Turkey Claus and a Freebie {Book Talk Thursday}

Happy Thursday! I wanted to stop in and share a favorite book of mine to reading during the holidays, Turkey Claus!!

It is a super cute book about a turkey who learns he will be the main dish at Christmas dinner. He wants to write to Santa to ask that he not become Christmas dinner, but it's too late to write so he makes a trip to the North Pole. It's Christmas Eve and no one can get in to see Santa, so Turkey has to get creative with his attempts to get to Santa! 

The candy cane costume is definitely my favorite! 

My students last year loved this book! This year I thought I would use it with predicting, so I created a little freebie to share with you guys! 

Just click on the picture above to get your copy! 

I'm linking up with Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars! 

Glyphs, Books, and Help Needed {Five for Friday}

First full week of school is D.O.N.E. I feel like throwing a party!! Since I can't throw a party and invite all y'all over, I'll do the next best thing - Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

1. I finally got all the glyphs hung up out in the hallway! Does this look familiar to anyone? I'd love to find where I got these from, but I can't seem to find this file on my computer anywhere. 

2. I have my first interactive reading notebook lesson planned for this coming week. After reading all about them this summer on so many great blogs I'm very excited to be giving it a try this year! 

3. It's been a week for books. Really what week isn't? Here is on of my favorites from the week, James Marshall's rendition of Goldilocks. 

This one just cracks me up! Look at her expression! I've felt this way many times when trying to get comfortable!! 

4. I tried out MissKinBK's tutorial on how to add patterns to text....she has created a monster! See #5 for proof!! It is so adorable...I can't stop!  

5. I am in the process of putting together an order of high interest books for my lowest readers. I have a few readers below 1st grade and several right between 1st and 2nd grade. 

I'm looking for chapter type books that will look "big kid" and keep their interest! Any suggestions? 

My America and Dear America Series {Must Read Mentor Text}

I'm happy to be linking up with Collaboration Cuties for another great round of mentor texts. This week is all about Social Studies. 

Instead of just sharing one book today I thought I'd share two similar series that I have found my students really enjoy: My America and Dear America. 

These books are written as young girls' diaries during various time periods throughout history. The diary format makes them easy to read aloud when there is a few extra minutes during class. I really like the historical connections in the books and have been very impressed with all those I've read so far. 

A few years ago I read My Brother's Keeper: Virginia's Civil War Diary  aloud to my class while we were studying the Civil War. It was a very engaging way to extend the history and get some extra practice talking about the "sides" of the war and the different issues. My students were very interested in the book! 

The book was also the perfect way to study the Historical Fiction genre. Since we were studying the Civil War in history we were able to pick out the historical events from the fiction pieces. I think it really deepened my students' understanding of Historical Fiction. 

I always recommend these books to my students who are interested in Historical Fiction and to those who seem to be particularly taken with a specific period in history. 

I just learned that Dear America has been relaunched with a fresh look and I discovered a pretty neat feature on it on the Scholastic website. It is certainly something worth checking out! Click on the picture if you'd like to see more - there are scrapbooks for each main character with crafts and recipes. 

Wow! Writing this post has certainly been informative! I also just learned about another spin off of this series for boys called My Name is America and all written from a boy's perspective. I've never heard of these books before so now I'm going to be adding some of those to my cart! This could be bad - adding books to my own cart before I even read any of the other posts from the week!?!

Have you ever used any of these series in your classroom? What'd you think?

I Just Opened My Teachers Pay Teachers Store!!

Good Morning! I have a very exciting announcement today - I now have a Teachers Pay Teachers store! Yay!! Opening a store has been on my list of things I'd like to do since I started blogging and with one week left to go in the summer I finally did it! 

So far there aren't a lot of products in my store, but almost everything there is a freebie! You can click on the image below to visit my store. My free download is a reading freebie that I haven't featured here on the blog.

While you're there I'd love it if you would follow me! I only have one follower (thank you to my follower)!! 

The one paid item in my store is a 16-page novel unit for Raymond and Graham Rule the School by Mike Knudson and Steve Wilkinson. If you've been reading this blog any amount of time I'm sure you've heard me talk about this book. It is my all time favorite read aloud with 4th graders. I always start out the year with this book because it is laugh-out-loud 'til you cry funny and I want to make sure my students know that reading can be fun! Click on the image below if you'd like to take a look! 

Tuesday {Must Read Mentor Text}

Happy Sunday! I'm happy to be linking up with the fabulous ladies at Collaboration Cuties for another great round of Must Read Mentor Texts. 

I made a leisurely visit to the library with some of my cousins and we ran across this great book by David Wiesner. Right then I knew it would be my next MRMT because this is a book I always get so excited about sharing with my students.

This is an almost wordless book that leaves my 4th graders excited, interested, and full of questions. 

The book documents the very unexpected events of what appears to be an otherwise normal Tuesday. Frogs leave their pond riding lilly pads and fly through a neighborhood leaving a trail of trouble behind them. 

The illustrations in this book are wonderful! We always go back through the book again just to take a closer look at the book and see what we missed the first time. 

There are so many different skills you could pull from this book. I always seem to gravitate toward it when I'm teaching predicting. I have my students make predictions along the way as we read the book. The last page in the book shows a picture of next Tuesday at the same time and pigs are flying. As a response to the reading I have my kiddos write what they think will happen next Tuesday. 

Do you use Tuesday in your classroom? What skill do you use it for? 

4th Grade Read Aloud Recommendations

I'm linking up with Mr. Hughes at An Educator's Life to share a few of my favorite 4th grade read alouds. This round-up is a great way to find some new books for next school year. I also like that Mr. Hughes has broken it down by grade level! Go over to his site and check out some great books! 

My all time favorite read aloud is Raymond and Graham Rule the School. Yes, I have blogged about it before. I will continue to blog about it until everyone has read it!! It is really that good!! Now run and get a copy!

If you are looking for something to hook your reluctant readers this is the one. The book follows two fourth graders as they enter what they think will be the year they will rule the school. I love this for my 4th graders because they are the "top dogs" at our school and can identify with the boys' thought process on that. 

Bottom line, this book is laugh out loud funny! After reading it more than 4 times I still laugh 'til I cry when I get to the part about the prunes! It is full of 4th grade humor. You've got to read this just to get to watch the expressions on your students' faces - priceless!! If you'd like to get a more info on the book you can read this blog post. 

Next up is a book I like to read aloud just for fun. I try to read something from the Bailey School Kids series just because I have a huge collection of them in my library. Every year after reading one of these books aloud I have students who read almost the whole series. 

Really, did I even have to show you which book from the series I would pick? hehe The kids like the element of mystery in these books and they are a quick, easy read for me. I can pick it up anytime we have a few extra minutes during the beginning of the year. 

What are your favorite read alouds? 

Remember, there is still time to join my 100 Follower Giveaway. Click on the picture below to get signed up to win a $25 Amazon gift card! 

Dogku {Must Read Mentor Text}

Happy Sunday everyone! I just woke up from a shamefully long nap and a mountain of laundry awaits me so this post will be short and sweet. Since Amanda and Stacia started their Must Read Mentor Text linky, Sundays have become one of my favorite blogging days. I love getting great tips on new books to try in my classroom. 

I am an animal lover and I always gravitate towards books about animals, but I like an animal book with a happy ending. There are too many sad things that happen in real life, so when I read I want to spend my time reading something happy! Today I'm going to share a happy-ending book from one of my favorite authors, Andrew Clements. 

The book is about a little dog who needs a home and is tentatively taken in by a family with children. Most kids can make a connection to this kind of story, so they are always immediately hooked and concerned for the dog's well being. I always use this book for making predictions because the big question throughout the book is will the family keep the dog. 

There are some adorable illustrations in this book. I wish I had it here at home to take a few pictures for you. There are several pages that describe what the dog does during the day while the kids are at school and it is too cute! Anyone with a pet can relate to wondering what animals do all day while their people are away! 

Each page of the book is written as a haiku, so it would also be a great addition to a poetry unit. 

I hope you will enjoy this fun, happy ending book about an adorable little dog! 

Raymond and Graham Rule the School {Must Read Mentor Text}

I'm linking up with Amanda & Stacia at Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Text linky. This week the linky is all about Language Arts and I'm thrilled to share my favorite read aloud with you! 

When the school year starts I always like to hook my reluctant readers with a funny book. A few years ago I discovered Raymond and Graham Rule the School and its been my go-to ever since! Even though I've read it many times I still laugh out loud 'til I cry at certain parts! There are aides who've heard it once and always come to me wanting to know when I'll be reading about "the prunes" so they can come listen again.

The main characters are two fourth grade boys who are now the "top dogs" and are ready to rule the school. They have all these great plans and ideas about how this will be the best year ever, but things don't really go as planned. This book is packed with fourth grade humor. One of the boys discovers the power of prunes and they also have a little mishap with a razor.  I don't want to give too much away because you've just got to experience it for yourself! 

This book hooks my reluctant readers every time. Some kids even say they never knew reading could be this much fun and they beg me to read one more chapter. The best thing about this is there are 3 other books featuring Raymond and Graham, so students who really get interested automatically have something on their "read next" list. 

If you've got some extra reading time with your fourth graders before the year ends I'd highly recommend this one! 

If you get a chance stop by Teaching Special Thinkers. Gabrielle is having a CrAzY good giveaway!