Bits and pieces

Today is not only election day, but it just also happens to be my Katie Byrd's 19th birthday. Holy cow....where have the years gone! I cannot believe that I have two, yes I said TWO, kids in college. If that doesn't make you feel old, I don't know what will. 

But I digress, this isn't a post about exactly how old I may or may not be, but rather a post about how as Katie celebrated her birthday, doing any number of things a silly girl of 19 might do, she surprised us with a visit to our classroom today! My kiddos have been sharing letters in their readers' notebooks with Katie for a number of weeks now, and many were excited to see her in person.  It was fun to watch her join a few in conversations about favorites. You just have to love anything that gets them sharing and talking about reading! She didn't mind that they all sang Happy Birthday either. :)

I thought I might share a few pics of random happenings around our hallway these days, bits and pieces. ;)

Our "Common Themes in Literature" wall is growing by the day!
The beginning of the year is so full of great picture book reading.
I try to find a reason to read at least one a day...if not many more ;)

I am just as proud of all of the book recommendations!
The yellow sheets are the student recommendations to their friends, not only
our room but from the other fourth grade rooms as well.
The pink sheets are Book Worm winners.

 

As students complete a book, they fill out a "Book Completion Form" and enter it in our Book Worm Drawing. Each month I pull three forms from each class, and if students have been thorough and thoughtful in sharing about their book, they receive a free book of their choice from the book order! I love seeing their faces when their books come in! 

We have lots of great writing out in our hallway!

We work so hard on some of our anchors; I just don't have the heart to keep them covered as we continue adding more anchors of our work throughout the year. Some of my favorites I pull out into the hallway. Just like time in the day, there is never enough wall space for anchors or shelf space for books. My kiddos are completely on my side and often I catch them scouting bigger rooms for us to take over LOL.

As we have grown in our reading,
our Reading Cafe menu has grown!

My kiddos are super psyched to enter the Paws for Reading! Hello....100 free books of your choice! Why yes, thank you! This is our first entry, and I cannot wait to see what else gets turned in! Mrs. Whitt has even gotten in on the action...check out her sweet Maggie! 

I might have to get some pics of my babies doing the same. Here is a picture of one of my babies trying to get better. My Freddy boy has hurt his back, and it makes me very sad to see him hurting so much. Cross your fingers that my boy gets better soon, and he is running in the back yard with his ears dragging the ground!

Speaking of Mrs. Whitt, here are a couple of bits and pieces from around her room! I couldn't ask for a better teammate! I love sharing kiddos with her, and everyone knows that we both claim all of them as our own. Instead of having one class to love, we get two! 

 

Looks like we have some excited kiddos!
They complete their Contig board in Mrs. Whitt's room!

Random pic of kiddos swarming to read our new Mummies
book! OK...yes, I know; they are really looking at all the
gruesome pics, but again, they are diving into a book at
the moment! Whatever it takes to get them past the cover!

I am guessing that I have shared enough randomness for one night. ;) I have just one picture book to share tonight. In honor of the cool breezes and the lovely colors of fall that are finally gracing us with their presence, I have shared with my kiddos Chris Van Allsburg's The Stranger. I just love Van Allsburg for oh-so-many-things! I love his illustrations, and I love that he leaves you to think in his stories. 

Happy reading!

In all my nerdy glory

Such a wonderful lazy Sunday morning...feels like it has been forever since I could say I have a lazy moment. Is it awfully nerdy of me that here in a rare quiet moment, I couldn't wait to put on some headphones, listen to a little Jason Mraz, surf a little Pinterest, and update my blog with the smell of the roast cooking in the crock-pot filling the room. Yum! Probably a little nerdy, but I don't care. This is my idea of a lovely morning!

Sarah, Katie Bird, and I just before our very wet run Saturday.

In all honesty, I believe a lazy moment has made an appearance this morning because I am altogether too sore to move. School started and all of my new-found fitness routines went out the window, so yesterday's 5K his left me moving a little slowly. Goodness, I hate to admit and share that, but it is what it is... I will for sure have to fit in a few more workouts before next weekend when Sarah, Katie Bird, and I try another one. 

Well on to all things school ~ the story of my life, hehe! 

So I am sure that I have mentioned, only once or twice, how much I love these next few weeks in writing workshop. Again, nerd alert ~ there is something so magical in words and phrases and how just the right word choice or phrase can move a reader. Over the years I have confessed my love of words and phrases to my students, stopping during reading (like we all do, I know) and professing how amazing it was what the author did "right there, just then, did you notice that? oh wow! I LOVED that!" Last year, anytime we used magazines to clip pictures or words from, my students would begin bringing me words and phrases that made them think of me, or they knew I would just LOVE it. I am now the proud owner of a number of Ziploc bags busting at the seams with words. Yes, thanks to my precious kiddos (my own nerdyness aside) I am a word collector. 

This week we will focus on the magic of figurative language. With all the sensory detail we used last week, we have already looked at and shared some bits here and there. OK, so the theme of the morning seems to be all of my NERDY glory, and if you had doubts, well, may I just dispel them for you now...I CANNOT wait to teach tomorrow's writing lesson. We will be looking at simile.

  

Of course you cannot go wrong with Crazy like a Fox A Simile Story by Lorren Leedy and I'm as Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood. Both are amusing little mentor texts packed full of simile, and they both make the concept very easy to grasp.

We will of course be revisiting Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. You can revisit that mentor for just about everything figurative - Jane Yolen is an artist with words! 

Yes, I know we are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but we all do. I almost hate to admit that when I picked up this book I purchased it simply because of the cover and title - butterflies! Happily, it turned out to be a perfect purchase. Velma Gratch & the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison. Such a easy theme to pick out and amazing word choice! Great similies...Velma with her sisters that "can sing like an angel" or "run like the devil." Lots of alliteration, too. Both sisters have "miraculous math and spectacular spelling."

Red Sings from the Treetops a Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski is full of personification, metaphor, and simile! So beautifully illustrated! I cannot say enough how wonderful this book of color poems is for sharing how magical figurative language can be in our writing.

I have some videos that I will share with my class as we continue looking at simile tomorrow. I love watching as my students start singing along with each artist, and before you know it, my kiddos are sharing all they songs that they find with similes. I am sure there are about a million of them out there. The first song that I shared with my class years ago was Smile by Uncle Kracker, but my list has grown. These are not the original videos as I like for students to see the lyrics when possible. The fun part is that most of these songs not only have simile, so we will definitely give another listen after we look at idioms, alliteration, and personification.  Here are a few of them...

One of our grammar focuses these next few weeks is still types of sentences. No surprise that for some of our writers, even the concept of compound sentences needs much review. The process of writing complex sentences can be over the top, but we will be sharing some fun mentor text sentences and books to help! Fun, fun and I have to share...My name is Tina Dunn and I am a Jeff Anderson stalker enthusiast. LOVE, LOVE me some Mechanically Inclined and how he lays it out so simply for all students to see! Why didn't I think of that? (lol, I say that about everything since I haven't had an original thought in forever, and I wouldn't be the teacher I am without all the amazing teachers willing to share!) 

Okay, mentioning the book Quick as a Cricket by the team of Audrey and Don Wood has made me want to share one of my all time favorite silly, little picture books. Don Wood is such a talented artist! And this next book is over the top silly but so much fun! We will of course mention the alliteration, but one of my favorite things to teach with it is story elements. I mean...we have a very clear look at character, setting, problem, and solution - a little oversimplified, but it is there in all its bare-bottom glory anyway! Help, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub and he won't get out!

I know I am rambling now, but you cannot say I did not warn you about how excited I was for tomorrow's lessons. I have just one more adorable book to share, so that I know I have shared at least one picture book a day since my last post.

A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker  is a winner of The E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Books are nominated for their universal appeal as a "terrific" book to read aloud, and this is truly a sweet read aloud! I use this often when we are talking about themes in reading. Although, we will focus much of this week on genre, from this point on with every book we share, we will most certainly discuss theme.  Here, Bear has made it very clear that NO visitors are allowed, but mouse has something else in mind. Kindness and friendship are very clear themes in this award winning read aloud.

We were sad to say goodbye to Grandma Dowdel as we finished up our read aloud A Long Way from Chicago. I even shed a few tears as the troop train rolled past in the end. Be sure to ask your kiddos what an amazing character Grandma is! We will be starting the Trumpet of the Swans by Mr. E.B. White himself tomorrow.

Happy Reading my friends!

Lists and poems

Whew wee...Goodness! I think that the first few weeks of school is a lot like child birth in that we forget exactly how crazy it is or we would never do it again. OK...so I am being dramatic, but a whirlwind of DSA,  DRA, DIBELs and seemingly impossible deadlines is about to wear me out. I would much rather sit down and read to, read with, or write with my sweet kiddos. Funny thing is that I will do it all over again next year just to spend each and every day reading and writing with a new group of sweeties. So, deep breath...sigh...on with our crazy busy but wonderful day together!

So sad to see some of our wonderful books play hide and seek behind our growing anchors. We have discussed, reviewed, and learned much in a small amount of time. We are definitely on our way to a successful year in reading and writing. 

Students are still enjoying storytelling, and I am so glad to have added such a fun piece to writing workshop. Notebook Now How by Aimee Buckner has been an excellent addition to my professional library, and it has really given me some fun ideas regarding establishing a community of writers that feel as if they truly have a story to share, big or small. 

Another gem I found on my own bookshelf was given to me by someone in my family years ago.  Telling Your Own Stories by Donald Davis has opened so many new ideas for the kiddos in sharing stories. They have enjoyed sharing with their teammates. The fun part of all the storytelling and sharing of ideas is that the first time these kiddos tell me they don't have anything to write...maybe I will have some things to remind them of. And I am sure if I don't, their teammates will. :)

I want to share a fun little read aloud that was a perfect addition to our writing workshop launch as we continue to add a variety of entries in our writer's notebook. Lists are a perfect addition to any notebook. 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to do Anymore by Jenny Offill is a cute list book that starts out, "I had an idea to staple my brother's hair his pillow... I am not allowed to use the stapler anymore." Giggles EVERY time :)

Today's list was our Happy/Sad list. We brainstormed ideas that make us happy or sad. We then discussed how many stories were hiding in this list! This sweet group of kiddos are so open and honest in their thinking. I cannot wait to see what stories they write for me this year.

Rimshots by Charles R. Smith Jr. is way up there on my list of favorites for poetry and launching writing workshop. "Reading books filled with stories and poems inspired me to write my own. The more I read, the more I wrote. And if I wasn't reading a book, I was playing a sport; I played everything, particularly basketball, and spent many afternoons on the court, perfecting my jump shot." ~ Charles R. Smith Jr. What could be more perfect to show where writers get ideas, how they write from what they know and love, and the variety of writing styles they can bring to their notebooks! Not only that, his poems are amazing! 

Off to finish last minute plans for tomorrow ~ 

Happy Reading!