A Year of Reading

In case you didn't know....I love to read!  Goodreads is one of my favorite apps for keeping track of my reading.  So in celebration of a new year and for anyone looking for some new reads, here are some of my stats and favorites of 2013!

Books Read:  83
Pages Read:  23,393

Favorite Books: 
Across a Star Swept Sea:  Retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Not as good as For Darkness Shows the Stars but still a page turner!

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library:  Such a clever book....a Willy Wonka/Librarian mashup.

Least Favorite Books: 
Ever After High:  Love Shannon Hale, but this book was too cheesy!

The Red Tent:  Not sure I was okay about fictionalizing an event I believe to be true.....

I reread The Mark of the Lion series...oh so good.  Christywas also a reread....LOVE that book!  A must read for all teachers:-) 

I read A LOT of young adult fiction!  Happily take suggestions of great adult fiction:-)

Happy Tuesday,

The Stacks Computer Style

Today we went to the computer lab...(computers is my LEAST favorite part of the week!)  Anyway last year, we wrote and created "The Stacks" poetry.  They were fun to read and such an easy way to create a poem.  Today in the lab we typed them.  We brought our bookbags to the lab and had two poetry options: 

1-Use the titles of books in your bag to create a poem.

2-Pick one page in your book and type 8-10 of the words into a poem.

3-Do both...oh you over-achievers!

Loved how they turned out...and reinforced that poetry comes from anywhere!  They also got to practice typing and experience changing font and size.  Jusy in case you want to see the non-computer version from last year, click here.

Happy Thursday!!!

Have You Heard The Legend of Ninja, Cowboy, Bear

One of my favorite back to school books is called, The Legend of Ninja, Cowboy, Bear.  It is about a ninja, a cowboy, and a bear who argue about who is best.  So they each perform challenges and then realize they are all unique as they are.

source

At the end you get the instructions for playing Ninja, Cowboy, Bear....like Rock, Paper, Scissors!  A great brain break and way to do some movement.  Here is what it looks like--

Start back to back...

 Walk away 1...2...3...

Turn and show what you are!

The first time, I like to get outside and play it.  However it is an easy game for in classroom and we add it to our morning meeting game choice list.

Happy Wednesday,

I Heart Kidblog

Many of you already do kidblog.  I have been using it for a while, and just thought I would share.  My class uses it fairly regularly, but stay within the topic of reading/books.  It is really easy to set up and each student has their own blog to change and post on.

So here is one written today...

And the conversation that follows....

I don't worry about punctuation, spelling, etc.  I may comment about it but really just encourage sharing and talking about books.

Happy Tuesday,

Famous Teacher Appreciation

This morning I was thinking about all the teachers the media has created and then came upon a list of 100 cool teachers from children's literature.  I heart reading and I heart teaching.  What better way to celebrate than with a linky party?!

book:  (this was very hard to pick!)
Christy Huddleston....teacher to tough kids in Smoky Mountains.

movie:
Mr. Hundert...teacher to hooligans at a prep school.

tv show:
Mr. Kotter....teacher to a remedial class in inner city New York.  (This show used to have all day marathons on Nickolodeon....I got hooked.)

Give a shout to your favorite book/movie/tvshow teachers.  Use the image on your blog post and remember Farley's rule of 3.

Happy Sunday,

Book Character Museum

A few years ago, my class created a Book Character Museum.  I thought I would bring it back with my Reading Round-Up class.  (Reading Round-up is our 30 minute intervention time.  We divide the whole 2/3 grade into ability groups to provide interventions or extensions.  I have the extension group during this time.)

First we picked a book or a book character, if we already had one we loved.  Then we read up on that character.  Either getting to know a new one or getting reaquainted with one we already met.  We had to make a list of what we would need to be to imitate that character and then work on what we would say.  We talked about Wax Museums and how life like the wax sculptures are.

We made invitations and invited all the other classrooms...so they could sign up and come in shifts, of course.  Our room was VERY full.  Some of our character statues overflowed into the hallway.  We sat next to our book and a play button (bottle cap with a sharpie drawn arrow "play" sign.)  Visitors would come to a statue, press play, and listen to facts about each of the characters.

there are people EVERYWHERE!!!

This week we put it all together-
Judy Moody and a Mike Lupica character

 A Warriors cat and Bad Kitty

 A student from Wayside School, Fred and George Weasley

 More Mike Lupica (that jersey was originally a t-shirt!)

 Beezus and Ramona

 Someone on Emily Rodda's, Deltora Quest and Song Lee...one of Horrible Harry's friends

Auggie from Wonder.  If you have not read this book...do it!

 I have no knowledge of this character...but the book looks pretty funny!

 Plastic, from Toys Go Out...one of my FAVORITE read alouds.  (Plastic is a round rubber ball:-)

 A Fairy from the wonderful world of Daisy Meadows and a Puppy from Puppy Magic

McKenna, a newer American Girl book series.  She is gymnast and this girl was SO excited to wear her gymnastic outfit to school!

So much fun and a great way to celebrate and share books.
Happy Tuesday,