I Heart TomieDePaola *Freebie!

Yay for me: this is an actual post about school stuff. You may get some value out of this post.
However, I am definitely noting that my Lord of the Rings post received the most comments, so maybe you're not interested in school. Maybe you're more interested in Legolas and Aragorn, because they're hotty hot hot.
I blogged a while back about Tomie DePaola and how I use his books to help my students write personal narratives. It involved a lot of reverse mapping, a lot of character relationships, and a lot of great stories! This year, at the end of third grade, I wanted to read a novel as a shared reading to prepare kids for the experiences they'd have in fourth grade.
I chose, as a culminating text to our Tomie DePaola unit, 26 Fairmount Avenue. 26 Fairmount Avenue is about Tomie's family and their excitement leading up to their new home. It includes the characters my kids had grown to love in the other DePaola books because it is a memoir of his youth. 
I know this book isn't a challenging book for third graders. However, I had such a mixed group of kids that I wanted even my most struggling students to be able to go back into the text to find evidence for their responses. To that end, I chose a book that was independently readable for the majority of my students. I also knew that their interest in the text and Tomie DePaola would help them read.
A few of my students had read this book last year. At first, I was dismayed. I know it's a second grade book, really, but I was worried they wouldn't get much out of a reread. My fears were unfounded. On the first day, as we predicted, one of my students says, "Yeah, I read this book last year, but there's one thing I don't know. Why is it called 26 Fairmount Avenue?"
Ummm.... cause that's the address of the house.The house that is being built throughout the whole book.The house that they finally move into in the last chapter.
So I figured that they would get a lot out of it, because they didn't really get it in the first place!
We did a ton of stuff with this book. We (and I'm so sorry because I didn't take pictures of this - bad teacher bad teacher) sequenced the events of the book on cards and glued them onto a sentence strip. Then the kids illustrated the events.
We also spent some time with vocabulary and comprehension. My kids really struggle with answering specific questions that require inferencing and sequencing, so I wrote a set of questions for each chapter. We also worked a lot with context clues to infer the meanings of new words. The vocabulary of this book isn't very complicated, but there are words scattered throughout the text that are unknown to my kids.
Then we made these: Open Mind Portraits.

I have a couple of artists in my classroom this year!

On the inside, students completed the statements about what is in Tomie's brain: 

I love..., I am happy when..., I wish..., and I don't like...

I have a couple of artists in my classroom this year!

Of course, I cram in eighteen thousand things at the end of the year. I just run around saying, "They're not ready! They're not ready!" and I do as many things as I can to 'prepare them' lol. Anyway, this is one thing I didn't have time for boo. It's a craftivity for students to write inside of. 

You can grab it all at TPT or Teacher's Notebook! 

Grab this freebie from TPT:Character Relationships Map

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Books books books

I'm a reader. I love to read novels, mostly (not the biggest nonfiction reader, except for blogs, I guess!) and I can't imagine my life without a love of reading. It can be hard for me to find books I love. For example, 50 Shades of Grey? Really? I'm sorry, but I picked up the book in Barnes & Noble after so many people recommended it. I thought it might be something.
I read the back. And I threw up in my mouth a little.
Anastasia Steele? Seriously?! Grey Whatevertheheck his first name is?! Can't do it, people. Too barfy for me. A friend of mine bought it and said that she can't handle it, either. She let me read a page. I read the words 'inner goddess' and was thankful I didn't spend the $$ at Barnes & Noble. I wish I could read that stuff. But it's just not possible. (I bet this is gonna tick somebody off lol. Sorry in advance.)Related idea, yet unrelated:
I love to read novels with my kids. I wish I could spend more time on it, but it can take soooo long to read a novel if you spend any time talking about it and working with it. I can usually only fit in about two a year in fourth grade. In third, the kids' stamina didn't really lend itself, so I was only able to do one. We had to spend a lot of time working with shorter texts.
26 Fairmount AvenueI put together a pretty nifty novel unit, but I still need to try one thing before I can post it to TPT.
It's important for me to do these as shared readings. I want students to have copies of the books and be able to go back and find evidence to support their responses to text. In order to get enough copies, I buy them when they're a dollar at Scholastic! I'm not sure if you do Book Orders (I thought everybody did, but I showed it to my sister-in-law and she said no one at her school knew of them!!) 
Scholastic Book Orders are the bestest. Of course, it's a great way for your kids to get books at a reasonable price, but one of the best things is that for every dollar parents spend, you get a bonus point! You can get bonus bonus points at different brackets, and for specials and stuff, too.
So that's how I get my book sets. I either buy them when they're a dollar, or I use my bonus points to get them. (I also use bonus points to buy the kids a gift book at Christmas) You can go here to sign in to Scholastic Book Clubs online!
These are books I love to read with kids in the fourth grade:
Frindle

Nick is a little boy with big ideas. One day, after learning from his teacher where words come from, he decides to call a pen a 'frindle' and it takes off.

Because of Winn-DixieOpal lives with her father. She finds a dog and her relationship with the dog helps her belong in her small town.
Walk Two MoonsSal searches for her mother who left her and her father. The story unfolds a little at a time.
Love That DogProse style. Jack doesn't want to write poetry, but Ms. Sugarberry convinces him through reading great poets.
Esperanza RisingEsperanza's rich family loses everything and become migrant workers. Beautiful story.
These are the books I've used the most with kids. Which books do you love love love to read with your kids?
Also, check out my new Good Readers Strategies poster pack at TPT and TN

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6 Reasons Why Lord of the Rings is Awesome

This may be a very unpopular post. It was definitely inspired in an odd moment. Yesterday, we had this horrible dust storm. One minute, I was sitting on my porch swing, appreciating the warm breeze, and the next minute a huge swarm of dirt caught up in a high-speed wind surged down my street, carrying my garbage can with it. I ran out and dragged it back up against the house, and darted inside...

to find my power off.
I live in a desert, people. Deserts get hot. And no power=no air. So I went to my hunny's house because he didn't lose power in our horrible dust storm. *Also, no power = no internet, so boo for that!
I found him halfway through a Lord of the Rings marathon. Now, I am duly unqualified to comment on this. I'm not part of any fan club, don't have a costume in my closet (well, I was Arwen for Halloween one year, but that was a while back), and I only read The Hobbit and the trilogy. But sometimes, you get a notion, and it shows up in your blog. 
Not only that, but I can totally quote Galadriel: "Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth!"
So here we go.
6 Reasons why Lord of the Rings is awesome.
1. Hobbits are little.This might not sound awesome. Little things aren't expected to be that awesome. But the hobbits are little and awesome. They're the best in us - they do the things that take heart and sacrifice, and they're unlikely for the job. The others sacrifice, too. Their commit to protecting someone who is almost destined to fail. They stand up for somebody. That's what we all want in us. 
2. YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!It's highly quotable. Fly, you fools!

3. Viggo Mortenson is hot stuff. This one doesn't need much elaboration. He's dirty, and he's scraggly, but he's got an accent and he kicks butt regularly. 

4. Orlando Bloom is pretty.Again, self-explanatory. He's not dirty, and he's not scraggly, AND he has an accent and he kicks butt regularly.

5. There's so much literature behind it that it would be impossible for me to read it all.I'm, like, super impressed with JRR Tolkein. He's such a prolific writer, interweaving entire subplots and stories as if it's our own history. The companion literature alone is staggering. The languages, cultures, and backstories blow my mind. To put it simply, he's way smarter than me.

6. Elves.They're so cool.

What is your opinion on The Lord of the Rings? Do you think it's as amazing as me? Or, I guess I should say, as I do. It's way more amazing than me lol.
I asked my hunny, "Give me another reason Lord of the Reason is awesome." He said, "I don't know." Dud.
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Devil Rolls and Pinterest Linky Party!

I know I mentioned that I'm going on a cruise soon. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a tub-o. It's genetic. Also I really like tasty stuff. And the worst part is that my hunny is an enabler. He loves food. And he also loves sitting on the couch. So I'm having a few issues about putting on a swimsuit and romping around like a dorkus. I don't mind curves (those aren't going anywhere!) but I would like to have a few less curves in certain areas.

Yesterday, my hunny's godfather took us to dinner. We went to my hunny's favorite place: Texas Roadhouse. If you've been to Texas Roadhouse, you know that there are two things on the table before your meal arrives. There is a bucket of peanuts and there is a basket of fluffy, doughy, deliciously smushy rolls.

Well, I had just spent the whole day trying not to think about the frozen cookie dough in my freezer. I didn't plan it that way - I bought cookie dough from a high school football player when he came to my door about four months ago. Then I forgot about it, because it never came. On Thursday (my first day of summer break), the little football player arrived at my door with two tubs of frozen cookie dough and an apology that it took so long. So I stuffed them in the freezer and tried not to think about them. Because I heart cookie dough.

So after a day of trying to keep the cookie dough from shoving itself in my face, I was super hungry. I had tried to deter my craving for tastiness with the pin below about Greek yogurt, but it's no substitute for cookie dough. I had a plan, though. I was going to let Fernie and his godfather eat the rolls while I ate peanuts.

I sat at the table, and the waitress placed our bowl of doughy goodness in the middle. I looked around...

and there were no peanuts. I panicked for a second. I looked around helplessly. I saw other people enjoying their peanuts.

And I saw other people enjoying their fluffy puffy balls of baked dough as well. Oh dear.

Hunny! I said. Where are the peanuts?!

He chuckled. He knew what I was doing, so he found me some peanuts. I proceeded to shove them into my face at a rate that would impress a circus elephant.

They finished the rolls.

Then the waitress came back. "Oh!" she said. "Do you need some new rolls?"
But she didn't just ask it, people. As the words were coming out of her mouth, tiny little horns popped out of her head and her voice dropped several octaves. She grew little fangs and proclaimed it in an evil voice while little flames danced in her pupils. "Yes." said my hunny.

I will refrain from  making a comment about his supportiveness here.

I summoned the power of Greyskull and magically, no rolls entered my person. However, I did shell peanuts like a squirrel. Yay for me.

These are my pinterest finds that I have tried or want to try this summer, and I'm linking up with Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher.

To try to fill myself up without lots of calories, I've been having Greek yogurt for breakfast with just some walnuts in it. I unfortunately love ice cream. I thought this might be a good middle ground.

Mine were not as pretty, but they were tasty!

I like these B.E.E. books: Bring Everything Everday. It can hold homework, agenda, notes home, etc.

I really liked these little birthday straws - I even bought the straws already!

And this one is just a really bad idea. But I love pink lemonade, and I love margaritas. So how can Pink Lemonade Margaritas go wrong?

I think four is enough. to commit to. I don't want to be overzealous.Pin It

Classroom Jenga? And Bees are the best

All right, I took a few days off but it's time for me to resurface. Briefly.
This morning, as I whined about on Facebook, I woke up at 5:45. Why would I do that? Why? That's torturous. I'm single. Why be single and off for the summer if I'm just going to get up at 5:45? Cause that's earlier than I get up for work. I couldn't go back to sleep. I'm going to try to take a nap in a minute, but I don't have much expectations.
One of my lovely colleagues cheered me up a bit. Backstory: This year, we're trying to make sure kids are motivated to read over the summer. We called in parents of a handful of students who made lots of gains this year and had the kids decorate bookbags. They painted their bags and we put books in them for the kids to read over the summer. We included a folder with a daily reading log (freebie at TPT) and some reading activities for the kids to respond to their books.
One of the moms posted this on my facebook:
Well, if it makes you feel better...[Kiddo] has gotten up every day to read for your reading camp! He even did one of his responses...ON HIS OWN...no prodding from me! He's reading that super amoeba book right now!
 WOW! That's like a summer break miracle! And it did make me feel a bit better. I pictured his little self getting up and reading his little books and recording his little stuff. How precious. The little people can rip our hearts out if we let them.
I'm already dreading taking down my mess. I mean, I left a M.E.S.S. in my classroom. My towers of terror reach almost to the ceiling. You could play a really scary game of Classroom Jenga if you wanted to.

What a wreck, huh? That's called Laziness, with a capital L.
I started thinking about how to Cute my room up a little, and since I have a bee theme, I put together this bee themed classroom pack:

You can get it at TPT or Teacher's Notebook!I'm having a problem with the TPT thumbnail thingy and I'm too lazy to make my own, so I'll have to re-attack that later.
And now, to lay around and hope I can sleep. I doubt it. I'm not a day sleeper.
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Cruise Shopping Adventure!

I'm not a big shopper, because I'm not a big spender. I'm super hesitant to spend big bucks on clothes, so I tend to wear things out for years. But in July, I'm going on a cruise! So I needed some new spiffy duds. On Friday, I went Target hunting with my friend Laura. 

Now, what I didn't know about Laura is that she has a deep, terrible secret. She is a shopping enabler. This is what she sounds like in a store:

"Oooooo you need that. It looks so cool. Try it on! OH! It's awesome! You have a great face for that. OOOOH and look this matches. You need to get this one, too. I'll get one so we'll be matching. OOOOOOOOOOH and look at THAT! That's perfect. You'll definitely need to get that."

So, I was hooked. We browsed through the dollar store, and found this funny pirate themed stuff! 

I'll take pictures next week of how I use that.  (It's going to be a motivating thing for my kids to participate in my summer reading pack: Sailing Through Summer! I'm super excited.

Then, I bought a hat. (This one was totally Laura's fault) I love hats, but I tend to buy them and then look at them longingly and never actually wear them. I feel a little silly, like I'm trying to hard. So I bought this hat (You have a GREAT hatface! said Laura) and I have to wear it now. It's absolutely adorable.

Then I found some earrings. (They're birds oh my gosh)

And then a scarf (clearance kachow). 

And maybe a cute travel purse.

Everything was in the gray and blue family. But I don't have a lot of gray clothing. Or gray complimentary clothing. So guess what. 

Today, I went shopping with my mom. This is my mom at a store: "Ooo what do you think about this? I like it. I know you don't like it, but I do. It matches all my other stuff. Wait - maybe I already have it. Oh, yeah, I do. I already have this one. Oh well. Oooo what about this one?" She only enables herself when she's shopping.

I bought a pair of shorts and a dress (clearance kachow)

And then, I found these shoes. 

Now, I don't know if I've mentioned that shoe-shopping for me is a little like hunting the holy grail. My shoes have to be uber-comfortable but I'm not a little old lady (yet) so it's hard for me to find stuff I like. Top that off with my cheap-ness, and he perfect pair of shoes is virtually impossible to find. Crocs, for example, make me look like I'm a few tacos short of a taco truck.  So I'm always searching for the perfect shoe for my not-so-perfect feet. I found some cute Keds (out of my normal budget, but this is a cruise, people!) that I can wear to walk around in that also look cruise-ish. Cause we must be pretty or die! 

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