Celebrating Differences with Giraffes Can't Dance

Gerald the giraffe is good at lots of things, but not at dancing. Each year at The Jungle Dance, he's a bit of a laughing stock. Embarrassed and hurt, Gerald leaves the dance, but finds someone who may just be able to help.  This book is great for teaching acceptance, bullying,  loneliness, resilience, kindness, compassion, helping others, and self-reflection.  It's perfect for launching problem and solution in reading.  Watch the video below to see 

other tips for using the book to teach.

Acts of Kindness with Ordinary Mary

Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed is a fabulous book that really illustrates for children how they can make a difference in the world with simple acts of kindness.  It's great for any time of the year! This book is a perfect tie to citizenship in Social Studies.  It's also perfect for all elementary aged students.  We always start the year off with the beginning portions of standards.  For this book we tied it to retelling or recounting stories.  Students are directed to retell the story in just three sentences using text evidence.  Before you start worrying about having older kids retell with just three sentences, please know that we are setting the precedence for the year.  Students must write quality sentences that use text evidence and transition words.  Once they have this mastered with three sentences we can build on.  It's important not to jump ahead and have students writing thesis statements when they can't write a proper sentence.  Watch my video below to see more ideas on how to bring quality literature into your reading block and how to use this book in your teaching. Have an amazing day!

Cafeteria Rules Lesson Plans

The cafeteria can be a huge problem for teachers everywhere.  They can be noisy, messy and students can get in trouble.  If you spend time in the beginning of the year setting expectations and allowing students to take part in creating rules and procedures, you are much more likely to have a successful lunch each day.  This year I was ecstatic to find the book "Seven RulesYou Absolutely Must Not Break If You Want To Survive The Cafeteria".  It's a cute book written on an upper elementary level.  However, I used it with two first grade classes and it's great as a read aloud lower primary as well.  To differentiate the book I left some parts out and shortened it to hold their attention span.  We know we barely have any time to teach extra  lessons so I taught the students how to partner up with partner pair cards and show respect by thanking their partners.  This way the class culture was being formed, students were having fun all while learning how to act in the cafeteria.  Above and below you will find the two different anchor charts that the classes created while taking part in the lesson. Basically we mixed and partnered up to discuss what we love and don't like about the lunchroom.  Then we read the book while keeping track of the main character's actions. When we were done we worked together to make an anchor chart.  

As a back to school celebration my newsletter subscribers will receive the lesson plan and partner pair cards this month for free.  It's not too late to sign up now if you want to receive the extras that I send out each month!

Friendship Lessons For Back to School

Back to school time comes with a lot of anxiety for children and teachers alike.  One of the biggest concerns we have is whether or not people will like us.  We often times take for granted that everyone knows how to make friends, but this simply isn't the case.  If you scroll through the pictures below there are a ton of books with a back to school "friend" themes.  I was hoping I could find enough options that you would have something ready to go in your library.  Once you have a book for a read aloud, consider having a lesson with your class on making friends.  The anchor chart below includes touching points.  This would be a great time to teach the students about think-pair-share. You could have them think about questions, turn to their partner and get to know them.  Administration will be as pleased as punch when you show them you can teach social skills, procedures and tie them all into a standard at one time.  You are that amazing! For additional ideas, watch the video at the end!

Setting Library Procedures

Everyone loves Curious George! He's engaging and reading his book is great way to set expectations for your students or children when it comes to the classroom, home or public library.  In the book George takes a trip to the public library and learns that climbing shelves and riding carts are not the best way to behave in the library.  This picture book can be read before discussion takes place about the "do's and dont's" of the library.  I have provided an anchor chart  with touching points for my classroom library above. It's important for you to keep in mind what and how you want your library to look before you wrap up the lesson and finish up your chart.  One important point that I always make with my students is that they need to explore books that they LOVE.  No boring books allowed! The reason this is so important is because it leads to authentic reading.  If students are taught how to find books they love it's hard to get them to put the book down. Watch my video below for more ideas and standards to tie the lessons into.