Monday- Favorite Children's Author and Books

Welcome to Primary Chalkboard's Read Across America's Linky Party! We are here to get the 

par-tay started!

Reading party that is! This week most children in schools will be celebrating this man who brought green eggs and ham to our breakfast tables!

Thank you Dr. Seuss for helping to instill a love of books and characters to our children. I know that through his books my children will never cut down a tree for fear that the Lorax will be upset with them. They will look at flowers a bit more carefully in case a "Who" speck might be on the tips of the petals. Lastly, let us not forget Christmas and not be a green Grinch! 

Our linky today is all about Favourite Children's authors and books and I'd like to share a few of my favourites with you! These particular authors and books are ones that my own children and I read over and over and over (did I say over??) again. They never get tired and they always laugh at the "right places"! You know "those books"!! *Disclaimer-- I am a mother of 2 boys and my classroom is mostly boys. I do have girls and thank goodness they have a good sense of humour and love of books, too!*  Afterwards, please link up your favourites below!

Mo Willems

We love the Pigeon books! I love the simplicity and humour of his books. I use his books to teach punctuation, expression in reading, and plus, they are just fun!!! He even has a web page! Click on the book to take you there!

Marc Brown

Everyone loves Arthur!! I remember reading Arthur when I was little-- in fact in elementary school our media specialist would stamp bookmarks with an Arthur stamp and that was the best bookmark ever. I love how there is always a lesson in Arthur books, too. 

H.A. Rey

This is George. He lived with is his friend, the man with the yellow hat. I love the predictable text that begins every Curious George story. We love to read about his many adventures of mischief that always have a happy ending! 

Robert Munsch

Some of you may know Robert Munsch for his book "I'll Love You Forever" but he actually has a lot of other books that I like a lot better (sorry to those out there! I am not a fan of the I'll Love you Forever book...). He has such a great sense of humour and Mortimer up there is one of my favourites! If you have a lot of siblings or have grown up in a big family, you will understand why. It's also a good book to read to teach about volume control! LOL! 

William Kotzwinkle

I know what you are thinking... Remember my disclaimer-- mother of boys! My boys LOVE Walter! We have the series. It is such a funny book. It just goes to show that everyone, even dogs-- fart!! LOL! 

Sooo, these are just some authors and books that my boys and I love to read! I know that you have some of your favourites that you read in your class and in your homes! Before, I leave, I'll leave you with the chant that the kids at our school say daily:

Feel free to download for your classroom! Click on the pic to grab a copy! 

Hope you all have a fun and fabulous week! Can't wait to see what your favourite authors and books are!! 

Link up below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Is Your Library A.R. Ready for Read Across America Day?

Reorganizing my library at the beginning of the year was one of the best choices I made. At my old school, when I taught second grade, A.R. was offered, but wasn't a big push at my school. My new school has a big push for getting A.R. goals! Since I wasn't used to A.R., my classroom library was organized by Genre. This year, I reorganized it by AR reading level and it is making things work much smoother during my Readers Workshop and it is making my kiddos much more aware of their Good Fit books!

If your school doesn't do AR, this post will still benefit you!

Read Across America Day is a day to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday and childrens' amazing successes in reading. 'Accelerated Reading' is a program that is part of Renaissance Learning.

AR is throwing a little reading party called Read the Most From Coast to Coast!

We are going to read lots of AR books and take lots of AR quizzes in our pajamas on Friday!

Start with AR levels.

I used my own color coding system because I like things in ROY G. BIV order. :-)

Circle stickers will be your best friend!

0.5-1.0 Red

1.1-1.5 Orange

1.6-2.0 Yellow

2.1-2.5 Green

2.6-3.0 Blue

3.1-3.5 Pink

Anything past this, I double sticker and let my first graders know they are going to be very advance. If you are an intermediate teacher, you would maybe resort your levels!

Use ARbookfind.com. It is a one stop shop for book information.

Enter the title or the ISBN number. You will get the reading lexile level, the AR book number, and how many AR points each book is worth.



 

Then sort them into their baskets!


And, as always, to keep them on track for comprehension, grab this freebie!

Thanks guys! 

(One of) Yours truly,

Jessica from Second Grade Nest

 

at my wonderful collaborative blog....

Read Across America Linky is Coming!!!!

 

Get your posts ready and come back to link up with us!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Products We Love & A Lucky Day Giveaway

Guess What?!  TPT is having a SALE!!!  Woooohooooo!

TPT is celebrating 3,000,000 Teachers Strong!  Wow!  What a milestone...and we are lucky to be a part of it.

Fonts from Kimberly Geswein

Sooooooo...since we love our followers a whole bunch!

And....We also love TpT a whole bunch...

We decided to share some TpT love with 3 winners so they can have a BLAST shopping during the TPT Sitewide Sale!

It could be your Lucky Day!!!

Introducing our...

Credits: Graphics from the Pond, Kimberly Geswein, Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah

3 Followers will each win a $20 gift certificate to TpT!

How fun is that? See? We DO love you!

What can you spend it on?  Hmmm, we can give you a few ideas.  Check out all of these amazing resources from our wonderful group of Primary Chalkboard authors.

Click right on the picture to take you to that product on Teachers Pay Teachers or click on the link below to learn more about it on their blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Anna's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Stacy's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Corinna's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Lisa's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Katie's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Nicole's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Laura's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Latoya's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Jessica's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Leslie's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Deb's blog.

Click {HERE} for more information on Alyssha's blog.

All of our stores will be on sale for Teachers Pay Teachers site wide sale!!  Stretch those dollars and hopefully add a few more to spend! Just fill out the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win!  

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

It's a Math Showdown!!

Hey! Hey! Hey! Happy Friday, everyone!!! Hope you all have had a fabulous week! It's Leslie from First Grade and Flip Flops!

We have been working on the GRM (Gradual Release Model) and Place Value! Come see what the Showdown has been all about!

Click on the cowboys to take you to my blog and for a freebie or two so you can have a showdown in your classroom, too!! Be there or be square!!! 

Reading Stamina Tip

Happy Sunday, friends!! Thanks for stopping by the Chalkboard today!!!

Lisa from Growing Firsties here, with a post about Reading Workshop for you...

But, before I start, did you see Katie's Primary Chalkboard post the other day about saving your sanity on Valentine's Day? Love her tips!!

Also, be forewarned...her post is also MUCH prettier than mine! (She has a seeeeerious talent for graphics!)

But...hope you'll still like mine, too! :)

My topic today is Reading Workshop - more specifically Private Reading.

Well..that's what we call it for our first graders...we liked that the title is pretty blatant that it's reading done PRI.vate.ly. And...since it's immediately followed up by Partner Reading, when the kiddos come across something they'd like to share from their reading, they are motivated to plan for what they'd like to discuss and read during Partner Reading. (They use sticky notes for this planning.)

It helps that they place their chairs back to back, too. :)


I digress...

This particular tip is helpful for those friends that have a hard time staying engaged during Private Reading.

Not that I E.V.E.R. have students with troubles like that.

I'm sharing this for a friend.

On the left (green) side, kiddos put all their book box books. As they read each one, it goes onto the right (red) side.

Once they finish, if there's still time, they move the pile from the red side to the green side and start again.

Please forgive the I-forgot-to-take-a-pic-of-it-at-school-with-classroom-library-books sample above...I quickly made one with the THREE books available to me downstairs in the kitchen while my own kids were sleeping.

But you get the idea, right?

It works nicely, too, for students who really love that sense of accomplishment that one gets from moving stuff from to-do to done! Sooo, I invite EVERYone to try it and privately really ENcourage a few friends in particular.

Right now, my firsties are reading for 35 mn during Private Reading while I confer and meet with small groups. Partner Reading remains at around 8 minutes.

If you'd like to check out a few more posts about Reading Workshop...head on over and check these posts out...

Book Box Organization

General Update on RW (includes a few freebies)

Smiles to you! Lisa

Valentine's Day Sanity

Hello party people! Are you POOPed after today's Valentine Fun??? I just blogged {here} about 5 Tips and a freebie to save your sanity next year!  Why not make Valentine's Day even more fun, exciting, calm, and academic next year? How can something be exciting and calm? Better click {here} to see.