Picture Books and The Common Core

Have you ever been really excited about a good book?  I just love great picture books! Tonight I took a class at our local Teacher Center and it was AMAZING!  

We all know about the RIGOR and COMPLEXITY of the COMMON CORE. . . BLAH,BLAH,BLAH!  The Common Core wants us to use more complex texts while teaching.  Text that have RICH VOCABULARY, DISTINGUISHED ILLUSTRATIONS, DEEP INQUIRY, CONNECTIONS TO REAL EVENTS AND text that COMPARE and CONTRAST. 

Check out these books that have great Common Core connections.  

Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya.

With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they've put it down. 

Rosa sat so Martin could march. Martin marched so Barack could run. Barack ran so our children can soar. This is the seed of a unique picture book that is part historical, part poetry, and entirely inspirational. It takes the reader through the cumulative story of the US Civil Rights Movement, expanding the popular slogan beyond these three heroes to include more key players in the struggle for equality. Spare prose and vivid imagery make this a truly moving and accessible picture book to be savored by readers of all ages.  Just AMAZING!!!!  

One hot summer night in the city, all the power goes out. The TV shuts off and a boy wails, "Mommm!" His sister can no longer use the phone, Mom can't work on her computer, and Dad can't finish cooking dinner. What's a family to do? When they go up to the roof to escape the heat, they find the lights—in stars that can be seen for a change—and so many neighbors it's like a block party in the sky.  This book has outstanding picture!  It would be great to use for lessons about family and homes!

 A beautifully simple book for small children where transforming pages reveal ten things that everyone can do to help conserve their world. Many of them, such as turning off the television properly, walking to school and turning off lights when leaving a room, are about conserving energy. Others, such as feeding the birds in winter and growing plants from seed, will encourage an understanding of nature and conservation.  A great book to use around Earth Day!

Living with the use of one's eyes can make imagining blindness difficult, but this innovative title invites readers to imagine living without sight through remarkable illustrations done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers. This extraordinary title gives young readers the ability to experience the world in a new way.  A great book to use while teaching the Five Senses.

It’s time for the little red chicken’s bedtime story—and a reminder from Papa to try not to interrupt. But the chicken can’t help herself! Whether the tale is Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood or even Chicken Little, she jumps into the story to save its hapless characters from doing some dangerous or silly thing. Now it’s the little red chicken’s turn to tell a story, but will her yawning papa make it to the end without his own kind of interrupting?

Individual Visual Schedules

We all have students that need a little more focus or extra cues to complete work. This visual schedule will help your student become an independent worker! You can use this at center times or when a child is working on seat work. 

This visual schedule can also be used as a schedule throughout the school day. Also, it is a great motivator for students that need a little reward to start/finish their work. 

The student will pick out a mat based upon interest. The student uses the visual mat to help him/her complete work independently. Use the visual icon cards to sequence the steps needed to complete the task. You can use Velcro to secure the icons. As the student completes the task, he or she may remove the icon cards. Once the student completes the last task, they will find a message with a picture. For those students that need a motivator/reward use the reward mat and attach a treat like stickers, coupons, tokens or candy! 

Several colorful themed mats are included: 
Pirates
Owls
Space
Sports
Bubbles
Monsters
Race Cars
School

I have also included over 40 visual picture icons!

Writing Icons

Our third week at school and we are starting to focus on writing. We completed a couple of
 story responses from books that we read during shared and guided reading.  It is amazing how much my second year students regressed over the summer.  I made these writing posters to help remind students about their writing.  I hope you can use them in your room too!

Our Students... Our Inspriration

Our first day back to school was very inspiring!  Some of our students performed a skit that made you laugh and cry... truly inspiring!  It made me realize how lucky I am to be a teacher!  I thought I would share the performance with you.  

Welcome Back To School

Summer has ended and a new school year begins.... I will wipe away my tears... put away my lounge chair... and say good-bye to sleeping in!  WOW!  As a Special Education consultant teacher I usually get shuffled around the building with a new space room every year.  I am THRILLED to say I am in my LOVELY room from last year and it is GREAT!  This summer I did some organizing and cleaning out.  I love to decorate and go on Pinterest for new ideas!  Here is my NEW-- OLD room...Enjoy!

Last year I made these vinyl letters "read" with my Cricut.  Then I was browsing Pinterest for alphabet ideas and came across letter walls in nurseries.  I went to my favorite craft store- HOBBY LOBBY and spent the day picking out different sized letters.  I spent the night....until 3:30 AM decorating, painting and Washi taping...just love the stuff!!  I think it looks great! 

 I spruced up my banner from last year.  I replaced the letters with numbers.  It is a nice visual and helpful number line for my students to use.... and it looks cute!

 I spent a big portion of the summer organizing lessons, updating plans with the new common core, and leveling books.  I am sad to say that I did not get to create any new lessons for TPT... but I have a lot of great ideas for the future.

 Here is my reading easel.  It is loaded with everything that I need during guided reading instruction.  I found these cute baskets that hang on the wall at IKEA... really cheap.  I am using them to store my pointers and clipboards.

I kept my framed book art from last year!  I am trying to cover up the UGLY electrical doors that are on one of my walls. 

IKEA has some of the greatest things.  I found these little stools/tables in many colors.  Last year I made these crate seats to hide all my stuff.  I think they are a nice addition to my carpet area.

The Tiny Seed

We will soon be starting a new unit on plants.  I just love the story The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.  My students will be looking at the life cycle of a plant.  I made this graphic organizer to go with the book.  I plan on enlarging this document to legal sized paper.  It will allow the student more room for writing.  Under each season title they will write a sentence about the seed during that season.  Then under the sentence they can draw a picture.
 
                                               

Feathered Friends

It is all about birds in my primary sequence world!  Our kindergarten classes are learning about birds.  Our early kindergarten classes are focusing on ducks.  We have a count down going on to see when the duck eggs will hopefully hatch.  We read so many wonderful stories.  I also like to use these picture cards in a pocket chart.  I leave them up so my students can use them in their writing.  

At the end of our duck unit we like to complete a four square writing piece.  Students can draw pictures in the boxes about various duck facts.  Some of my students can write a label using a beginning sound, others can write a label by stretching the sounds and some can write a sentence.  It is a nice way to end our unit! 

In kindergarten we made this cute little bird using scrap book paper.  It was easy to do and my students enjoyed attaching the bird to their "Brilliant Bird Brain" writing pieces.  The pattern can be found in my new Bird of a Feather Unit on TPT. 

Weather

You never know which way March will go...especially in upstate New York.  I just heard that we might get out of school early today.  Some freezing rain is heading our way.  That explains all the CRAZINESS with the children....vey unsettled today!

Speaking of weather... We are working on our new thematic focus Wonders of Weather!  Today I read The Wind Blew by Pat Hutches.  This is a great book for sequencing, foreshadowing and making predictions!  I am attaching a little writing book that we did... CLICK HERE!  I left the book in a word format so you can differentiate for your students.  The book is a clozed writing book.  Some of my students are still working on beginning sounds so I would write ____ind for wind.  Some are working on ending sounds  so I would write  win____ for wind.  I also have a group that can stretch and write words using kid writing or the weather wall. 

If you need more weather ideas, I just posted a new unit Wonders of Weather.  This unit is aligned to kindergarten common core standards.  The Wonders of Weather Unit is over 90 pages long.  It contains 5 Literacy Centers with follow-up sheets, 5 Math Centers with follow-up sheets, weather graphic organizers and a wind experiment.
You Are My Sunshine- is a game board with CVC words and picture cards. This comes with a follow-up sheet to check for understanding.
Stormy Sight Words- over 30 sight words that students need to know. This comes with a stamp and write follow-up sheet. I left one blank so you can customize it for your learners.
Go Fly A Kite- Works on short vowel sounds. Students will add picture cards to the kite tails. Then show their thinking with a follow-up sheet.
Marvelous Mud- Students will look at beginning sound dominoes and place them on the correct mud mat. Students will complete a color record sheet.
Drizzling Diagraphs- CH/SH/TH sort and a follow-up sheet to show their thinking!
WRITING-
Wicked Wind Experiment and Write- students will test various objects to see if they blow in the wind and then write a conclusion.
6 Graphic Organizers- bubbles for writing descriptive words about the weather.

Smart Board Subtraction- Students will use the smart board to show their understanding of simple subtraction to 5. Students will have mats to use with manipultives for acting out. This comes with a follow-up sheet.
Weather Write The Room- Students work on numbers to 30 and the concept of what comes next.
Additional Accumulation- Students work on addition using a spinner game mat and record their thinking.
Twisted Tornadoes- Place value cards to 20. Students can use the cards for a matching game. Then use just the place value cards and the number mat to cover the spaces. This also comes with a follow-up sheet.
Over The Rainbow- Students raise to 30 using tens and ones.

Lunch is over... and the kids are back!!!

St. Pat's Day

Sorry blog friends it has been a little while since I last posted.  Work has been very busy and stressful!  My district is about to make some major changes and cuts in staffing!  I feel like I have worked harder this year ... I can't imagine what next year will be like!  

I did find some time to create a new unit for one of my favorite holidays- St. Patrick's Day.  I hope you you enjoy it!

Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  We are getting ready to kick off our new unit- Dr. Seuss.  I just finished some exciting new lessons and posted them on TPT- Learning with Dr. Seuss.  This unit contains 4 ELA and 4 Math Centers all aligned with the common core standards.  

Here is a game board that you can use with just about any skill.  You can put a stack of sight word , numbers, and place value cards and when a student lands on a hat they take a card. My students always enjoy learning with a game. 

My Cute Graphics

I am sharing a little secret with you!  Every time I go to this website I get so excited and want to design new lesson plans!  This wonderful site has great clip art, backgrounds and page borders.  My secret place is  http://www.mycutegraphics.com!  It is filled with wonderful images and best of all it is free to teachers!

My EK students have been working on sight words.  I made this cute Friend Sight Word Search using the graphics from this site. My students use magnify glasses to locate the tiny words.  They record to a piece of paper and read the list to a friend.    I hope you enjoy this lesson and find this website inspiring!  

Character Traits w/ Mo Willems

I just LOVE snow days!  I was looking at some upcoming plans and thought I would add more to my MoWillems- author study.  When we finish our unit I thought we could look at CHARACTER TRAITS.

I made a page for each character we will be reading about.  I made an extra page if you would like to add a character.  I thought we could draw a picture of the character in the frame.  Then, we could come up with a list of words that describe the character.

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Author Study~ Mo Willems

My EK students engage in weekly sharing to help build on communication skills and asking questions.  This week's topic was~ What is your favorite book?  One of my students brought in a book called Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  As part of the sharing experience, I read the book to the students and they asked "WH" questions.

During this whole group time, I realized a couple of things...
One... my students are EXTREMELY EXCITED by the book and had lots to say about the character.
Two... I did not really know anything about the author Mo Willems!

So I decided to do some research on the author.  I purchased TWELVE of his books- hide the credit card bill!  Then I developed an author study unit about Mo Willems.  We will be completing this  unit after Valentine's Day. I thought the timing is a perfect way to introduce a couple more characters- Piggy and Elephant.  I hope you like the unit.  It is geared for EK and K grade levels.

Love is in the Air

I am ready for the weekend!  We had a short week ...only 4 days with MLK!  It felt like a full week with my crazy schedule.  I did get a chance to make a couple of  lessons for our thematic focus on Valentine's Day and Friendship. 

My EK students are still working on mastering our ten sight words.  I made this cute sight word search to keep them busy.  We use magnifying glasses and go on a search for hidden words.  The student will find a word, write it down and read the list to a friend.  They just love it!  Click here to get your copy!  Enjoy! 

Also, some of my K students are working on ending sound manipulation.  I made this breaking hearts game for them to play.  You will need to cut the heart with the ending letter so it will make a new word.  For example, students will take a heart and read the CVC word.  Then students will take a "broken" heart and lay the letter on top to make a new word.  The word is fan can be changed to far, fat and fast.

Snowmen At Night

It is amazing to see the changes when students come back in January!  They are really becoming learners!  It is so nice to see the growth when I benchmark students. 

We have been working on snowmen and snow fun!  One of my co-teachers did this cute fine motor project.  She read the book Snowmen At Night.   The student tore paper to make a snowman, cut out triangles for a nose and completed a clozed sentence.  It came out really cute!!!