10 Books For Boys

Here is a list of books for boys with some classics and some new favorites!

1) The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

2) Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg

3) Beekle by Dan Santat

4) Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty

5) The Guinness Book of World Records

6) Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves

7) Too Much Glue by Jason Lefebvre

8) The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

9) The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka 

10) Whose Poop Is That? by Darrin Lunde

Do you have other favorites?  Let us know in the comments section!

Fun Ideas for Learning The ABCs

Need some fun games and activities for learning the alphabet and letter sounds? 

Try some of these:

Blurred Lines Parody

Weird Al fan or not, if your a grammer you're a grammar and language fan, you will probably enjoy his new parody of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines.

The video actually has great advice like this:

Here it is Weird Al's Word Crimes:




Happy Friday!

You Oughta Know About... These Awesome Books!

Welcome to "You Oughta Know" - a blog hop devoted to great ideas and resources teachers should know about started by the one and only Mrs. McClain.


What do I think you oughta know?  I think you should know about these awesome books!

The Day the Crayons Quit

By Drew Daywalt

Grades K-2

Duncan wants to color, but every color in his box of crayons has walked out!  Each crayon has written Duncan a letter to explain why it was necessary to strike.  These letters will make your students giggle as they reflect on the life of a crayon.








I'm a Frog! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)

By Mo Willems

Grades K-2

From the Elephant and Piggie series, Mo Willems will make you and your students laugh with I'm a Frog! Piggie baffles Gerald the Elephant when he ribbits and hops around.  Can Gerald understand the concept of pretending?









That is Not a Good Idea

By Mo Willems

Grades 1-3

Like always, Mo Willems delivers in this hilarious picture book.  A hungry fox invites a mother hen to dinner. That is NOT a good idea!









Ungifted

By Gordon Korman

Lexile: 730, Grades 3-7

The only thing Donovan Curtis easily gets A's in is troublemaking.  And when he pulls his most massive prank yet, he knows he's gone too far.  Only a miracle can save him.  And a miracle, in the form of a mix-up, is what he gets.  The punishment Donovan expects is accidentally replaced by an invitation to the prestigious school for gifted and talented students, the Academy of Scholastic Distinction (ASD).  Although Donovan knows he is in over his head, ASD is his only chance to escape the consequences awaiting him.  At ASD he needs to navigate his more than difficult classes, his new teachers' suspicions, and a variety of genius-level students all while trying to make friends, fit in, and hide out.



Wonder

By R.J. Palacio

Lexile: 790L, Grades 4-7

August (Auggie) Pullman is your typical 10 year-old-boy in a lot of ways, with one main exception.  Auggie was born with a craniofacial abnormality which causes his facial features to be severally malformed.  This abnormality has kept him home for homeschooling--until now.  Auggie decides that he will start his fifth grade year, the beginning of middle school, in a private school.  Auggie is a mixture of nerves and excitement as he braves middle school if all the fears of a new student, plus a few extra.





Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

By Steve Sheinkin

*Newbery Honor Book
Lexile: 920L, Grades 5+

Bomb is the fascinating, true tale of America's race to build the atomic bomb, about the Allies endeavors to thwart the Nazi's atomic bomb plans, and about the Soviet Union's efforts to steal information from American scientists.  The story centers on three main people: J. Robert Oppenheimer (leader of the Manhattan Project), Harry Hold (Soviet Spy), and Knut Haukelid (member of the Norwegian Resistance). A great read that intertwines quality story-telling, history, danger, deceit, and scientific genius!




These books are all great for independent reading, as class novels, or as read-alouds.  Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and some will make you think, but they all will leave an impression on you and your students.

If you're looking for an easy and effective way to help students with reading comprehension, you can try my Reading Comprehension Sentence Starter Cards.  They are only $1.00 and they help students practice:

• Predicting
• Connecting
• Clarifying
• Questioning
• Commenting
• Synthesizing 

I recommend the Comprehension Cards for 3rd grade and up, but they can also be used as a teacher-led model with younger students.

An InLinkz Link-up

Great YouTube Channel for Phonics, Sight Words, and More!

If you are looking for fun songs to help teach your students the alphabet, letter names, letter sounds, and even sight words, check out Have Fun Teaching.

I have several students who just start singing in class.  They are in kindergarten or first grade, and while they are still mastering letter sounds, they are able to sing out lines of text like, "Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep..."  While I'm sure they have little idea of what the lyrics from pop songs mean, imagine if that type of automaticity could be achieved for letter names, letter sounds, and even for spelling sight words!

Here are just a few of Have Fun Teaching's videos:

What Do the Letters Say? (What Does the Fox Say Parody)



Alphabet Song



Letter F Song



The "Are" Song

Father's Day Craft and Gift Ideas

Here are some Father's Day craft ideas that are great for any man in your child's/students' lives that you are looking to thank:

1) DAD Picture Frame

2) A Pup for Pop

3) Fishing Cupcakes

4) I Love You This Much

5) M&M Bow Tie

6) We Love You Because Photo

7) I Think You're Dandy Card

8) Father's Day Goody Bags

Get Students Excited About Reading!

I've been reading over several blog posts, articles, and talking to teachers about the best ways to get students excited about reading.  Here are my top three favorites:


1. Dress up as a character!
By far, this strategy gets a reaction from students.  Young and old, too-cool-for-school and comfortable being goofy, boy or girl - all students notice this.  While some might try to play it off or laugh out of comfortableness, you will show your passion for reading, and students will respond to it.

2. Make a Space

This works for both the home and the classroom: Make a comfortable space where students can relax and focus on reading.  I've seen students trod  into my classroom, negative body language flying, but they then transform as they cross the room to my reading corner, grab a cushion, and settle in with a book.  You can see the gloom and tension melt away.  The transformation is palpable.  That comfortable, safe space provides so much more than a place to read.

3. Make A Connection

Tastier than Fried Worms?

Find a way to make reading connect to real life.  This can be done in many ways.  Pick your favorite scene, re-write it as a play, and act it out.  Have students compare and contrast themselves and the main character.  But my absolute favorite way to connect reading to life is to find a book with food in it and then make it!  Green Eggs and Ham?  How to Eat Fried Worms?  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?  The Grapes of Wrath?

You might want to take a more abstract approach (substitute gummy worms for real worms), or get creative ans build a scene with food (angry grape people).  However you do it, food makes reading fun!

Reading becomes much more exciting when kids can see your passion, when they can relax and enjoy it, and when they see how reading relates to their lives.

Here are a few of the articles and blogs I read when brainstorming: The Cornerstone, Edudemic, Million Words Campaign, University of Tennessee, and Imagine Learning. 

What are your favorite ideas and activities to get kids excited about reading?  Share in the comments below and feel free to include a link to your own blog post on the topic.

Resource Round-Up: Letter Recognition

Recognizing letters is a foundation skill that all learners need.  True, you don't need to know the name of a letter in order to read: knowing the names of c, a, and t won't help you read the word cat. 

Nevertheless, knowing letter names is important.  If you ask, "How do you spell cat?"  The answer you'll hear is, "C. A. T." 

While many kids learn the names of letters quickly, others struggle.  Here are some resources that will help those who struggle catch up:

1) 10 Ways to Build Letter Recognition from Moms of Dyslexics {And Struggling Readers}

2) Alphabet Activities for Every Season from No Time for Flash Cards

3) Letter Identification Activities from PreKinders

4) Letter Recognition: Kindergarten and 1st Grade RTI from my TPT store

 

  

What are your favorite letter recognition activities?

Resource Round-Up: Fine Motor Skills

A handful of my kiddos always struggle with handwriting, and especially for the younger students, it often ties directly into their motor skills and their ability to hold a pencil properly.

So here are some resources that can help build fine motor skills, and in turn, help students develop their handwriting:

1.  Fine Motor Skill Activities from Mom's Library

2.  20 Fine Motor Activities for Kids from A-Fun-Day

  

3.  10 Things Kids Love When Working on Fine Motor Skills from Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

What are your favorite fine motor activities?

Friday Freebie: September Newsletter

This year I'm sending a monthly "Literacy at Home" idea in our school's newsletter.

September's idea ties literacy in with family time and math skills:

You can download your free copy of the newsletter here: September Literacy at Home

Enjoy!

Five Great Picture Books Your Students Will Love

Here are five picture books that your students (and you) will love.

5. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
*What happens when Duncan wants to color, but his crayons have quit?

4. The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Gary Rubinstein and Mark Pett
*Beatrice NEVER makes mistakes... until now.  Her first mistake!  How will she deal with it?  A great book for those students who do not do well when they make a mistake.

3. Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown
*Jasper Rabbit loves carrots.  He eats them all of the time.  But... have the carrots started following him??

2. Dear Deer by Gene Barretta
*A fun homophone book that will get kids thinking about language and the meaning of words.

1. That Is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems
*A hilarious cautionary tale! 

I personally really enjoy all of these books and I'm looking forward to reading them to my students in the first week.  Who doesn't enjoy a funny book?

Have you read any of these?  What are your favorite new(er) picture books?