Thanks to the fun teacher blog, Simply Skilled In Second, Room 17 was able to dive into the new year with a thoughtful and colorful activity, the 2014 flip flap book. Essentially a booklet made of different-sized overlapping pages, this flip flap book encouraged the class to reflect on highlights and favorite memories of last year and to think about resolutions for the new year. I started off introducing the idea of new year's resolutions with a read-aloud I found on YouTube of the children's book, Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller (I was so thankful to have this video, since I didn't have my own copy of the book on hand). After the read aloud, we made a list of our new year's resolutions on the Smartboard. Among my favorites were, "I resolve to use my iPad less," "I resolve to practice more piano," and "I resolve to read more!" Students then recorded their new year's resolutions in their flip flap books.
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The month of October begins one of my favorite stretches of teaching in the school year. All the festivities that we associate with the upcoming holidays in the fall and winter enliven our classroom with lessons and activities that get me and the students fired up to learn. At the beginning of this month, I began reading spooky tales. One that is always wildly popular, hands-down, is the old favorite, Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark, a collection of traditional folklore and short stories retold by Alvin Schwartz. Whenever we visit the school library, my students race to be the first ones to check out this book--unless, of course, it has already been checked out by someone from another class. These are awesome stories--simple, riveting, dramatic, and perfect for transitions or short breaks between lessons. They are even better when one turns off the lights and reads them only by the glow of a flashlight! Another book in my storytelling toolbox for Halloween is Scared Witless, a collection of spooky stories by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss. This one has a more lighthearted, humorous feel than Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. To throw in a bit more fun with a different cultural experience, I also read a few short chapters from a French children's chapter book called Les Portes Tordues, or The Twisted Doors. It is a bilingual French/English book that actually is designed in a very clever way to teach French grammar and vocabulary within the narrative frame of a girl lost in a haunted house. I don't exactly read it to teach my students French, and unfortunately there is never enough time to read the entire book, but I read it as a brief opportunity for the children to hear another language (I do read both the French and English translations to help their comprehension). In some years when I taught classes with many second language learners, I also used it as an opportunity to teach those who are native English speakers to ask themselves, "What would it be like going to school in another country where I didn't know the language?" My new discovery this year was a book by the hilariously original and witty Dav Pilkey, who wrote The Hallo-wiener. It's about a dachshund named Oscar who is teased by the other dogs because of his short stature. On Halloween he takes more ridicule than ever in his hot-dog costume, but one brave act makes him a hero. It was a nice tie-in with our Treasures unit on "Community Heroes," and also allowed me to allude (perhaps all too briefly) to the fact that this month happens to be National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. So there you have it, my list of Halloween-related literature for the classroom. I certainly welcome any other book recommendations you may have.
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