five for friday

 happy long weekend!

we are linking up with doodle bug teaching 
here are our five favorite things this week...

💚the kids illustrations

💙 a problem solving center in kindergarten

💚 interactive writing {the kids made up the story}

💛 persuasive writing

💚 what is poetry?

happy weekend!

magical monthly reads

 the little tree by loren long

teeny tale:  

the little tree is a story about a tree who is afraid to let its leaves drop. season after season he holds on to his brown leaves staying small while all the other trees around him are growing and changing. many of the animals in the forest try to convince him to let them go and he still can’t. eventually, he gets the courage to let the leaves go, and he grows into a big tree. this is a beautifully illustrated book.

touchstone text:  character study for reading workshop, illustration study writing workshop  

turn and talk :

1. what do you think this story is mostly about?
2. why do you think the tree would not let it’s leaves drop?
3. what do you notice about the illustrations in this book. 
4. what did the tree realize or learn?

what might the little tree be thinking?

 what might the little tree be saying?













tiny tips:

• great book to use to study the illustrations
• how do the illustrations tells us more about the tree
• who are the characters in this story
• great book to retell using fingers first, then, next, last
• student’s could stop and jot the feelings of the tree during different parts of the story
• why do you think the author wrote this story
• we think this is a great book to talk about the author’s purpose

topics: courage bravery, friendship, change 

life lesson: don't be afraid of the unknown
believe in yourself!

happy reading!
jessica & laura & melissa

Trailer

five for friday first-grade book clubs

 it's five for friday. we are linking up with doodle bug teaching

we had the opportunity to visit a first-grade classroom while they were in the middle of teaching book clubs focusing on favorite characters.

learning and talking about books




💜that the kids help create the anchor chart.




picture support little learners.

this anchor chart comes from the lucy calkins reading unit of study.

the lesson we watched focused on how to compare and contrast books from the same series.

some of the book club series: mr. putter and tabby, henry and mudge, fly guy and mercy watson.


 each child had a small anchor chart to remind them of what they
could work on during workshop time.

 students picked a post-it from their independent reading.
 during book club talk, one student would read their post-it and the other
club members would talk about that idea.


laura shared with readers how she started reading clubs in her class too!

happy weekend!

jessica & laura & melissa

monday makeover

welcome to makeover monday.  we will be helping a first-grade teacher make her reading anchor chart go from good to GREAT!

here is the chart that needs a makeover.

how can we make this anchor chart go from good to GREAT?? 

we can... 

• add images to our words (so important)
• add  bright color Post-its to give it a POP!  
• make a bold title in black
• build our anchor charts with our student's
• make a color rim that matches the Post-its (orange rim)
• look on pinterest for chart ideas (images/layout ideas)
• look at examples in the book smarter charts

happy charting!

jessica & laura & melissa