Reading

“It usually starts with a mess you can’t explain…” This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase (with no extra cost to you). For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link! Oh my goodness!What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night by Refe and Susan Toma is one of my new faves! This book is very near and dear to my heart.A few years ago I had a little girl in my class who knew in her heart of hearts that her toys

    Making Mental Images or Visualizing is one of my favorite comprehension strategies to teach my kiddos!   I have written several blog posts about this wonderful strategy to help your student’s reading comprehension. You can find them: My Neighbor’s Dog is Purple! The Purple Kangaroo! The Girl Who Thought in Pictures! They all have freebies of course! This book is a great way to show making a mental image! We talk about how to use the text to make pictures in our heads.  I usually read this book to my kiddos and have them make the pictures in their heads before I

Hurrah!  It is Mentor Text Monday! This is a super fun read aloud for fact and opinion! This week I am talking about a fun Non-fiction text: Weird and Wild Animal Facts by Jessica Loy! It is a perfect read-aloud for teaching about Facts and Opinions. Yes, there is a freebie below! This book is so much fun!  It has lots of great pictures and fun facts about some amazing animals.  It is organized into smaller chunks of text to make it a bit easier for kiddos to read. It was also a Young Hoosier Award Nominee in 2018! If

  Hello! Welcome back to Mentor Text Monday (the post formerly known as Book Talk Tuesday).   Today I am featuring: Goldi Socks and The Three Libearians by Jacki Mims Hopkins! Every school year we spend a ton of time teaching our kiddos how to choose books that are a Good Fit for them.   This book is how I kick off my whole unit! In the story Goldi Socks discovers a house filled with books belonging to the Libearian family. Of course Goldi has to find something to read! She uses the five finger rule, and lots of trial and error

  Making Good Choices for Kids!   I want to start by saying that I am not affiliated with the authors or creators of this wonderful book in any way, I just love it and wanted to share this wonderful book with others!   What Should Danny Do?  is a book about making good choices for kids and how the choices we make affect our lives. This book is a kind of “pick a path” type of story, where your children can help Danny make his choices, then see the consequences of those choices (good and bad).     I

Hello! I want to share with you an extraordinary new book from Innovation Press: The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: the story of Dr. Temple Grandin This book is part of Amazing Scientist series! “If you’ve ever felt different if you’ve ever been low,if you don’t quite fit in, there’s a name you should know…”Meet Dr. Temple Grandin―one of the world’s quirkiest science heroes!This book is a perfect jump-off point to talk about many subjects in your classroom!Scientists, Women Scientists, metacognition, differences, and accepting differences. One of the things that I try to teach my kiddos every year is Meta-Cognition, or

Using Context Clues. It’s a very important skill for reading students to have! Using context clues to infer the meanings of unknown words! Where do you even start? I have two great books to help you to teach Using Context Clues to infer the meaning of unknown words. Baloney (Henry P.) So, when I first introduce this skill my to kiddos, I use Baloney (Henry P.) by Jon Scieszka.  Poor Henry is a little alien late for szkola again. His teacher is going to give him lifelong detention unless he can come up with very good, very believable excuse.  Do

Welcome Back! I have a wonderful new book to share with you today! It is perfect for teaching Character Traits! The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt! He is the author of The Day the Crayons Quit, and The Day the Crayons Came Home! Of course, there is a freebie for you at the end! I hope you are wearing your battle pants! Rock, from the Kingdom of Backyard,  is looking for a fight.  He has yet to find a challenge. Paper, from the Empire of Mom’s Home Office, and Scissors, from the tiny village of Junk Drawer,

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for visiting me again. This is a special Book Talk Tuesday Post for me. It’s about my FAVORITE children’s book of ALL TIME!I know, you are thinking “How in the world do you choose?  There are so many great books out there?”  But, this one is special. Mrs. Beggs and the Wizard by Mercer Mayer has been my favorite since I was a little girl. When I was in college, I discovered it again at a Half-Price Bookstore.  It was the first children’s book that I bought for my future classroom. Every time I

Hello again!  Welcome to another Book Talk Tuesday! Today I am going to be talking about a fun new book called: Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows written by Asia Citro, illustrated by Marion Lindsey!     Wow!  Is this a fun book!  It has everything: Magic, Science, adventure, experiments, and more! This is an adorable story of a little girl who discovers that her mom has been helping magical creatures since she was little.  Mom needs to go on a business trip and leaves Zoey in charge to help any creatures that may show up needing help!  With the

It’s Book Talk Tuesday! My favorite day of the week!Today I want to talk to you about:   Ideas are All Around by Philip C. Stead!   My kiddos loved this book!  They thought that the combination of illustrations and photographs was really neat!  They loved the cloud pics! The main character is an author who has to write a story, but is out of ideas, so he goes for a walk with his dog Wednesday.  They have some fun adventures, conversations, and thoughts on their walk through their neighborhood. It is a great book for talking about where ideas

Welcome back to another Book Talk Tuesday! This week, I am talking about an Alphabet book! Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers!This book is a fun way to get your kiddo writing their own alphabet stories!   I LOVE this book!  It has a short story for each letter of the alphabet! They are fun, silly, and sure to spark the interest of your students!   I have to say, I am so excited about finding book trailers on You Tube!  Isn’t that awesome? Book trailers! (Maybe I am seriously behind the times, but I love them!)   As