Laptop is back! Painting, Linky, and FREE publications!

Hey all! I got my laptop back yesterday and after the day on the lake I was too sleepy to post! I don’t understand how the sun can take SO much out of you!

I wanted to share pictures from my trip to Painting With a Twist on Saturday!

Check out these pictures of the art work in progress and the finished product!

Lindsay at The Teacher Wife is having a linky wanting to know what our top 5 favorite picture books are! I think this is a fun linky that you should participate in too! So here are my top 5 favorite books!

 

#1: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus! By Mo Willems. The kids will LOVE this story right away! The pigeon REALLY wants to drive the bus. However, the Bus Driver asked you to make sure he doesn’t. He tries his hardest to persuade the reader into letting him! Using words that even kids would use, “I’ll give you 5 bucks!” “That’s not fair!” It’s a MUST have for a first grade classroom! There are many more in the series: Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late. The Pigeon Wants a Puppy. The Pigeon finds a hot dog. The Pigeon Gets a Cookie.

#2 Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. (Pronouned K-nuffle, yep the WRONG way!) Another good one about Trixie and her Knuffle Bunny! I love the background images. We go through magazines to find our own background then I give the students a Knuffle Bunny drawing to put there. They LOVE the story! There is 2 more in the series: Knuffle Bunny, Too. Knuffle Bunny Free!

#3 Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems. (Do you see a trend here?) Another hilarious book about a monster who can’t frighten anyone! He goes out and tries to learn how. I am not going to give away the rest of the book!

#4 Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.There are SO many to name! The words are easy reads for the students. However, it’s their facial expressions that make this book HILARIOUS! The kids LOVE them and if you go to pigeonpresents.com you can even get them to dance! A secret for you. In all of Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books and with most of his other books, you will find characters from his other stories. However, the Pigeon can be found in EVERY Elephant and Piggie book! The kids love looking for him after we read one!

So you noticed that I am a BIG Mo Willem's? :) I Just wanted to share my love for his books! Especially the Pigeon! I think I will wait to show you what I plan on doing with the Pigeon along with some directed drawing! :)

#5 Porcupining: A Prickly Love Story by Lisa Wheeler. This book is SOOO cute! It’s about a porcupine trying to find love. No one wants to love him because of his needles. The song he sings is SO adorable. Again, I will not spoil the end for you. If you are able to use TumbleBooks. I highly recommend letting them read this book to the class! They will ask you to play it again and again!

 

My last bit of information before I head to my comfy couch for the night…

Have you ever hear of the National Institute for Literacy? Well, I didn’t until I was in my Master Reading Teacher Certification classes. The teacher shared with us about this website where you can get FREE publications for your classroom, school, or for parents! I couldn’t believe it! Free?? Teachers LOVE free!! So I went and tested this out.

I went to www.nifl.gov and picked out 20 copies of this book called, “ A Child Becomes A Reader: Proven Ideas From Research For Parents. (At this point I am STILL hesitant that these would be free!) I filled out all the information and patiently waiting for the part where I put in my credit card information. I finished and it said it would be mailed to me. I didn’t really mess around on the website any more. Clicked off and went about my business.

Well, two days later – yes I said TWO- they were waiting for me at my door! I couldn’t believe it! Here is what they look like!

This book is 40 pages long! It’s NOT made cheap and I am SUPER excited to give these out to parents at Parent Orientation and/or Meet The Teacher. It’s for grades K-3 and has some really good information. Here are 2 pages that I enjoyed when I looked through them:

This is what you see when you get to the 1st grade page 

I like how they use use the actual word “Phonemic Awareness” and gives parents examples.

Another page is titled: “What children should be able to do by the end of first grade.” Most parents are asking me what they can do to help their child succeed. Now I can just show them those two pages as a guideline.

I hear my couch saying, “DAAANNNNIII!!!” So off I go! Have a fantastic week!