Hello, March. I'm Feeling Lucky! March *Currently*

Ahhhh, March.  This month always brings along a few bonuses: longer days, warmer weather, Spring Break and leprechauns!   Because of these, I'm always happy to welcome March.  Anyway, the fantastically fab Farley is hosting another Currently.  I'm linking up to share #widn and to find out what my blogging friends are up to on the first of this month.  

Listening: In the background, I hear my kiddos playing with one another on this sunny March morning.  Lately, *Super Heroes* is the name of the game in this household.  Ever since we checked out Super Hero ABC from the library, they've ditched the princess and pirate costumes (for now)... 

Loving: I recently ordered Beyond Leveled Books from Amazon. I've only just begun reading it and am already loving the book.  It explores the uses and limitations of leveled texts in primary reading instruction.  It's a very easy read and includes a good deal of practical ideas, as well as sample mini-lessons that are worth putting into action.       

Thinking: Yay, the time gets to *spring forward* next weekend!   Even though we'll lose an hour of sleep, the thought of knowing spring is near makes me happy.  When the sun still peeks above the horizon after 5 P.M., I know warmer weather is on it's way.

Wanting: It's fun being an Irish gal, especially when I live 20 minutes west of Chicago.  I'm wanting to celebrate my Irish heritage on March 17th.  I love heading into the city to watch the parade and see the river being dyed green.  It's something I've done with my family and friends ever since I was a kid.  It'll be a nice tradition to start once my own kids get a little older.  

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in school with the students is entertaining, too.  When I taught Kindergarten, First and Second Grade, I loved *brining a little magic* into the classroom.  The students' faces spotting chairs tipped over and little green leprechaun feet all over the room was priceless.  Now that I'm a Reading Specialist, it's not quite the same, since I don't have my own classroom.  However, I do love reading and discussing St. Patrick's Day themed books with them.  A few of my favorites are below.  

Needing: I'm needing a vacation and am ready for Spring Break to arrive...STAT!  

Spring Break Plans: My husband and I are both teachers, but unfortunately our breaks don't coincide this year.  Even though this saddens me, I am looking forward to some time to ??? while my husband and kids are at school.

Okay, okay, all kidding aside.  For all those out there who know me, I can't allow myself to do absolutely nothing.  Most likely I'll spring clean the house and do a little closet organizing.  After that, I'll surf some remarkable blogs for classroom ideas and continue to read the professional books I purchased on Amazon and checked out from the library because...

Well, happy March and don't forget to link up with Farley!

Blasting Off a Great Year: 2-Day Literacy Blog Hop with FREEBIES!

Welcome back to school, blog hoppers!  Thanks for stopping by for our very first blog hop and literacy link-up.  An immense thank you to Carla from Comprehension Connection for the invitation to join the hop and to Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars for helping Carla organize this two-day opportunity to share literacy lessons for a new year.  Isn't it nice to start the year with some literacy-related FREEBIES? :)

In our school, the reading support staff utilizes the Fountas and Pinnell Intervention System to support struggling readers.  We currently have access to the kits below, which support students reading on Levels A-Q.

Within those kits, students encounter and process a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres.  We teach the students how to identify the characteristics of fiction, as well as the underlying text structures in nonfiction.  To read more about one resource I use to teach nonfiction text structures, click HERE.  Below are some examples of the different genres found in the LLI Blue Kit that is mostly used with 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students. 

As we all know, exposure to many different genres can assist struggling readers and writers to become more successful in school.  According to research, knowledge of genre when reading a text is a powerful factor in comprehension!  

At the start of the school year, reading stories to students that contain an assortment of genres within the story allows for some great discussion.  The discussions can provide an opportunity for a teacher to pre-assess what students already know about different genres.  Three of my favorite read alouds to introduce genres are Charlie Cook's Favorite Book,  Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind and Read Anything Good Lately?

Charlie Cook's Favorite Book is a circular tale that begins and ends with Charlie Cook reading his favorite book.  He starts out reading   a book about a pirate, who is reading a book about Goldilocks, who is reading about a knight, who is reading about a frog, and so on.  The book includes snippets from a story book, fairy tale, comic, magazine, newspaper and even an encyclopedia.  Each page is like a mini-adventure for students, since they come upon multiple characters from each tale.  The book ends with Charlie Cook reading his favorite book to all of the characters in his favorite book.  Students adore this paperback!  

Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind describes how Miss Malarkey vows to find each of her students a book to love by the end of the school year, but one video game-loving, book-hating boy proves to be a challenge.  Miss Malarkey gives the boy various genres to try, including a fantasy, comic, biography and some poetry.  She finally finds the perfect book for him.  Ever been challenged like that with one of your students?? :)

Read Anything Good Lately? is an alliterative alphabet book with each page listing something a person can read and a place to read it.  For instance, a person can read a biography in bed, the dictionary at a desk, information on the Internet, science fiction on a swing, and tall tales in a tree house.  

Below are three FREEBIES!  The Genre Reference Poster containing an Independent Reading Log is based on Jan Richardson's reading genre chart found in her book, The Next Step in Guided Reading.  Both the poster and log can be useful tools for students to reference and use throughout the school year to keep track genres.  Take a peek at both Genre Reference Poster freebies to see which one you prefer!  I've also added a "Readers Rule!" back-to-school reading preferences graphic organizer, which touches on favorite genres and places to read.  I added it to go along with Read Anything Good Lately?, since it discusses places to read.  :)

Enjoy the freebies above.  I hope they're useful for you.  Before you blast off to the next blog, below you'll find (my former blogging partner) Nancy's addition to our literacy blog hop! 

:) Colleen 

Hi all!  One of my favorite books to start the school year is Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen, by Howard Binkow.  This book leads to interesting conversations about classroom expectations.  It's one of my must haves to introduce my expectations of students while they are participating in my intervention groups, as well as my one-on-one time with Reading Recovery students.  Time is limited, so it's crucial that we are able to get right down to business without wasting time. 

I often use the Think-Pair-Share Strategy to get students to discuss what they feel are important rules for listening in the group.  Of course, I guide them into the most important aspects of being a good listener, but it's important to allow students to have a *say* in setting expectations in the room.  I want students to know I hear their voice.  It permits critical relationships to be developed with my students.   Take a peek below at the book, as well as the freebie my partner created so I have a freebie to share, too! ;)

Click HERE to peek inside!

Thanks for stopping by Literacy Loving Gals!  If you're interested, we'd love for you to follow our Bloglovin' feed and/or link up on our Blogs tab up above before you go.  The best part about being a blogger is learning  from others all over world.  We'd love to learn from you, too!   

Okay, that's all for now.  We hope the start of your school year is a successful one.  Click below to hop on over to the next stop, which is Lori from Conversations in Literacy, for even more literacy lessons to blast off your school year.  Enjoy your hoppin'!

Click HERE for the next stop!!

Some of My Favorite Books: Blogging Challenge Day 7

New favorite! 

Day 7: Favorite books as an adult and/or child.

As an adult, much of what I read is nonfiction.  I tend to read magazines, articles and newspapers, as well as books that relate to my field in education.  I find them very interesting and enjoy keeping abreast of the shifts out in the educational world, but I can't say they are necessarily "fun" reads.  

Since the topic is “favorite books”, I’m going to share some of the mindless, undemanding and entertaining books I enjoy when I actually get a chance to read for pure fun.  I'll also be sharing some favorites of my own kids, as well as a few titles I use in the classroom with my students. 

Have you ever heard of Sophie Kinsella?  She's one of my favorite fiction writers.  I've read most of her books, pre-twins, but my most-liked series by her is the Shopaholic Series.  There are five titles in this series and each one is funnier than the next.  I also loved another novel of hers called The Undomestic Goddess with a different main character.  The novel covers are below.

Sophie Kinsella's newest novel, Shopaholic to the Stars, comes out in August of 2014.  I'm looking forward to it hitting the shelves! 

In regards to children’s books when I was growing up, I can’t really recall any specific titles of books I loved reading over and over.  I do remember loving Holly Hobby and Strawberry Shortcake books growing up, but no specific titles.   Do the pictures below look familiar to anyone out there?

Holly Hobby

Strawberry Shortcake

However, my mother tells me I used to love Goodnight Moon as well as anything written by Dr. Seuss because of the silly illustrations and funny rhymes.  My kids do, too.

Now that I have my own children, I have new favorites.  Snatchabook by Helen and Thomas Dochery is a book I purchased in the Spring at our school's Scholastic Book Fair.  My kids are smitten with it, so we read about Eliza Brown on almost a daily basis.  She's the rabbit that solves the mystery of the Snatchabook.  It's a story for ages 3 and up, but if you click here, you can get an Educator's Guide, as well as an Activity kit that can be used in Kindergarten and First Grade.  It's a fun read. :)

Every...single...night we read Pinkalicious and Purplicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann.  There are many more titles about Pinkalicious and her crazy adventures, but these two are my children's favorites.  Alliteration is all over the pages of these books along with figurative language. 

My face was pink, my hands were pink and my belly was the color of a sunset.

Soon I was surrounded by bees, butterflies, and birds.

He was green with envy.

Take a peek at all of the alliteration on this page!

 Pinkalicious has the blues. 

Rumble in the Jungle and Down by the Station are two of many my son enjoys listening to on a daily basis.  These books are great for building vocabulary and listening for rhyming words. If you are looking for a book full of silly poems about jungle animals, Rumble in the Jungle is a great one, while Down by the Station is great for following a pattern while reading.

There are tons of Llama, Llama books by Anna Dewdney out there on the shelves, but my kids just light up for Llama, Llama Mad at Mama. I'm not going to take it personally, either, because I don't feel they're always mad at me. ;)  These books have wonderful illustrations that show loads of facial expressions and fun scenarios with plenty of rhyme. If you're helping little ones learn social skills, the Llama, Llama books are useful. 

My all-time favorites for the classroom are by Chris Van Allsburg.  Every single book he's written is phenomenal, in my opinion.  There are so many literary skills that can be enhanced through his books, including making predictions, drawing conclusions, making inferences, building vocabulary, writing extensions, reading closely, etc.   The list goes on and on, but here are a few of my favorite titles by Van Allsburg! 

Great for Environmental Awareness.

Open-ended types of pictures for writing extensions.

A stranger with special powers...

Twist ending!!

The world seen through an ant's "lense" (Close Reading).

Great around Halloween time- wonderful black and white illustrations.

In regards to nonfiction, there are many titles out there that are great resources for kids.  However, the one I read most often with my own children is ABC ZooBorns by Andrew Bleimen.  This book is also from our school's Scholastic Book Fair in the Spring.  I adore the photographs, as well as take pleasure in the ABC review for the little ones.  Readers can learn about doles, giraffes, vicunas, tapirs, wombats, nyalas, marmosets and more! 

Well, there you go!  A few of my favorites I wanted to share with the blogging community, even though I have a zillion more.  It was difficult for me to STOP sharing titles.  More to come throughout the school year along with activities and/or I use strategies with the various books. 

So long for now!