Must Read Mentor Texts

Wow 3 days in a row, must be some sort of record!!!!  Today I am linking up Stacia and Amanda from Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Texts linky.

I love using mentor texts in my classroom and have so many to choose from it is hard to pick just one!  But if I must choose, I would pick:

I.LOVE.THIS.BOOK!

Last year I did Hope King's Trick or Treat book reports and one of my kiddos did Elephant and Piggie by him and I found this book and never looked back!  

Quick Overview: A toddler named Trixie goes with her daddy to the laundromat and while they are there she loses her stuffed bunny.  This leads them on a chase to try and find him.  The little girl is too small to speak in the book, so the author uses various letters to convey her talking.  Finally they locate the bunny in the washer and the little girl says her first word -Knuffle Bunny!  

The author goes through lots of dramatic tellings of how Trixie acted when her daddy couldn't understand what she was saying.  They are great!  

  My school is focusing on monthly comprehension strategies and retelling was up first.  I chose to use this book in my presentation as my model.  This book is great to show your thinking while reading.  

What is your go to mentor text???  Link yours up!!

Anticipating April (The Best Month of the Year!)

I saw this linky and couldn't resist!  April is my favorite month and you will soon see why!  Jessica over at Literacy Spark just started a brand new linky.  It is called Anticipating the Month ahead.

I love the sequins on this graphic!  

Here are the rules:

• Share one thing you are looking forward to during the month of April.
• Share one thing you are dreading during the month of April.
• Share one thing that you hope to accomplish during the month of April

Without further ado, here is my list!

Head over and link up with Jessica!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

You didn't know Julie Andrews was going to make an appearance in my post to sing her famous song from The Sound of Music did you?!?!?!?

Well lucky for you, we aren't singing about raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens!  

I am loving all this extra time I am having for blogging, creating and all around laziness!  Ya'll know how much I love a good linky, so I was so happy when I was catching up on my reader to find one that was new to me!  I am liking up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for her Let's Get Acquainted Linky.

This week's theme is My Favorites.  

First up is my favorite store, and this was a hard one!  I have lots of go to stores, but Kohl's is my go to store for everything!  What is better than getting paid Kohl's Cash to shop????

I am a huge TV person, but since cutting back on our Satellite, I have less to choose from! Grey's Anatomy has always been one of my faves, and I try to always be home to watch it!  I still love all things reality TV, Survivor, Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen, you get the picture!  

I have a sweet tooth and love to have a Reese's Cup on hand to calm it!  The hubs has been getting good at picking up the Reese's Big Cups for me when he's out and about.  Oh how he loves me!!!!!

Those that have been following for any time know I LOVE tacos, but burritos are my all time fav mexican food!  I would eat them multiple times a week if possible.  The family might have a problem with this variety!

Lastly, my favorite restaurant is Cracker Barrel.  I love some good southern food!  No one can beat their roast beef.....mmmmmmm....I want some now!!  

I can't wait to read up about some of my favorite bloggers!  Make sure you link yours up!

Reflecting on 2012

I have been caching up on my blogs in my Google reader and came across Lorraine from Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies,  This year has been a great one for me professionally with my job change of becoming an Instructional Facilitator.  So I loved the idea of looking back at my first 12 post of 2012 and reflecting on how far I've come!

Here are my 12!!!!

1. Most Supportive Blogger Award- How fun to look back and see that Amber and Elizabeth are still my biggest supporters today!

2. Monday Night=Taco Night! Special night because Amber decided to join us and it became a regular occurance.

3. First Day Back Drumroll Please!!!!!! The day I got a extra suprise from Amanda!

4. Versatile Blogger Award More shout outs for my favs!

5. Best.Week.Ever!!! Another award!

6. Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog!  The time I won the mack daddy award!!!!

7. Energizer Bunny An exciting day at Chucke Cheese

8. Currently January Linking up with Farley

9. So.Stinkin.Tired. A great day sharing what I did in my classroom with other teachers in my district!  Little did I know this would soon be my new job!

10. Hump Day Freebie! My flat and Round Characters posters

11. Whatcha' Eating?? Linky from my fav Ms. T

12. Boggle Queen an awesome post by my principal last year, Rebecca!  She is a jewel and hope to work with her again!!!

There ya have it!  2012 started out great, and I have high expectations for 2013.  

Head over and link up with Lorraine from Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies

Ringing in the New Year!!

It is hard to believe that it is already time to think about New Year's Resolutions!  I am usually very good at making them and horrible at keeping them!  I am linking up with Jen from The Teacher's Cauldron for her New Year's Linky.

First up is my personal resolution:  
SCRAPBOOKING!  I used to be so great at making pages and keeping up with the latest event, then life happened, AKA the twins were born!  I have all kinds of papers, albums, a cricut and lots of cartridges just sitting saying, 'we're waiting, come play!' Every time I attempt to start, something more important gets in the way laundry, cooking, cleaning I am called to do something else.  I love crafting and resolve to get back to that in 2013!  Hear that my Scrapbooking friends??? I WILL be coming to the next Scrapbooking night!!!  Can I bring wine?  Ha!

Second is my blogging resolution:
I want to be more consistent with posting.  I used to be pretty regular, but then with the job switch, I find it hard to have exciting things to blog about!  I am not in my own classroom, so I don't want to hurt a teacher's feelings by talking about their class.  No more excuses!  I WILL post more!

There ya have it!  Head over and link up with Jen!  

Bring it on 2013!!!!!!

Best and Brightest of 2012

I love a good linky, so I was thrilled to see Christina Bainbridge's 2012's Blog Best and Brightest in my reader while I was catching up on my fav blogs.  (There are over 1,000 in there!!! Someone has been neglecting their reader!) I began my blogging adventure as a requirement for a tech leader program in my district during the summer of 2011, but wasn't 'feeling it' until late 2011.  I have loved learning new things as a blogger and have grown leaps and bounds as an educator because of the journey.

Here are my blog's best and brightest!

Best Thing I did

I opened my TPT store in 2012!  I have to admit, I must have been hiding under a rock, because prior to that, I had only heard about TPT in passing.  I joined in late 2011, but didn't officially 'open' my store until Jan. 2012.  I had my first sale on Jan. 1 :)  It was the best thing I could have ever done!  TPT helped out with the twin's birthday and Christmas.  It is now growing our new Disney fund!  Can't wait to head there in the spring!!!

Best Post

Looking back at my bloggy year, my best post has to be My Heart Will Go On!  It was a post I did right after our day aboard the Titanic.  It was a great day and I love looking back at how much fun it was.  I absolutely love the Titanic and enjoyed seeing how excited my students were to learn about it.

Best Products

This leads me into my favorite product of 2012....My Titanic Lapbook!  It was neat to have an actual passenger who traveled on the Titanic for each of my students to become during our unit.  It was fun to make, and have gotten feedback that other's are enjoying it in their classrooms!

My most popular product is my Soil unit. It was one of my first products I created back in January.  I was and am still super proud of this product.  

  

Best Freebie Shared

I created a Reading Comprehension poster set and posted my Making Connections poster from this set as a freebie.  It was my most downloaded product and one that many of the teacher friends in my district ask for.

Best Bloggy Friends

This year has been a great year of many new bloggy friends!  I loved going to the Carolina Blogger Meetup and meeting so many bloggers I felt like I had 'known' for the past year.  Here are a few:

Amber is my # 1 bloggy supporter and real life friend!  We began this adventure together and couldn't imagine it without her.  I love getting together with her and bouncing ideas off her.  She has great ideas that she uses in her classroom.  

  Elizabeth was one of my very first bloggy friends who I actually met while at our Carolina Blogger Meetup.  What a night Amber and I had with her!  Note: Wine and bloggers make for an interesting night!  She has always been so supportive of me and sends me positive vibes.  Her products and blog are amazing! Kelly is another of my very first bloggy friends.  Even though I have never met her in person, I feel like I know her.  Her blog is super cute!  She always stops by to leave nice comments. Amanda is a jem and I absolutely LOVE her!  I will never forget one of the first giveaways I won was for one of her products.  I had a hard time choosing between 2, so she sent me BOTH! I was sold on her from then on :)  Over the past few months have gotten to know her better and my opinion remains the same!
Head over to Christina's blog to link up your own Best and Brightest!

Here's to 2012!

I've Been Boo'd!!!!!!

It's happened!!!  I've been Boo'd! I've played this game hundreds of times in school, but this is a first in the blog world.  I LOVE Halloween and can't wait to dress my girls up in their ladybug costumes!

         

Maybe you've seen or heard of this fun "game" in neighborhoods or even at your school... but let's try a blog version!  Here is how it works:

If you've been booed, copy and paste the above pic and these "rules" into your post.

1.  Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!

2. Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (yours or someone else),

or freebie(s) that you love!

3.  Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers- make sure you check this link to make sure you don't boo someone again:
 http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/2012/10/ive-been-booed-fun-october-linky.html

And don't forget to tell them that they have been BOOED!

4.  Link up {here} so that others can find you and read about your October ideas!  And while you are there... check out the other great blogs!

Thanks to Nina for sharing the Boo love with me!

If you don't follow her, check it out!  She's got lots of great ideas!

I love Halloween so I always try to squeeze some fun stuff in during the month of October that deals with halloween.  I love using Hope King's Pumpkin Book Reports.  My kids had a ball with these last year.  


Being in a new position this year, I have been introduced to a new favorite


It has great tie ins for shapes as well as Halloween.

Another of my new of mine is Ginger's


It is so stinkin' cute!!!!! 


So here are some awesome bloggers that you should follow as well!

Lacie at
Juli and Heather Ashley, Autumn and Tammy

Can't believe we are already close to Halloween!  Where has the time gone!

I Got Skills Linky Party

I'm joining up with my bloggy bff Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher for her Reading skills linky.

I love teaching reading and began teaching shared reading based on skills without a basal reader last year.  The skill I want to share with you today is summarizing.  This is always a difficult skill to teach my 3rd graders.  I was introduced to using foldables in my classroom several years ago and it has become much easier.  I like to use George and Martha to teach this skill.  If you haven't read this book, you are missing out!

It includes 4-5 short stories in one book which allows for me to use the same book all week.  The first day I read aloud the first story and model for the kids how I summarize.  Here are a few examples of organizers I have used in my classroom

From Wendy at One Happy Teacher

 From Jen at Runde's Room

After modeling how to write down something in each of the categories, I model how to take that information and write a brief 1-2 sentences about the story.  The next few days are spent practicing this skill using the other George and Martha stories with their reading partner.  My students use foldables during this practice. 

From Kathy at kbumreading

These are great because they can be used with any genre!  When working on summarizing, I try to focus on it during my minilesson for Reading Workshop, Shared Reading and in Guided Reading.  

Hope that these helpful hints make teaching this skill easier!

Back To School Series: Classroom Library

With Common Core coming out, many teachers are moving away from the reading anthology and moving into a workshop type structure to teach reading.  If you have read anything about Reading Workshop you know that the cornerstone of this structure is a well stocked classroom library.  When I first began reading about the Reading Workshop over 5 years ago, I found my idol, Beth Newingham.  Am I the only one who loves her!?!?!?!? When I saw her expansive collection of books I was a little sad that I didn't have the same amount.  Many of you might be feeling that same way, but I have some tips and hints to help bulk up your library.

1. Yard Sales:  I have been able to find lightly used books at yard sales for 25cents!
2. Consignment Sales: I was shopping at a consignment sale for the twins last spring and discovered the book table!  I was able to score 15 books for under $7!
3. Goodwill: I love going in my local Goodwill and bargain hunting for classroom books.
4. Scholastic: Many of you probably already use Scholastic points you have to purchase classroom books.  I also like to purchase book sets when they have the $1 books.

When I buy books for under $1 I don't mind putting it in my classroom library as much as spending $5 on a book!

Once you have your books, you need to decide how you will label them.  I had a stamp made with my name on it at a local teacher store in town.  I stamp my name inside all the books I buy before putting them in the classroom library.  This proved very helpful this past year when I had to separate my books from those that belonged to the school.

The next big decision you have to make about your library is how you will organize your books.  After reading Fountas and Pinnell's Guiding Reader's and Writer's I decided to organize my library in 3 different ways, genre, author, and book series.  Rather than create my own classroom labels, I used those that Beth Newingham created.  I also had Print Shop and was able to use her format to create more as my library expanded.  Once I made the library labels, I created stickers to go inside each of my books to help my kiddos keep the library organized.

Here are some samples of book labels I made in previous years.  Click on the picture to download.

What helpful hints do you have for setting up a classroom library for Reading Workshop?  Do you have book labels you want to share?  Link up below and share what your doing!

Whatcha' Eating?!?!?!?!

I was over at Ms. T's site, Journey of a Substitute Teacher and saw that she was hosting a linky party about what is in your lunchbox and thought it was too fun not to participate!  I almost always bring my lunch to school, as the cafeteria lunch doesn't look that healthy and for the most part lacks flavor!  Today, however, I had NOTHING at home to take to eat, so I had to eat in the Cafe!  But yesterday I took a Stouffer meal of lasagna and a caffeine free Sundrop.  I am very interested to see what others are taking for lunches this week.  Make sure you head over and link up!

Currently January

Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade is having her monthly Currently!  I love these and couldn't wait to participate.

Let's see if I can keep this OLW for the year!  I have to do something about all my junk!!!  Wish me luck with the group of teachers coming to see what I do with Reading and Writing tomorrow.  I'm super nervous!

Most Supportive Blogger Award

I'm joining up with Little Miss Kindergarten to give a shout out to my most supportive blogger.

Unfortunately, I am going to HAVE to break the rule and choose 2!  The first is Amber over at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

She and I are friends in 'real life' and started this whole blogging thing together.  She has been so supportive and constantly sharing what I'm doing over here and gives me encouragement :)  Awww don't you feel all warm and fuzzy now!  
The second is a blogger with an awesome name, Elizabeth! (How did you know, right?!!?!?!) Her blog is Fun in Room 4B.

I started blogging a few months ago, but just recently began really getting into it.  Elizabeth is always commenting on my posts and now we are bloggy friends!

Make sure you stop by and check these ladies out, they are awesome!