I just got the most adorable new book...

 

Bugs in My Hair! is about a topic most teachers (and moms and dads) dread...LICE!  When I was a child, I did my time with them...and as soon as my mom got my case cleared up, then my sister got them!   After reading this, my mom add to my own personal lice story...As your mother, I want to clarify the history on the liceapolooza. When you got lice (ICK), you got them from a girl in the class who was a repeat offender. In fact, when you got them 7 other students in the class were found to have them when checked. So... moral of the story is... if a kid in the class has them, and doesn't do what is needed to be done, they will continue to spread over and over throughout the room. (AGAIN ICK)  I have been paranoid about sharing brushes and hats since!  Just hearing the word "lice" makes me itchy...I'm itching as I type!

 

My students loved Bugs in My Hair!, and it was a fun read!  Mixed in with David Shannon's colorful artwork is the story of a boy, his mother, and a battle with the dreaded lice.  What my class loved most was how he sprinkled facts in story...sometimes as part of the text and sometimes in fact box-like inserts. 

 

You can definitely tell Mr. Shannon has gone to battle with a "Lice-A-Palooza" himself.  At all grade levels Bugs in My Hair! is a wonderful mentor text for writing what you know and how you can write about something ordinary but make it a really great story as well.  And if you teach your students about circular stories...this is a perfect example!

 

This book definitely needs to be a part of every classroom library...but wait you can add it yours!  David Shannon has given me a copy of this book along with two of his other great books to add to your classroom library...

 

Both of these books are popular student reads!  A Bad Case of Stripes is a perfect book to use to teach all the elements of fiction...especially theme, character, and plot.  No, David! is a perfect back to school read to introduce classroom rules.  Get them both now by entering the Rafflecopter giveaway below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was recently asked to read an exciting, new book,

The Miracle Dogs of Portugal by Tracy Aiello.

 

The Miracle Dogs of Portugal is an almost-true story of Henry the Navigator and the history of the Portuguese Water Dog.  Never heard of Henry the Navigator?  Well, he was a prince of Portugal in the 1400's who established a navigation school that brought about many new technologies in navigation.
 

 

This story tells about Prince Henry's love for the sea.

It also tells a little history about the Portugese Water Dog and how they helped fisherman.  What else is special about this breed of dog?  Well, first dog Beau Obama is a Portugese Water Dog!

This book has a little of everything for all students to enjoy.  There is the story of friendship.  There is action and adventure.  There is a smart and brave dog.

 

I wish I had this book earlier as an introduction to our study of explorers and Prince Henry the Navigator!  It would be wonderful to integrate social studies into my Reading Workshop.

 

My students did enjoyed hearing this book even if it wasn't at exactly the right time.

(See the little nose in the top corner?  Can you tell my dog, Digger,  enjoyed The Miracle Dogs of Portugal  as well!)

 

I can't wait for the other books in the series to come out...Tracy Aiello is planning a series of books...coming soon is The Miracles Dogs of Missouri about Seaman, the dog that accompanied Lewis and Clark.

 

Guess what the best part is...because I agree to review this book I have a fantastic bit of good news!  The author, Tracy Aiello is going to donate books to the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund, Tunnel to Towers, to give kids hit hardest by the storm a little holiday cheer. 

 

Check out more about The Miracle Dogs of Portugal by clicking on the picture below.

Oh wait!!! More good news!  Tracy Aiello also gave me 5 copies of this book to giveaway to five of you!  How cool is that???  Enter in to win your copy using the Rafflecopter below!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to help out with Hurricane Relief?  Check out information from TunnelToTowers below!

For me, each summer break usually consists of a lengthy reading list!  Some are professional reads, and a bunch of others are children's literature.  Let me share with you some of the professional books that are on my summer reading list...

Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement

Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, Christopher Lehman

In Georgia, the 2012 - 2013 school year marks the adoption of the Common Core standards.  My principal assigned our school's leadership team (which I am a part of as grade level chair) to read this book since we are will be influential in the transition to Common Core.  At 230 pages, this will hopefully be a quick read but also knowing it is co-authored by Lucy Calkins will hopefully make it interesting too!

The Daily Five and The Cafe Book

Gail Boushey and Joan Moser

I am jumping aboard the Sisters train!  Looking at a class-size of nearly 30, I really need to improve my system to allow me to get more small group/individual time with students while the rest of the class is also doing something worthwhile!  I am looking forward to the online book club on these books for upper grades teachers being hosted over at  We Read, We Blog, We Teach.   

Igniting a Passion for Reading 

Steven Layne

I studied this book in a book group at school.  There are so many great ideas in here to motivate readers and making good book choices.  With the craziness of the end of the year, I have forgotten many of the good ideas that I want to implement...so I want to reread this book to get back some of them like The First Read Club and Hot Reads and more!

And an endless list of children's literature!

What books are on your summer reading list???  I can probably squeeze a couple more of your ideas onto my list! :)

Looking for more ideas for your summer reading? 

Click on the picture above to take a peek at the other participants summer readng lists!

My mom and I made our yearly pilgrimage to a place that can be extremely dangerous for book-lover's like us.  (Have you I told you my mom is a teacher?  And a fabulous one at that! And she is just as much of a bibliophile as I am!)

Can you tell what this is?  It is a Scholastic Book Fairs' Warehouse!  All those shelves are filled with books...books to buy and take home and love!

I live about 40 minutes away from one of these warehouses.  At the end of each year, they have a sale to empty their shelves to make room for more beautiful books for next year's Scholastic Book Fairs.  I have been going to these each year since I found out I had my very first teaching job!

Oh what a dream!  A dream for my bookshelves...not so much my wallet!  I found so many new books to use next year as I prepare some new units to go along with our switch to the Common Core Standards. 

But one good thing about going to the Book Warehouse Sale with my wonderful mom is I can't get my credit card out of my wallet fast enough to pay for my books...even when I purposely went to a different line, so she wouldn't attempt to do that...I still wasn't quick enough!  (Thank you again Mommy!)

I came home with this fabulous box (some years it would have a twin or a triplet!)...

(The box itself really is fabulous...better than a copy paper box...thick cardboard with a hinged top...I am sure all you teachers understand my giddiness!)  Inside are all my wonderful book finds...

I will tell you later about some of my specific finds...but I was excited to find to new releases...Chompand The One and Only Ivan...and all of these were 25 to 50% off!  Plus I had a coupon for another discount!

Are you interested in going to one of these sales? You can find a list of sales around the country by going to the Scholastic Book Fairs website to find more information and sign up to receive notifications about future sales!  (By no means is Scholastic paying me to gush about them...I'm just a really big fan!)

I recently came into a little windfall of money...no not my tax refund...that came months ago!  My school's fabu P.T.A.  held a fundraiser in March called the Boosterthon Fun Run.  Since the fundraiser takes a little of our classtime, ten percent of what my class fundraises comes straight back to my classroom.  This year my class fundraised enough for me to have $135.51 to play with...yippee!

So since this money was burning a hole in my pocket...and I wanted some more content area books...and I feel like I never have enough good options for boys...and I honestly have difficulty resisting Amazon's 4 for 3 Books...I spent all $135.51 on books!

And just look at how many I got!  If you don't mind, I would like to tell you about some of my favorites...

Looking for fantastic biographies...well then these are for you!  On my grade level, we call these biographies Big Head books.  I love using these during our nonfiction unit in the fall.  They tell the life stories of their subjects in a way that is interesting for my fourth graders (I can't put them down either!).  They include text boxes, maps, diagrams, and other nonfiction text features to give more information to the reader about events that occur in the subject's life.  Some of the biographies I purchased are Who Was Ben Franklin?, Who Was Jackie Robinson?, Who Is Neil Armstrong?, Who Was Steve Jobs?, and Who Was Walt Disney?.

Have you heard about the I Survived series?  These are very popular in my classroom, and they don't stay on the shelves for long!  The author Lauren Tarshis writes major events from the point of view of a child actually living through the event.  For example, I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005takes place during the flooding after Hurricane Katrina.

Here are two more books that haven't stayed on the shelf since they arrived.  Fourth graders love the classics!  Maybe because they have seen older siblings or parents reading them or hear them referred to or maybe because they are just that good!  I enjoy the Classic Starts series because the reading level is just perfect!

Now this next pick was for my students that were asking me about the Hunger Games.  I read the series and love them, but I did not bring them into my classroom for my students to read.  Instead I am recommending to those students the Underlander series by the same author.  Gregor The Overlander is the first in the series.  It is number one on my Summer Read list.

After a quick preview, some went to their temporary new home in the Brand New Books basket...

and some went straight into the hands of excited, happy readers.

I always love new book recommendations.  What are some of the new titles that you have added to your classroom library?

Ever since I could start reading, I have loved poetry.  My mom introduced me to an aging copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses, and I was hooked at first reading of “My Shadow.”  I moved onto other poets...Jack Prelutsky, Shel Silverstein..., and as I matured so did the poets that I grew to love.  This is why I love to introduce my students to poetry, too.

Like I told you I would earlier in the week, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite children’s poetry books. The poems in these books are less about rhyme but more about imagery and language.

The first book is...

Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems

I love this book of poetry because these are relatively simple poems, but the ideas come across strong.  They show my students how a few words can communicate very powerful ideas.  Plus there are fabulous examples of voice as some of the poems are written from the perspective of trees!

Next is...

Summersaults

I love most poetry books by Douglas Florian.  He has written books filled with poems on just about topic you can think of...planets, amphibians, trees, animals, baseball...in all kind of formats like list poems and shape poems.  These are the kind of poems students can see themselves writing.

Another poetry book I enjoy is...

Once I Ate a Pie

If you love dogs like I do, you will love this poetry book!  These poems are written from a dog’s point of view...students love these! 

A final book that I rely on a good deal when we are working on writing poetry is...

Hailstones and Halibut Bones

These poems are fabulous to teach similes and metaphors.  I also use the book as a model to for students to write their own color poems.

One last book I want to share with you is kind of a poetry book and kind of not...

If You Find a Rock

This is one of my favorite books!  If you have any rock collectors in you class, they will really be able to connect to it.  The author describes skipping rocks and wishing rocks, chalk rocks and resting rocks.  All the description that is used is just fabulous!

Do you have any favorite poetry books that you share with your class?  Please share them with me!