Favorite Children's Author: Mo Willems

Maja here from Kooky Kinders. My favorite children's author is Mo Willems. The simple texts and bright pictures in his books are perfect for kindergarten. We love the Pigeon books and Piggy and Gerald are hilarious! 







 





Our newest favorite is "That is Really Not a Good Idea". The story follows a goose and a fox and has a great twist at the end.
 We loved the story so much I made some craftivities and reading response sheets to go along with it.
Keep an eye on my TpT store for this pack.

Don't forget to enter our giveraway!

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Favorite Children's Author: Gertrude Chandler Warren

Hi! It's Lauren from Mrs. Thompson's Treasures, and one of my favorite authors of children's books is Gertrude Chandler Warren. She was a first grade teacher who created the the Boxcar Children series. My son is in LOVE with these books, and he usually gets 5 or 6 each week when we go to the library.

 

I love these stories, because they are fun and interesting for my kids, but they are also wholesome and have great values. The 4 siblings are kind to each other, helpful, and always work together as a team to solve the mysteries.

 

I like to use pages from my Story Elements Graphic Organizers Set to study different aspects of the books we are reading, like summary, characters, and vocabulary. 

 

To check out the pack of graphic organizers, you can see them HERE!

 

 

Don't forget about our awesome giveaway that is ending soon!
Make sure you have entered using all the options below!

 

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Favorite Children's Author: David Shannon

This may be my favorite post EVER. I had such a hard time choosing a favorite author. I LOVE so many authors. I went back and forth over who I wanted to write about. Then, I thought about my kids. Year after year after year. Who do we end up loving together?

DAVID SHANNON. Hands down. His books are hilarious. His illustrations are just drool worthy. There hasn't been a David Shannon book that I haven't liked... take that back.

Bugs in my Hair makes me feel all itchy.

Some of my favorites is A Bad Case of Stripes, Too Many Toys and How I Became a Pirate (he's the illustrator for this one).

I've dressed up like Camilla Cream twice for book character day. Here's one of my favorite pictures from last year.

I love how his characters get you invested in the actual character. With Camilla, I want to know more about her. I like her. I feel sorry for her. I want to help her. When I read the story, I try to make my students feels some type of emotion for her. It's so easy to like her. However, I can see why some kids may not like her.

I love when books get used SO much that it's time to purchase a new one. We LOVE No, David! It's a class favorite ever single year. It's so worn and I get to tell my kids why it's so worn. Everyone loves reading it, laughing at the pictures, and revisiting it throughout the year.

Here's a few freebies for you if you have any of these books in your classroom! If not, borrow one from the library and fall in love with David Shannon's great stories and amazing illustrations!

In celebration of having our collab blog for SIX MONTHS, we're giving away TWO personalized pencil signs from the wonderful Tallahassee Sunday!

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Favorite Children's Author {Laura Numeroff from The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Hey y'all. Welcome back to our lovely blog for another post in our series of our favorite authors! This is Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade, and today I want to tell you all about my favorite author, Laura Numeroff.

Everyone has heard of her. She is most famous for her series of books "If you give a _____ a _____". I must admit that I own them all and I dedicate at least a week each year to study her books. My main focus with Laura Numeroff has been cause and effect, especially when I am teaching expository writing.

We begin by making comic strips using sentence strips. This small project really helps students visualize how one thing truly can lead to another. {Sorry for the poor picture} This is our opening activity for our expository writing on cause and effect. From here, we read a Laura Numeroff book each day and compare and contrast the story. You really do get an awesome bang for your buck with her stories.

When completing the read-aloud with my students, I always make sure we touch on problem and solution. I usually display a graphic organizer like this on the SMART board for us to complete whole group. You could also reinforce this concept in small groups. Orrrrr....if you were around for my last post, screen shot this baby and put it into GoFormative for the students to complete online.

{Click on the picture to be taken to this Pinterest find!}

Your possibilities really are endless with Laura Numeroff books. A quick scour of Pinterest will show you a plethora of lessons and activities to accompany her adorable books.

Favorite Children's Author: Tedd Arnold

Hi y'all!  
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  I am so excited about our blog post this month!  Actually, I was in turmoil over which author to write about.  I have sooo many favorite authors and to choose one was really tough.   

Who did I choose?   TEDD ARNOLD!!!   If you have ever read any of his stories, you know what I am talking about!!!   Oh, Tedd!!  You always have me and my firsties in stitches with your awesome stories.  My students LOVE this guy!  His illustrations are hysterical, and I love his use of rhyming words.  Plus, who in the world has characters like Green Wilma, Fly Guy, and Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan???? 

(You can click below on the picture to go to his website!)

Just take a look at some of his achievements!!!  Wow!!  He is really rockin' and rollin'! 

I fell in love with Tedd Arnold's work when he wrote Parts!  
It's the cat's meow! 

I even had him sign my own copy of Parts...even his signature is hysterical!  Seriously, I laughed my head off!

The sequel to Parts is called More Parts and it is an absolute hysterical way to introduce idioms to your students, even firsties like mine.  

Here is a video of More Parts so you can check it out!    

Don't you just love his illustrations?  I am cracking up!  

Look at the idiom above!  Have you ever screamed your lungs out? ;) 

Here are some fun idioms you can use in your lessons and with your students!  

Give it a shot - Try
Speak your mind - Say what you really feel
Slipped my mind - I forgot
Be in hot water - Be in trouble
It cost an arm and a leg - It was expensive
It’s in the bag - It’s a certainty
Get cold feet - Be nervous
A rip off - Too expensive
Read between the lines - Find the hidden meaning
Have mixed feelings - Unsure how you feel
Draw a blank - Can’t remember
His head was spinning - Confused person
Get your act together - Behave properly
A basket case - A crazy person
Have a shot at - Have a chance
Be in the same boat - Be in the same situation

A great way to introduce idioms is to capture them in the story.   Drawing and writing about an idiom is also a great way to see how literal the phrase really is!!

Come one!  Try it!!  It's a piece of cake!!  

A great activity is to journal idioms that you read in More Parts.  Just have the students draw and write their idiom in their journal.  I just slap some paper together with a cover and staple it.  It's a journal!!  Encourage them to write idioms in their journals that they may hear at home with family and friends.  

They will get a kick out of it! 

Check out these puzzles you can use to practice idioms!  It's yours!  FREE!!  Give it a whirl!  

You are going to love idioms to pieces!  And you are going to love Tedd Arnold to death.   :)

And don't forget our giveaway!!!  You gotta enter...these are the cutest pencil signs in the world!!!!  :)   

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Favorite Children's Author: Eric Carle

This is Kelsey from Aloha to Second!  I am back to celebrate our collaborative blog's 6 month anniversary!!  Wow!  I can't believe we've been blogging for 6 months.  I love this group so much, and I hope you enjoy reading our posts.

This round of posts is so much fun because we are sharing our favorite authors.  I have SO many that this was hard for me to choose.  However, I decided to go with Eric Carle.  I just love his illustrations and stories.  My kids always find him to be a favorite.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my absolute favorites.  I love reading this book and focusing on the life cycle of a butterfly.  I read this book when we have caterpillars in our classroom and we watch the caterpillars go through the whole life cycle.  It is so neat and definitely worth your money!  You can buy a cup of caterpillars from InsectLore.  

You can check out our cup of caterpillars here! You can see that they have already formed their chrysalis.  It is so neat!  We were able to watch them make their cocoon and everything!

Then, once they were in a cocoon, we placed them in a net basket and hung them from the top so when the butterfly came out it could fly around.

The butterflies finally came out and we set them free outside.  It was so fascinating to watch the butterfly hatch and then fly away!

We of course had to do some activities to help us learn about the life cycle (and this is all because of Eric Carle's book!  It is so much fun to read and teach about this concept!)

We first retold the story by making our own caterpillar. You can see that it was very easy to make a caterpillar.  We just used round circles and each circle told a different part. 

Then, we made a life cycle using pasta and food because who doesn't love food?

Last, we made a book that looked like a leaf and different parts of the life cycle of a caterpillar.  This helped us remember the order of a life cycle of a butterfly and what they go through.  Their creation is very fascinating! 

I hope I was able to give you some fun ideas about Eric Carle!  Now, we have a treat for YOU!  Our amazing followers deserve a chance to win our 6 month anniversary giveaway.  We are choosing two winners to receive a fun pencil sign that has his/her name on it.  This would be perfect for your classroom door!  Please complete the rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

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