Book Tasting Football Style

Motivating kids about books is a must! Many times kids need help and guidance in selecting good books and finding books that they love. They also need our help branching out and trying other genres. I decided to host a Book Tasting with a sport theme. It was a HUGE hit! It helped several reluctant find some new books to try as well as sparking great book conversations. It was a lot to pull together, but was worth every single second!

Invitation that was posted to build excitement in the days before!

Each child filled out a brochure about 5 books. They have kept these to help them remember books that they would like to read. 3 months later and I still see kids referencing them. The best part is it has spread to groups of kids making lists of what they plan to read and the order.

My New Digs in Fifth Grade Reading

Well..... A huge change came my way the end of June when I found out I was being moved to Fifth Grade Reading. I would have never thought this was a place where my skills were needed. This fall has been a blur, but it is definitely fun teaching my last group of kindergarten students as fifth graders. Check out our new digs in fifth grade.

Best Year EVER!

Don't forget to check out all of the great sales on Teachers Pay Teachers on August 1st & 2nd.

Developing a Love of Poetry

We all know that poetry is not a genre our kids typically choose to read and becomes tricky for them when they begin to analyze it. I blame myself for that. Do I expose my kids to enough poetry? Do I let a passion for poetry shine through as I teach it?

I want to improve in this area and help my kids foster a love and understanding for poetry. I am digging to find more diverse texts to share with my kids. Here are a few that I can not wait to share this year.

What are some great mentor texts that you use for poetry?

Happy New Year and a FREEBIE!

Here is a quick little Guided Reading form I thought I would share.

Happy 2016!

TPT Cyber Smile Sale

Don't miss out on the opportunity to buy some of those much needed (and wanted) items on your wishlist on sale from your favorite authors!!!

Happy Shopping!!

Do You Have A Data Room?

We all know how much data drives instruction in education today. I was asked at the beginning of the year to help set up the Data Room. Ours is very simple and a work in progress.

Every grade level has a section. Every child has a laminated magnetic tag. The tag has information about them and their levels on current testing. Then, students are sorted into tiers. Next, teachers take the tags to divide into intervention groups and make plans for them according to need.

We also plan on posting our praises and goals.

I would love to see and hear all of the great ideas you have. Let me hear them!

SHHHHHHHHH....BEWARE Live Monsters!!!

A few weeks ago I walked into one of my classrooms and was greeted by children telling me to watch out there were live monsters in the room. This teacher gave each child a monster. The monster was their writing buddy. Sometimes these monsters brought messages, made messes and kept us all on our toes. One day 3 were even sent to the monster hospital. The kids were so motivated to write! It was precious to hear their whisper conversations with their monsters. The writing was precious and brought great quality. These kids have now taken their monsters home but are still very motivated in writing. What a great idea and joy to see!

Red Ribbon Week Doors

This post is mainly for me to have as reference when I am looking for a good door decoration. So I snapped pictures of some cute doors from our campuses door decorating contest.

More Love for Back to School Bonus Sale!

Since we have our rooms organized and cute, we can now start thinking about materials for lessons. Here is one more chance to grab a few more back to school must haves from TPT.