One Book...Multiple Lessons

Hello everyone!  I'm back today to share another favorite book (and I think I like this one even more than the Hungry Thing).  Lately I'm loving Dear. Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School.  It's about a naughty dog, Ike, who is sent to obedience school.  Ike writes letters daily to his owner trying to convince her to let him come back, and then he ends up escaping.  This story has so many potential teaching points. 

Here's some ideas I came up (and the list isn't limited to this).

-Different perspectives (between the dog and the illustrations).
-Character analysis: What is Ike like?  A lot of my students came up with the word dramatic.  The obedience school really didn't seem so bad according to the pictures.
-Compare and Contrast: Compare what Ike writes to the illustrations.
-Inferencing: The ending of the story is perfect for this.
-Patterns in text

And there are writing connections too!
-Writing a friendly letter
-Persuasion: Ike is good at this!  Possible prompt: If you were Mrs. LaRue, what would you do?  Would you let Ike out early? Why or why not?

And for phonics we really worked on the vowel digraph spellings for _ue (LaRue) as well as o, oo, ew, u, and others.

Library

How do you organize your classroom library?  My first year, it was simple.  I didn't have a whole lot of books (only about two crates full), so a shelf like the one below was perfect for me at the time.  I changed out my picture books about once a month.

This was the library my first year.  The books weren't on the shelf yet.  Even though it was small, the kids loved it.

Fast forward six years, and this is what my library looked like this school year.  The books are sorted by genre (the ones with the red tags).  There are also books sorted by reading level.  Students had book baggies with books they would read on their level, and change them out about once a week (the ones with the puppy tags).  Once I switched to sorting by basket in year five, I knew I needed a good system so books could be returned to the proper basket.  That was the reason I was hesitant to organize my library in this way... I was afraid that the books would be all over the place!  The leveled books have their letter in the corner on the cover.  The picture books have a label that matches the label on the basket.  Almost all of the time books were returned to their home.  I must say a system needs to be in place so they don't end up anywhere.  Next school year I plan on adding about ten more picture book baskets as I have more books that weren't out.  Needless to say I'll need another large shelf like the ones on the right side.

I ran out of shelves and baskets!  I had to use different ones and (gasp) three different baskets that don't match! LOL

I still have that pillow and bench.  Those have always been a big hit!

What a difference a few six years can make.  I LOVE reflecting on how I use to do things and compare to what I have evolved to today! 

Aloha, summer! {And classroom decor, too}

Aloha!  Even though it's summer, I've already come across decor I want to use next school year.  It's funny, I say next school year, but it's actually only a few months away.  I love having a nicely decorated classroom for many reasons.  One, I do spend lots of time in the room on a regular basis and want it to look nice.  Two, I've learned from reading through research that children enjoy and learn best in an aesthetically appealing environment.  This past year I had dog and cat decor and I liked it, but I felt like I wanted to change it up this coming year.  I am going with a Hawaiian/luau look.  I was inspired by schoolgirl style's theme.  You can read her amazing post here.  I have lots of bins in blue and green which will fit in nicely.  I have already bought most of the decor, and the best part is... wait for it.... I only spent about ten dollars so far!  Woo hoo!  I went to my local Dollar Tree and found these bulletin board goodies featured below.

There are 8 cutouts in this package.  I'll come up with a use for these!  Perhaps for the door or to add some flair on a bulletin board?

This little cutout is different than the one above.  It's larger and when connected stands about 5 feet tall.  Perfect for a reading corner!

Palm trees are a must in any beach themed room! 

 

This puts into perspective how large the flamingo is.  I love the Hawaiian lei!
 

What it looks like assembled.



The grass skirt would be perfect for the front of a desk!

Big tropical flowers!

These are cups I had found at the grocery store, which match the hibiscus cutouts I have.  I'm thinking I'll use them for sharp and dull pencils.

Lastly, my cat Buddy was wondering what I was doing!

So, what else will I do with this theme?  I'll probably buy some leis and use them to decorate bookshelves.  The combinations are endless!