Book Talk Tuesday: Fables

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for another Book Talk Tuesday...

I'm going to share some of the work we do in my classroom with Fables. I love teaching Fables because of the lessons the kiddos can learn from so many of them! We use this great book that has tons of fables in it. I'll be honest, I have to pick and choose which fables we read, but there is definitely a big selection!

The illustrations are pretty wonderful... which makes sense since it won the Coldecott!

Reading Level:
Guided Reading N
DRA 30
Lexile 540L

Web Resources:

• Fables Discussion Guide: this guide through Scholastic offers great discussion points for during and after reading any fable
• Fable Resources: check out this blog post for a variety of links to help you teach fables
• Fairy Tales & Fables: this link has a TON of links to learn more about teaching fairy tales and fables

Vocabulary: teaching vocabulary for this book really depends on which fables you choose to teach. I would suggest teaching: message, moral & lesson so the kiddos understand what they are looking for in each fable.

Activities:
Before Reading: Like I mentioned in the vocabulary section, teach the words: message, moral & lesson because they are so very important when teaching about fables. Here's the anchor chart I created (inspiration from Nicole Shelby's Interactive Reading Notebook) that I shared last week!

During Reading:

• Have students use this checklist while you read to make sure your students are listening for the different fable characteristics.

After Reading:

• Use this organizer for your students to identify the message/moral of the fable and "prove it" using details from the text.

Enjoy! Be on the lookout for a Tall Tale post soon!

Book Talk Tuesday: Books on Books on Books

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday and I have a unique post for you today.

As some of you may know my blog started out in college as a blog to review books and offer teaching suggestions and resources.

I recently updated my "Great Books" tab to include a direct link to every book I've ever reviewed or posted on Book Talk Tuesday. I hope this will serve as a resource to those of you who are looking for a great read aloud or book for your students to read. Included with every "review" is reading level & resources. In addition, most of the book links include vocabulary, web resources, before/during/after reading ideas & more.

If you don't want to go check out the Great Books tab now... here are picture links to a few of my favorite books that I've posted about...

Enjoy!

Book Talk Tuesday: Bats!

After being MIA for a week... I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday...

We've been doing lots about BATS in my classroom over the past week and a half or so.
We started off by reading the well-known: Stellaluna.

We read the beginning of the story together (up until when Stellaluna falls into the bird nest) stopped and made a prediction. We then continued reading and students had to identify if their prediction came true or not. If it didn't they had to tell what really happened.

The next day, we retold the story aloud using our Whole Brain Teaching retell gestures... check out #3 on this 5 for Friday post if you're interested in the gestures. We then reread the story and used this retelling scaffold freebie from me to retell the story in writing. It was the first independent retell my kiddos have done, which is why we used the scaffold. Some of my students will use this scaffold for the better part of the year. Others are already ready for less structure.

We reread the end of the story on the third day of Stellaluna to identify the author's message. We also worked together to find proof of the author's message.

Finally, our book buddies came on their usual Friday mornings but instead of reading with us, helped us make these cute bat crafts. I got these templates free from A Cupcake for the Teacher here.

After we were done with Stellaluna, we moved onto what we Know & Want to Learn about bats. We did a class KWL & then the kiddos created their own. I make sure my students ask a question for the "want to learn" section.

Today we read Bats by Gail Gibbons, whose nonfiction texts I've raved about here. The text is short enough and interesting enough for kiddos to sit through the entire thing! ALSO in the same sitting *gasp* my kiddos were just about jumping out of their seats each time I answered one of our questions from our W section.

We completed the L section while we read (the text directly or indirectly answered each of our questions) then the kiddos went back to their KWL and answered the questions they had asked (if they could).

Later this week, the kiddos will read leveled texts about bats to complete the organizers in my TPT product below. Next week we will compare birds and bats (also with the organizers from my TPT product). Check out the bats/birds mini-unit below!

I love combining a fiction & nonfiction books into mini "themed" learning! I hope you'll consider going "batty" about learning in your classroom too!

Book Talk Tuesday: My Abuelita

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for another Book Talk Tuesday!

Today I'm sharing a book that we use as a mentor text for writing. It is fabulous for teaching figurative languages, specifically similes and metaphors... My Abuelita by Tony Johnston Illustrated by Yuyi Morales

In addition to the beautiful language, the style of illustrations make the pages come alive...

see what I  mean?...

Reading Level:
Grade Level Equivalent 2.6
(This is the only level I could find, if anyone else can find another leveling system, let me know!)

Resources for teaching...

Web Resources:

• Book Discussion & Activity Guide: This resource focuses on the importance of relationships mothers and grandmothers have with their children.
• Making My Abuelita: Find out how the illustrations for this book were made!

Vocabulary: What's great about this book is although MANY Spanish words are used, the narrator defines the words immediately after using them.
A few words you may want to preteach:  limber, robust, jalopy, audience

Activities:
Before Reading: Ask students how they think the illustrations were made. They are so unique that they practically scream out to talk about them! Show the video above to get kiddos excited about the illustrations and excited to hear the story.

During Reading: This story lends itself to working on predictions. I had my kiddos make a prediction about what they think Abuelita's job is (during the whole story she's getting ready for work, but you don't find out what she is until the last page). This story gives students opportunities to adjust their prediction as the story goes on.

After Reading: Have students try to come up with metaphors to describe themselves or someone they know or about an object. I give my kiddos a little help with sentence frames such as: _____ is as white as _______ or _______ is as round as __________. Be sure to remind kiddos to be kind if they are writing about someone.

Think about buying this book, especially if you teach about metaphors/similes or about family!

Book Talk Tuesday: The Wednesday Suprise

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday!

I'm sure many of you have read The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting, but I'd love to share how I used this story with my students a couple weeks ago.

If you haven't read it, it is a wonderful story about a birthday surprise the young girl Anna and her grandmother have planned for her father's birthday.

They work on the surprise while grandma babysits on Wednesday nights.

I won't ruin it for you if you've never read it, but for obvious reason it's a GREAT book to use for questioning as it elicits many curious questions, the most obvious being: what is the surprise!?

Reading Level:
DRA 18
Guided Reading K
Lexile 540L


I used this book for a questioning lesson. I had previously introduced and modeled asking questions during a think aloud mini lesson where I read a few pages from another book, asking questions as I went. I also created an anchor chart to help support students in answer questions during reading.

When I read this story, I stopped to model twice in the early pages of the story, asking questions during my think aloud. I think stopped at previously selected places in the book and asked students to turn and talk to a partner (teach, okay in my WBT room) then, stop and jot their question on a sticky note. We did this 3 times throughout the story. At the end of the book, I asked kiddos to choose their best question and stick it to our questioning anchor chart we had made during a previous lesson.

We then went back the next day to see if we could answer our questions. We sorted our questions by "Right There" Answers, "Inference"/"Book & Brain" Answers and "Unanswerable" I have since made a nicer chart for students to sort their stickies onto (which I keep neglecting to take a picture of), and this photo is from a sort for a different book, but you get the idea...

I also made sure with each lesson on questioning to encourage students to ask questions while they participate in Read to Self. I gave each student stickies to do so during the following days. After 2 Read to Self sessions, and an individual conference with most students, I collected their "best 2" Read to Self question and sorted them out for my self to see if kiddos weren't asking questions, were asking thin questions or were asking thick questions. I had about half and half as far as thick/thin go as well as many students who were asking a combination of both. I simply stuck the sticky notes to a tri-folded piece of construction paper for my own visual of where my class was. Again, like the above chart, not so pretty, but effective for my purposes!

I hope these simple to implement ideas might help you to teach questioning or that I have introduced you to a great read aloud :)

Book Talk Tuesday: Let's Do Nothing!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday today.

I'm sharing a book that we use as a mentor text in writing: Let's Do Nothing!

This is a fun story about 2 friends who can't figure out what to do after they've done everything they can possibly imagine... baked cookies, drew pictures, played games and more!

They decide to "do nothing" but doing nothing is harder than either of them realized it would be, but is also lots of fun!

I can bet your kiddos will enjoy this silly story that helps you realize there's always something to imagine, write about and enjoy.

Reading Level: 
Guided Reading L
Lexile 360L

Resources for teaching...

Web Resources:

• Youtube Reading: Play Mrs. Key's reading of Let's Do Nothing for your kiddos to listen to and enjoy.
• Nothing Activities: Host a "Nothing Night" or challenge students to do these "nothing" activities!
• Teacher Guide: Click here for discussion questions and cross curricular activities.

Vocabulary:  A few words that might be helpful to pre-teach... invented, majestic, nothing, pigeons, seconds, statues, Van Gough

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Ask students what they do when they are bored or have "nothing" to do.
• Have students try to "do nothing" for a short time then ask them how they feel doing nothing.

During Reading:

• Stop at the wordless pages and ask students to describe what is happening or write words for the pages.
• Stop on the wordless pages and ask students to describe how they think Frankie and Sal are feeling.

After Reading:

• Have students create another "scenario" for  Frankie and Sal to "do nothing" during.
• Ask students if they think someone can really "do nothing" and explain why or why not.

I hope you enjoy this book :)

Book Talk Tuesday!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for another Book Talk Tuesday!

Today I'm sharing a fun one that my kiddos LOVED read aloud the past 2 years. 2 years ago I read it as part of our enrichment group reading block and we answered comprehension questions. Last year I read it as a just for fun book. Used in both capacities it was very well liked!

This is a hilarious book about farm animals who decide they are sick and tired of their food. When the chickens complain about their chicken feed, the rooster decides to solve the problem.

After seeing the farmer and his wife cooking Mexican food, the rooster assigns the chickens to find ingredients in the garden for salsa.

 The other animals start to decide they are tired of their food too...

And before they know it... there is a fiesta happening in the barn!

 I promise your kiddos will be laughing and asking to try guacamole by the time you're done reading Chicks and Salsa.

Reading Level: DRA 12
Guided Reading G
Lexile 1010L

Resources for teaching...

Web Resources

• Discussion Questions & more: This school website offers discussion questions and many across-content ideas for this book!
• Sequencing Lesson: This step by step lesson is geared towards 1st grade with an objective that students will be able to sequence the events in Chicks and Salsa.
• Comprehension Questions: This link provides page by page questions to ask while reading

Vocabulary:  Here are some words you may want to teach... aroma, satisfied, cuisine, sombrero, plod, succulent, fiesta, pilfer,
Check out this link to a vocabulary game freebie for Chicks and Salsa

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Access students' background knowledge with questions such as:
• What do you know about cooking? Have you ever cooked with an adult?
• What are some interesting foods you've tried?
• Do you ever get tired of the same food?
• What is your favorite food or meal? 

During Reading:

• While you read this story aloud, stop to ask comprehension question such as those on this freebie...

• As different foods are mentioned, ask students if they have tried these foods before.

After Reading:

• Have students complete the comprehension worksheet above.
• Ask students to create a story sharing what the animals will try to make next.

Across the Curriculum:

• Use this book as a part of a Social Studies unit where students learn about their family's culture and food that is associated with that culture.
• Make salsa or guacamole with your students!

Book Talk Tuesday: Diary of a Worm

I'm linking up again with Mrs. Jump's class for Book Talk Tuesday.

This week I'm going to be sharing one you've probably already read... Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. I promise this post will be worth reading even if you've already read this book!

In this story, the main character, Worm, is telling his story through journal entries. Kiddos will learn about being a worm...

... and meet Worm's friend Spider...

If you haven't read this one, I can promise your kiddos will love it and laugh, asking for it to be read again! I didn't use this book as a read aloud this past year (I did the year before) but it still was VERY well loved in my classroom library!

Reading Level: DRA 18
          Guided Reading K
                         Lexile 360L

Resources for teaching...

Web Resources:

• Writing Lesson: This lesson from scholastic will have kiddos writing an animal diary after researching about that animal.
• Sequence Lesson: This lesson (also from scholastic) offers a printable to help students organize the order of events in the story.
• Activity Ideas: Here are a bunch of activity ideas for using this book in your classroom

Vocabulary: This book has pretty simple vocabulary. If your students do some worm research following reading this book, you may want to use some words that relate to worms for vocabulary instruction. For example: topsoil, compost, decompose, nutrients, minerals

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Create a KWL (filling out the K&W) to find out what your kiddos already know and want to learn about worms. This is a great activity to do if you plan on doing some nonfiction reading about worms or having students research about worms.

During Reading:

• Have students answer comprehension questions aloud as you read. I have my students "teach" each other the answer in the "teach, okay" Whole Brain Teaching model, but a turn and talk for this would work just fine. Use the questions below so students are ready to complete the comprehension sheet after reading. Click below for a copy of 2 versions of comprehension sheets (one with and one without sentence frames).

After Reading:

• To practice fluency, use this reader's theater version of Diary of a Worm. Click below to get a copy.

Extensions: Nonfiction/Science

• Have kiddos research worms! Click below for a kiddo-friendly worm fact sheet...

•  After your kiddos learn about worms, have them fill out one of these 2 facts sheets...

Hope you can use one or more of these freebies in your classroom! If your kiddos like this book, make sure you check out Diary of a Spider & Diary of a Fly too!