Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Extra!  Extra! Read All About It!

My favorite author released her newest book, Chocolate Milk, Por Favor!

Maria Dismondy is an award winning author, a former teacher and a mom who writes books that empower others and encourage us to celebrate diversity.  I've known Maria for a few years and have had the pleasure of hearing her presentations several times in my school.  My own children have also been empowered by her message when she visited their schools.  She is a fabulous presenter and I can tell you from experience that her positive message sticks with children and adults.

I've read and enjoyed all of Maria's books in my classroom and at home with my own children. Her new book is the story of a two boys, Gabe and Johnny.  Gabe speaks a different language than the other students in his new school and Johnny struggles to accept Gabe at first.  Throughout the story, Johnny learns to celebrate diversity with empathy.  Chocolate milk plays role in the story as well!

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! sparked conversations at our house about important topics like ways we can make people feel welcome, getting to know more about people to honor the differences among us, celebrating diversity instead of pretending we are all the same and having empathy for others.  In our family, we want our children to do more than accept others.  We want them to learn from each others differences, accept each other without the expectation that we should all be the same and encourage others to be the best they can be.  I tried to teach the same to the children in my classroom. Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! is a book that I will definitely be recommending to teachers and parents for years to come.

I have a great deal of respect for Maria Dismondy's work and the positive messages she shares.  I am honored that she asked me to create a reader's guide for Chocolate Milk, Por Favor!.   The reader's guide includes activities that are aligned with the common core standards (but will work with any standards) for teachers and parents to use as they enjoy the story together.  You can read more about this book (and her other books) and download the reader's guide for free on Maria's website by clicking on the image below.

As part of the blog tour, Maria is allowing me to giveaway a signed copy of Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! to one lucky winner!  The giveaway ends on April 11th at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway    

Congratulations, Maria!

Another fabulous book!

Another powerful message!

Looking forward to filling our shelves and our hearts with more of your stories in the future!

Book Talk Tuesday - Chapter Book Series (freebies)

In preparation for my looping experience and in celebration of my fancy new bins...I'm working on a giant book sorting project this summer.  It's still a work in progress, but I thought it was a good time to link up with Deanna Jump to share some of my favorite chapter book series.

 At the beginning of the summer, I reread The Book Whisperer. 

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book, which refers to student reading surveys.

"Their needs as readers, as people, call to me from the pages of those surveys, and I whisper back with books." (Donalyn Miller)

Since I am looping with my students, one of my goals is to really get to know my readers.  In first grade, we poured our hearts into becoming readers and learning how to love books together.  During our 2nd grade year together, I want each of my students to develop their reader identity.  As their teacher, I want to make sure I "whisper" to them by listening carefully to their preferences, fostering their interests, acknowledging that I know and respect their individual reader identity and making sure that I have a variety of books available for them to read independently.  Along with that, I want to make sure my books are organized in a way that motivates my students since they are now more sophisticated readers.  That is how I justify the outrageous amount of money I've spent on new books and bins this summer. Ha!

Another take away I had from reading The Book Whisperer was the importance of giving readers choice.  In her book, Donalyn Miller said that she used to read whole class novels with her upper elementary students.  She said she discovered that lack of control over reading choice was a problem until she stopped doing that and switched to a workshop structure instead. I do feel like I give my readers choice in my own classroom, but after reading this book 3 or 4 times I have a list of ideas of ways I can improve my own instruction.

I made a new Reading Interest Survey to use with my students this year.  You can click on the image below to download a copy.

I also decided to start with reorganizing my books (and buying lots of new chapter books) to start 2nd grade. I found these amazing chapter book bins from Really Good Stuff.  They have 3 divided sections, which are perfect for separating books in a series. They come in a variety of colors.

*We use Fountas & Pinnell levels.  Many of the series on this list are new and have not yet been leveled on many of the leveling sites, so I assigned levels that are close enough for me.  I'm simply sharing the list in this format in case it's helpful for any other teachers out there.  You can click on the image to download a copy of the list.

Today, I am going to my classroom for the first time to move my furniture around.  No flip flops.  Hair in a messy bun.  Pray for me. Surely this will count as my weight lifting for the day.

Head over to visit Mrs. Jump's Class to read about other great books.

A Special Visitor for My Class

A couple years ago, one of my teacher friends introduced me to two fabulous books by Maria Dismondy. All the stars aligned recently and my class ended up winning a special visit from Maria Dismondy! You can read about how that happened by reading my recent post on TBA.

Maria is now the author of three amazing books! I've used her first two books (Spaghetti in a Hotdog Bun and Juice Box Bully) for writing lessons. I can't wait to use her newest book (Pink Tiara Cookies for Three) for a writing lesson as well. All three of her books prompted intense discussions with my students about being kind, accepting each other and fairness. You can check out her books on her website by clicking on the image below.

 Maria was so sweet to my students and explained how she became an author.  She also encouraged them to keep writing and patiently answered all of their questions about her books... while I snapped pictures like a 13 year old who just spotted Justin Bieber.  Let's face it, it's not everyday that a real author visits your classroom!

little old me and Maria Dismondy

It was an amazing opportunity and I am so grateful that Maria shared her morning with us.  She claims that she drove up to my school in our little village in a "regular" car, but I'm sure she pulled up in pink limo with her very own pink tiara.  Thank you, Maria!  We loved your visit!

Michigan teacher bloggers...stayed tuned! We're planning a Michigan Teacher Blogger Meet Up!  More details coming soon...

 

Hip, hip, hooray! It's Opening Day!

Opening day is a big deal where I live! It's a time for fans to celebrate the beginning of the season for our favorite major league team and the beginning of little league practices and games. Baseball fever is what it boils down to and I found the perfect book to celebrate the excitement with my students and my own little ones.

I added a post to TBA about this book and others that you might like this morning.





I'm happy to report that my favorite team won their opener yesterday! Go Tigers!

New Book to Teach Vowels

This week, I discovered a book about vowels that is hot off the presses!  The book is called Circus Vowels.

Head on over to TBA to read my post about this new book!

Hope you enjoy!  Happy Friday!