Summer Reads #2: Because of Mr. Terupt

So welcome to week two of my Summer Reads series! For those who don't know, I'm kind of piggy-backing off an idea one of my amazing friends, Andrea at This Literacy Life, does with her Book Talk Thursdays. I have SO many books that I have read this year and many many more that I brought home to read this summer, so I shouldn't run out of material for a while. The question will be can I keep up with blogging about them! My boys are getting a little older and more independent, so I should be able to manage as long as I remember. Let's see if I can revive this old blog!

Click on the book for my Amazon affiliate link

Today's book is the first in a trio, but the first is definitely the best. I had to check this book out for myself after quite a few of my students recommended it. Mr. Terupt is a brand new 5th grade teacher, and his students love him. His methods may be a little unconventional, but there is no doubt that the kids are learning and growing. Then something happens that changes everything mid-year, and the class has to learn how to lean on one another to get through it.

I really like how these books are told from multiple students' perspectives. The second book, in my opinion, is a little more on the cheesy side, and then the third book follows the students to middle school, which is fun to see them grow. You should at least read this book! It has some great humor thrown in along with the tension and uncertainty through the last half of the book.

Summer Reads: The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Hello, blogging world! It's been quite some time. Since I last wrote, I have moved schools (and school districts) and just completed my first year teaching 5th grade Gifted Language Arts. It's been busy, and I've felt like a brand new teacher since almost all of my previous experience has been with struggling readers, but I'm loving it! 

Anyway, I have been busily reading some of the latest YA novels to catch up with my avid readers this year, and I decided that the perfect way to get back into the groove of writing is to talk about a different book each week! I'm going to call this my "Summer Reads" series, and then I hope to also continue it into the school year, just maybe less frequent.

Click on the book for my Amazon affiliate link

The very first book I want to discuss is this year's Newbery medal winner, The Girl Who Drank the Moon. When I saw this one, I immediately purchased it, especially since it is fantasy, which I have realized my classroom library is lacking.

I would actually classify this book as a mix between Dystopian and fantasy. The premise is that there is a village who "sacrifices" a baby every year to a witch so that they may remain safe. This baby is put outside the gates of the village and left for dead, and then the witch supposedly comes along to eat it. However, the truth is that the witch knows nothing of their "sacrifice" and actually rescues the baby every year from what she believes is a village of cruel and heartless people. These babies are fed starlight on the journey to different villages (earning them the name Star Children) where one lucky family is selected to care for them.

One year, Xan (the witch) accidentally feeds the baby moonlight, which enmagics the young child. She ends up caring for the girl herself, and there comes a time when she will come to know the village she came from once again.

I loved this story! It paints a beautiful picture of love and hope, and it also shows how things aren't always what they seem. I actually went back and ordered a small group set to do with a group of students, and this was one of their favorites.

Book Talk Thursday-ish: Creature Features

Hi everyone! I'm going to just stop apologizing for not posting as frequently and accept that this is just going to be the new norm for me. At least until Caffrey is a little older and I can get a better grasp on time and life and all that stuff. And in my defense, I started this post yesterday, but I didn't have a chance to finish it until this morning.

I did, however, want to share a new book that I discovered. Every year, a committee selects books for the Virginia Readers' Choice list, and they publish the next year's list in February. I happened to get my hands on the latest list last week and IMMEDIATELY started hunting down all of the books. I have 7 of them in my possession now and two others on hold at the library.

Andrea is featuring one of the books on her blog today, and I wanted to link up with one of my favorites here: Creature Features: Twenty-Five Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do.

Click on this image to see other great books!

This book is perfect for questioning, AND it ties right in with science for an animal adaptations lesson. I used it as a model to ask "why" questions, which I feel like my students always struggle with. In my class, we use the Fountas & Pinnell LLI system, which is a kit that includes leveled books to quickly get students reading on grade level. The fourth grade pack has a series called Intriguing Animals. I pulled a few of those books and split my students into groups. Then they looked through the books and found unique characteristics about each animal to come up with two questions and answers. Then they selected their favorite and shared it with the class.

To extend this activity, I would love to give the students a picture of a strange animal and have them generate a list of questions to then research online or in a book later. There are so many possibilities, and I love the fact that the lesson is cross-curricular!

Currently a new year?

I cannot believe it's already 2016! The year ended in a bit of a whirlwird around here, but I'm looking forward to fresh starts and more time watching my sweet little boys grow into handsome young men.

Listening: Keagan and Caffrey did NOT sync their naps today, so I didn't get my usual quiet time. Although fortunately Keagan has become pretty independent, and I managed to sneak in a short nap while Caffrey slept. That is, until Keagan decided to play "Polar Express" with his train whistle. Thankfully he only woke me up!

Loving: I struggled a little with this one to be honest. It's been a bit crazy here lately. My husband and I had to travel back to MS (after just getting back from a trip at the beginning of break) after my grandmother passed away. I know it's better for her and I'm glad that she is no longer suffering, but it's made for a busy and stressful break. Despite all of that, I have an amazing family and have the pleasure of being mommy to the cutest little boys. Ever. See?

Thinking: Since this has been the first day we've been able to be home and have nothing that HAS to be done immediately, I have taken advantage of it. Of course, we do need to get some groceries, so it's probably time I at least brush my teeth and become somewhat presentable.

Wanting: Like I said, this "break" was way too busy, and I need another break to recooperate. At least Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is just around the corner. And I heard whispers of snow?

Needing: My boots literally have a hole in the bottom that I've temporarily covered with duct tape to keep water out (since it's been monsoon season everywhere). Did you know duct tape doesn't stay in one place on the bottom of shoes? I just haven't had time to find ones that are worth spending my money. Maybe I'll do that before going back to school,..

One Little Word: This was an easy one for me. Ever since Caffrey was born and we moved, I just haven't been able to find my "new normal". Everything has been hectic, and I want to find a routine. I need to get some kind of schedule going and just go with it. My hope is that it will become easier as Caffrey gets a little older and doesn't need to be held all the time.

Currently December

It's already December 2?! When did that happen? Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, so I'm thrilled that we're to this point. I mean, our house has been decorated for almost three weeks now, so it's about time!

Listening: Keagan and Steven are wrestling, and Caffrey is sitting with me giggling about it. I love how my husband gets on the floor after a long day and still plays with the kids! They adore their daddy.

Loving: Everything Christmas! I've already got about half of my shopping done (almost all for my immediate family), and I can't wait to start all of the festivities!

Thinking: I've been meaning to schedule a hair appointment for a few weeks. I just haven't gotten around to it. I haven't gotten it cut since before school started, and it needs a little TLC.

Wanting: I went to bed this morning with a bit of a sore throat and woke up in way more pain. I ended up staying home today because it was so bad. Feeling a little better, but I'm hoping it's okay for tomorrow. Maybe I'll eat some ice cream to help! ;-)

Needing: We don't have any light fixtures in our family room. When we moved in, the days were longer, and the huge windows provided plenty of light. Now that it's dark by 5, our one tall lamp isn't quite cutting it. It's a big room. Maybe Santa will install a light for Christmas? (Signs that your officially an adult?)

Real or Faux: We have four trees in our house. Three of them are fake (a really small one in Caffrey's room, 4 ft in Keagan's, and a 6 ft in the living room that is my "fancy" tree). Then we always go get a real tree for our family tree with all of the special ornaments. We just got ours Sunday, and it's SO fat!

What's your favorite thing about December?

Five for Friday the 13th

Week two of being back into the groove of things, and I even had a few posts in between (though not all here)! Am I actually beginning to fall into a sort of routine? Could it really be happening?

First, as an update from last week - the lice is still going WAY too strong in our school. We've had so many outbreaks that I could literally count on my hand how many 5th grade girls didn't have their hair up yesterday, and I wanted to give them a rubber band to do so immediately. I actually bought some lice repellent on eBay yesterday after a coworker brought it in. The Ulta store closest to us is sold out of it. AND they made an instant alert call to remind parents to check their kids' hair. I really wish we could just close and get rid of it once and for all. So gross!!

I shared about how to find the readability of any text over the weekend. It's actually very simple, and I was so excited to find it! Click on the picture (or just check out my last post) to read more about it.

I also had a little fun over at Virginia is for Teachers with a top ten list. I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm CONSTANTLY running on fumes these days!

We tried to go apple picking over the weekend, but it was rainy AGAIN. On top of that, almost all of the apples had already been picked. They were taking people up the mountain in a little bus to pick what few apples were left, so I didn't even go since Caffrey was in his stroller. My friend, Taylor, was able to snap a few pictures for me, though. We ended up leaving empty handed, but I did get my apple doughnut. That was all I really wanted.

I'm looking forward to hopefully decorating for Christmas a little this weekend (we pulled stuff down the day after Halloween, but that's as far as we've gotten). Tonight I'm hosting a LulaRoe pop-up boutique, and then we're going to a local Christmasy thing (Lakeside's Holly Jolly) highlighting businesses in our new neighborhood tomorrow. It should be fun!

How to Determine the Readability of Any Text

I'm sure you've seen it before. A child just laboring away trying to work through a passage. Maybe they just circle answers and move on. Or maybe they completely shut down and quit. It may mean the text is just too hard. Now I know that students reading below level will have to work through text on grade level, especially for tests. But that text needs to be within reason (no more than 2 grade levels above their current grade).

So, maybe I'm way behind on this, but I just learned that you can actually check the readability of any document on Microsoft Word! That was so awesome to me because now I feel like I can look at a passage online and decide if it's appropriate for my students or not. Or if I ever decided down the road to create my own passages (not any time soon with a baby in the house), I can make sure it's appropriate. I figured surely some of you were also in the dark on this, so I decided to share a quick tutorial.

First, you have to make sure your program is already set up to find the readability of a passage. Mine was not. It's very easy, and you should only have to do it once.

Once you've done that, you can just put in any passage and test it out! It only takes a few seconds to do. I will say that I tried a list of sentences, but it didn't really work for that. This is geared toward paragraphs of information.

If you don't have Word or just want something easier, I also found a free website that runs text through FIVE different readability formulas and gives an average score: Readability-Score.com
You can either copy and paste text OR you can check a website's readability. I circled that data it gives.

I'm so excited to have these tools available and can't wait to be able to use them when choosing text to use with my students! It also will be helpful when sending home letters to parents so I will avoid being too wordy. Apparently I don't have much trouble with that since my blog came out as a fourth grade reading level. I guess I'm used to talking to fourth graders! ;-)