Favorite Fabulous Read Alouds Linky!

I came across this fun linky by Sunny Days in Second Grade: Show and Tell Tuesdays! This Tuesday she is sharing her favorite read alouds. I absolutely love read alouds and always like getting more great book ideas! SO I linked up!

Here are a few of my favorite read alouds....

Jan Brett

First of all, I am in love obsessed with Jan Brett! There are many reasons to love her stories, but I really like her stories because of all the interesting words she uses. I use her books to help teach adding interesting words to their writing. With Jan Brett books it is so hard to get through the book when there are so many great words on each page! NOT to mention all the wonderful Christmas stories she has written. Seriously, there is no way to get to them all.  

Here are a couple others of hers that I like to read....

  

Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett

 This story has a great lesson learned. The chicken is bullied by the other chickens and then gets washed away from her home by a flash flood river and is almost sold at a market. She learns how to stand up for herself along the way down the river. The unfortunate events ultimately help her deal with the other hens on her farm. 

   The 3 Little Dassies by Jan Brett

This is another story very similar storyline to The 3 Little Pigs. Love, love IT!

Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee

This story is great for teaching different aspects of grammar and writing craft. There are many great opportunities in this book!

Regards to the Man in the Moon by Ezra Jack Keats

I use this book each year with Main Idea and Details. I make a cute pop-up activity with stars as the details and the moon as the main idea. Check it out!

 

Those are just a few. :) Hope you found something new! :)

Fly on over and join the linky!

Time Capsules and Main Idea

PHEW! Today was my first day back with my kiddos! Luckily it went reallllly well!  I was very surprised how not-stressed I was. I haven't mentioned this much, but my afternoon switch class tends to wear.me.down.

 One of my resolutions this new year is to not get so frustrated with them.  Sometimes, I tend to compare them too much to my morning homeroom class, which is the Gifted and Talented section. I have just found it hard this year. 

Anywho!!- why I am really here...

Time Capsule

Today I decided to create a class "time capsule". I used the wonderful New Years- Recap 2012 and 2013 Predictions sheets from Just Wild About Teaching. The students had a chance to fill in the information for the past year and make predictions about the year to come. Then I rolled up their papers and stuffed them inside a wrapping paper tube that I cut in half! :)

Unfortunately, the tube I was using was just a tad bit too small for each of the 23 papers. So I had to split the stack. That is why you see some paper sticking out of the sides.. Next time, I know to use a larger and longer tube! It also probably could've been a lot cuter...but this was a last minute thing! :) I love when things just pop into my head!

 I also printed out a little label saying it was our time capsule for the year and then let the students sign the tube with a sharpie.

I told them that we are going to open up the "time capsule" on the last week of school to see if any of their predictions had come true and to look back on what they had written about 2012.

The kids thought it was very cool! I set the time capsules for both classes up on my file cabinet so that they can see them throughout the rest of the year. 

  

Main Idea and Details

Freebie

Part 2!  We are focusing on main idea and details this week in reading. Today I simple lesson to introduced the topic just using pictures. I simply printed a bunch out from google to use.

 As a whole class we went over two pictures, one at a time, and I asked them to pick out the details they see. After, we decided as a class what the main idea of the picture was. The students then went back to their tables where they did a group activity. They basically did the exact same thing. 

I gave each table a new picture and the main idea puzzle graphic organizer that we had used at the beginning of the lesson.

Each group found and recorded details in the picture then decided on the main idea. I encouraged the students to use a full sentence when writing the main idea...but not all have the hang of it yet.

Finally, all groups got up and shared their details and main ideas. 

Most kids did really well on this activity. It was simple and to the point. :)

I am also sharing a few simple main idea and detail graphic organizers. I only created a few so that I could have some to use in class this week in the students' reading response journals. 

As usual, these are 1/2 sheets. I am very green and like to conserve as much paper as possible. :)

Download them for free from my TPT store if you feel so inclined! :)

Hope y'all have had a great first day/week back to work!

Main Idea and Details!

Hey Y'all! I just found some pictures that I took of an activity that I did with my class at the end of last year to focus on main idea and details. We were doing an author study of Ezra Jack Keats at the time and we read "Regards to the Man in the Moon". GREAT story! I Love all of his books! 

Since the book is about some kids taking an imaginary trip to the moon, I used a moon to represent the main idea and stars to represent the details. I told them they needed to tell at least 3 details, but could do more if they liked. I had a few that went above and beyond and gave more. This was a very simple activity to prepare for because I just used a large white circle for the moon and 3 yellow stars from our dye cuts. I also took some long strips of paper for the students to use if they wanted to make it a pop up! The kids LOVED that!

Here are the materials each student used. 

After they completed the main idea and detail parts on their project, they decorated with crayons. Here are some final student products and my bulletin board display.

Just a little something to keep in mind if you do an author study with Ezra Jack Keats or if you are focusing on main idea and detail. :)