Five For Friyay!

It's a hot one for Michigan. It's a perfect morning to stay inside and share 5 random things from my week with you! Thank you Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting such a great Linky Party! Get ready for some random ramblings. Grab a cup of coffee and take five minutes peace!

I LOVE THIS BOOK! I just ordered a copy for a friend who, like me, has three children. She's a teacher who, like me, loves to have five minutes peace from time to time. Unlike me, she still has one in diapers, so her five minutes peace is much more valuable than mine! I miss the days of craving five minutes to myself. These days having five minutes with my children is a pleasure! If you have little ones at home or you used to, you must check out this book. You will love the story more than your littles, but they will laugh right along with you as Mrs. Large tries to find a place for just five minutes to herself.

Have you used any resources from Learning A-Z.com? As a Learning A-Z Referral Program member, I'm able to offer you a $5 discount to every Learning A-Z website! Please use my promo code NB1289 to take advantage of this discount offer. These products have helped me tremendously and I know they can do the same for you. As a referral member I have won subscriptions to Science A-Z and Raz-Kids. These resources have allowed me to differentiate quickly and easily. I supplement my daily instruction with easy to use materials that I can easily project or print out.  Monthly drawings give a lucky referral member a tablet of their choice. GUESS WHAT? I won!! I am still pinching myself. My Apple iPad Air 2 should arrive before school does. This is a huge blessing for me. At my school we share five iPads, giving each class one day to use them. Having one that stays in my room will be AWeSOme! 

I didn't make it to Orlando for the TPT meet-up and I didn't get to go to Vegas for the teachers conferences. But guess what? I'm going to East Lansing! I can't wait to meet and be inspired by my Michigan blogger friends!

I will be able to go to the meet-up in style because I just got my StichFix number 8! I love pulling out my Fix Sandwich!

I kept three things from this Fix. Chessie helped me decide which ones were keepers!

Ready to try your own fix? Click HERE and I'll get a bonus too!

This has been one of the most relaxing summers I have ever had. My kids and hubs go to work every day leaving me lots of time on my hands. There have been projects on my mind for a while that I have wanted or needed to take care of. But guess what? I didn't do any of them! Instead I've gone out almost every day to pursue my passion...birds! I'm what you call a Lister. I list all the birds I see and I'm up to 182 lifetime birds. Not too shabby for rarely leaving my state of Michigan! People often ask me what my favorite bird is, or assume it's an owl! They are all my favorites. Check some of my finds out...

Willow Flycatcher

American Woodcock strutting his stuff!

Want more? Follow me on Instagram. I've been trying to post a bird picture everyday! That's it from me this week. Next week I'm heading back to school to start getting things set-up. Just a couple of hours here and there, so I'll still have plenty of time for the birds!

Five For Friday

Isn't it funny how even over summer vacation there is something AwESome about Fridays? Of course Doodle Bugs Teaching's 5 for Friday gives me something to look forward to all week long! Drum roll please...Here are my FiVE random things from this week:

Do you remember getting the Sears Wish Book catalog when you were a kid? My sister and I would sit knee to knee and elbow to elbow searching that catalog for our favorite things. We'd write our name on each thing we wished for and would spend hours studying it. I made a connection to that memory when I opened my mailbox and found this...

I LOVE this catalog. It is so full of great ideas that get my mind dreaming of next year's edventures!

I had my first "playdate" this week. I invite new and old students to come to class and play. We work on a craft, read books, have a snack and play! It is a great way to help my new first graders get used to me and encourage reading and growing all summer long. I read these two great books...

I love this book. It is written in rhyme and provides great information
about a variety of different bird nests. This was my favorite read for the day. My Owlets loved this one...

Rosie the hen has a walk that she thinks is with out much adventure. The fox that stalks her has quite a difficult time

trying to catch up to her. The illustrations are funny and help tell this delightful story. I have been using this book for years with emergent readers and it is most definitely one of my top 10 picks for new readers!

Our playdate theme was birds. Our craft was paper plate birds. We painted them one color and then added details with wiggly eyes and feathers. I think they turned out pretty cute.

I have finally entered the world of sensory bins. Oh my! I wasn't sure if they'd get used, but the students I thought of when making them were attracted to them and played in them for most of the free play time. They sifted, poured and made up bird stories as they played in the birdseed. I can hardly wait to make another one for our next playdate. Thanks to Sandi at Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes for so much inspiration! I've been stalking your blog, Sandi, looking at these bins for such a long time. I wasn't sure exactly what the benefits would be, but for my new student with Selective Mutism I think the benefits will be HUGE! 

Crinkly paper, rubberband worms, feathers, binoculars, eggs and birdseed make this a perfect home for my Beanie Baby!

I'm branching out and making birds and chickens now!

My friend Kimberly is doing a great series on making time. If you haven't checked it out, you should! HERE you will find a guest post by Tiny Teeny Teacher YOU MUST READ IT!! 

Well I'm off to enjoy reading blogs for inspiration and fun. Friday nights are the best!

Ideas and Content, In Pictures and In Words

Do you see a theme going on?

I sat down on my new porch to start reading through chapter 7 last night.  "This will be a cinch," I thought.  If I hadn't been distracted by how much I LOVE my porch, it might have made it a little easier. But look at this...So relaxing.  So many windows to look out.  So many birds to see...

It's so peaceful out here!

If I could draw a picture of what I looked like sitting on that porch after I opened the book to get started I might draw this picture:

I shouldn't have waited so long...

or this...

I don't think I can do this...

I love this book.  I can't read it without crying.  It illustrates
the impact a single teacher can make in a child's life.  Patricia
Polacco writes and illustrates books that touch the heart deeply!

Do you know Mercy? Kate DiCamillo created such a likable  character. Illustrator, Chris Van Dusen
captures her emotions as well as the other characters in the book beautifully!

In Pictures and In Words is one of the idea richest books I've come across.  No reproducibles...just tools to help us be teachers of ideas in the classroom.  Tools that allow us to help children think, notice, and wonder.

Technique 9:  Showing, not telling!

Katie connected with me right off the bat when she used the book Birds  for an illustration examples.  If you don't have this book you should stop right here and go to your favorite place to order books on-line and order it.  It's that rich in text and illustration.  It's become class favorite. It will become a "go to' book for me as I put into practice all I'm leaning! I'll wait here while you order it.  While I'm waiting I'll look at my favorite page from the book.  Maybe I'll head over and visit my friend Laurie who introduced me to this book!


Welcome back...You'll be so glad you ordered it!

Once I finally got started last night it was hard to quit!  I had brought home a stack of books from school because all of my children's books are there.  As my children grow, their books find a way into my classroom!

Dogku by Andrew Clements and illustrated by Tim Bowers
is a wonderful story written in haiku.  Technique 2... Here the
central image is pictured from behind.  He looks lonely and we
know why...His boy is going off to school.

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton is one of
my "go to" books.  Here the rising and setting of the
sun illustrates the passage of time. (Technique 6!)

I think this illustration, also from The Little House, 
shows more than one tequnice.  Crafting a "backstory", Manipulating point of view for effect and
Crafting with distance perspective to name just three!

 


I'm guessing you felt as I did...So many Techniques, so little time!  To help me organize my thoughts and ideas I came up with a way to help guide my classroom study.  I've made a chart that I can put in my planning binder and keep track of each technique as I use it.  I've only made this chart to cover Chapter Seven, but I'll share the others next week.  Click on the picture to get to the document!

I just realized I had another day before this was "due"!  Well , with company coming for dinner tonight I think I better post now.  My ADD(Attention to Date Disorder!) strikes again.

Thank you so much, Deedee for hosting such a wonderful study.  It's so much fun to hop around seeing what others have to say about this book.  You are a champion for educators everywhere! 

Verb Birds

I had to extend our bird unit into this week.  I am My students are so into it that we had to keep going.  Yesterday when I saw  Chickadee Jubilee’s post I knew I had to write some bird poetry.  We haven’t done as much poetry this year as I would like and I knew my students would benefit from this activity because we are also learning about verbs.  The poetry frame originally came from WritingFix.  I used paintbrushes instead of marbles because I didn’t have any marbles at school and I forgot mine at home.  We pretended that the brushes were feathers and now I’ve made a mental note to use feathers when  I reapeat this craftivity in the future.

Just like the Chickadees we Owlets read the book Birds by Kevin Henkes again.  This time we listened for and recorded the verbs we heard as we read.  Then we made the verbs  fly across the paper before we painted what we thought the sky would look like if birds left paint behind when they flew. We all hooted with pleasure as we hung our finished projects up for others to admire and learn from.

My owlets have always loved speech bubbles, so today as we finished up another project we used them to reinforce the idea that verbs are what a noun does.  Each child made a bird with a foot and handprint.  They used markers to add the details.  I placed the birds on a blue background.  I added speech bubbles and the owlets told me what their bird could do. 

A whole flock of verbs!

I saw this idea somewhere on Pintrest.  It looked more.....hmm
professional when I saw it!

Don't you love this Hummingbird!

This has been a rough week.  My owlets are getting restless and branching out.  They are ready to fly. Tempers have flared, and arguments have erupted over play-dates and birthday parties.  I found that my patience ran low, too.  Today the sweetness of three students made me smile and remember why I do what I do.  One child, who loves to test me said, “You are so cool!  I love you.”  Another left a note on my desk that said, “Mrs. Reck I love you as a teachur and a purson.” Another student returned to give me hugs during the afternoon because, “I’m going to miss you so much, tomorrow!”  Not too many people have that happen on their jobs.