Books for the New Year - January Titles for Building Reading Comprehension

Books for the New Year

I am always on the lookout for new books to use for different seasons in my classroom. I recently ran across the book Because by Mo Willems. It is absolutely perfect and stunning for the new year. I am going to use it for goal setting and will also tie in some reading comprehension strategies and reading skills. 

I decided to try to find a book to partner with the book to Because. The book by John Lithgow called, Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo, was the perfect book to use. It has a similar topic and is lots of fun. 

New Year's Book Descriptions

The book, Because, is a beautifully illustrated book that features the story of an orchestra. It traces inspiration from one piece of music to the final moment when an orchestra is formed. It shows how just one person can have a huge effect over the lives of others. It is written in a simple pattern, but don't let that fool you! This book is packed with possibilities for older students like my upper elementary kids. 

The book, Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo, is a fun book that features an orchestra as well...only in this book some rogue animals take over the orchestra, reeking havoc in the process. 

 New Year's Partner Books

What I love about using these two books together is their easy link based on not only the orchestra, but how easily the books show a cause/effect relationship. They are perfect for linking together to compare and contrast. 

Lesson Planning for New Year's Books

I was looking through these two books with reading lessons in mind. I knew I wanted to connect the books not only to New Year's celebrations, but also to my curriculum. I looked for skills that could be incorporated. Here are some good ones.

First, of course, we will have a discussion about the points of the book using  basic questions as well as questions that dig a bit deeper and require making connections.

Next, using the book Because, we will work on cause and effect relationships. This book is perfect for that. Each page has a cause/effect sentence on it. We will branch away from those, writing some of our own. In the end, we can link back to the book, Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo for one last cause/effect.

For deeper learning, students will think about the effect (goal) they want to have for the rest of the school year. They will list out some causes....what will cause them to reach that goal. They will draw a picture of themselves completing that goal. If you visualize it and have a step-by-step plan, you can achieve it, right?

The book, Never Play music Right Next to the Zoo, is also a great way to review basic nouns and verbs. We will do a quick verb sort with this one. 

Another great skill to work on with these two books is comparing and contrasting. Using partner books allows you to have enough similarities, but there will be many differences as well. A Venn diagram is the perfect way to organize a comparison between these two books. 

Using fun picture books is one of my favorite ways to teach new skills and these two new (to me) books will be the perfect addition!

Valentine's Day

Are you looking for a quick an inexpensive idea this Valentine's day? If so, be sure to read on for a couple of fun ideas you can put into place immediately with little time left. 

For me, Valentine's Day would not be Valentine's Day without sharing some books in the classroom. Kids love listening to stories and over time, I have built up a little collection to help celebrate the day. None can ever measure up to my absolute all time favorite book, Somebody Loves you Mr. Hatch. It is seriously so good. I never tire of it. It is definitely my yearly MUST READ.

My next suggestion is to bring a treat to pass out. Last year I did a donut bar and my class LOVED it! I picked up some donuts on my way to work, added a can of pink icing, and some sprinkles and the students got to decorate and enjoy their own donut. Sometimes I bring homemade goodies too, which is even more cost efficient.  

If you have seen those tubes of hashtag blocks at Target, you know how much students love them. And their creativity is astounding! I love to use the Valentine sets for a hashtag block challenge. Students have a grid of different challenges that they complete. It is a lot of fun and for only a dollar per tube of blocks, it isn't bad....plus you can reuse them from year to year. 

Finally, I love to pass out Valentines. This year, I am giving these super fun Valentine envelopes that open up to reveal 8 coupons that can be used in the classroom for privileges. My students absolutely love receiving coupons from time to time, usually during holidays. 

If you need more ideas for celebrating Valentine's Day in the classroom, be sure to check out my older blog post here and here and here. 

And, if you are interested in snagging these little Valentine coupon envelopes, you can find them here. 

5 Fun St. Patrick's Day Ideas for your Classroom

If you are a teacher like me, you are always looking for engaging ideas for every holiday. With St. Patrick's day coming up soon, I have started gathering ideas for what I can do across the content areas to bring in a spark of holiday fun while also keeping the learning going. St. Patrick's day was always a fun day for me in elementary school, even though we did nothing in our classes about the holiday. We all tried to wear green to avoid the dreaded pinches and looked for people who had forgotten so we could deliver those....in a gentle way, of course. 

My love of holidays got me thinking about all the ways I could celebrate in my classroom on St. Patty's day. I wanted it to be something valuable though that could help the students continue to learn important skills, but I also knew that connecting it to St. Patrick's day could help it get more buy-in from the students and make it that much more fun.

Here are five ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with your class this year.

1. Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with Art

Virtually no kid...well, OK, there is that one in a million child...hates art. Kids are naturally creative and have vivid imaginations. They love to get their hands dirty and keep them busy. They enjoy making and doing things. Children are also social and enjoy interacting with others. So why not create a challenge for them that includes art. For this game, I love to create three bags of art supplies for each small group (about 4 students per group). With the students working together, they are also working on collaboration skills while being creative. They are building teamwork skills too. It is perfection. Each group will receive the same bag of supplies. Sometimes I keep the challenge completely open-ended or other times I will give the students a task or theme, such as, use your art supplies to create a rainbow with a pot of gold. The students will have a set time, usually 20-30 minutes works well. During that time, students work together to create a masterpiece that goes with the theme (or is their own idea). They are told at the beginning that their artwork will be judged and also teamwork will be factored into the score. 

Each group is competing for three rounds, or three different assignments (one new bag of supplies for each assignment). At the end of each round, students present their project to the class, practicing good speaking skills. I keep score through all three rounds. At the end of all rounds, a winning team is named. I like to play this game several times throughout the year. I usually launch it during back-to-school week and have several ideas for different holiday versions as well. 

It is a lot of fun and students always enjoy playing.  The competition keeps kids accountable to do their best work and they love the interaction they get with peers.

2. The History Behind the Holiday

If I am going to spend time focused on a holiday in my classroom, I want my students to know the ins-and-outs of that holiday. Where did it come from? Why do we celebrate? When did we start celebrating? Do other places around the world celebrate? If so, how? What are some traditions behind this holiday? It is the perfect link between social studies and reading. I like to use articles that answer these questions while I am in small groups. It is fun to hear the chatter from students about things they have learned that they did not know before. Sometimes I spend just one day on exanimating the holiday, while other years I spend the days before and after delving deep into it. Both work great, and it is really just personal preference that dictates how you approach this. 

I didn't really find much out there, as far as reading passages, so I have created some of my own for St. Patrick's Day and also other holidays. I like to link my passages to other content areas as well, if possible. It is easy to tie in writing, and sometimes even science or math. 

3. Center Games

It is easy to find center games for every holiday. Math is a great place to start. I enjoy making little games that practice important skills and are themed for the holiday. One of the most important skills that I teach is multiplication. If I can gamify it, the students are all over it. They love playing games that help them learn their facts vs. just sitting with a stack of multiplication cards. It just makes it more fun. 

So any time you can throw in some games to solidify those math skills, do it. You will not regret it. And your kids will thank you for it. 

4. Amazing Race Games

One idea that I LOVED a few years back was when I created an Amazing Race style game. It was so fun to watch the students race through different challenges, all themed around St. Patrick's day. My race included math and writing ideas. The race began with a fact sort. Students had to solve equations and sort them into St. Patrick's Day pots based on the answer to each equation. After that, each student received an envelope with directions for the next challenge. The next challenge was a game called Show Me the Money where each student had some coins with different amounts printed on them. They had to use coins to show the amounts in two different ways. Between each game, they received an envelope with instructions or special activities or treats. For activity number three, students were give a set of cards with different coins shown. They had to count each group of coins and organize them into a line showing the least to greatest amount, in order. Up next, we had a Punctuation Place activity where I gave students dry macaroni, dyed green and some strips with sentences that included dialogue written on them. Students had to use the macaroni and other pasta to correctly punctuate the sentences with commas, quotation marks, and periods. My final activity was for students to create a color poem. The poem used the five senses to talk about one certain color. I love how those turned out. 

5. Writing

Finally, it is always fun to include some writing in my holiday celebrations. I like to have students write in some way if I can find a way to tie it in. For St. Patrick's Day, it is fun to have students write a letter to someone telling them how lucky they feel to have them in their life. Then they actually deliver the letter to their friend or loved one. It makes their day.

Those are my five ideas for ways you can make the holiday special, while also keeping the learning level high. If you are interested in any of these activities, you can check out the resources I used below by clicking on the pictures. 

 

Celebrating Valentine's Day in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Celebrating Valentine's day does not just have to be for lower elementary. Lots of kids still enjoy it in the upper elementary classroom too. Hey, even the teacher loves it. 

I have a quick disclaimer to make. I work in a tiny school and I have the same kids for two or three years, depending on the year. I have had my current fifth graders since they were little third graders. With that in mind, I have to shake things up from year to year to keep it fresh since I teach multi-grade and get to hold on to the same kiddos for so many years. So because of that, I have to have a huge collection of activities that I can rotate each year.

Valentine's Day Boxes in Upper Elementary

Today, my fifth graders were asking if we could do Valentine's Day boxes. I have to admit. I love the boxes ....a lot. I enjoy seeing the creativity and originality or each student. Their personalities and passions shine through. They actually teach me something about themselves when they create these amazing boxes. It is always a surprise to see the boxes they create to hold their cards from our card exchange. They are excited to share and to see each others' and I think it is fun to create a little competition around them. So we will be doing that again this year. 

Valentine's Day Books in Upper Elementary

My students love...LOVE a good book. They love chapter books and also picture books. No book is off limits, including picture books that others may see as books for the younger crowd. Kids love growing up, but they also love the familiarity of a simple book. I love reading them just as much as they love hearing them. Here are some of the books I have collected through the years. 

Games

We love games and having fun. I love doing Minute to Win it challenges with the class. Kids this age are very competitive. A little competition is just what they need.

S.T.E.M. 

S.T.E.M. challenges are perfect for any holiday. They are perfect because they are not something we do everyday. They are a challenge, in a good way. They get kids interaction and work together. They stretch kids' creativity and ingenuity. They give kids a break from the usually learning tasks and bring a novel form of learning. They are super fun. Last year we did a Valentine's Day bridge building S.T.E.M that I got from Maniacs in the Middle. It was so much fun. This year, I purchased a class set of Valentine hashtag blocks that we will be using for small S.T.E.M. challenges. 

The History Behind the Holidays

I feel like this topic is included in every holiday I talk about. I just love helping kids learn about where traditions that surround the holidays came from and Valentine's Day is no different. Last year, I created several articles to help my students learn about some of the most obvious traditions. This year I created some more articles that I can use in my class. Here is a quick list what traditions and things my students learn about. 

Conversation Hearts

Valentine's Day Cards

Chocolate

Traditions around the World

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue Poems

Paris, the City of Love

The Love Lock bridge

We read and do comprehension activities. We extend our learning with other activities that tie into our learning as well. 

Card Exchanges and Small Gifts

Card exchanges are a must for me. We all bring cards (whoever chooses to) and some bring small candies to share with classmates. It is just so much fun to share and put a smile on the faces of others. The kids feel that. They feel the love. I enjoy bringing something small to share with the class as well. Maybe it is a pencil, a book, and special treat, just something to let them know they are loved and I am glad they are a part of our class family. 

Party

This year, we are having a donut themed party. I found cute donut erasers to pass out. We will have real donuts too. I am bringing glazed donuts and we will have a donut bar. Students will get to frost their donut with pink frosting and add sprinkles if they want. We will spend some time immersed in Valentine's books, eating donuts and maybe sipping some hot chocolate too. 

I hope these ideas help you find ways to make the holiday special in your classroom. Whatever you do, your kids will love it.

Here is a link to my History Behind Valentine's Day pack if you are interested. 

If you want to see some of the boxes we created in previous years click here. 

More Valentine's Day activities here. 

 

Three Ways to Celebrate the New Year in Your Classroom

With Christmas break ending, teachers everywhere are gearing up to go back to school. I personally have been thinking of ways to extend the holidays and bring them into the classroom for one or two more days. This year, as we always do, we will be celebrating the new year. I was thinking about how to make that happen since I have the same students for at least three years (I teach in a multi-grade classroom of 3rd-5th graders). 

1. New Year's Learning Fun

With that in mind, I decided to create new products that could help me bring the learning while sprinkling in some fun. One of my favorite things to do is to teach my students about the history behind holiday traditions and I have a line of products that helps me do this, but I did not have anything yet for New Year's. I sat down the past few days and focused on making that a reality. With a reading theme, I will be introducing my students to seven different traditions about the new year. Each of these topics has a non-fiction passage, comprehension sheet, and many also have an additional game or activity to go along with it. Check out the different topics we'll be studying as we return to school. 

The reading passages are all non-fiction and include topics that help students learn the history behind New Year’s traditions. Included in the pack is one about the first and last countries to welcome the new year and how they celebrate. Another article explores the different balls that have been used in New York’s Time Square on New Year’s Eve and how that tradition got started. Students can extend their learning by completing a STEM challenge based on the ball drop. The third article is about the famous song, Auld Lang Syne, and just what those words mean and how the song came to be one we that sing when the clock strikes midnight on January first each year. Next, there is an article about goals and new year’s resolutions. Students can extend what they learn by setting goals of their own in a cute New Year’s Eve ball card. Another article is about words and how words are added to our dictionary each and every year. The class will learn who chooses what words are added and where these words come from. To extend, they may even create a snack or something to play with, should you choose to do so. Up next, is an article about the Tournament of Roses parade. When students read this, they may be inspired to create models of their own. So to extend their learning, you can have them create small shoebox floats and host their own walk-thru parade. Lastly, students will learn about college football bowls and how they came to be.

Also included is a time capsule that students can create individually. And finally, there is a teambuilding game that is perfect for welcoming your students back into the classroom and get them talking and sharing about their break and also the new year. My students will not only get reading activities, but this crosses over to other subject areas as well including history, science, writing, and art.

2. New Year's Teambuilding 

I love teambuilding. It is essential throughout the year, but even more so at the beginning or after a long break. I have this line of teambuilding art challenges that go along with many different holidays, but did not have one completed for New Year's. So I dusted it off and got it finished and I can't wait to try this with my class. If you have seen the TV show Chopped, then you have an idea of what happens in this challenge. Groups of students are each given a bag of items that includes identical art supplies. With the art supplies, teams are given an art challenge that they must complete collaboratively in a certain amount of time. Teams are then judged based on creativity, teamwork, etc.  After three rounds, you can name a winner. It is a lot of fun and kids really get into it. 

3. New Year's Procedure Practice

After every break, it is VITAL to do some refreshing on rules and procedures. At 3rd-5th level, I would be lying if I said that kids do get tired of this, but it is so important that I push through anyway. So, if I can make it fun, I will. This year, as I was browsing, I came across an idea that I saw with procedures on sticky notes that cover a class prize...such as extra recess. After reviewing the rules and procedures, we will have them all written on sticky notes. I will be watching for students who are completing these throughout the day. If I see the class doing one, I will remove that sticky note. Once all the notes are removed, students will get to celebrate with the reward that was revealed. 

While going back to school may not be something your students (or maybe even you) are looking forward to, it is here and the transition can be fun while also being academic. I say we start out 2022 with a big bang and make it one of the best years ever!

If you are interested in either of the resources mentioned, you can check them out by clicking on the pictures below.