Saturday, November 10, 2012

Colorful days and early nights

Whoo...I am so sleepy that I cannot believe I am typing. So ahead of time...would you please forgive all any and ALL typos? LOL ~ While I am at it, how about any grammatical errors as well. hehe 

Do you want to know the truly sad part? It is only 7:26 on a Saturday night, and this OLD body is screaming for the comfy warmth of my bed. Oh my goodness! When did I become so old? I don't know whether to laugh or cry, LOL. (Guess that's makes it a laugh ;)


While I am begging forgiveness and patience for any and all errors, I will also ask you to indulge me as I share just how much stinkin' fun Katie Byrd and I had today! Holy Cow! We 5K'ed it up this morning in the happiest 5K on the planet, according to the official Color Run crew, and how right they were! Now I know this may be old hat to many of you out there in the blogging world, but this was the first Color Run for the two of us, and we CANNOT wait until next year!


Still crisp and white in our Color Run gear :)


 


 
 




Woohoo...we had such a blast! I have never had so much fun getting dirty! I loved running into friends and students, current and past! 



Thank you for indulging me, LOL. Now onto all things school! Our week seemed to fly by! Thanksgiving break is barreling toward us faster each day, and I feel like a broken record when I say this school year is getting away from me. I have so much left to share with these kiddos, even just before our fall break. Whew, don't know how I will get it all in!


  
Doesn't Sacajawea look completely different on each cover!
She certainly doesn't look like the teenager she was when
she helped Lewis and Clark LOL

Our Informational Reading and Writing unit has been a great success! As we read like a historian, we have learned so many new things about Sacajawea. She was quite an amazing woman! We are taking what we learn about informational writing to help us write a biography.



I have really enjoyed watching these groups work together.
Although students are helping each other gather information
and ideas, each student will be responsible for creating their
own biography of a historical figure! 



I want to share some great picture books with you. As usual, I feel as if I have fallen behind in my quest to share one really great mentor text/ picture book per day. You know that I am lucky to post once a week, so I usually bombard you with books. I will have to scroll through past posts soon to see how I am doing in regards to numbers soon. 

These next few books that I am going to share are not necessarily books that I have read this week. Many are new additions to my library, and I just cannot wait to share them with you. 

A Perfect Snowman by Preston McDaniels was a beauty I picked up at, of all places, Cracker Barrel. I was immediately drawn to it, and when I picked it up, I knew I would be walking out of the store with it. Thankfully Katie works there part time and gets a discount because it was more than I would normally spend on a picture book. With so many in my library, I just cannot afford to spend that much on every book that catches my eye ~ no matter how hard that might be! No worries, discount was applied, and I walked out a happy girl with a beautiful new book! The illustrations in this story are amazing, and I am looking forward to our first cold snap to share!

 
 

Misery is a Spider in the Bathtub by Jennifer Rapp, Zero Is The Leaves On The Tree by Betsy Franco and When I Woke Up I Was a Hippopatamus by Tom MacRae are all books that I have recently picked up to use as metaphor mentor texts. Each are great little stories, but I have to share a few pages from When I Woke Up...I LOVE this one! (I would also use this for complex sentence structures and the AAAWWUBBIS. Just look at those metaphors and subordinating conjunctions all rolled into one! Cannot wait to share this one! I think we can do a really fun writing project with this one. Tom MacRae did an amazing job with this little story!


These Hands by Margaret Mason was a new title I just received from our latest book order. I was moved by the cover and decided to take a chance. I am so glad that I did because not only are Floyd Cooper's illustrations beautiful, but the story is just as moving. So touching and so different from the others I have shared tonight. Again, I know I say this often, but I just love it!
Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail is one that I just recently shared with my kiddos. I love the story of this little boy that loves reading! Heck, I love the story of anyone that loves reading. Anything to show my kiddos just how amazing reading can be. Edward's mom and dad turn out to be quite the characters in the end - so fun. 
The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage Without Apostrophes! by Lynne Truss was a great find I snagged on sale! Whoo hoo ~ you have to love a great hard-back book for cheap! And it helps with the whole "apostrophe thing" which is so much harder for fourth graders than you would think. Drives me crazy!


All right, one more picture book. Let me throw in a David Catrow for you! Mr. Catrow seems to be everywhere these days! If I see his illustrations, I will typically pick it up and buy it without so much as reading a word of the text. Yes, silly I know, but I just love his whimsical illustrations! My kiddos can instantly pick out a Catrow book. The fact that this one was written by Karen Beaumont made it a no-brainer for me! They are such a great team. Where's My T-R-U-C-K? was a perfect addition to my picture book library and I am definitely thinking common themes in literature ~ be happy with what you have. ;)




Well ladies and gents, I do believe that will be all for me tonight. Sorry for being so picture heavy, LOL. I just love sharing in pictures one way or another.

Happy reading!

Follow on Bloglovin

No comments:

Post a Comment