Scooping Up Books: Reading Logs & Goal Setting

Do your students need a boost in motivation for reading at home? This summer a girlfriend of mine and I were brainstorming ideas for her second graders.  She wanted to implement a program that might help her students track their progress and reflect on growth in their at home reading.  After much discussion we decided to go big or go home!

Note: this program does involve a small amount of extra class time and some classroom wall space to make it really fun.

Each month students get a "Scooping Up Books" reading calendar to use as log.  On the back side is a printed reflection sheet for students to do a very simple review of their favorite book that month. Each day students log the number of minutes or pages (whichever you prefer) on to the ice cream scoop.  They also check off the different genres they read in any given month. She does not require them to read from any particular genre, but you could if you were so inclined.  I also know some teachers like to have parent involvement with reading logs so my thought was parents could initial in each scoop if needed.

We decided that goal setting was going to be a critical part of this program. Each month students set a goal for themselves. At the end of each month they chart their personal progress and then set a new goal for the following month.

Additionally, each month a class total is calculated.  This is the part that takes some time on your part.  You can set it up as a quick whole class math activity, assign a student each month to calculate or just do it yourself.  As a part of the incentive we created a class bulletin board to show progress or need for improvement...depending on the month.  

If you want to create a cute 'Scooping Up Books' display you simply need an ice cream cone or dish labeled for each month of the school year.  Determine as a class how many minutes/pages a scoop of ice cream should equal.  You may need to determine this based on the size of your bulletin board space.  Then, at the end of each month add the appropriate number of scoops.  My girlfriend has the students who read the most each month decorate the scoops before hanging them up! I can't wait to see what it looks like in June!

Click to Preview

Click for more goal setting ideas!

Too Many Pumpkins!

Have you read about Rebecca Estelle and her cat Esmerelda?  If not, you are missing out.  These two are a delight, as is this fun fall story.  I do not want to spoil the plot for you, but I will tell you this, the book lends itself well to enriching vocabulary, practicing past tense, making predictions, sorting verbs and adjectives, not to mention that it is just plain fun!

Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White is not a book about Halloween. There are no scary parts, no trick-or-treat or costumes.  It is mostly a story about too many pumpkins with a few Jack-o-lanterns, a couple of laughs, some problem solving, and a very feel good ending!

The first time I read this book was years ago while volunteering in my son's 2nd grade class.  I wasn't familiar with the story, but I loved it so much I rushed out to add to my collection.   If it's one you haven't read I suggest you check it out ASAP.   If you already know how wonderful it is be sure to check out the literature activities I have designed to compliment the book for use in your classroom. I do hope you love it as much as I do!

Click to Preview

Link to Amazon

What if Everybody Did That?

This summer I stumbled across a book I hadn't seen before and the title immediately caught my eye.  It is called What if Everybody Did That?  As I flipped through the pages I couldn't help but laugh at many of the comical illustrations.  More importantly though, I also couldn't help noticing how this book so perfectly illustrates that actions and choices have consequences.  In a very simple and fun way this book shows children the effects of their actions and why certain behaviors aren't acceptable. The oh so simple question, " What if everybody did that?" along with the clever illustrations by Colleen M. Madden drive home the point so beautifully.

This book is perfect for the beginning of the year as you are establishing your classroom rules and procedures, or  later in the Spring, as it lends itself perfectly to Earth Day.  I love finding ways to use literature to support other subjects like social studies and science and this works perfectly for topics that revolve around helping others and the planet too! It's like Character Education and Science Mashup of sorts!

Have y'all watched many of the Kid President videos yet?  If not, you are missing out! Not only is he adorably funny,  his messages are fantastic!  Here is a great one to share with your students after reading What if Everybody Did That?   Part of what I love about this book is how it ends.  I won't completely spoil it for you, but just know that the end of the book and Kid President can encourage your students to think about the ways and the power they have to shape the future.  How awesome is that?





If you'd like to do some extension lessons based on the book I've  put together a few simple activity pages. They include:

• Cause & Effect Graphic Organizers
• Templates to make your own What if Everybody Did That? class books.
• Vocabulary Activities (choice, responsible, consequence, cause, effect, actions)
• Reflection Writing Activities

Click to Preview Product

Building Classroom Community With The Name Jar

I always love it when I can find a fantastic book that ties to exactly what I want to teach!  The picture book, The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi is a new favorite of mine.

This particular book has many wonderful lessons. It lends itself so well to the back to school focus on building classroom community.  The teacher, Mr. Cocotos, has clearly established a supportive and comfortable classroom community before the main character Unhei arrives as a new student from Korea.

One way to jump off this book is to have fun with the jar theme. It so simple too! First, create a large chart with an empty jar on it.   Give students sticky notes and ask them to name things that help make a positive classroom community like the one in the story.  Use this to start a discussion on what your classroom agreements will be for the school year and how your goal is to create an environment like the one Mr. Cocotos established that helped Unhei feel welcome in both her new school and her new country.

The unit includes a graphic organizer for students to record class ideas.

Another fun way to extend the jar theme and to help your students get to know each other the first few weeks of school is to give them a blank jar and have them fill it with words or pictures that symbolize their identity.  To make it extra fun, make sure they don't include their names anywhere on the front.  Then, have the classmates try to guess which jar belongs to which student!   This could be a fun display for parents to try and guess which jar belong to their child at back to school night too!

Option: Make this a technology training lesson. Have students add clip art into the jar!

These are just a few ways to use The Name Jar to help build your positive classroom community at the start of a  new school year.  If you are interested in the seeing additional activities I have designed to go with  this book please click the image below to see a preview of the unit in my TPT store.

Click to see more of this unit.

My Father's Dragon

Have you heard of Elmer Elevator?  I first heard about him about 15 years ago.  I'll confess the character name did not inspire me.  However, I was quickly reminded of the old adage "Don't judge a book by its cover." Or in this case by its main character name.

Turns out Elmer is a fantastically clever fellow with a very big heart who has a great adventure saving a baby dragon.  This 10 chapter book is the first in a trilogy and it's just plain old fun to read.  It lends itself to all types of fun activities. Like this torn paper version of the baby dragon.

You can easily integrate teaching map skills and landforms with this book.  One of the culminating activities we all loved had the students creating their own salt dough islands. Yes, it was messy and time consuming, but oh so fun! Kids love the opportunity to be creative and I will tell you that some of our islands were really quite impressive.

I supplied students with miscellaneous craft supplies (I always have odd bits of things left over from my many crafty experiments).  I also put a call out to my families to send in any leftover supplies they were willing to part with.  Each year we always ended up with a great assortment and the kids never ceased to amazing me with what they come up with.  As a part of the assessment students were required to include 3-5 landforms we covered in our study and label them. It was always fun to see what they chose to incorporate into their creations.

I can't say enough great things about this book and guess what?  It's now a part of the public domain.  Ruth Stiles Gannett wrote in in 1923! It's available for FREE along with the illustrations at gutenberg.org.   How great is that?   

I've got an entire unit of activities to go along with this classic story available on my TPT store be sure to check it out if you are interested in using this book with your class!

Click to Preview

Be sure to check out this My Father's Dragon Pinterest Board that includes some additional fun ideas that go nicely with the unit.

My Mouth Is A Volcano

Why yes, sometimes it sure is!  I can name a handful of people who would likely say it always is...but I won't.  My volcano mouth has not been saying much on this blog lately though that's for sure.  I really need to decide what my blogging plans are, but since I haven't it will remain a mystery to all of us for now.

Anyhow, are you familiar with this children's book?
 
I had not heard of it until recently.  It was written by Julia Cook in 2005 and I think it's a must have for every preschool and elementary teacher out there.  It's a perfectly adorable story that will open a fantastic opportunity for discussing the age old problem of interrupting.  As a frequent interrupter myself it was good for me to be reminded.  Sadly, I am one of those people who seems to always be able to connect a story of my own to the story you are in the middle of telling!  You would think I would have figured it out by now...but alas...no.

Anyhow, I can quite relate to little Louis and his struggle with his "important words".  Guess I'll keep working on it.

FYI...in addition to being a great book for helping to establish classroom boundaries it is also a great jumping off spot for teaching metaphors!  Really what's not to love about this metaphoric title????