Loving Literacy Blog Hop Stop #16

Welcome to...

We hope you are enjoying the Loving Literacy Blog Hop! We are so excited to join this wonderful group of reading specialists, coaches, and teacher bloggers to share our love of literacy with you.

Stacy:  I was the type of kid that always had my nose in a book.  Every summer we would travel to the 1000 Islands and stay in a cottage on the river.  All of my cousins swam and played games while I sat in the hot cottage reading the latest Sweet Valley High book or my dog-eared copy of Little House on the Prairie.  Interestingly, thirty years later (yikes) I still remember many of the story-lines.  

I work hard everyday to expose my students to a variety of genre, series, and authors so that they may develop a love of literacy like I did as a young girl.  This is not always an easy task as their feelings towards reading can sometimes be clouded because of their struggles.  I often have parents asking me for help in finding a book that will capture their child's heart.  Luckily, I found a fabulous used bookstore that sells hundreds of children's books for under a dollar.  When one of my little friends revealed that she thought she might like Jigsaw Jones, I literally bought the entire series for her.  Thankfully, the series captured her attention but I am hoping to expand to other books and series with her soon.

Colleen:  My mom was always a reader... I remember long 4 hour car rides to and from our lake house in the Adirondacks of upstate NY or ferry rides to the beaches of Martha's Vineyard where she was always reading. I think her encouragement and model really inspired my love for literacy as well. It wasn't long before I was following right in her footsteps with series of books I just couldn't put down. I distinctly remember love love loving The Boxcar Children mysteries and Misty of Chincoteague as a kid. As I grew older I fell in love with Jodi Picoult and Karen Kingsbury books. There's just something about holding the pages of a captivating story in your hands vs flipping the pages of an ipad or kindle... just sayin'. I also simply love a good children's book rich with vivid words,  colorful illustrations and a central message. 

As a first year, second grade teacher, I have loved teaching literacy to my students. I knew it would be an area of importance for any classroom teacher to have when I decided to get my masters in Reading and Literacy and it has benefited me greatly. It's so encouraging to see my students finding books and series they are so enthralled by that they just can't put down. We spend 10 minutes after lunch each day silently reading our Just Right Books and when that timer goes off, my students really struggle to put the bookmark in and close the book. Despite the fact that it takes me longer to gather their attention, I actually think that's a positive thing! :) My students are currently loving both Harry Potter and Percy Jackson andddd... fun fact: the first Harry Potter came out when I myself was in 2nd grade!

Now that we are getting closer to Valentine's Day, we wanted to share one of our favorite books by mother-daughter team Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton (yes....THE Julie Andrews).  

Let your inner SPARKLE out is Geraldine's mantra in the treasured children's book, The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart.  We love how the authors capture how to celebrate a friend's special qualities in this heartwarming tale.  This book shares how love and imagination can go a long way towards solving problems, even on Valentine's Day.  Our FREEBIE bundle includes two Reading Response letters (boy or girl) and a fun comprehension game that aligns with standards:

RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 

RL. 2.1 Ask and answer questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

We hope you enjoy celebrating friendship and kindness using the book The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart!  Get ready to fly on over to the next stop on the Loving Literacy Blog Hop!

Colleen's December Currently

Can you believe it's already December?!!

[psss... wanna know a secret? I've been wanting to put up the tree since the last trick-or-treater came to the door on Halloween!]

That just wasn't allowed here at home so I had to patiently wait until Thanksgiving Day to put the tree up. And now it's December! I just LOVE December. It's my birthday month AND it's Christmas. I love love love Christmas.... clearly. 

Anyway, today I'm linking up with Farley for her Currently Series once again. I'm a day late I know... I was really busy being an elf and setting up and decorating every last corner of my house for Christmas!

Listening: I'm in love with Hillsong's new-ish CD. It's amazing and their concert was pretty amazing as well. I just love this song for so many reasons but the main one is that right now I feel like the word relentless is what the Lord is saying to me. His love is relentless and He is not giving up on me. 

 Loving: I got a haircut on Saturday! This is kinda a HUGE deal in my life. I never get actual haircuts. Typically, I just go there, ask the world's greatest hair dresser to make my hair as blonde as it was when I was a child and to trim the edges. This time, I decided (and mentally prepared) myself to get a real hair cut... with a style and all. 6 inches gone and I'm so glad I did it. I love it! This is a picture of myself and my sweet friend [also a teacher] Abbey and I from Sunday when we made up this recipe and baked some peanut butter cup cupcakes.

Thinking: Okay, okay... I'm just a tad behind on this whole marking papers thing. Man oh man I'm very behind. We use SO much [way too much] paper everyday. It stacks up so quickly. 

Wanting: I would really love to be sipping some sleepy time tea and closing my eyes real soon but that stack of papers is calling Miss McBride's name as soon as this blog post is finished. And if I took a sip now, I'd be asleep in 10 min I swear. That stuff has like magical sleeping powers. Try it. Delicious.

Needing: Balance.... Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Emotional balance. I need it and I'm working on it.

Favorite Tradition: My mom's favorite Christmas classic has always been A Year Without a Santa Claus so naturally, it's become a favorite of my sister and mine as well. I love settling down on a snowy night with some hot chocolate and watching some good 'ol Christmas specials with my family. 

.... and I'm also obsessed with Elf. Which is it's own Christmas classic/special in my mind. 

Thanks for sticking with us, friends. It's so fun to be on here and get to know so many other wonderful teachers and bloggers! We feel so thankful for the friends that we've made through this journey. 

Stay tuned in the coming days for some recipes, updates on what we bought for Cyber Monday and some exciting news about our upcoming Frenzy!

Happy Monday! 

Gratitude and special announcement

When I was in Kenya, it was family tradition to sit down each night for family meeting. We would gather up, snuggle up and spend time together each night discussing and celebrating the day. We would also share gratitude.

Gratitude was a time where the kids, volunteers, and matrons could go around and say what they were thankful for.... kinda like going around the Thanksgiving table here in the states, but we would do this everyday.

So, while Thanksgiving is over, we wanted to remain in an attitude of gratefulness and share our gratitude today. We're linking up with Reading and Writing Redhead for her Time To Be Thankful Linky party! Here are the top 10 things I'm thankful for today. 

 

“Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant—a seed—this plants the giant miracle.” Ann Voskamp

We also are excited to share with you that we are having a Black Friday SUPER SALE on everything in our TpT store today! 20% off everything! Come grab some Melonheadz filled bundles that contain student-led games are perfect for an ELA student center, small group RTI intervention, or whole-class activities. There are also reinforcing activities that can be used to assess your student’s ability!.

Check out some of our favorites below: 

We hope your Thanksgiving was filled with love and gratitude. 

We're SO thankful for YOU, friends.

Yesterday was: Thursday, Today is: Friday, Tomorrow will be: SATURDAY! Hallelujah!

Well, friends! Here we are at another Friday.... Can I get an amen?!

There were certainly some shouted out in our school at 3:00 today! It feels like this week was long across the board. But really, when my calendar board looks like below..I'm all smiles!

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written on this little blog of ours... I'm sure all you teachers can understand- the first year is just plain CRAZAYYYY! There's so much to think about, to do, to plan, to manage... my list gets longer by the minute (typical, I know) but I'm starting to get into a routine that I think both myself and my kids are really enjoying. This week we also had Open House. Now that that is over I feel like I can breath a little bit more easily!
All of that is really nothing I can complain about though because I really love my class. They're coming together so well and I really feel like we're working as a team now.

Just a little story about how awesome my kids are... The other day we were working in our groups (always working on social skills and friendships) and I noticed one group was getting a little chattier than the rest. I play pandora radio all day in my classroom- I call it quiet working music. I think it really creates a calming sense and feel in the room and my kids just love it. Now they even ask for it when Miss McBride forgets to press play. Anyway- my words are always the same... "If you can't hear the music, your voice is too loud". Well, this group's voices were too loud... but I kept hearing things like "Me too!" or "I know! Best ever!" or "That's my favorite".... I went over to the table to ask them to lower their voices and remind them to listen to the music and one of my sweet munchkins jumped out of her chair and gave me a hug saying "Miss McBride- sorry we're so loud... we're all talking about how you're the best teacher ever!" Welp... warm my heart right up sweet girl. Gosh I love them. And I love that they love school!

Today, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for a good 'ol Five for Friday! 

Let's get right to it! This one is really gonna be random!

 It's officially fall. The leaves are changing, the air is cool and it's sweatshirt weather which just makes everything amazing. I love this time of year! And I love pumpkin everything. Sooooo it's a win win.  Read more about why I love it here!

Yesterday, we celebrated my momma's birthday! Happy birthday Mom! I love you!

Class Dojo is my new favorite thing. My kids LOVE it and I do too! They all went home the day I introduced it and made their own little avatars! I keep Class Dojo up on my SmartBoard all day. About a week ago, we had a discussion on positive and negative behaviors that I am either looking for or looking to avoid and we plugged those into the website. Now, whenever I see someone demonstrating one of those behaviors I can click on their little avatar and award points and my SmartBoard will make a little sound that all my kids just know to listen for. Obviously, my goal everyday is to highlight the positive behaviors in my class. I find that if I notice a negative behavior occurring, and I give a point to someone who is demonstrating a positive behavior, the child demonstrating the negative behavior checks themselves and turns it around. The picture above of the 98% donut was my class' record for today! So proud of them!! :) 

Last weekend, I went on the Youth Group's Fall Retreat. It was such a wonderful time and I loved being away for the weekend. The teens had a great time too. The funny thing is, my church shares the camp that weekend with another church from Boston. A woman from my school leaned over to me at assembly this morning and asked me if I happened to have been in New Hampshire last weekend at the exact camp that I was at! She was there as a part of the other church we were sharing the camp with! Such a small world! Pretty cool :)

This morning, right before school started, my friend Tom from Kenya called me! My heart just flipped around in my chest as I answered and heard his voice! AND! I got to speak with a bunch of the kids from Flying Kites- the organization that I was working with in Kenya. The boy in this picture is named Benson. I call him Benny and he just stole my heart. You can read all about why on my personal blog here! Anyway, it made my morning to talk to Tom and Benny, Lucy O and Mary! Really, I couldn't stop smiling. It made me yearn for Kenya even more than normal. But my heart is so full!

Last but not certainly least.... This week in Fundations we've been reviewing digraphs and blends and I just knew that our Sweet Tooth Crush set was beyond necessary for my classroom. I was so excited to use it and my kids just loved it! We typically share our stuff and explain that everything comes with a week of reinforcing activities but over the last two days, I had some good chunks of time in my schedule since Guided Reading groups haven't started yet and I couldn't wait to use this bundle of goodies for centers! I set up my room in 5 centers. It was perfect! To start, we all played Scoot! What a fun game. The kids loved it AND the OT teacher was in my room to observe- and she said my room was super OT friendly and she loved being in there. YES! And... when we had our Fundations assessment today, most all my kiddies got all their words right! Again, I'm so proud of my kids!

I set up my centers as follows:
1) I Have Who Has
2) Board Game
3) Word Sort
4) Word Search and Ladder Page (copied back to back)
5) Read and Illustrate and Word Shapes (copied back to back)

I spread out my centers around the room and put a rotating list on the smart board of how they should move. When the kids heard the bell, we switched. It took us 2 days to get through all the centers because it was our first time doing it. Everything takes longer the first time- all that explanation and modeling that's SO vital just takes up a good chunk of the lesson. The kids had so much fun over the last two day and I did too!

Grab your set in our store! It's so worth it!

What an awesome (but long) week! I just love being a teacher. I love the struggles and the challenges that lead to new understanding and ah-ha moments and today I realized I love love love Friday hugs before dismissal.

Happy Weekend Everyone! The weather here in New England is supposed to be beautiful! Enjoy :)

And just because I'm obsessed with both Fall and Melonheadz....  

Five for Friday and Big Birthday SALE!

Happy Friday, everyone!  We hope you had a great week!  I LOVE this time of year!  Settling into the school routine, still feeling that back to school energy and starting to notice the bright colored leaves make this girl very happy!  Plus, it's my "birthday weekend" so I am planning to celebrate and have some fun with my family!  Being the only girl in the house has its positives!
I'm excited to be joining Doodle Bugs Teaching again for her weekly Five for Friday linky party.  I love reading these linked up posts every week because they highlight school ideas as well as everyday life!

I had a great start to the week.  On Sunday my family had a chance to go apple picking.  The apples are AMAZING this year!!  Logan couldn't wait  to take a bite right away!  Delicious!  I'm going to try to squeeze-in time to make one of my favorite fall desserts, Apple Dumplings!  I love Trisha Yearwood's recipe from the Food Network.  It's super easy to make and delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!  I'm drooling just thinking about it! 















I was able to find some colorful baskets at the Dollar Store (SCORE) to finish organizing my books in the Reading Room.  I am very fortunate to have an eclectic assortment of titles to meet my student's needs and interests.  When I started the position four years ago, I decided to organize the books by guided reading level.  This makes it easy for me and my colleagues to quickly find appropriately leveled books for students.  Since every minute is precious during the school day, I think it's critical that I always provide my struggling readers with books they are able to read with success.  However, I also try to promote motivation by giving them choice in what they read.  Now that the books are arranged by level, I can offer them several baskets to choose from and still ensure their success.  How do you arrange your classroom library?  Leveled?  Genres?  Authors?

 

A second project that I was able to finish was a Story Retell poster based on a blog post from The First Grade Parade.   Cara explains how she uses sticky notes to record her student's thoughts while they retell a book.  This makes it nice to be able to reuse the poster again and again.  I made a mini-version of her anchor charts and put on a ring for my Reading Tutors to use during small groups.  These would also work great for students to use after "Read to Self" activities.  If you visit Cara's blog, all the resources are available as a free download.

 

In time for the start of football season, our new produce "Punted, Tackled, and Blocked" reinforces the three sounds of suffix-ed.  The bundle includes 3 different games and a week of reinforcing student activities.  I can't wait to put this together for my kiddos!  GO PATS!!





Finally, to celebrate my birthday, everything in our TpT store is 20% off this Friday and Saturday!  LET'S PARTY!

We hope you have a fun-filled weekend, friends!!  Talk again soon!