Holiday Greetings & New Year's Wishes...with a freebie!

I hope everybody is enjoying his/her winter break!  What a blessing it is to be able to take some time off to relax, eat, spend time with family, sleep, and then eat some more.  Eating is my favorite. ♥

But I also know that so many teachers are already thinking about lesson planning for the New Year.  I know I'm already thinking about how to create resolutions with my little friends with the support of a good read aloud.  Last year I had used Extra Yarn, which is an incredible book with an awesome  female lead character.  And the book exemplifies how a person can have such a huge impact with a simple act of kindness.  But I didn't feel like the students developed strong personal goals after hearing that story.

This year I would like to incorporate more of a growth mindset with creating the resolution.  I've already read The Dot, so I'm thinking of reading What Do You Do With An Idea? or The Most Magnificent Thing.  I'm not sure which book to use...but it will eventually come to me...and I'll post it here on the blog and on my Facebook page.

Character Traits List & Vocabulary Support

As we have entered the month of August, every teacher, whether she likes it or not, starts thinking about school.  Some of us have dreams (or nightmares).  Some of us go on a Pinterest spree.  We walk through Target and ask ourselves "What do I 'need' from the dollar section?"

You don't do this?  Okay, maybe it's just me.  Anyway, we are also thinking about what were some of our students' challenges last year, and how we will address them this year.  My third and fourth graders had difficulty with vocabulary and making inferences, which was evident in how they would describe their characters:

Nice

Mean

Sad

Oh my.

Reading logs for the summer

In my district, the teachers and students are still moving along.  So I've been super busy with my files and end-of-year reports.  Of course I've been procrastinating finishing my files because I've been trying to compile some kind of summer resource for my students (hee hee).  This summer resource is very simple:  mostly reading response activities and problem-solving, since my third and fourth graders struggle with comprehension and word problems.  I wrote a little letter explaining that THIS IS NOT HOMEWORK but a continuation of skills developed throughout the year that can be used AS NEEDED.  Along with this very small packet I wanted to give them a reading log.  So, because I'm new to third and fourth grade, I wanted to see how different teachers created their reading logs (I already know that Beth Newingham has some great resources).  So I Googled "reading logs third grade."  That opened a can of worms...

I scanned the first page of results and these titles jumped off the screen: 

Stop Homework » “I Hate Reading Logs,” says FedUp Mom

Reading logs killed the bibliophile | Woulda Coulda Shoulda