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 {Valentine's Day}

It's February 1st, are you getting in the Valentine's Day mood? Less than 2 weeks left to get ready for some LOVE themed learning with your little sweeties.  I'm assuming most of you will celebrate next week Friday since Valentine's Day falls on a weekend this year. But if you are celebrating on Monday good luck to your brave little soul. I could NEV-ER survive a party on a Monday...you'd have to pay me A LOT and then peel me off the floor at the end of the day.  If you are in search of some great books to read next week, I've got you covered.

This would be such a sweet book the day before your class party.  I remember how excited I was the night before our classroom celebrations. Getting my valentines box ready, making cookies, stuffing my face treat bags with candy. So much fun.  I also like to have my class write sweet compliment messages to a secret friend the day before our party. Then they stuff them in their friends box and everyone gets an extra smile reading why someone thinks they are awesome. I like this personal addition to the monster high, ninja turtle, crazy sugar rush of a day.

Next up,  Love, Splat.  Have you met Splat? If not, you NEED to stop reading and grab one of his books. Like, now...seriously, he is just about the cutest stinkin' cat ever (Sorry Pete). He's always so worried, and nervous and I think the kids just love that they can relate to his predicaments.  Which makes this a perfect book for making connections. I also made a super sweet craftivity with my friend's class this year, and I just LOVE how they turned out.

"Love is...When my dad has time to play with me on the wii" So sweet!

My next recommendation is a classic, The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting.  I remember my teachers reading this to our class when I was younger and its such a sweet story about Mrs. Bear who takes extra time and care to make a very special Valentine's Day for Mr. Bear even though they usually hibernate right through it.  A great message of showing the ones we love how much we care. I like to use it to have students practice inferring.  On the second page students learn that Mrs. Bear wakes up early from her hibernation. I find that this is a perfect place to stop and have them make inferences about why she would wake up early.  There are a lot of great clues in the text, pictures, and even the title/cover that support students making logical inferences instead of random predictions and guesses.

This book is a nice quick read, with simple text, great pictures and an imaginative storyline.  The father racoon is putting his baby racoon to bed and asks what type of kiss he'd like then suggests all sorts of kisses such as circus kisses, butterfly kisses, witch kisses, and more.  I like to read this book to my students without showing a few of the pictures and have them visualize what a particular kiss may look like.  Circus kisses always bring out some cute ideas.  There is not a lot of descriptive text to lead their drawings like many of the other books I use for visualization, but I love the variety that this activity brings.

And my last suggestion is sure to bring a tear to any parents eye.  This book is told from the perspective of a parent reassuring their child that no matter where they are, the child is always in their heart. I like to have students tell about all of the people that they have in their heart.  This book is especially perfect for military families that may experience longer periods of time away from their child.

Thanks so much for checking out my favorite Valentine books.  If you are interested in any of the activities I described above, be sure to check out my Read & Respond: Valentine's Day Pack here:

And just to show you how much we LOVE all of our teacher friends, we are having a little giveaway! One lucky winner will be able to pick out their very own pair of Tieks!

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Professional Development Books Worth Reading {Comprehension & Collaboration}

I don't know about you but I never have the time during the school year to read all the great professional books that I hear about throughout the year.  I usually have an ongoing list of like 20+ books I want to check out and can't wait until summer to read. So here at The Elementary Entourage we want to bring you some of our suggestions that we have read and loved.  These books have made huge changes to our teaching and we'd love if you'd check them out and let us know what you think!

I am in full summer reading mode and spent the weekend reading 2 great new books for the book studies I am a part of this summer. Teaching with Intention with our very own Greg from The Kindergarten Smorgasbord and Learn Like a Pirate with Amanda from The Primary Gal. I am loving both books, and will be sharing all about them on my blog over the next 2 months.  But for now I wanted to share a book that I read a few years ago and has really changed the way I think about student collaboration in the classroom, "Comprehension & Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action" by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels.

If you are considering trying out small group inquiry or project based learning in your classroom then this book is for you.  I could go on and on about all of the amazing things in this book, but to really get the most out of it you will definitely want to grab your own copy.  Our school district bought us a copy, but I went out and bought my own after I left because that's just how much I love this book and I knew I would want to keep it and use it in the future wherever I end up.

Here is just a quick run down of what you will learn in this book:

• Why should we shift from teacher led classrooms to more student led small group inquiry projects? Students need to be involved in their learning! We need to move past the outdated passive, coverage approach to education and help prepare students to think, collaborate, and drive their own learning.
• How to create an effective learning environment for active learning, including how to effectively use technology.
• explanations of 4 different types of inquiry models: mini-inquiries, curricular inquiries, literature circle inquiries, and open inquiries. There are great real classroom examples of each that span K-12 with great ideas to get you going.
• Tips for assessing, evaluating and managing inquiry circles.  I'm not going to lie it is rough getting started when you are used to having so much teacher control, but the results are so amazing and totally worth it when you see the deep thinking, understanding and motivation in your students.
• And last but not least 27 lessons in comprehension, collaboration, and inquiry (AKA pretty much the best part of this book ever!) Seriously, these lessons are a fantastic starting point if you are new to teaching collaboration, comprehension and inquiry.  

Here's a peek at a few of my favorite lessons from the book:

 For comprehension, I love this lesson that emphasizes thinking, questioning, and learning from pictures.  When you teach kindergarten, you know the struggle of students finding information when they can't read more complex texts yet.  So this lesson helps my students understand how to find information even before they can read!

 All of the collaboration lessons in this book are great, and I revisit each of them often, but the most important ones are definitely the first turn and talk lesson, and the Showing Friendliness and Support lesson.  These lessons teach students how to talk to and encourage each other in the classroom. This is the foundation for successful inquiry in the classroom.

And one of the best inquiry lessons is the first lesson as well in which students create research notebooks.  My kindergartners loved writing in their research notebooks because they felt so grown up and it really helped them keep track of their work.  For me these notebooks were a great way to assess their progress and see the great work that they were doing.

Do you use inquiry circles or project based learning? Have you read this book? I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and questions in the comments. Happy summer reading :)