I Caught the Bug

The reading bug, that is. Not to say that I haven’t gotten the actual bug, because I’m sick … again. Seems like at least once a month I catch something, and June has been no exception (although I was hoping it would, what with the nice weather and all). OFF TRACK, sorry. Let’s try this again:

I caught the reading bug.

When I catch it, I fall hard. I live, breathe, eat and sleep reading. I’m usually able to put off doing it during the school year, because I get so consumed by reading that I stay up way too late just living in these other worlds and devouring picturesque words and fascinating details. I picked up a book when I needed something to do Monday night when it was raining. “Quick reads,” I told myself. “You need to train yourself to be able to read and be human at the same time.” That must sound like an easy task. For those who read the way that I do, you know it’s not. So I came up with a challenge for myself: read the children’s literature books that I want to recommend for my students this summer. And this challenge is more fun that I thought it would be.

La guerre des tuques

Attention, attention! La guerre est pris dans notre salle de classe!

Today, we began our first novel study – La guerre des tuques. One of the most classic holiday films (bar none!), I’ve been looking for an amazing French novel to get my students psyched about reading in French for a reason other than the fact that I bribe them. So far so good. I’ve even set up a bulletin board that we will be adding to throughout the next two weeks while we study the book. We’ll also be soon a compare and contrast between the book and the movie, and learning how to make a resume. The next two weeks is all La guerre des tuques all the time!

Third Grade Angels

My students and I began reading Third Grade Angels by Jerry Spinelli today as a read-aloud, and it’s awesome. They’re relating to it, and they constantly beg me to read it to them when we have a spare couple of minutes. We’re just burning through it.

I would certainly recommend it to all 3rd Grade teachers. And it’s now going to be a really integral part of our learning.

Also, I can’t believe my luck that my students are the types of students that like read-alouds. Oh, this is what heaven must feel like. We’re going to read so much great stuff together!

Building a Classroom Library

Sorry I’ve been MIA, but this year, I’ve got my first classroom! Woo! The first week is always busy, but my first week was off the charts – I had to play catch up, getting my classroom decorated and everything in order.

Finally, today, I had the opportunity to go to Costco and buy a whole gaggle of books. And what a deal I got!