Battle of the Books - March Madness Style

 

Our wonderful librarian has put together a really fun way to expose our elementary kiddos to a lot of different books.  We got an email last week requesting 1 or 2 book titles that we have used in our classrooms, read to our own children, or loved while children ourselves! Then she pitted each book against another in a March Madness-style bracket.   

I think this is so cool!  

She knew we wouldn't have all of these titles in our own libraries, so she found YouTube links for each book and shared them with us.  She even developed a schedule of each round to keep us all on track.  Every couple of days, we read two books to our class and then vote on them.  The book with the most votes in the K-3 elementary, moves on to the next round.

Round 1

The Gruffalo vs.  No Matter What

Round 2

The Story of Ferdinand vs. Too Many Toys

Round 3

Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type vs. Arthur's Eyes

Round 4

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? vs. Little Blue Truck

Round 5

Dragons Love Tacos vs. Jubal's Wish

Round 6

The Book With No Pictures vs. Railroad John and the Red Rock Run

Round 7

Press Here vs. Pete the Cat's Rocking in My School Shoes

Round 8

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie vs. Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

  

I know which ones I would pick to go all the way........

~Stacy

Meet Lucas the Spider - Plus a Directed Drawing Activity!

 

Meet Lucas.

This adorable ball of fluff is the creation of Joshua Slice.  Amassing 3.61 MILLION subscribers on YouTube, Joshua has been sharing Lucas with us since 2017.  Voiced by Joshua's nephew, Lucas totally triggers my cute aggression reflex.  (It's a thing, look it up)  He even makes me *think* about hating spiders less...... 

Lucas is perfect for the classroom because he is so kind-hearted and gentle.  He just wants to be your friend.  This video is great to use during your back-to-school activities, or even as a refresher after a particularly tough day out on the playground.

He is also very musical.

I like to use these videos as time-fillers.  There are some good social-emotional lessons built in.  Many of Lucas's videos lend themselves to conversations about feelings, problem solving, and exploration.

There is even a Lucas the Spider Store!  So many cute items!

To add to the classroom fun with Lucas, I created this directed drawing page so your kiddos can draw their very own Lucas!!  Post this up on your projector or smartboard and watch the creativity flow!  If you plan to give each of your students their own, please note that this printable fits a 9x12 sheet of construction paper.  

Enjoy!

~Stacy

Remembering September 11th - craft

"Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?"

I was doing my student teaching in Plainfield, Illinois with a group of 4th graders.  Ironically, that day I had planned to teach a Health lesson about dealing with death.  Boy, oh boy, did we need that lesson that day.

Fast forward 14 years . . .

Talking to a group of 7-year-olds (who weren't even a twinkle in their parents' eye 14 years ago) about the events of September 11th is not an easy thing to do.  They can't even comprehend the pain and bewilderment of such an event; the absolute betrayal and anger; the fear that it could happen again.

  But it is something that MUST be remembered.  Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day.  Just because a group of children weren't even alive, does not mean they shouldn't know and grow from it.  

So last Friday, I introduced September 11th with these two videos from YouTube.  

These do great job of  giving the facts of the day without being too much for the little ones.

American Heroes for Little Learners (Freebie) by Mel D Seusstastic

Then I found this A-MAZ-ING packet on TpT that has 42 pages coloring sheets.  The great thing is, that she provided several versions of the coloring sheet so you can make it match whatever you may be teaching about: like Memorial Day, Patriot Day, heroes, etc.

 I grabbed what I liked best, as well as, some construction paper.  I thought this coloring page would look great with an American flag.

Here's what you need for each student:

1 sheet (9x12) white construction paper 

1/4 of sheet of blue construction paper 

5 strips of red construction paper (these are 1" strips)

1 white star

(Click on the image below to get your own copy of the stars)

Start by cutting out a star and glue it to the blue paper.

Now glue the blue into the upper left corner of the white paper.

Start gluing strips at the very top, along the bottom edge of the blue and along the very bottom of the white.

Fill in the gaps with the last two strips and trim. 

So pretty!

~Stacy