The Triple Dip! (Five For Friday!)

***If you don't have time to read this whole long post....Please read #4. I'm asking for an opinion and I know you have one! Thanks!!

Well hello there again! I can't believe I've managed to post some thoughts three times in one week. It is so quiet in my house tonight. My daughter is having a campfire on the HOTTEST night so far this summer and my son is out with friends and I have no idea where my Cranky Bear is, but I think it has something to do with a car and a water tank!

I'm going to do a little double or triple dipping for my Five for Friday. I hope you don't mind. You wouldn't mind if it was ice cream so I know you won't mind it here. Here goes...

On this hottest night of the year I made this yummy snack for the kids toasting out by the campfire. I had my first in St. Louis and I think I've finally found a recipe to rival any I had there. You may have one or two and you may double or triple dip if you like!

Go on...Take one!

So I signed up for Instagram. I LOVE it. I may be late to the party, but I'm having as much fun as anyone else. I'm not sure what the etiquette is for how many times you can post, but I've double or triple dipped today. You can follow me if you want. I'm owlthingsfirst and I haven't figured out how to link my blog to it or if you even can. Come see the wild turkeys in my backyard, or my precious uke player!

Don't click to look inside. Do click to go to a great give away! An Apple For The Teacher is giving this book away AND hosting a book study to along. I really need to win because I need to do a better job planning ahead, getting organized AND saving time! Just click on the book to enter which I hate for you to do because then I don't have as good a chance at winning it.

I am reading along with a group of teachers Donalyn Miller's  Reading in the Wild. It is a powerful text on how to instill lifelong "wild" reading. This week we were to read the section on "Creating a Workshop Schedule That Works for You". One of the things we must keep in mind when setting up a schedule is what  we are required to include. That has me doing some wondering and questioning. Now if you have actually read all the way down to here, I hope you will give me your opinion of what I'm thinking about. I'll stop thinking about it if you think it can't be done. 

So my son has taken a couple of "flipped" classes. They watch video lectures at home and then have more class time to work and have assistance from the instructor. Then they can even go back and listen to the lecture again if they didn't get it the first time. It got me thinking about what I might be able to "flip". I have to teach the basal reader. It is one of my "required" inclusions! In order to make more time for independent reading practice in my classroom, I thought I could send the basal reader home each week with an assignment to complete at home. I would still use the targeted mini-lesson and word work, but I'd be able to use class time to practice the strategies with the students with self-selected books. Do you think it is worth thinking about? I'll leave you with one my favorite quote from this section. I'll leave number 4, anyway!

I hope you'll click on the quote to see some pretty amazing waysothers have set up their schedules for a workshop that works for them. It may work for you, too! 

I leave now to get back to a book I started this morning and have to finish. If you teach fourth or fifth grade this is a book you will want in your library. I love anything WWII and this is not disappointing me at all! A Jewish boy has to move with his family away from his beloved Paris to a safer place to avoid the Nazis. I'm almost to the part where he joins the French Resistance and goes back to Occupied France. Oh my goodness! Look there the book is right there below these words. How cool is that?





Did you catch the triple dip? 5 for Friday, Reading in the Wild, AND a Give Away. Have a great week! Next Friday is the 4th already! Why does time go more quickly in the summer?

Reading in the Wild Chapter 1

My daughter found time to read at her first sleepover!

Reading non-fiction is hard for me. Even if it does deal with subjects near and dear to my heart. I'm a junky for anything dystopic or Historical Fiction. I just finished Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews and was surprised at how hard I fell into it. I'm hoping by joining Think, Wonder, & Teach and 3rd Grade Book Worm I'll be held accountable for reading Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller.

After reading the first chapter I feel good about the time I dedicate each day to independent reading practice. I also feel thrilled that by the end of the year many of my students are taking books to lunch each day and reading to each other.

I have to admit that I need to do more to foster a love of reading for some of my students who fake read. The section in Chapter 1 on Independent Reading Observation was eye opening for me. I usually feel like I have to be busy the whole time my students are reading. Teaching first grade, I spend a lot of time reading to and with my students. I take every possible moment to be actively involved with them as they read independently. I can see the value in sitting back and observing reading habits. Donalyn follows observations, with evaluations, reflections and finally conferences with her students. If she can do it, so can I!

Do you know any wild readers? During the whole chapter I thought of my daughter. She is WILD. She is a wild reader. I read to her before she was born and continued reading through most of the children's section of the library before she started formal education in Kindergarten. I have so many pictures of her where I caught her reading. Today we like different genres, but she'll reading anything laying around the house to feed her habit.

She looks pretty wild, huh? My mom always read to us and
she always loved reading to grandchildren.