, students will respond to 12 fun task cards with 2 pages of doodle notes. The task cards require students to write, chat, swap, and draw in response to specific questions about the book. Then, students add their responses to fun doodle notes for the novels. I hope you have found some fresh ideas for book reports! Here are the links... 1. FREE - Doodle Book Review 2. Clothes Hanger Book Report 3. FREE Book Talk 4. Doodle Literature Circle Roles 5. File Folder Book Project 6. 20 Creative Reading Response Tasks 7. Task Cards and Doodle Poster - Freak the Mighty, Walk Two Moon, Wonder, and Tuck Everlasting Don't forget to grab the FREE Doodle Book Review! Thanks for stopping by, Mary Beth P.S. Click here for even more reading resources!
We love connecting projects to books, and we're always inspired by the amazing group of bloggers who participate in the Virtual Book Club for Kids (you can also check the club out on Facebook) as the group comes up with some great extension activities each month. This month's author was Leo Lionni. We chose to read and do a project using a book we've really been enjoying lately, A Color of His Own. This is the sweet tale of a little chameleon who is looking for one color to stay all the time, but keeps running into that challenge that chameleons change color. In the end, he winds up finding a friend to always be with so they can at least always be the same color together. I've used this book in the past as a primary teacher. It's a great way to talk about friendship and also about what makes us each unique. My boys have been loving the simple tale and the colorful illustrations this spring. For our activity extension we decided to use cray-pas and watercolors. I love how colorful this art technique can be. I sketched several chameleon outlines onto white drawing paper using permanent marker. (I'm including a printable copy here in case you just want to print one out, or use the printable to trace onto thicker paper.) Afterwards the boys and I each colored in a chameleon using the cray-pas. Big Brother and I thought about ways to create different patterns. Little Brother focused on just coloring his in, using mostly one color. After we were done coloring, we watercolored on top of the cray-pas. The watercolor doesn't stick to the cray-pas, and fills all the white spaces around it. We all had different strategies for painting. When they were done I cut the three chameleons out and we hung them in our play room. I love how they are a set but each one unique. That's part of what can also make this project a great classroom activity, especially for the start of a school year. Or turn it into a fun family project, with each family member creating a chameleon to represent themselves. What Leo Lionni books does your family enjoy? Have you read this one yet? This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties.
Grab these free printables HERE.
Did you know you can get paid to read books aloud? If you love reading books, you can make money doing what you love. Here are 17 sites.
This blog post was originally going to be about the different types of rulers and why some are better than others for book folding. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it's the accuarcy that a ruler can help us to achieve that's the important thing here, not the ruler itself. So I decided to broaden the subject to include other factors that influence accuracy. Read on and I'll share what I have learned so far in my quest for the perfect book fold. Clear Your Workspace of
By Shannon Merenstein You will be inspired and delighted by Collage Workshop for Kids, a colorful art instruction book on collage techniques for children - made in cooperation with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Each chapter of the book explores a different art theme including nature, faces, construction, c
Hi everyone! I don’t know about you, but I love to read! Ever since I was little, I have always had a book in hand. I recently got a new kindle for my birthday because I had the original one …
We had our first day of school with students Wednesday and I forgot how utterly exhausting and mind blowing that first day is! We did lots of rules, routines, and procedures but also made time for some fun first week things. Here is what we have been up to! You can purchase these Scholastic Order Form activities from Clutter Free Classroom HERE! I also introduced the students to the Activ Expressions! They were literally asking me about them ALL week long and so Friday, we took a Multiple Intelligence Survey using the device! I adapted this activity from Laura Candler's printable survey which you can download free HERE! You can download the flipchart by clicking the image below. Important Note: You must have Promethean Activ Inspire software installed on your computer to OPEN and use this file! Please do not download otherwise! I also made some labels to go on my Activ Expression bins. You can download those by clicking the button below! I have also decided to implement brain breaks into my classroom this year! We needed a little wake me up on Friday morning so we watched this HILARIOUS parody of I'm Sexy and I Know It, called I'm Elmo and I Know It! I am definitely adding this to my brain break file! I plan on making some brain breaks sometime this week. Stay tuned to find out how I plan on incorporating this bad boy into my brain breaks! I absolutely can't wait for it to get here!!
Using wordless shorts in language therapy gives you so many options and your clients will LOVE it! Links to the best wordless videos!
This guide gives you some tips on dropping hints of romance without explicitly stating it, or having your characters shout it from the rooftops.
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By Sharon Sullivan – Grand Junction has long been a baseball town. Signed bats and balls are displayed in residents’ homes; special jerseys are pulled out of closets for specific games; and doors are opened to players who come to town to play the game they all love. The home of Linda Romer Todd and […]
Wondering how to annotate your books or what you should annotate in a book? Here's why and how I love annotating books for fun!
I know I have said it before but...... Making Memories Month by Month is one of my favorite books published by Creative Teaching Press. T...
Looking for a thoughtful gift idea for the book lover in your life? They'll love a Book Sleeve - a practical, stylish present that keeps their books safe while traveling. Whether it's physical books or electronic devices like Kindles and iPads, a book sleeve provides on-the-go protection, eliminating the worry of damaging books when casually tossing them into bags.
Our guest today is a 30 Days or Less alumna and the author of a charming children's book. As you can imagine, writing a book for children is no easy feat, especially for a first timer. Carrie agreed to tell us about the process that took her from a simple idea she had while working
