Since I was a little girl, I’ve been an avid reader. I remember coming home from the library, barely able to balance on my 10-speed because of my huge load of delightful reading. Even earlier than that, I remember my mom sighing as I climbed into bed, struggling with the stack of books I expected her to […]
Title: Blood and Honey Author: Shelly Mahurin Series : Serpent and Dove #2 Genre: Romance,Fantasy fiction,Young Adult ...
Get a first look at Angeline Boulley's debut genre-bending YA thriller 'Firekeeper's Daughter.'
My name is Amanda and I have a confession, I've never read Charlotte's Web. Can it be that an elementary school teacher, not to mention the daughter of two teachers, a lover of animals, and the wife of a former farmer, hasn't read this American classic? Yes, it is true. However, in honor of Charlotte's 60th birthday this month, I am reading the book to my class and loving it! Most of my students have read it some years ago so they are amusing me along the way. Laughing when I laugh, saying "awww" when I say "awww", tearing up when I tear up. You know what all good audiences do. Like every good teacher I don't just let them enjoy a wonderful story, I make them learn something new as we go. Since Charlotte, Wilbur and the barnyard crew are typically introduced to children in second or third grade, I decided to focus on the rich vocabulary E.B. White uses throughout the book. We also have been learning about animal adaptations in science, so the life of an arachnid lent us great study material. Through our reading we learned that Charlotte is an orb weaver spider as opposed to a sheet web spider. In addition to a spider's adaptations, we discussed their habitat, diet, and life cycle. Then we got to painting. I simply gave each student a black sheet of construction paper, a Q-tip, and some white paint. They designed an orb web, defined vocabulary words from the book, and there you have it a web of words that would make Charlotte proud! To finish off the activity we made spider cookies from Oreos, chocolate frosting, black licorice, and Mini M & Ms. My little biologists were quick to point out that most spiders have six or eight eyes. They are so technical aren't they!! I think they were just trying to get more M & Ms out of me! Adding new words to our vocabulary, and extending our life science knowledge gives this book even more reason to be one of my "new" all time favorites!
Happy August! I hope the first week has been going well for you all. I had forgotten I missed a post last Friday, so this one is packed full of books I've read these last 14 days. I've had family in and out of town, and continue to do so, so I've not been reading as much as I usually do. Things will settle down again once school starts, and hopefully, I can get back into the rhythm of these posts. Have you read anything really good lately? I'd love to hear about it! Be well, and happy reading! Paige
Continuing our epic journey towards Shakespeare's 400th death anniversary on Saturday, here is a handy-dandy board game that allows you to relive all the exciting ups and downs of this master playwright's eventful life!
Presenting our list for the best children's books of 2015. From picture books to YA, these are the stories that our kids just can't put down. Happy reading!
"Mónica" in the book, Fiesta Fatal I've been reading the book Fiesta Fatal, written by Mira Canion, with my Spanish 2 students. Mira's goal, when writing the book, was to create a book that was level appropriate for second year Spanish students and she succeeded in accomplishing that goal! If you're looking for a comprehensible level 2 book that has an interesting storyline, this is one book you should strongly consider. Today we read the last chapter of Fiesta Fatal. Some students volunteered to read the lines for the main characters in the chapter. I always look for ways in which students can interact with the text, so after reading, I projected the below sketches onto the board. We reviewed what happened as students said sentences in Spanish that matched the sketches. If they were uncertain about what to say, I allowed them to refer to the book. Find the download of the worksheet to the left HERE. After the students were familiar with the sketches I paired them up with a partner and distributed squares of paper that had the same sketches on them and gave them the following instructions: 1. Put the squares on the desk face down. 2. Randomly choose two cards and turn them over. 3. Decide the order of the two cards. 4. One partner says a sentence in Spanish to describe the sketch that they decided happened first in the chapter. The second student says a sentence to describe the second sketch. 5. The students choose a third paper, turn it over, and say a sentence to describe the sketch. 6. They they decide if that sketch is before the other two, in between the other two, or at the end of the first two sketches. 7. When the 3 sketches are in the correct order, they take turns saying a sentence for each of the sketches. (Student A describes sketch #1, Student B describes sketch #2, Student A describes sketch #3.) 8. Students continue turning the papers over, one by one, putting the new card in the correct place, and taking turns once again to say a sentence for each sketch. 9. When they were finished, they called me to their desks and I listened to their retell of the story. To download the two sheets of sketches shown below for the retells, click HERE. (The sketches on the sheets below are not in any particular order. Feel free to substitute any, or all, sketches that you are able to sketch better than I have done.)
I am, by no means, an expert on the middle grade psyche. They deal in ultimatums, and I find that their opinions are fast, fierce and at times, flippant. However, I love everything about middle gra…
E. E. Cummings
Ya'll... I suck. It's been so long since I've posted what I've been reading. Yikes. To keep this post from being too long, I'm just going to include the one book in a series if I wound up reading more than one of em. I'll indicate if I read all the books or not. Side note: I also listened to some books that I've already featured in one of these posts. I listened to Plier: Ironside Academy, Book 1. It was a great audiobook, and I just saw book two released earlier this. month on Audible, so I went ahead and used one of my credits for it. I also re-listened to Unconventional by Reecca Royce. I wanted to give em a shout out. :) Be well, and happy reading! Paige P.S. Some of these I read so long ago, that I can't remember it all. I've done my best.
Friends! It's October, what the absolute heck?? So many beautiful-looking books are coming out this month; I hope you find some delicious new books to read! Release dates are fluid; I'll try to take a peek and update as I can. Please don't hesitate to let me know if something has shifted or if I've missed a book. Be well, and happy reading! Paige
In war, there are no winners. That's what readers take away from Tim O'Brien's book about the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried, in the 20 years since its publication. O'Brien shares what he carries from his time in Vietnam.
Some of the greatest humans have chronicled extremely important events in their life. Reading into how they handle these experiences and how they overcome
Happy April! Our release calendar is here. I am super duper excited for the conclusion of the But Did You Die? series. I hope you find something you are equally excited to read! Release dates are fluid; I'll try to take a peek and update as I can. Please don't hesitate to let me know if something has shifted or if I've missed a book. Be well, and happy reading! Paige
Sarah Andersen knows what it is to be a bookworm. Here are 3 times she nailed it in her webcomic.
I started back to school this past week with my kids on Tuesday. I had such a great first week and I am so excited to be back making music with them. We spent our first few days going over music room rules and procedures (click here to see rules post), emergency drills, and jumped right into making music. Can I just say that I LOVE pinterest! I found so many great ideas for back to school games through Pinterest as well as from Susan during Level 3. I thought I would share some of the really fun ones that the students enjoyed our first few days back: "Up The Ladder" is a great game for learning the names of your new students. "Down, Down Baby" is from the Amidons. SO FUN! Apparently this is a favorite, because it's being sung on the bus! Hickety Pickety Bumblebee is a fun one to use with K/1. In first grade you could review four voices with "can you sing (whisper, call, speak) your name to me". With kindergarten, it might be a bit intimidating to ask them to sing their name to you on day 1 of music, but let's be honest we are still learning all their names several weeks into the school year. Pull this out with them a little bit later (maybe after you have presented the four voices) and do this then. Mamalama: I learned this in Level 3, and we take it a bit faster than in this video, but it is SO FUN! I even had a student get the last part after just a few listenings. CRAZY! What are some of your favorite first day songs and activities? Still looking for ways to set up and decorate your room? This music room decor catalog will give you lots of idea, plus a back to school tip on each page!
sirloin: theartofivankatrump: "If" by Rudyard Kipling Favorite Poem (No. 1)
When Breath Becomes Air, a memoir by Paul Kalanithi, about facing death and finding meaning.
Teaching plot elements to upper elementary students? Use a picture book to engage your students! Read it aloud, and then create a plot diagram!
"The book starts off normally enough, with a young girl receiving philosophy lessons in the post. Then it gets weirder and weirder until you have no idea what is happening, and feel compelled to keep reading to work it all out. The reveal doesn't come until right at the end, and when it does you want to go back to the beginning so you can read it all again with the new knowledge of how it's actually all working."–James LiddellGet a copy or get the audiobook.
