Nuts to You

Today we came to the end of Nuts to You. Well it is not really the end. We have five epilogues to finish tomorrow and a note from the author. Five epilogues. I cannot remember a book I have ever read with that many epilogues. Then again I cannot remember a book with talking squirrels using a Scottish accent.

One thing I really noticed was the class has really started to find the signposts on their own. Today the class was able to find a Words of the Wiser. Yesterday they found a Tough Question. The ending of the book was really well written. I loved the messages we found today. I am still not sure where this book ranks to the other books that I have read aloud this year but it was a fun read aloud.

I have been so impressed with independent reading this week. The room has been quiet and students are reading amazing books. We have students reading authors like Jerry Spinelli, Louis Sachar, Carl Hiaasen, Gary Paulsen, Barbara O'Connor and the list goes on and on. On some of the days I have been letting the time we get to read get longer and longer. I think some of the students have really enjoyed this time. One thing that I true believe is that students need time to read good books. So have a great break and hopefully you can make a bit of time for books. 

Book Ideas

I thought I would make a list of books that might make some popular gifts among our students. Hopefully this will help you with that last minute shopping to find the perfect book for a gift.

Popular Books in the Classroom:

These books are flying off my shelves right now and I think any of the students would love a copy.

If I get a new book from the series, it is gone being passed back and forth between students. I know that these books look like they are filled with Star Wars but they are really more than just a Star Wars book. Plus it is a series so it could lead to lots of future reading.

This series I am not very familiar with just yet. I have had four or five students writing about it to me this week in their Conversation Calendars. The book sounds amazing. 

Gary Paulsen has become one of our go to authors. The students love his book. Students will start with Hatchet and then head to Brian's Winter and then The River and then more and more Paulsen books. He is an amazing author and I love to see how much the students have been enjoying his books.

Another author that has become quite popular right now in my room is Carl Hiaasen. Be careful though Hiaasen writes books for adults and children. Some of my favorite titles of his include Scat, Flush, Hoot, and Chomp.

Some Picture Books:

Although our students might not admit it I think that they love picture books. Here are a few titles that would make great gifts.

Quest is the next book from Aaron Becker after his amazing book Journey. I have shared Journey with the class but I have not had a chance to share Quest. The artistry in Becker's books is amazing. This book is another example of a wordless picture book which the students really seem to enjoy.

One book that has been flying around my room this year is The One and Only Ivan. This picture book tells the real story of Ivan the Shopping Mall Gorilla which was the basis for the book The One and Only Ivan.

Some New Books:

Just a few titles that the students may not have heard of just yet. I do not know a ton about these books except that many are saying they are some of the best of the year.

Hope this list helps and that you are having a great week.

A Farewell

On Friday we said goodbye to Ms. Cavallaro. It amazes me that her time with us went so fast. Ms. Cavallaro has played a huge role in our school year and she will be missed. I keep thinking about all the brilliant lessons that she was able to share with both classes.

As a parting gift to Ms. Cavallaro, both classes made her a book entitled 54 Things Every Teacher Should Know. Each student added a piece of advice that they wanted to share with Ms. Cavallaro. The book was filled with plenty of nuggets of great advice. Here are a few gems from the book:

• Don’t let the “my mom took it out of my binder” trick get you
• Teach higher grades so we are in your future class!
• Never be a math teacher...it is too hard
• Make every day a day they want to learn
• Make your kids work hard but not too hard!!
• Have party Friday every Friday
• Have a little fun!

This week we are trying to get done with our book Nuts to You. 

Today on the journey home our squirrels faced an ice storm and a bobcat. This book has been filled with twists and turns and I cannot wait to see where it takes us in the last few days. As we read this book, we continue to concentrate on characters. I hope you can continue to concentrate on talking about characters at home. We have talked about how we need to notice how/why a character changes, figure out a characters motivation, notice character feelings and traits, and many other ideas.

I hope you had a great start to your week.

Conversation Calendars

This week and next week students will be filling out their conversation calendars when they are done with reading time. One week half the students will be on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule and then the next week they will be on the Tuesday/Thursday schedule. The other half of the class will be on the opposite schedule. I love these conversation calendars. During the two weeks I get to have five conferences with each student. That means when the two weeks is done I am able to have over 250 conferences.

On the day students are supposed to write they will grab their Conversation Calendar and write to me in that days spot about what they were thinking. Then the students turn the paper in after writing. While students are writing the other half of the class meets me at the rocking chair and tells me about what they were reading. I take each stack of papers home at night and write back. I might ask questions or agree with the students or just try to keep the conversation rolling. Finally the students get their paper back on their next writing day. They read what I wrote back and our conversation continues.

We told the students that over the next two weeks we want them to try to make their conversations about the characters in the books they have been reading. We have been introducing different ideas of what students can think about when it comes to characters. The room is starting to fill up with different character posters.

These are not the exact posters from our room but I forgot to take pictures of our posters today so these will have to do. If you are reading at home over the next few weeks, you could try to talk about the characters in the book or movie or television show you are watching. These conversations would just support the ideas that we are talking about in class. 

I hope your week is off to a great start.

An Accent

In our new read aloud book Nuts to You one of our squirrels Jed was taken by a hawk and dropped far from his home. Two squirrels from Jed's home decide to set off on a journey to find and bring back their friend. I am loving this book so far. Even though our quest has just begun I know that we are in for a bit more of an adventurous book than our other read aloud books.

One of my favorite parts of the book is that Jed has found himself in a new part of the forest with a very different type of squirrel. These squirrels have a tint of red in their fur and love to eat pine cones. I think the class also loves the accent of the new squirrels. I believe the accent the author was trying for was Scottish. I have been trying my hardest to recreate the accent. I have failed. I am awful at accents. At best I am pulling off a terrible Australian accent.

Even with my accent failing I am loving this book.

In Social Studies we got to move on to talk about the three branches of our government. One of our goals is to teach the class the different responsibilities of the three branches. Today we started with the legislative branch and their responsibility of making laws. If you are going to discuss how laws are made, there is only one video to show. 

We challenged the class to listen to the video and then put the steps of how a bill becomes a law in order. The tables raced to see which group could complete the task first. We were amazed to see how quickly the groups were able to place the steps in order after just two viewings.

Hope you are having a great week.

Sorry for the Absence

I am so sorry that I was not able to blog on Monday or Tuesday. I had it all planned to blog five days this week and then around 2:00 on Monday the flu attacked. I am back on the mend and hopefully can get back to filling you in on what he have been up to in room 215.

Today we finished Charlotte's Web. I will miss the time of watching the class scatter around the room in their groups to read this classic. The room would fill up with the sounds of students reading this classic and it was quite a sight to see.

Yesterday, when I was out, the class read the one moment that I love most in the book. It is the words of the wiser spoken by Charlotte:  

“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.” 

We had been searching for this moment. The class knew they had to ask themselves what life lessons can be learned and how might it affect the character. I thought the class did a great job of figuring out the life lesson and then deciding how it might affect Wilbur. 

In writing we are just starting to write the first drafts of our personal narratives. Ms. Cavallaro had done a great job of explaining different ways students could make their personal narratives better. It has been amazing to see how the students took these ideas and have started to use them in their narratives. 

Finally in Social Studies we started government. We have been looking at the Constitution this whole week. One of my favorite things about teaching government is getting to show some School House Rock. So far we have showed this great video but more our coming. 

I hope you are all healthy and having a great week!