Novels and Stories that are for the DOGS

While I have blogged about novels and finding the perfect one more than once, I find that throughout the school year it is a challenge.  It is essential that we keep books in our students' hands and their brains active with great literature.  I am one of those teachers that could wander around the library or discount bookstore for hours in search of the best books to motivate my students.

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Back to School: A Few of My Favorite Things For Upper Elementary to Middle School

If you are like me, you are wondering where in the world the summer has gone and how on earth it can possibly be a new school year...I feel like I was just blogging about how I was going to manage three kiddos at home for the entire summer.  I was just enforcing Xtra Math and reading during quiet time, planning play dates to the park, packing and unpacking our vacation bags, making nightly ice cream cones and milk shakes to eat while playing with buddies outside, and like that, it has come to an end!  Here are a few of my favorite pics from our summer adventures...

Ice cream fun!

Hula hoop dinners!

Tricycle rides with "sweet" shades!

Boat rides with Pappa!

Adventures at the pool!

More ice cream...

Today, I will be sending two kiddos on their way to the elementary school, my sweet girl to kindergarten, and my oldest to third grade.  YIKES!  It has truly been a flash and they are BIG!  Not one of my favorite things.

To make me feel a little more upbeat, I have linked up with a few of my teacher friends to focus on the positive...

As teachers head back to the classroom, I wanted to share a few of my favorite "teacher" things that you can find on sale tomorrow (a favorite thing), and I know will quickly become a few of your favorites, too...especially at 28% off!

Here are my top 5 must haves and tools I have used in my classroom...

#5:  Hello Fonts by Jen Jones!  Have you seen her fonts?  They are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  She can make even the most unexciting lesson more fun when you create with her fonts.  Check this out!

#4: Catching Fire Novel Unit by Tracee Orman

I have never had more engaged readers than when my students read Hunger Games and Catching Fire!  Her novel units are packed with EVERYTHING you might be able to come up with yourself, but you'd gladly pay someone to create because it is done so well!  She thinks of it all!  I want to be a student in her class.  If you are even thinking about reading this book with your students-you NEED this novel unit!

#3: Hunger Games Novel Unit by Tracee Orman

Well, of course you needed this one first!  Again, incredible resource that has it all!  She includes project ideas, powerpoint games, EVERYTHING!

#2: Would You Rather Questions for Kids! by Rachel Lynette

Do you ever have those moments at the end of class when a teammate isn't quite ready to switch classes, but your crew is in line waiting and ready to go?  Look no further, this is the perfect tool to keep those kiddos ready to transition successfully and keep their minds engaged, thinking...and not causing problems!

#1:  Reader's Theater MEGA Bundle for Middle Grades to Middle School by ME!
Finally, here is a favorite that I am really proud of...I wrote each of these 15-reader's theater fun packs that your students will LOVE! Each script includes: word work, reader response questions, and other reading literature tools that will enhance fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.  Each fun pack is also the perfect resource to leave for a substitute when you are forced to be away from your classroom.  This is the perfect tool for your ELA class.

Be sure to snag some of these MUST-HAVE resources! Your students will thank you!
...and keep me posted on any tried and true tools that you love for your upper elementary classroom!

An InLinkz Link-up

Relaxed yet? Time to get ready for another school year!!!

The year is barely over, but for some reason your brain is already bypassing summer and heading into the planning of next school year.  Why in the world does this happen EVERY STINKIN'YEAR?!?!  

...because we are teachers and that is how we operate, the year ends and all we can do is think about: what we will do to make our students learn the content better, how we will make that tricky lesson go smoother, and what new tool we will find to organize and make life easier.  Tell me I am not the only one!

While I am just embarking on the nutty task of helping my own kiddos prevent the "summer slide" my mind is already focusing on what is to come in my future.  I will be home one more school year with my littlest, and then I plan to head back to the classroom where I will put all of my lessons back to good use.  I think my son will be relieved that he no longer has to put up with being my lesson/activity guinea pig.  While I will be excited to get back to the classroom, I have loved this time with my kiddos, and refining all of my classroom tools has been an awesome perk!

So while I know your brain is going one billion miles an hour in preparation for next year, take a break and check this out...I have teamed up with Educents with some instant downloads for you! It includes a full years worth of activities for your 4th, 5th, and 6th classroom!  So exciting because it's stuff for now, in a few months from now, and all the way through the end of the school year!  Check it out below!  

www.educents.com/4th-6th-curriculum-bundle.html#joethecat

The three products I have included will surely be loved by your students!  Take a peek...

This 32-page novel unit is an essential tool for on-level third graders, but works perfect for intervention in upper elementary.

I utilized my Boxcar Children novel unit with my intervention students-6th grade students reading between 4th-5th grade.  It was the perfect tool to focus on the mystery genre and keep them encouraged about the reading process.   This crew needed both fluency and comprehension work, so we read aloud, answered the reader response questions independently, checked our answers as a group, then read the next chapter independently.  It was the perfect way to navigate through this text.

I was inspired to create this close reading informational text bundle when my son began quizzing me over his NFL and MLB cards.  He is a fact kid.  This fun pack includes 9-one page informational text passages with text-dependent questions, graphic organizers to support informational text, and answer keys.  Some of my students tend to struggle with nonfiction and this was a way that I could really reach my struggling male readers.  They want to talk about athletes all day and this is the tool that allows them to do just that, but also work on their reading comprehension.

 

Journaling is an essential within my classroom.  It is a practice we focus on once a week.  I have also found that after state testing, students can get uninspired to write.  They feel as though their work for the year is complete.  I created this tool as a means of keeping my students motivated to write through the end of the year by thinking about the summer fun that lies ahead.  

Here is a sample prompt:

Students will keep working when they are inspired, so make sure they have those inspirational tools!  Here are a few pics of my students engaged and journaling in their writer's notebooks....

So here are the details...for a limited time it is $15.99 from Educents which is about 79% off - if purchased separately would be $74!  21 instant downloads with 38 different products sold separately! And almost 600 pages of materials you can use all year... it's hard to go wrong!

If you want to take a little break from your all of the planning in your mind, grab this bundle!

You can also take peek at some of the other products included in the bundle at any of the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Best of the Best~A Teacher Appreciation Blog Hop and Giveaway

Amy over at Teaching with Blue Jeans organized this amazing blog hop and giveaway for Teacher Appreciation Week.  There are over 106 teacher/bloggers participating to make a few AMAZING bundled prizes.  Each teacher/blogger has donated the top selling item from their TpT store in order to truly make this giveaway THE BEST FOR THE BEST! 

The novel Crash by Jerry Spinelli is an absolute favorite of mine.  It is the first novel I share with my students when they arrive in my classroom in August.  Here are my top 5 reasons that I find it to be such a hit:

1. It is the perfect read aloud!
2. My students easily connect to the characters.
3. It is realistic fiction, dealing with present day issues.
4. The chapters are short, which appeals to my students.
5. It is the perfect tool to introduce/reinforce: read to someone, read to self, listen to reading.

Need I say more?!

I have my own set of classroom copies of this novel, but they are worn out.  So I utilize our public library's teacher collection system to have 25 hardback copies for use in the classroom.  If students are absent, I send one of my copies home to make-up missed work.

Each student is given a file folder with the unit inside.  Because this is a tool we are using in the classroom, I collect the folders at the end of class and keep them.  This allows me to grade any work they completed in their unit folder, and I don't have to worry about it being forgotten-students are prepared to learn upon entering the classroom.

Below are a few pics of students working on the novel unit and the end of book project I love to use with this text to really focus on character, setting, and narrative writing.

The project is called "Spend a Day!"  The students have to select one of the characters from the novel that they would like to spend time with.  Based on evidence from the text, they write three narratives about three different activities they would do with this character.  Finally, they draw three pictures of the activities they shared about in their narratives.  The illustrations and narratives are complied into a construction paper book.

            

If you are looking for that perfect text to start the year, this truly is the best one!

I just created this reader's theater script to go with the novel because every year my students ask if the novel has been turned into a movie.  Shout out to Hollywood for making my students think that!  My students LOVE to perform reader's theaters and with the CCSS mandating that students can compare and contrast different versions of the same story, this learning tool helps my students with that skill.  It can be read to introduce the novel, or it can be utilized at the end.  Either way it is a great addition to the novel.  Grab it for $1 by clicking on the image!

Have fun navigating the rest of this BEST OF THE BEST Blog Hop!  Most importantly, thanks for all you do for your students!  Have a great rest of your year and a well-deserved summer!

Here is the next stop on the BLOG HOP:

Continue on The Best for the Best Teacher Appreciation Blog Hop by clicking the picture below.

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May the 4th be with you...My Top 4 Novel Units

In the teaching world it can feel like you are standing on an island at times.  Despite all of the work that happens in the classroom, the interactions you have with other teacher and staff during the course of a day, and the numerous meetings attended each day, it can sometimes feel like we are fighting an uphill battle all by ourselves.  

As the only 6th grade reading and language arts teacher in my building I am at a loss at times to find the perfect learning tools for my students.  One size does not fit all in my situation, and our Reading Street 6th Grade Level resource is not always the perfect tool for teaching my learners.  With students at such diverse levels-believe it or not-from kindergarten-tenth grade level, I have quite a span of readers. 

What's a reading teacher to do, but work to find the tools or MAKE them in order to make sure everyone is learning and growing.  So that is what I do!

Novel units are a huge part of my instruction.  While I do utilize Reading Street, I do believe that students need to read WHOLE texts and NOVELS.  I can honestly say that there are some students that arrive in my classroom is the fall and have never read an entire novel cover to cover by themselves.  I take this sad reality, and turn it into a positive goal.  In order to make ensure my students leave me as better readers, I help them find texts that they won't want to put down and help them to navigate them successfully.

A few novel units I have created for my students have become hits with others on my TpT store.  In fact, my top selling four products are novel units.  I want to share them with you today.  Each unit is common core aligned and comes with an answer key in order to make your life as easy as possible as a teacher...something we all need.  Take a look below at how I utilize each of these tried and true tools with my 6th grade learners...

     

Crash by Jerry Spinelli is the novel I love to begin the school year with in order to model a few of the different elements of the Daily 5-listen to reading when I read aloud, read to someone for partner read, and read to self when reading independently.  Because it is a high-interest, realistic fiction text that my students connect with so well, it is one that they can't seem to get enough of reading.  In addition, a theme of the novel is bullying, which I believe to be a perfect issue to tackle right at the start of the year.  The rich discussion that comes from this novel is incredible.  I find that students think some of the bullying in the beginning of the novel by Crash toward Penn is humorous, but by the end, no one is laughing when Penn is getting mistreated by Mike DeLuca.  Lastly, this novel makes it easy to enhance student understanding of setting, point of view, antagonist vs. protagonist, and flashback.

How do I utilize these novels? I make each student their own novel folder with the novel unit inside.  We do share books because I teach 60+ students and only have 22 novels.  This is one that I bought for my classroom library, but the public library does have a teacher collection that can be reserved. The chapters are incredibly short in this novel, so I will always read aloud at least one chapter each day.  We will answer a few of the novel unit questions and engage in discussion about what has been read.  Next, the students will partner read or work independently on the remaining chapters and corresponding questions assigned for the day.  I will also pull students in small groups and work with those that might need more assistance.

I created the Chocolate Fever and The Boxcar Children novel units for my intervention crew this past school year.  They were 6th graders that were eager to achieve as learners, but struggling readers.  I wanted them to have success with high-interest novels that they would enjoy reading.  also, it is imperative that students have success reading complete novels.  Both of these texts made that happen for my intervention students.  Each of these units were incredibly well-received. 

 

My intervention group read 3 more of The Boxcar Children novels after tackling this one.  Many of the students in that group had never read a mystery and loved trying to infer how things would turn out.  They loved reading these novels aloud, which really improved their fluency.  In addition, our discussions were terrific.  If you are looking for books to read with upper elementary intervention kiddos, this is the perfect series.

I am a Jerry Spinelli fanatic.  I just adore the novels he writes because I feel they really make an impact on my male readers.  His main characters tend to be boys dealing with various issues of which my male students can relate.  Wringer is the same way as Crash, but deals with peer pressure and how we sometimes go along with something just because others are, not because we agree.  Palmer LaRue really battles that in this novel with the idea of having to become a wringer.  Like Crash, this novel makes it easy to enhance student understanding of setting, point of view, and flashback.

If you are looking to enhance your classroom library, these are perfect books for your upper elementary students!  Grab these discounted novel units to save you some planning time and money!

Happy Reading!