New Magic Tree House unit and snow?

I'm REALLY hoping that today was my Friday! After having temps in the upper 60s and even 70s last week, they're now calling for snow in our area starting in a few hours. This morning they said 6 pm, so hopefully it will wait until then. I usually get home around 5. So I prepared all of my kids with the typical snow homework (ice cube down the toilet and pjs inside out), and I'm praying for a snow day! We can miss one more day before the semester ends next Monday and not have to make up President's Day. I would LOVE a four day weekend! Is anybody else getting a snow day? Do you love them as much as I do, or are they more of a nuisance to you? Maybe it's because I grew up in the deep south and still get as excited as the children when it snows since I rarely saw it growing up.

Well, no matter if we have a snow day or not, next Tuesday I will begin a new historical fiction book study with one of my groups. It was not a book that I already had, but I got a copy from the teacher to go ahead and prepare. I love historical fiction, so I'm very excited about doing this study. As usual, the packet breaks the book into 6 sections (the last page is a reflective writing assignment). The questions range include reflections, straight from the book, vocabulary, and even some visualizing. Enjoy!

My first literature unit!

I have been so excited about all the sales that I've made with my Halloween products, and now I'm starting to think ahead to Thanksgiving. I have some great ideas floating around, but most of them are still in the incubator stage. However, today I finished my very first literacy unit!

Since I work with struggling readers in grades 3-5, I am always looking for good books that catch their attention but are on a low enough reading level. Magic Tree House has become a favorite of mine for 4th grade. They're almost all level M (beginning 3rd grade), so it's right where most of those kids are now and hopefully where my 3rd graders will be soon!

Right now we're reading Lions at Lunchtime, and I'm teaching them how to stop and jot with post-it notes. We're doing pretty well with it, but I wanted to put together a packet for them to work through and practice answering a variety of questions like they do in their classroom. I'm so proud of this packet, and it's perfect for my next book. There are 6 pages (covering a maximum of two chapters at a time) with a variety of questions from reflections to definitions. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and keep an eye out for more Thanksgiving AND more literature units soon (just not too soon)!