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!

Every Teacher Loves a Sale!

It's time for the annual back to school sale on Tpt!  This adorable button was made by More Than Math by Mo.  You can download it free from her Tpt store here.

All of my products will be 20% of during the sale, but you can use the code BTS14 for extra savings on everything in your Tpt shopping cart.

The most recent additions to my store...

Super Spelling Forms 

 forms to use with any spelling words + easy Super Spelling Power Stations

Autograph Bookmarks

bookmarks + autographs = increased accountability 

Turquoise and Lime Green Book Bin Labels

Fact Power Folder Set

Some of my other products...

Writing My Opinion 

opinion writing prompts, graphic organizers, book covers, rubrics, anchor chart pieces 

Fall Math Journal Prompts

(winter and spring prompts are also available)

Personal Reader Sight Word Stories

(Short Vowel Personal Readers Stories, Long Vowel Personal Reader Stories 

and a BUNDLE are also available)

Activity Pack for Back to School

Sharing My Writing Through the Year

No time for show and tell?  

Let students share their writing with these fun prompts and turn it into a keepsake book to send home at the end of the year.

Digraph Activities

Funky Fun Vowel Games

Funky Football Fan Fun

Daily Classroom Schedule Words

Camp Read A Lot  Classroom Campout Fun

Information Highway 

Informational Text Unit for March is Reading Month or anytime of the year.

 (passport registration for the Information Highway)

Here are a few of my favorite products from some of my teaching blogger friends.

Sight Word Poems by Jodi from Fun in First.

You can buy this set as part of a bundle as well.

Shark Close Read by Jennifer  from First Grade Blue Skies.

Jennifer has several different close reading sets that are amazing!

September No Prep Math and Literacy Centers by Annie from The Moffatt Girls.

Spring Is In the Air Digital Papers by Corinna from Surfin' Through Second.

She has several sets that I love!

Time to fill up your cart with great deals!

Happy shopping!

Don't forget to use the code BTS14!

Close Reading, Text Based Evidence & Finally a Crafty Activity!

Last week, we did a close reading using the book below during reader's workshop. It's from the Scholastic What Grows In Our Garden garden pack.

Throughout the week, we also gathered text based evidence from lots of other books about why fruits and vegetables are good for us to eat. Here are a few other books from the same pack I mentioned above (with a little bit of "evidence" that students gathered stuck to the front).

Food was the weekly theme for our March is Reading Month theme, which focuses on informational text.  We're traveling on the Information Highway...with a different theme each week. You can find the resources that we're using for this month long unit in my Information Highway unit.

Here are some of the nonfiction books I gathered for us to use during our food week.

We collected text based evidence about why fruits and veggies are good for us during our close reading and in small groups with different books from our collection. We added the evidence to an anchor chart throughout the week.  I included the resource and the page number in a different color under each "fact".

In between all these snowy/icy/whenarewereallygonnahavea5dayweek days, we finally had time to do an art project!  Ta da!

Fruits and Veggies in Your Bag Writing and Craftivity

(front view + writing on the back)

The parts and pieces (minus the bag) can be found in the product below if you're interested.  The writing page + the resources sheet to put on the back of the bag are also included.

My students were also super excited to practice their how to writing skills by writing about how to make a food of their choice.  I'm so proud of the progress they have made in writing!  We've been revisiting how to writing throughout the year.  I really wanted them to use first, then, next and last in their how to writing. In the past, I've had to guide them through the process, but this time they were able to go through the process independently...which makes my heart sing! (The pages for our graphic organizers and the writing are included in my Information Highway unit.)

Here is a student sample... 

This weeks theme is music.  Makes me feel like dancin' reading!

ROADTRIP!

It's time for our roadtrip on the Information Highway!  

We're traveling on an informational text themed adventure for March.

Our whole building is focusing on specific themes
for informational text each week.  

Passport Registration

I have a crazy amount of leveled books in my classroom.  I do mean CrAzY, but they all get used on a daily basis.  I have bins full of fiction and nonfiction books at each level for students to use throughout the day.  I also have a Nonfiction Book Nook full of just leveled informational texts. I created this separate area full of nonfiction books just to make sure my students have extra exposure to informational text.  The books in the Nonfiction Book Nook are organized by category (but are also leveled to help students choose just right books).  As you can see, the bins for some categories are super full and other bins have so few books in them that you can barely see them in each bin.

Nonfiction Book Nook Shelf

You can find the labels that I made for the bins in my Nonfiction Book Nook here.
The labels are available to download free at the bottom of that old post.

I'll be posting more adventures from our trip on the Information Highway over the next few weeks.

Then...we'll finish off March with Camp Read a Lot!

Penguins as a Model for Animal Research

It felt so good to be back in my classroom with my students this week! They worked so hard and I was so wiped out by the end of the week. Glad to be back either way.

Oh how I love Saturday mornings without anything on the schedule. My son is busy doing batting practice in the basement. My daughter is using the living room as a dance floor to practice ballet.  My husband is cooking breakfast, so I thought I'd sneak in a little post.

We started our penguin research this week. We research penguins as a group so my students have a model for how to do their animal research later in the year. We started out by doing a close reading activity with this book. It's my favorite nonfiction penguin book.  We spent the whole week digging into this book during our reader's workshop lessons.  I have a whole collection of penguin books (which are available to the students), but really digging into one or two helps my students understand the importance of using good strategies with informational text.

Throughout the week, we added details to our can/have/are anchor chart.

 Any words that were new, unfamiliar or super interesting to us during our reading were added to our penguin vocabulary anchor chart.  At the beginning of reader's workshop time, I give the classroom iPads (we have 2) to students who will be in charge of recording the special vocabulary for the day.  That allows me to keep reading/teaching while they use the Educreations app as a white board to keep a list of the vocabulary we should add to the anchor chart for the day.   Then I can take a screen shot of the new vocabulary words to use it with a small group later or email it to parents so the students can discuss our new vocabulary at dinner.

This is a screen shot one of the iPads
 after one of the reader's workshop lessons this week.

Here's another one.  This student chose to write lots of words that we
discussed even though we
knew the definitions of some already. 

We'll add more to this vocabulary chart next week
as we continue our research.

When the anchor charts are complete, I'll take pictures of them and add them to our Reader's Workshop Anchor Chart book.  Then students can go back to reread and  revisit the things we've learned long after I've taken the charts down in the room.  We have a writer's workshop anchor chart book as well. They are  favorites in our room!

The students also completed their own can/have/are sheet and a vocabulary wheel for one of the words from our chart.  They choose their own word from our Penguin Vocabulary chart to use in the wheel and I ask them to write down things that will help them explain the word to a partner.  When their wheels are completed, they find a partner who has a different word and share/discuss their thinking. I move around during that time to make sure students are accurately defining the word since they may or may not have included the definition we discussed in their descriptions on the wheel.  

The resources I use for this unit are all found in my Nonfiction Penguin Unit.  It even includes pieces to make the anchor charts.  You can check it out by clicking on the image below.

When we finish this research project, the students will be well prepared to do their own animal research project.  They will choose their own animal and we'll use my Animal Research Book to guide them through the same kind of process we used to study penguins.  This was my very first Tpt product and it's my best seller.  I should probably update the cover...ha!  Add that to the to do list.

It's sunny and 10 today, so it's finally nice enough for a long dog walk. Not kidding... these poor dogs really need some exercise (and so do I)!  Happy Saturday!