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So excited to be linking up with Primary Polka Dots for this... One of the best things about being a teacher is getting to share great books with kids! For this linky I will be sharing my favorite picture books- to see a list of my favorite chapter book read alouds you can check out this blog post of mine- The Importance of Read Aloud .  My favorites in children's literature are always changing- but here are my CURRENT faves! I love, love, love the book Duke the Dairy Delight Dog. It might have something to do with my love of all things dog, but this book has it all!  Great characters- Darla is a hoot to read aloud and Duke is the hero you root for!  Action- there are lots of action scenes in the diner! Humor- the action scenes in the diner are hilarious! Heartwarming- the ending is the best! Plus the illustrations are great! I have written about this book is a previous blog post- Book Talk Tuesday: Duke the Dairy Delight Dog . This book provides the inspiration for a character pr

Do you read aloud to your kids everyday? Once upon a time in my classroom, read aloud was something I did if I had time, not a regular part of my schedule. I had all the reasons for skipping it- we had too much to get done, we had to get prepared for "the test", etc., etc., ... I don't recall the exact moment in time that my perspective on read aloud shifted, but boy did it shift! I realized just how valuable that time spent in my classroom was. I figured it out.  Read aloud time provides me with so many opportunities...  1.) It allows me to BOND with my students. I am able to build relationships with my kids over our shared love of the books that I read aloud to them. We laugh together, try to figure out mysteries together, worry about the characters together, and often times we cry together (I have yet to get through Stone Fox without crying- huge dog lover here). At the end of the year... I want my kids to remember me as their teacher that loved to read to them  and  t

Back to school is an exciting time! As a teacher, I am always ready to jump right in and get started! Of course, it is so important to take the time to establish routines and procedures and those things tend to fill up a majority of my time the first few weeks.  So... as a way to kind of merge the routines and procedures and get into the meat of things, I like to set up our Science Notebooks. I started using Science Notebooks several years ago and my kiddos love having  an artifact that shows their learning and what we have done during the course of the year. To start off the year I like to read a book about science. I LOVE to read the fiction story: The Science Project that (ALMOST) Ate the School by Judy Sierra It is a fun book that really holds my kiddos attention and the illustrations are GREAT! After reading, we create an anchor chart where we brainstorm the word "SCIENTIST".  The kids will use this chart as inspiration to create a cover for their Science Notebooks. The

It's that time of year when we are all thinking about classroom organization and what we need to do to start preparing our classrooms for the upcoming year.  I want to share with you a purchase I made at Wal-Mart a few years ago that has made my teacher life so much easier!  That purchase would be small plastic shelves to use with each of my tables (or rows- I like to rearrange in my classroom... ALOT).  These shelves are great to use to store my kiddos' book bins and also provide a place for a box of Kleenex, hand sanitizer, extra pencils, and to display their table numbers.  I love having a central place for the kids to keep their book bins... I can fit up to 6 of my book bins on the shelf... I also love the plastic picture frames that I use to display the table numbers!  Enjoy the rest of your summer!