Three Favorite Read Alouds!

Using my "cold day" to stay warm, get caught up with grading, and blog! This morning I thought I'd use some spare time to link up with The Teaching Trio for their Three Favorite Things linky! Since we just started a new book club, I thought I'd share my three favorite read alouds for 5th grade! This a monthly linky so check it out and don't forget to check back in February for my fabulous trios!

Every year my partner and I evaluate our read alouds and book club choices! We have lots of great readers but we also have a lot of really reluctant readers each year. Many students just plain HATE reading... until we start some of the best read alouds!


We start the year with Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. Not only do we cover a lot of figurative language and introduce students to poetry right away, it's also a small and very approachable book. The story weaves famous poets and poems into a great story about a boy named Jack who absolutely HATES poetry until he reads a poem by Mr. Walter Dean Myers! I always convert many "haters" of poetry after reading this novel! This book is also a great start to building that community of readers and writers in any classroom.

My next favorite is The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. No one can weave a story like Kate DiCamillo. I love so many of her books but this is my ultimate favorite. I love this book because even though it is fantasy it's so approachable. Many of my students don't enjoy fantasy, including my teaching partner, but the lovable Despereaux makes this genre easy to love for so many readers. It has suspense, love, bravery and a Princess Pea! This book is also great because it is told in three parts with an often non-chronological order. This is great to get students sequencing, thinking, and talking about events in the book. However, my favorite aspect about this book is that is has the BEST, BEST, BEST audio version! The narrator's voice is memorizing and those reluctant readers can instantly visualize this complex story. Click here for a preview. My students beg for "the man on the CD."

Lastly, my favorite read aloud for the entire year is.... Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. Call me sentimental but this was one of my favorite books growing up as well. I remember bring the book on vacation to Florida and reading it twice during our trip. I simply could not let the story end! Jerry Spinelli has so many great books including Stargirl and Crash but no one can compare to the legend of Jeffery Magee. This text does so many great things. It brings in elements of historical fiction and folktales while using so many great author's craft techniques. Jerry Spinelli is so artful in his writing it is truly a work of art. However, the story itself brings about topics of conversation about bullying, racism, and homelessness. These are big issues that are real. I simply love the conversations that this book generates.



If you're looking for some other great books for reluctant readers here's a few of my fifth graders' favorites from Book Club!

What's your favorite read aloud?

January Pin-spiration!

Today, was our teacher work day. It was a relief to have time to get things organized before meeting up with our students tomorrow. On break, I had a lot of time to look at Pinterest and search the internet. I was looking for some specific resources and found a few great items that provided me with some pin-spiration!

So, today I'm linking up with PAWSitively Teaching for her Pinterest Pick Three Party!
Click any of the images to be taken to their "home" location!

First up, I'm starting Maniac Magee this Thursday. So, we need to do a little Folktale refreshing before we start our Maniac Close Reading Activity. I found this great chart that would perfect to glue into our Reader's Notebooks.

We're also going to start prepping for PARCC testing in February. To go along with some test prep, we;re going to be gathering evidence for our literary essays. I found this free PEELS bundle on Pinterest that helps struggling students gather evidence and state their opinions with this easy to use acronym.

My last pin-spired post will help during my intervention block. We are teaching "mini-classes" on the topics of our choosing. Each of my partners will get assigned a "class" of students and we're going to do rotations so we teach the same thing to a new group every so many weeks. I usually run a reading or social studies class. Personally, I love social studies and think it's important to help students practice map skills and complete projects we've never have time for in the classroom. I've done state float projects in the past...

But, since we've spent a lot of time on the United States this year... I thought maybe we could tweak the project and have students research a province of Canada! I found this nifty graphic organizer that could help students get started before creating their Canadian float!

I'm excited about starting this project and getting it organized! I'll be sure to share and blog about my students' (sure to be) amazing floats.

I've also been using some of my downtime to finish out some of my Social Studies Interactive Notebook & Lapbook pages! Now, that my units are wrapped up, I have officially created several bundles! All bundles save you at least $2 dollars on buying individually and give you bonus lapbook pages. Right now, all bundles are an additional 20% off in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

You can also check out all my pins by following MsAPlusTeacher on Pinterest!

What has pin-spired you?

What are you teaching in January?

Saw several primary folks sharing what they'll be teaching as many of us head back next week, so I thought I'd do the same. Here's what I'll be teaching my 5th graders as we head back to school...

Graphics courtesy of Ashley Hughes & Fonts are KG Fonts.

We are starting our interpretation unit on Tuesday. This unit is one of my favorites because we get to connect all the books we've read this year and read so many great new books! Maniac Magee is a personal favorite and usually a student favorite as well. This unit is like an "pumped up" character unit. I'm out for a PD on Wednesday to actually tweak the unit but we're starting with the basics and sharing some new amazing book club novels with our students! We'll be practicing our writing skills during this unit for the upcoming PARCC testing and ending with a literary essay.

In Social Studies, I'm behind. I need to finish Regions of the United States and then start Mexico. Hopefully, we can get Mexico finished by the end of January so we can start our Civil Rights unit in February.

Here's some of the resources I plan on using in January to help me tackle it all...

Click on the images and check out the resources yourself! 

What are you teaching in January?

Currently & Giveaway Reminder!

Here's what's currently shaking on the second day of 2015...

My boyfriend took some time off today since he only had Christmas off and we were both pretty sick. Today, he's watching old movies on Netflix and we had a lunch date. Right now, he's on Rainman. He watched Rosemary's Baby this morning - creepy!

I'm loving that McDonald's finally made K-cups of their coffee! I love McDonald's coffee and now I can brew it at home! So of course, I'm wanting a nice Starbucks ceramic tumbler to hold my coffee! I love a nice big coffee mug but to go to school, I'd love to have one of these on my desk...

Perhaps, I can get one while they are still on sale with a gift card...

Right now, I'm blogging and organizing my desk area to get out of grading. I really NEED to finish up my grading so I can use teacher work day to finish up entering my grades and writing up report card comments. Then, I can use the rest of my day to clean and organize my classroom and get ready for the kiddos on Tuesday!

Stop by Oh, Boy Fourth Grade for more January Currently! Thanks Farley for creating and hosting!


 
Also, don't forget to wish JD's Rockin' Reader's a Happy Birthday! 

Today, my TPT store is featured along with many others. Stop over and enter to win a bundle of choice products, a $25 dollar TPT gift certificate, and 3D Fiber Mascara!

Happy Friday! 

How about a Rockin' Giveaway?

I'm excited to team up with my fellow Ohio blogger, Jennie at JD's Rockin' Readers for her THREE Year  Blogiversary Giveaway! She has three days of incredible giveaways including $25 dollars to Teachers Pay Teachers and other fabulous gifts!

Head over to her blog and check it out! Don't forget to check back each day from January 1st - 3rd to enter for new prizes! She also has JD's Rockin' Readers' TPT store 20% off to celebrate. Stop over and send some love to my fellow Buckeye!

And don't forget...

My TPT store will also be on sale today as well... no need to get dressed! Pajamas and coffee are always welcome! 

Hope everyone had a wonderful start to 2015!