Read Aloud

Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James is a cute story about a girl named Emily who finds a whale in her backyard. She writes letters to her teacher asking him questions about whales.

I love using this book to teach facts and fiction.  After reading aloud the book a few times, I gave students a sheet of paper that had sentences from the text. For example:

There is a whale in my backyard pond.

I fed him cornflakes.

Whales live in salt water.

Students work with a partner to cut out the sentences and put them in a chart which is labelled Facts and Fiction. I check students' answers before I let them glue the sentence stripes. 

Another lesson I teach with this book is letter writing. Students pretend they are Emily and they want to find out another new fact about whales. We go over the rules of a friendly letter and then the students write to Mr. Blueberry. I give the letters to a different student. Then, they research the question and write a follow up letter. The students really love doing this activity!

Last Day

I made it !

Today arrived and it was the:It was an enjoyable day. I went on a "Mystery Walk" with my one group of 4th graders. It was fun and LONG! However, we did reach our destination which was the local ice cream place! The kids had a treat and then we made it back to school with 5 minutes to spare before dismissal! LOL !
I went and said good-bye to each 4th grade class. Some girls gave me hugs which I though was so sweet! I will miss seeing some of my students everyday! I told them maybe I would see them next year in 5th grade.

My teaching life is up in the air for next year. Who knows where I will be? One thing is for sure, it is time to say: HELLO to SUMMER!!

Happy Summer Reading!!

March Came and Went

Here's a quick picture

I use a program called Levelled Literacy Intervention. I really love how it includes fluency, word work, reading, and writing. I have been a classroom teacher for eight years. I have to say, this is one of the best programs I have used! for reading!  Here is a picture of one of my lessons. 
This chart came from Really Good Stuff. Check them out! There is a whiteboard on the opposite side! It is great from small group work!

Happy Reading!

Hello January

Preparing for a MLK Read Aloud! 

Books and ideas I have used in the past when I taught 4th grade. Below are two of my favorite books I share with my students:

Title: Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Title: Who is Martin Luther King, Jr.?

The first thing we did in my classroom was sign a peace pact. I think I found the copy from my January books or Mailbox.com. I would then hang them on our classroom door.

A few different things I did over the years are listed below:

1. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in solving disagreements without violence. Write about a time you solved a disagreement in a peaceful way.


2. Make a poster with the heading :I Have a Dream" and have the children draw a picture of what their dream is for themselves.

3. Make copies of small doves. Anytime a student did something peaceful during the month, a student or myself would write it down and add it to a bulletin board with the title, "Keeping Peace in Room ____ "

I hope there is something you can use in your classroom.

Happy Reading!

December Book Break!

Snowmen Everywhere !!

I was at Barnes and Nobles today browsing the holiday books at 50% off and was THRILLED to find this book!

I have Snowmen at Night which I LOVE!!

Snowmen All Year tells the tale of a boy wishing his snowman was magical. He wishes he could take him to the zoo, camping, to see fireworks, out on Halloween night and to other fun seasonal events.

The text is short and could be written on chart paper for a variety of reading aloud or cloze activities. Certain text could be covered up and a new story could be written. Then students could each have a line to illustrate for a class book.

This story also makes me want to cut out white circles for the students to make their own snowman. Then draw a snowman in a different seasons doing something fun (that is not in the book). I would love to see a snowman in a Hawaiian shirt or on a surfboard.

Here's to another great read aloud for a snow theme!

Happy Reading!