Must Have Picture Books [linky]

If you LOVE picture books then you are going to LOVE this linky.

The Teacher Wife has put together a great linky called:

All you do is post about your top 5 Must-Have-Picture-Books with a link to purchase them.

I started making my list and found out it was VERY hard to pick just five! But here goes:

1. When someone says favorite book "Duck on a Bike" is ALWAYS the first book that pops into my head. I love this book. The pictures are incredible! I use this book to teach inference and predictions. My kiddos can really connect to it.

2. This is a favorite because I know the author Brad Wilcox. He has come to our school a few times and done inservice with our faculty and he teaches at my alma mater BYU. I use this book to teach connections. But it has a great lesson to learn as well.

3. Daniel Kirk has an awesome 3 book series about an adorable Library Mouse who likes to write stories. This is a great book to get kids to enjoy writing.

4. I use this book towards the end of first grade after I have taught all the reading strategies. We spend a long time reading and discussing all our connections, predictions, inferences, and compare and contrasts. The pictures are wonderful too.

5. This is a really funny book that my kids love to hear. There are so many things you can do with this book. It's great for genre study and inflectional endings but best of all it's just fun to read!

So that's my five and believe me it was painful to narrow it down to JUST five!

If you want to link up or just check out other teacher's list just head on over to the Teacher Wife by click her button below! It's a great way to add to your library.

Happy Reading!

Pete the Cat FREEBIE

I L.O.V.E. Pete the Cat! My firsties drool when I mention his name! My grandkids can't get enough. It's the only book they want me to read. If you haven't read a Pete the Cat book, you really need too. They are by Eric Litwin with darling illustrations by James Dean. If you click on each picture, it will link you to Amazon.com where you can learn more.

Each book has it's own catchy rhyme and you'll find yourself singing it over and over through out the day. You can even download the song for each book. They also teach a great lesson which my 4 year old grandson repeats to himself when he's about to cry. "Did Pete cry? GOODNESS, NO! It's all good." I love it when kids connect to a book.
I use the first book 'I Love My White Shoes', when I teach colors. Diane and Kelly over on Made for 1st Grade have a cute class book you can make for FREE. Mrs. Jump has a darling art project to go along with it over on her blog. I think she has a whole unit but I couldn't find it. Check it out HERE.

My kiddos LOVE to watch the YouTube video. This is the author and the illustrator entertaining some kids with their book. My kids LOVE it!
The 2nd book, 'Rocking in My School Shoes' is great for the beginning of the year where you can find all the places in the school. Also that SCHOOL IS COOL! I think I saw something to go along with this on the web some where but can't find it now. Does that ever happen to any of you? All the time here.
The newest one,' Four Groovy Buttons' is great for teaching subtraction. I put together a little FREEBIE for it. This is how I'm going to introduce/review subtraction this year. I generally do it with cookies but I think the kids will really connect to Pete and his buttons. I love story mats. You can read another post about them HERE. So I made a story mat to go along with it. The kids have buttons and practice telling stories with the buttons. There is even a math station activity.

Click HERE to Download

Nikki over on Melonheadz did the darling graphics!

I'd love to hear your ideas and how you use Pete the Cat in your room.

I hope everyone has a terrific day. Remember: "Did Pete cry? GOODNESS NO! Buttons come and buttons go. It's all good!"

Team Kenton

I love this blogging community and the friendships we share. Several months ago, I stumbled upon a great blog by Deb, Oh My Little Classity Class. If you haven't visited Deb's Blog, you'll want too. It's full of great teaching ideas. Come to find out Deb and I had met years before at Core Training where she was teaching one of the classes. Deb is one of my best blogging buddies and her family right now is going through a challenge of a lifetime! In June, her 12 year old son Kenton was diagnosed with AML leukemia. They have spent most of their summer at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City getting treatments. You can read all about it on their Facebook Page or Team Kenton Blog. Beware, it will pull at your heart strings!

With the intense Chemo treatments, Kenton's hair is falling out. Deb is worried about what people will think. So here's the plan how we can cheer up a little boy, comfort a weary mom, show love to a concerned sister, and encourage a worried dad.

SEND KENTON A HAT!

It can be any kind of hat, a baseball cap, cowboy hat, silly hat, homemade hat, any thing that you think will make Kenton smile and know he is loved. You might want to throw something in for his sweet little sister McKayslin like some stickers or a coloring book. Deb says she didn't realize how this diagnosis has affected the whole family. A card or letter for the parents couldn't hurt either.

If you are interested in sending a hat to Kenton please fill out the HAT FOR KENTON form here. Jenny over on Luckeyfrog's Lilypad is putting this together. So hop on over and check it out.

Most of all please keep Kenton, Deb, Luke, and McKayslin in your thoughts and prayers!

GREATEST Math Link ever!

My dear friend Shelley sent me this incredible link last week. You are really going to want to check this out. It is for K-5 Math. It has resources for teaching the new common core. It has games, activities, books, interactive whiteboard activities, vocabulary cards, rhymes, journal tasks and more. The activities are ready to go, kid friendly, and can be used in centers, small or whole group settings. I love the way it is organized by the standards. So if you're looking for a particular lesson for a certain standard it's easy to find. All you have to do is click, print, and laminate. It is an AMAZING resource! I don't know if I've ever found a site this great before. It has it ALL. Here is the link:

http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/

Thanks Shelley!

I finished my Long and Short U Fun packet. And I'm currently working on I, O, & E. They are all similar with picture cards, sorts, word hunts, games, find its, and scrambled sentences.

You can click on the words for a link to my shops!
TpT or Teacher Notebook

Man oh man, summer is just flying by. The starting of school will be here before you know it. I hope everyone is enjoying their time off and not thinking about school-too much. I know I'm trying to balance my time off with fun and a little bit of extra prep time for school.

I hope you found something that can help you in your classroom!

Have a super week!

Books in Print vs eReaders

I came across a GREAT post by Keri over on her blog Sweet Life of Teaching. She discusses the importance of Books in Print vs. eReaders. There is an article in the NY TIMES about it. Both are a must read for teachers. I'll let you read both articles for yourself but the bottom line for me is there needs to be a BALANCE between the two. All the gadgets and technology are wonderful but we still need to enjoy a book in print together. With a gadget, too often the focus is on the device and not the story. Comprehension suffers.

Picture from 9to5iPad.com

There's nothing better than sitting down with your child and reading and discussing a book together.
I remember when the Harry Potter Series came out. My youngest son was in 5th grade and I was taking a reading comprehension class at the time. So we decided we'd sit down and read the first book aloud together. It was a fantastic experience and memory! I got to practice the strategies I was learning in my class and my son got the benefit of asking questions, predicting, discussing, and understanding the story much more than he would have on his own.
Our district recently bought 3 Kindle Fires for each classroom. It will be fun to incorporate them into my classroom this next year. I know my firsties will be excited to use them. Our district also bought the RAZ KIDS program for each of our schools. It's a GREAT tool to get kids reading. You can read my post about it HERE. I'm all for motivation to get kids to read, whatever it takes. BUT let's not forget how important it is for parents AND teachers to sit down with kids and read together then talk about the books and stories. Have a great discussion about what we just read.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox for now. But I really think it's important for us as teachers to let the parents know the value of both.
I'd love to hear what you think!

Rhyming Fun FREEBIE

WOW! I'm blown away by all the comments to my giveaway yesterday. I hope everyone who commented got their freebie. I sent them early this morning.
I had a great holiday. There's nothing like a BBQ with homemade ice cream and all the family on the 4th of July. I hope you all had a great holiday too.
At the beginning of the year we do some work with rhyming words. For some of my firsties this is very easy but others struggle with it. One of my favorite books to help teach this concept it 'Rhyming Dust Bunnies' by Jan Thomas. Click on the picture of the book for more info from Amazon.com.

This is such a great book for rhyming. My kiddos LOVE it. I made a little rhyming packet to go with it for when you teach rhyming. There are 32 pictures for matching. You can use them as a matching game in a center or sort them in a pocket chart. Then there are 3 sheets for the kids to write some rhyming words and one that doesn't rhyme like in the book.

Download a FREE copy by clicking HERE.

I'd LOVE to hear more ideas on teaching rhyming words. What do you do?

I hope everyone has a Marvelous Monday! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something you can use in your classroom.

Happy 4th

I am proud to be an American! I love this land! I hope everyone has a fantastic day! I'm off to the family BBQ and water party. Happy 4th.