NEW Informational Book Club Packets

Do your students love the National Geographic Kids readers as much as mine do?

I made another informational book club packet. This time for Cheetahs and George Washington. I got my sets from Scholastic using my bonus points. 

I included comprehension questions, vocabulary matching, and the use of text features.

The skill of comparing and contrasting is also required in question form and using a thinking map.

I also included an option to scan a QR code that links to related National Geographic videos.

This 2-book pack is only $3 in my TpT store! Enter via Rafflecopter below if you'd like to enter to win a copy.

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Nantucket

We are back from Nantucket!

I love it there. I feel so relaxed and at peace. My boys look pretty happy, too!

My two adorable nieces joined us for lunch and a day at the beach. I forgot how many times little kids need to go to the restroom!

Never too old to dig in the sand!!!

We saw what we think was a seal about 30 yards away from us. He hung out for a while.

One day, I turned to my husband and said, "Doesn't that voice sound like the guy who played Ed?" As I said it, I looked over next to us and sure enough, Tom Cavanagh was playing with his kids right next to us!

My sweetie!

We have a couple more days on the East Coast before we head back to California. I can't believe summer is half over!

Facebook Fan FREEBIE and a winner!

Do you give out homework passes to your students? I give them out as inexpensive gifts at holidays and the kids love them. I had one cutie who saved hers up all year so she could plan a perfect NO Homework Week!

I uploaded a version without my name for you as a Facebook Fan Freebie! Just click HERE to visit my Facebook page, LIKE me, and then click on the Fan Freebie tab to download your freebie.

I'd also like to announce that Rebecca King won a copy of my new Lemonade War Book Club packet! Congrats! If you missed this giveaway you can check it out in my TpT shop.

I am headed to Nantucket tomorrow to visit my brother and his family. Have you been? I love it there and will be sure to take some photos to share.

The Lemonade War and a Winner!

I finished another Book Club packet. This one is for The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies.

I needed some more advanced books for my higher second graders. This packet not only covers comprehension and vocabulary questions for each chapter but asks the students to infer with evidence, describe the characters, respond with their opinion, and identify figurative language.

Since this book is about a sibling fight, I also included a writing response page where my students will be asked to write a personal narrative about a time they fought with their sibling or friend (for those that don't have a sibling.)

As I have posted before, I find Book Clubs to work really well in my room. I assign the club a couple of chapters and the corresponding questions. My students are trained to write the answers in complete sentences so the reader can tell the question from their answer. When we meet back as a group we go over the questions and discuss the book so far. I find having these answers in writing helps me identify who has incomplete comprehension or difficulty in synthesizing the information they read. It is also a great way to apply the skills we learn in whole group to a novel they are reading on their own. What questions did you have at the end of that chapter? What can you infer about how that character is feeling? Can you identify the example of figurative language that we learned in whole group last week?

My students love it because it is a "real" book not a basal and they can take an Accelerated Reader test on it when they are done. Sometimes other groups will overhear some of what we discuss and ask, "Can we read that book next?" Music to my ears.

You can check this packet out in my TpT store or enter to win a copy below!

Congrats to Kim Menning on winning my new Hamburger Paragraph Craft and Organizers packet last week!

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Hamburger Paragraph Craft and Organizers Giveaway

Do you use the Hamburger Model to teach paragraph writing? I used to use generic organizers and it worked okay but I noticed that it was difficult for my students to remember all the parts, especially the conclusion. I am a visual learner so I realized having an anchor chart with a picture would be more memorable than just the words alone.

I love the hamburger analogy because all kids can relate to it. I brought a real hamburger bun in for my beginning lesson and said, "Mmm, doesn't this look delicious?" The students laughed, "NO!" "Why not?" I asked, playing like I was confused. "Because there is nothing in there!" they exclaimed. This was a great lead in to our discussion. The bun is perfect for the topic sentence and conclusion because not only are they clearly the beginning and end but they are made of the same material just like the conclusion is basically the topic sentence restated.

The body of the paragraph has three juicy details, making the writing more interesting just as the lettuce and tomato make the burger tastier. "But I like cheese on my burger,"one of my clever students quipped. "Ahh, that is wonderful. Then you can write four juicy details in your paragraph," I responded with a grin.

I am also very tactile so I expanded this experience for my students by creating the above craft they could make themselves. This was also a great assessment of who really understood my lesson. Could they assign the labels to the correct spots without looking at my model? The templates are included in the download.

To continue the visual aid, the outline of the hamburger was used when I created the graphic organizer. In my packet I included blank, lined, and dotted lines so hopefully everyone has something they can use. I also included a colored outline in case you are lucky enough to have a colored printer. If you glue things into your writer's notebook, you could have your students color one of these to add to a Hamburger Paragraph page.

The Hamburger Paragraph can be used with different types of writing. I included examples of  narrative, informative, explanatory and opinion pieces.

I have included all this is my Hamburger Paragraph Craft and Organizers packet. I'd love to give a copy away to a lucky follower. Just enter via Rafflecopter below and I'll pick a winner Sunday night.
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