Hello December: Favorite Books and Exciting News

Hope you all had a nice first day back after Thanksgiving break. Fortunately for me it went very smoothly. I am going to be sharing some of my favorite Christmas/Holiday/Winter books over the next few weeks. I'm featuring 2 books that are childhood favorites. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. I can probably recite this without even looking. This version has black and white illustrations and is just beautiful. Click Here to find it on Amazon

 

Here is The Twelve days of Christmas-yes just like the song. The illustrations in this version by Laurel Long are absolutely gorgeous. Each one is more detailed than the next. Within each illustration are hidden images, which will keep you flipping through again and again. Click Here to find it on Amazon

9 Ladies Dancing

2 Turtle Doves

4 Calling Birds

And now some exciting news. I was voted by my school as Teacher of the Year!

Lots of work ahead of me as I prepare to go to district, but I am beyond humbled to have this opportunity to represent my wonderful school !!

I will be sharing more favorite books later this week!

Holiday Picture Book Linky Party

I'm linking up with Chrissy at First Grade Found Me to share different books I use for different Holidays in my classroom. We are starting off with books we use for back-to-school and will be doing more throughout the year for each holiday.



I recently posted about Must Have Picture books, but this will focus on the beginning of the year.


Chrissy, of course loves this book she organized a HUGE alphabet exchange with it.  However, it's a great 1st week of school book, there are so many activities out there. My favorite is to make a palm tree and attach it to a paper bag.  I have a sheet of letters of the alphabet.  The students cut them out and put "act-out" the story, saying the sound of the letter as they climb the tree. Ex. student picks up a 'b', they say /b/, /b/, /b/  and then "plop" the letters in the bag. They repeat with the rest of the letters.

 
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse  by Kevin Henkes is super (especially if you love Purple) which I do. It's a super cute book. Lilly wants to show off all of the cool things she brought to school, in her cool purple plastic purse. (can you say alliteration?) Her teacher keeps asking her to wait, but she doesn't want to. She gets so upset that she draws a note of him being a "big, fat, mean teacher". When the teacher finds it, she thinks she is done for, but her teacher is a special man.  He loves her and explains it all in the end. 

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn--of Course.  I read this to my own children before the first day, and put my kiss in their hand before they go off to their rooms. There are great crafts out there. My favorite is to do a hand-print with a red heart in the middle of the palm. I paint the whole hand one color and make a little red heart shape in the center.  Hand-prints are great because every mom will keep it forever!
 A Pocket Full of Kisses is the sequel to the Kissing Hand. One year, a student bought me this book.  Chester gives his mom the kissing hand when he leaves for school. Oh, I could just cry, because it always makes me think of my own kiddos.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. "I think I'll go to Australia"  if you haven't read this, you won't understand. The boy is a pessimist. Everything is terrible and awful and one big, hot, mess!  Each time something happens he references Australia.  It's just plain old funny.  But the teaching point is, we all have bad days and bad moments.  Especially if that is all you focus on.  So try to focus on the positive--Like traveling to Australia one day. 


If you haven't had a chance and you are reading this before August 2nd, I am having a giveaway.
Click here and it will bring you there (not to Australia, I promise)

Happy Reading,

Must Have Picture Books

I'm linking up with a bunch of teachers with my Top 5 6 must have picture books.
Well here goes!

1. My Mouth is a volcano   This book is great if you have students who can't stop calling out!  I love it!!!!!!!!!  It teaches kids to take a deep breathe, blow out the words, and then breathe them back in when they are called on.  It's Fabulous!

2. The Judge: An Untrue Tale   This was the First book I bought as a teacher. My college Reading Professor Mrs. Voelker introduced me to it. I actually need to buy another one, because one of my students loved it even more than I did.  Anyway the thing I love about this book is it has a repetitive rhyme: "Please let me go Judge, I didn't know Judge, that what I did was against the law, I just said what I saw"  (see I have it memorized :0)  It's a great way to get kids to Choral read!

3.   The Keeping Quilt            Patricia Polacco!  Enough said.  She is amazing and awesome and wonderful.  I love her illustrations.  After I read this book, I like to encourage my students to try and illustrate with pencil and only make the important items in color.  Here's a peek at the inside of this book.
 
4. Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum! I love reading this story for the first week of school. It is a great way to teach your class, that everyone is different and you shouldn't tease anyone because of it.  I also love how the Teacher is the hero of the story, and makes the girls realize that just because Chrysanthemum has a long name doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. I love doing the voices of the whiny girls in this story--the kids love it!


And now a little known book called


The Tale of Meshka the Kvetch
I found this book when my school was closing and the librarian was giving away all of her older, much loved books.  I quickly scooped up this little gem. First of all my grandmother was Jewish and would always tell me to stop "kvetching"  (complaining).  Now, I was raised in a Christian home, but my roots are in the yiddish/Jewish world. (I was Yenta in my 4th grade play of Fiddler on the Roof) But I digress, I love this book (Wait, I think I have said that about every book)  First of all it teaches a lesson--STOP COMPLAINING! or you will get the Kvetch's itch!  Your tongue will begin to itch, and low and behold everything will begin to come true.  I usually break this book out when the kids have had enough of each other and can't stop tattling.  No One wants an itchy tongue.

I have one more ( I know it's supposed to be 5, but I can't help it)
6. Stone Soup (see my post from March) I use all 3 versions, plus a reader's theater!  Text to Text here we come!
    


                                                Happy Reading,

                                                  Jessica