Read Alouds We Love with Mrs. Grooms' Room!

Hey everyone!  

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!   

How is your sweet Valentine's Day going?  I hope you are getting lots of love this month!!  Over here at the Elementary Entourage, we are telling you all about the books we love and  I am so glad that I get to share my favorite books with you!!  

For as long as I remember, Paul Galdone has been one of my favorite authors. (I had to show off my collection.)    :)

Of course, he has also wrote one of my favorite all time folk tales...The Little Red Hen. I have loved this book forever! I can still remember as a little girl BEGGING my mother to read it to me! "PUH-LEASE, MOM!" 

I loved LOVE the pictures and the story was is hysterical.  I can remember thinking...shame on those lazy friends of hers...poor little chicken!!  

Still one of my favorites, I LOVE reading it to my students and I love talking about character traits with them.  You can check out this graphic organizer I made for my students on the character traits of the little red hen. 

And I just had to show you these old puppets I had from when I first started teaching!  LOL!!!  My students who were the cat and dog and mouse would raise them up and shout "NOT I!"  (They loved it but I think I loved it more!)  :)

In this folk tale, the hen and her roommates grow quickly through the lesson of cooperation and sharing the workload. The little hen stands up for herself, the dog and cat and mouse learn how to share responsibilities, and in the end they come to an understanding that they had to work together as a team or no bread for you!  (Haha!) 

Here is another version of the Little Red Hen that I love!!    

This copy is by Doris R. Miller and as you can see it is from 1966 which makes me adore it even more.  I love the vintage look and the illustrations by Pablo Ramirez!!  It is lightly based on the original story...PLUS add a few foxes, a lazy cat and frog and you got a story! If you ever have a chance to read it to your students, please do!  It is adorable and your children will love the spin on the illustrations and the plot. 


What are some of the books that you LOVE and just can't live without?  

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Read Alouds We Love {w/ The Super Sparkly Teacher}

I'm so excited to share my favorite read aloud, The Recess Queen with you! It's a great book to break out at any time of the year. It's even MORE perfect when your students start getting a little crazy and forget to keep their hands to themselves. My class has reached that point in the year. They are getting a little wild and oh so sassy. #springiscoming

This story provides a great example of how to approach a student who may be a bully (like Mean Jean). You can also use it to discuss citizenship, friendship, and appropriate playground behaviors. We used examples from the text to drive class discussions. I pointed out specific pictures and words when questioning and discussing the story.

We love read alouds, and we LOVE you too! So, we're offering a pair of Tieks to one lucky friend. Enter below! #teacherslovegiveaways

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Read Alouds We Love with Tickled Pink in Primary

One of my absolute favorite books is The Monster at the End of This Book. My mother used to read this to me and my sisters when we were little. She was a teacher, so she knew how to do read alouds perfect! She would sound like a monster, turn the pages in suspense, change the inflection of her voice, etc. It added so much excitement to the story.

My nephew Colton now has a love for this book, much like his mom and aunts did. It's so fun to see my mom read it to him and watch him giggle. He says grandma reads it better than his own mom. :) Even though he's only 4,  I've been telling my sister to start working with him on comprehending the books she reads to him or the simple books he's already reading. Yes, he's already reading at a 1st grade level - crazy smart kid! Since my nephew and I both love this book, I wanted him to help me with this post. I gave my sister some of the worksheets from my Reading Responses bundle. Colton chose to write about his favorite part of the story.

I could've almost guessed he would choose this part! If you haven't read this book, your students will LOVE it!

Since we love our followers, we are giving away a pair of Tieks this month! I don't have a pair, but I've heard they are super comfy. Great for those tired teacher feet! Enter below to get a FREE pair!

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Read Alouds We Love (with Mrs. D's Corner)

I love books. I love buying books for my classroom. I love Amazon Prime... it's an addiction and a real problem (just ask my husband). So when I found out that the topic this month was books, I was very excited.

This is a fraction of the books in my classroom for February... and this is actually the *before* photo, meaning before I added a few 100th Day of School books to the collection.

Every month I switch out the books... sometimes even halfway through the month I will rotate books into this display for students to read. February has some amazing topics and holidays to read about too.

But let me be honest. My absolute favorite books to read to my class are these...

...anyone? Anyone else absolutely LOVE this old lady?!

She is my absolute favorite. With the clever wording and repetition, my kids love these books too. I love letting them predict what the old lady is going to spit out at the end too. They have come up with some pretty clever hypotheses!

You can grab a freebie here to teach There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books.

Have you heard about Tieks yet? Or do you own a pair? Or maybe you want to try a pair out? This month EE is having a fantastic giveaway.

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Read Alouds We Love + We Love Tieks Giveaway {with iTeachSTEM}

Oh my goodness.
I can't believe it's finally here!
February 10th.
{happy dance}

Why is that?
Well, back in early January I was asked to join The Elementary Entourage as one of their monthly bloggers. (Thanks to my friend, Brittany, from Tickled Pink in Primary for thinking of me!) I've been following this blog and am constantly amazed at the wonderful and inspiring ideas that are shared every day. I've been itching to share some of my ideas ever since I found out my day to blog would be the 10th of each month.

I've been blogging over at iTeachSTEM (Feel free to follow me there as well!)

But nothing compares to being part of a collaborative group. You know the saying, two minds are better than one? Well in the case of The Elementary Entourage, 23 bloggers are better than one!  Plus, how much cooler can you get than to be a part of such an amazing group of teacher bloggers?!? (not much, trust me) I'm super pumped to get to share some of MY ideas with you lovely blog readers starting today!

So, without further ado...
Here's my FIRST official post.
{squeals with excitement}

 

When I first started thinking about a read aloud book to share, I was stumped. I mean, I teach 5th grade STEM. When would I do a read aloud? It's not like I teach reading anymore. In fact, I just sold about 2/3 of my old classroom library on BooKoo! When I used to teach all subjects I had a favorite book - Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen if you wanna check it out. But I seriously had to wrack my brain to think of a book I actually use and love reading to my class currently.

Then I sat down to look at my plans last week and realized that I had already PLANNED an entire lesson around a book I was going to read to the class. One I had been reading to my STEM classes EVERY YEAR. Um, yeah. Duh! {hand slaps forehead} My husband actually rolled his eyes and shook his head when I told him about my realization. {hand slaps HIS forehead}

Anyhoo...
I digress.
Did I mention I tend to get off track someti ...

Focus, Kim, focus.
{deep breath}

The book I decided to share as my favorite read aloud is written by Eric Carle.
Haven't heard of him?
He's the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (plus like 70 other awesome books).

I've used his picture book Pancakes, Pancakes! every year during my unit on physical and chemical changes in matter. And the students LOVE it! Even "big kids" like having a story read aloud to them once in a while - go figure!

Here's kind of how I do things in my class:
Students create a chart to record any examples of physical changes or chemical changes that they see or hear in the book. I usually have them just make a simple T-chart in their interactive notebooks, but I have also given them this handout to glue into their notebooks. It all depends on how close I am to my copy count limit, honestly.

I put the book on the document camera so kids can see the pictures (and so I can walk around the room while I am reading). Then I begin reading. When I come to the first example - using the sickle to cut the wheat - I stop and tell students that I just noticed an example of a change in matter. {hands shoot up} I ignore the hands and continue my think-aloud to model what I want them to do. I say something like, "Cutting the wheat changes it's SHAPE, so I know that is an example of a physical change in matter." Then I get my class interactive notebook and write "cutting wheat" under the heading of physical changes.

For the next couple pages, I use the tone of my voice to stress each example and pause dramatically {Yeah, you're surprised I have drama in my class, right?} until I know they have caught on to what I am looking for. After most of the students get the hang of listening and looking for examples in the story, I start moving a bit quicker.

After I am finished, I give students about 2 minutes to compare their notes with a partner or with their table groups. I let them add to or change their lists as they discuss their ideas.

Finally, I allow students to come up (alternating groups) to write down an example on the class chart - being careful not to duplicate an entry. If a student or group places an example in the wrong category, we discuss why it fits better in the other one. I clarify any misconceptions (usually about the grain being ground into flour and the cream being churned into butter). And while students are sharing with the class, I make pancakes for them to snack on. Yeah, I'm THAT awesome of a teacher!

Wait!
Before you go getting all jealous of how AMAZE-BALLS I am, let me admit something.
I really just heat up those little packets of mini pancakes in the microwave.
But I DO ask kids if heating them up is a physical or chemical change.
(Hint: It's a physical change.)

I also have a little story I send home with them as a homework assignment. It's called "The Adventures of Mrs. Coker". In it, they must identify the physical and chemical changes that happen to me throughout my day. They, of course, get a kick out of it. Many times they are dying to know if the story is true or not. They even make predictions. Sad that they assume burning waffles is TRUE, but they know me so well.

If you want to try this activity in your class, just snag a copy of the book and download a FREE copy of my Pancakes, Pancakes! chart by clicking HERE. And best of all, the book is probably in your school library already! Check with your super awesome and incredibly helpful librarian. And if for some reason that doesn't work, you can buy it here on Amazon (my favorite supplier of ALL THINGS - seriously).

Hey!
By the way...
This month we are giving away a pair of those AWESOME Tieks that everybody loves so much! I don't know about you, but I hear they are "heavenly" to wear - especially for those of us on our poor feet all day...

Enter by using the rafflecopter link below. Good luck!

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Thank you SOOOOOOO much for reading my blog post.
Leave a comment if you will so I know you enjoyed it.
And sorry for the cheesiness.
It's a gift (and a curse).

Until next month...

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Read Alouds We Love With Greg From The Kindergarten Smorgasboard

Hello everyone!  It's Mr. Greg from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard!   I am super excited to share two of my favorite read alouds with you today!

I LOVE reading and books!   I love teaching reading!   I love seeing my students become readers and loving books.

As a kid, I couldn't read enough.  I used to get in trouble for reading under the blankets with a flashlight.  In 3rd grade, the librarian had to make a special rule just for me (Yeah...I've always been spoiled..) so I could check out reference books.  I'm also a big nerd and read the almanac! 

So sharing my favorite read alouds makes me glitter heart happy!

I'll start with one of my favorite books since I was a kid!

I remember the first time our teacher read this book to us.  I was hooked.  I have multiple copies in my classroom library and LOVE reading it to my kids!

After we read Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, we do some opinion writing and a fun art project!  With food of course!

Why yes, we GLUE Cheez-Its and Oyster Crackers and sprinkles onto our art work!

And since Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is my favorite book, I dress the part!

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is also great for teaching about compound words!  In the past, we've listed all of the compound words in the story!  

Now I want to share one of my newest favorite read alouds.

This one was an accidental discovery, but it is great for a read aloud and great for persuasive writing and debating skills!  (And arguing...let's be honest...)

The great message of this book is that we can all do things to make others feel special and important.  I love that!

But I love that the ending of the book is vague so it leaves the door open for research and debate.

(Short summary...cow is sad.  Chickens put egg under cow.  Egg hatches.  Says MOO!)  

So we debate if it's a cow or a chicken.  And of course, I play the devil's advocate and counter the arguments.  

"It's a chicken because it came from an egg!"

Me-"But it said moo."

This continues until things get heated.

Then we vote on whether we think it's a cow or chicken.

And then we write a persuasive argument for the cow or chicken!

Click here to get your free writing paper, graphing labels and recording sheet!

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Read Alouds We Love! {With Alex from The Kindergarten Connection}

I am obsessed with children's books. I have been hoarding - I mean collecting - them for years now, and my collection has grown to over 2000! Some of my favorite ones are ones that are engaging, make my kids smile, and are just good fun!

It was super hard to think of just a few of my favorite books, but after spending some time in my classroom library this past week thinking about it, I found a few that I can say would definitely be on my favorites list! 

First up is The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland. This book never fails to crack up my kids as the animals do their best to cheer up Bear, who really is wanting to hibernate! 

Another book that really gets the laughs going is Dogzilla by Dav Pilkey (also the author of Kat Kong which is just as funny) Mice must unite to save the world from the beastly terror of "Dogzilla!" 

I love wordless books. They are so great for teaching kids the strategy of "reading the pictures" which is especially helpful as most of my students come as non readers. This book, Tuesday by David Weisner, contains flying frogs and many shenanigans that keep their interest and make them laugh too! 

If you are looking for books on friendship, Owen and Mzee is a fabulous one, and is a true story as well! The text is long, but I often paraphrase it or showcase the photos to my students. They are always fascinated that a tortoise and hippo would be best friends! 

Doesn't the cover of this book even make you smile? Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown is the funny, engaging story of a bear who finds and wants to keep a kid as a pet - which is a funny twist on stories we usually read! This book makes my kids laugh and is a much requested one in my classroom! 

We LOVE Tieks Giveaway! 

Not only do we love books, but we love Tieks and teachers too! We want to show our love and appreciation by giving away a pair of Tieks to one lucky winner! 

Enter below! 

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