Expository Nonfiction

Our school uses Reading Street by Scott Foresman to teach language arts.

It's not bad.  Although I thought the stories in our old series were more interesting.  :(

The one thing I like is the amount of nonfiction it includes.

Second grade boys LOVE nonfiction.  (So do the girls.)

As mentioned in previous posts I love the Teacher's Clubhouse for literacy posters and much much more.  But they didn't have one for a genre that our book uses.

So instead of paying them to make one for me I made my own.

It looks a LOT like theirs because I wanted it to go with my other posters so don't get mad at me.  Just click on the picture to grab it.

I found a website I'd never seen or heard of before.  It includes Smartboard lessons for many topics.  Check it out.

University of Missouri eThemes:  your source for content-rich, kid-safe online resources

I am a couple followers away from 400!!  Woo Hoo!

I'll be unveiling a new look for my blog and having a giveaway . . . so stay tuned!

Leveled Library Help!!

Okay people, I need your help! I have a huge classroom library. Like many of you I am slightly seriously addicted to books.  My books have always been organized by genre, topic, and author or series.  After seeing all the blog posts about leveling classroom libraries, I was planning on doing this next summer.

HOWEVER...yesterday I got a wild hair up my rear when I saw the mess my kiddos have made of the classroom library and instead of just putting it back the way it was, I began leveling books using the Scholastic book wizard.  Holy crappin-apolis!  What a mess!  There is no turning back!

Here is where you come in.  I'm giving away free airline tickets to the first five people willing to come finish the job for me!  I wish!  At my school, we use DRA levels.  So although my kiddos are all leveled, I've never made a big deal with them about their level number.  Do I put numbers on my new leveled boxes?  Will kids get wacko about their numbers?  Bragging, whining, etc.  I could be worrying about nothing and I know the kids know who are the great readers and all.  But, I'm still unsure.  Please give me your opinion.  Be honest.

Also, how do you level a book that isn't on the Scholastic book wizard?  I have a LOT that aren't!

Tomorrow afternoon I have a sub so I can attend a math curriculum meeting and right now I should be  torching organizing my room because I have piles of books everywhere.  The kids today were literally climbing over piles to get behind my desk.  What was I thinking??  The end result will be worth it, I know.  The kids are excited about what I am doing (as if all the books are suddenly new) even though they don't know what exactly I am doing.

PLEASE help if you can!!

Author's Purpose, D5, CAFE, and a Little Glue

I made these posters to match the way Reading Street teaches author's purpose in second grade. I love these little bugs from Scrappin Doodles. The borders are from the Scrappin Cop. You can pick them up at my Teacher's Notebook store.

This week has been crazy! Teaching and assessing at the same time is just nuts. Add in the full moon, Halloween, and a change in the weather...NUTS!

On a positive note, my kiddos are doing so great with Daily Five (actually four since we just started read to someone this week and I haven't introduced listen to reading yet!) Some of my lower readers are actually asking if we are doing read to self each day! And while DRAing one of my struggling readers today, I commented on what a good job he was doing self-correcting and he smiled at me and said, "Did you notice I backed up and reread too?" It tickled me so much. Can I just say I l.o.v.e. CAFE too! Those Sisters are amazing. If you aren't doing Daily Five or CAFE (or...gasp...have never heard of them) I strongly encourage you to check them out. I bought an ebook Daily Five book from Stenhouse Publishers so I didn't have to wait for it to come in the mail. Great invention--ebooks. I wish they had one for the CAFE too. That I ordered from Amazon.

I've got to share a funny from today. A kindergarten teacher in my building (who has the class from h..e..double toothpicks) had a little guy use glue stick to try and glue himself to his chair today! I just died laughing! His bottom was covered in purple glue. Okay, I promised her someday she will laugh about it although today wasn't that day. I have a few kids I'd like to glue to their seats, but purple glue stick wouldn't be the glue of choice...

By the way, this post was ready to go a week ago but I've had trouble with my google.docs and scribd and haven't been able to upload this. I finally got it to work today... :)>

The Buzz Word

One of the gazillion blogs I was on today had a Password idea.  (If you know the blog, please let me know so I can give them credit.)  The password was hung by the door and the kids had to read it going out, etc. for practice.  Love that idea for those tough to remember words.  So I adapted it to my bee theme and here it is...the Buzz Word.  I will either write the word on or attach with Velcro dot.

I know how to put google docs on my website but not on my blog yet, so if you'd like a copy let me know.