Kim Norman visit

Okay, I said I was going to get this post up by the end of the week, and technically that's today! This past Monday, we had our Title I night, and it was a great honor to have a local author come and do a program for us! Kim Norman (from Smithfield, VA - the famous hams) has some great books, especially for younger children, and she did a few read alouds with the kids.

Her first read aloud was I Know a Wee Piggy (remember I said she was from Smithfield - this is a little play on her hometown), which my students were so excited about. This is the book I used to introduce them to the author a few weeks ago.

Anyway, it's about a little pig who makes a big mess of himself by rolling in lots of colors. For younger students, it's a perfect way to talk about colors, but it's also great for rhyming patterns. With my older kids, we predicted what the word would be with the rhyming pattern and also noticed that they used alliteration to help you predict what the color would be (i.e. yard of yellow, wash of white). It's saying a lot that one of my 5th graders told me this was her favorite book! And I was scared they'd hate it because it was too "babyish"...I guess you never can predict what a kid will think!

Then Kim read Ten on a Sled. She had LOTS of kids come up and help her with this one. It's basically the same as 10 on a bed, but it's so cute!

The kids really enjoyed helping her out with this story, and the illustrations are adorable! She had a powerpoint so we could all enjoy the pictures as she read.

And as promised, here are a few pictures from the night:

There were about 16 kids up helping her with this story, not to mention the kids she had pull items out of bags for I Know a Wee Piggy. Then she also used all of the older students who were willing to come up to do a reader's theater with her. They had a blast!

Kim made sure to emphasize to the parents the importance of reading with their child. She even sang the Storytime Boogie to Crocodaddy (I was a little bummed we didn't get to hear that story, but I did read it while she was signing books).

She almost completely sold out of books! I thought about buying this one, but it comes out in board book in January, so I decided to wait. Keagan would tear this book up in no time! I did, however, get her to sign my copy of The Great Christmas Crisis, which is her newest book! I plan on putting together some kind of unit to go along with the book because it's so cute!

Speaking of Christmas, I know I JUST posted my Thanksgiving literacy centers earlier this week, but I have already finished my Christmas ones and posted them yesterday! 

I wanted to make sure they were done before Thanksgiving so teachers could have them ready to go when they got back from break. This set has 5 comprehension centers and 4 word-knowledge centers. It's HUGE, and I love it! My parapro told me it was her favorite one yet. She may not still agree when she's helping me cut out all of this laminating when we haven't even gotten all the Thanksgiving centers ready yet!