Favorite Picture Books

I came across another interesting linky party yesterday while blog hopping. Share your favourite picture books. I can't wait to read through all the link ups to add some more great books to my collection. Thanks to Lindsey over at The Teacher Wife for organising this great linky party.

Choice #1
This one has a special place in my heart because it was one of my son's favourite books. My students at school have always loved this book too. You can grab this book here. Here is a picture of my son Cameron at the age of two and a half retelling the story all by himself.

Choice #2

How do you choose just one Munsch read aloud when you adore them all. I'll choose this one because I loved hearing it read aloud when I was a student at school myself. I will also choose this one because I love how my students chime in together with, "Grade One, Grade Two, Grade Three, Grade Four, Grade Five, Grade Six aaaaaannnnnnnnddddddddddd Kindergarten!" Priceless. The only thing better than reading aloud a Munsch story is having the master read it himself on Tumblebooks. You can grab this book here.

Choice #3

I adore Kevin Henkes books! I usually start off the school year with a Kevin Henkes author study and Chrysanthemum is my favourite. You can grab this book here. The messages in this book are perfect for back to school, reminding kids how we should be treating others. There are so many awesome teaching extensions and possibilities. While browsing pinterest I came across a great extension activity I plan on doing with my students this year. I think I will have them sign the wrinkled heart as a sort of pledge to treat others kindly.

Choice #4

Ahh the wemmicks and their dot stickers and star stickers. I just love to read this story to my students. There are so many fantastic points to stop for student discussion.  The injustice of the dot stickers fuels long heartfelt conversations with my students.The message of this story is just incredible. You can grab this book here.

Choice #5

This is a book that I added recently to my collection. I read it on Anti Bullying day when the whole school wears pink. It creates lots of wonderful discussions around stereotypes and social injustice. You would be amazed to listen to the conversations my students have had about this book. You can grab it here.

Thanks for reading and make sure you follow me because I will be posting some great pinterest finds tomorrow! Some amazing freebies for Daily Five!

A Blank Slate to Make my Mark

Oh my! I have a lot of work to do in my new classroom. Cam and I stopped in the other morning to take some photos of my empty classroom. Looking at it was very overwhelming to say the least. I thought I could unpack a couple boxes before swimming lessons, but we didn't get much accomplished, just sorted through a few bins of teacher resource books. Here are some photos so you can see the magnitude of work ahead of us.

Hooray! I have a smart board in my new classroom! Along with a document camera, scanner and printer.

You can also view the rats nest of wires that I will need to sort through under the desk. Yikes, it's a mess! A job for another day. My computers have to stay in that location, so I'll place the carpet in front, not ideal but no other place will work. I think I will cover all the bulletin boards in blue, with a uniform border. Maybe something with blue, green and purple. I'm not sure what to do about the 'green' blackboards. I've thought of maybe covering them, but I'm not sure. I will attach my CAFE strategies to one board, and my word wall to another board using magnets. Not sure about the others, I most likely won't write on them so I figure I could post some stuff on them instead.

I'm not thrilled with the location of these shelves but my thoughts are to use them for my leveled books and other books for students to choose for their reading bins.

My teacher's desk will go back here in this corner with my personal frequently used resources on that tall shelf behind my desk.

A shot of the back of the classroom. All of the stuff on top of the big brown cupboard has to go. I just need a ladder to get up there. I will take down the clothesline while I'm up there. Not my style. You can also see all the boxes I need to unpack. The bulletin boards back here will be done in the same style as the front, with a blue background. Maybe my work with words and listen to read centres can be on the long counter.

Anyways, I think my first job will be the bulletin boards. Any thoughts on what I should cover them with? I've heard of people painting them, covering them with wrapping paper, covering them with plastic tablecloths or covering them with bed sheets. Any thoughts on the best plan of attack? Please leave a comment with your best solution.

Thanks for reading,

More great finds stateside

Yesterday, we took a drive across the border for some shopping and dinner after swimming lessons were done. We decided to travel a bit further than normal to Watertown. A trip to Watertown is amazing because Watertown has a Target!

In Canada we do not have Target....yet. A big box chain of department stores has been taken over by Target in Canada, but I don't think that any of the stores have been converted to Target stores yet. Although I'm not sure how similar they will be anyways. The products can vary vastly across the border, there are many products/brands that we simply cannot get here in Canada. A trip to our local Walmart is much different than a trip to Walmart in the USA. Anyways, we inevitably come home with a cart full of products simply because we don't have them here. For example the following food items found there way into the cart yesterday, simply because we can't get them here.

We can't get the sugar free version here

Don't these look delicious! I plan on making rice krispie treats with them

Cameron's special treat - Our family seems to have a chocolate mint obsession

I love this stuff! I bought 4 boxes! I've never even had regular instant cream of wheat, or any cream of wheat for that matter.

Anyways I couldn't resist buying some classroom items as well. I'm trying to curb my spending but there were some really cool things there that I just had to have of course.

Some stickers, self inking stamps, koosh balls, erasers, birthday cakes and a cute little box

Just a short post today, but look for a post from me tomorrow related to planning using a cool technology product.

Thanks for reading

My very first post!

Welcome to my very first post on my brand new blog! I have been trolling teaching blogs for quite awhile now and I finally decided that I would start my own. There are so many fantastic blogs out there, there simply isn't enough time in the day to read them all. Throughout my constant perusal of blogs and my other addiction- pinterest, I noticed that there seemed to be a lack of Canadian teacher bloggers. So I figured I would toss my hat in the ring and see what happens.

This marks my ninth year of teaching, and what an exciting year it will be! I'm switching schools and grades this year. I'm really hoping to document this transition through my brand new blogging adventure! I spent the last three years teaching Kindergarten, which I absolutely adored! I was very sad to leave my kinders but I was also excited to return to a fabulous school where I had taught previously, which also happens to be a very short commute from my home! Hooray for using less gas!

So I have a very busy summer ahead of me - planning for my new class and preparing my new classroom! Here are some photos of my new room! Photos to come

A total blank slate which is both exciting and frightening at the same time. Through my journey of blog hopping and pinning, I stumbled upon this pin which has basically inspired my new classroom theme.

                                                        Just Another Day in First Grade

My new classroom will be a colour themed room - teal blue, green and white. Although I will admit I saw some really cute owl themed items that I cannot resist adding, but only because they match my colour scheme of course. I have started doing a little bit of shopping for my new colour scheme.



Some purchases from The Dollar Tree (I'm very lucky to live close to the US Border)

Some purchases from Dollarama

So I hope you will follow me in my journey through blogging about my new classroom and my new teaching assignment.

Thanks,

Amanda