Some are hairy and fat!

Isn't that a great sentence? Are you wondering what this first-grader is describing? (Think academics, people, not how some of us feel at the start of swimsuit season...)


This little gem came from a student in Reagan's class. Earlier in the week she graciously allowed me to be a guest classroom teacher and try out my newest TpT unit on her students. (I have to say--it was fun to step out of my librarian shoes and go back to where I started my teaching career in a first grade classroom!) 


The first thing we did was to read this great caterpillar book about friendship:

This is not a new book, but back when I was a classroom teacher I always read it to my kids and they loved it!

Next we did an activity that had us thinking about fact and fiction, caterpillar style:

Then the kids got to work writing down caterpillar facts...

lots of facts, which explains the "fat and hairy" sentence, right?!

And finally, the facts were linked together to create adorable Caterpillar Datapillars! 

This Datapillar lesson plus more activities are available here at my TpT store. And although I highly recommend getting the book Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom De Luise, many of the activities in this unit can be adapted to other caterpillar/butterfly picture books.

Well friends, after a long day helping at my school's Field Day, I am signing off. I will leave you with one fact of my own, though:

~Swersty

Cooking Up Some Fun in the Library!

Look who's ba-ack!

Hooray--Chef Reid Moore is visiting our library this whole week! He brought a fun book called Pete's a Pizza (an oldie, but a goodie) by William Steig to share with the younger grades and an exciting pizza-themed game to review library skills for the older students.

After hearing the story Pete's a Pizza, one lucky kid gets turned into a pizza!

Older students play a pizza game that reviews library skills...

Chef Reid Moore is having a blast this week, and has even managed to squeeze in some exercise running around the library. (He doesn't mind--he said he's been meaning to lose some weight anyway!) His last day will be Friday, and although the kids may be sad to see him go, he is leaving some pizza-scented bookmarks to remind them that books are YUMMY!

It's dinner time, so I'll end this post here. Besides, I'm suddenly hungry for pizza!

~Swersty

Lots of Firsts!

This is a post about firsts: my first TpT sale in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, my first Currently, and a favorite first grade teacher. First thing's first (pun intended--hee hee), the big TpT sale:

Since this is my very first time to participate, everything in my store will be on sale! OK, being new to TpT I only have one item in my store other than a freebie, but still, a sale's a sale, right? Puppy Palooza is the item you need to get during this massive sale. Check it out at my store here.

And here's my first Currently, thanks to Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade:

And finally, a picture of me with my favorite first grade teacher blogger friend, Reagan from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits. This was taken last week during her library lesson. As usual, I made her wear a silly hat!

Happy weekend everybody, and remember that the first day of summer is right around the corner!

~Swersty

Wowza!

For all you TpT friends out there, please look at what I woke up to this beautiful Sunday morning:

I was so pumped about being mentioned in the newsletter! So who was the first person I shouted told the good news? If you're thinking my husband, you're wrong (although he was the second person I told). I called the one person I knew who would understand my excitement. The one person who would appreciate my little-girl giddiness. Have you guessed who yet? It's none other than my bloggy mentor, Reagan of Tunstall Teaching Tidbits! (She is probably sick of hearing from me since I ask for her help and advice ALL the time, but luckily she's waaaaay too sweet to tell me to get lost--even at 8:15 on a Sunday morning!) 

The thing I've been bugging Reagan about lately is for feedback on my second item for my TpT store. It's called "Puppy Palooza" and is a book study unit for How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills. It's selling for $4.00 and if you're interested in buying it, click here to go to my store. (While you're there, grab my "Chef de la YOU!" unit--it's free!)

Whew! I've had so much excitement I'm ready for a nap now. I wonder if Reagan is tired since she was awakened by a phone call from a crazy librarian early this morning. Maybe I'll give her a call now and see... 

~Swersty

TLA Conference & Librarian Humor!

T.L.A.  Love those 3 letters! For those of you non-Texas librarians, TLA is the Texas Library Association, and I just returned from our annual conference. This year it was in Houston and several librarians from my school district made the trek for 4 days of all out book-mania fun!

This year was especially exciting because

I won a prize! 

Sorry for shouting at you, but I never win anything, and this year I won a big fabulous basket of books!

Yay! I am a winner!

Look at all those books!

The basket was filled with next year's Texas Bluebonnet Award nominees. Get ready for more shouting...

I won 20 books! 

Approximate value of $300! 

Unbelievable! 

Wanna know something else wonderful about TLA? We get to meet great authors! This year's Bluebonnet Award winner was The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. It's a funny, well-written book that really struck a chord with the 3rd-6th graders across the state of Texas who participated in the Bluebonnet Award program. I got to hear Tom Angleberger speak at the Bluebonnet Author Session and he is incredibly talented and entertaining.

Tom Angleberger autographed copies of his book for my students!

In addition to meeting authors and illustrators, there's all kinds of STUFF available for purchase at the conference. I came home with tons of puppets, book bags, props, bookmarks, posters, reading promotions, light-up pens, and books. I carpooled with two other librarians and we must have had a million bags between us!

Another reason I love to go to TLA's annual conference is that I get to stay in a hotel. Is that weird? Am I the only one who feels this way? I can't help it--I just love the whole hotel experience. Plus, I get to room with other librarians and we have so much fun talking shop! One of my librarian friends surprised us with this crazy gag gift that you'll have to scroll far down the page to see.

BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN: I don't think the gag gift picture is inappropriate, but my husband couldn't believe I wanted to post it. Proceed with caution, and a sense of humor!

And no, my friend did not buy these at the conference, but I bet they'd be top-selling items there! Well, time to wrap things up. That's it for now, or better yet, you have reached The End!

~Swersty

And the winner is...

Karyn from A is for Apple B is for Blog!
"30" was the random number generated out of all 47 comments:

Here is post #30, from Karyn:

And here is the book she wins:

Congratulations, Karyn, and thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway--it was fun and I will definitely do more in the future!

~Swersty

Frogs, Food & Fun!

This week in the library we are toad-ally having a blast! One of my all-time favorite books is Gilbert de la Frogponde by Jennifer Rae. Have you heard of this book? It's about a quick-thinking frog who saves his own skin by convincing a couple of gourmet chefs that they should eat bugs instead of frogs. Hilarious! This is one of those books that all elementary kids enjoy; I'm reading it to grades PK-4 and they are eating it up! Speaking of eating...


After the story I serve each class a unique dish (prepared by yours truly). It's under cover until the very end of the library lesson:

What is under the cover, you ask?












Keep scrolling.












Almost there.

 A FROG!  

You know how everyone says that frog tastes kind of like chicken? Not in this case! In fact, I have never seen this amount of enthusiasm from kids for such an unusual dish. It's amazing how many of them are willing to sample this delicacy, and then beg for seconds. I'm thinking it must be my incredible culinary skills.  

If you want this lesson plus extension activities, you can have it for for FREE! Even if you don't have the book Gilbert de la Frogponde, this unit can easily be adapted to use with other frog stories. Just go to my brand-spanking new TPT store and download the unit "Chef de la YOU!" Oh, and did I mention that it's FREE? 

Are you ready for more good news? I am also giving away a new, hardcover copy of Gilbert de la Frogponde! 

You can enter up to three times to win this awesome book. Here's how:

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment 

2. Follow my TPT store and leave a comment

3. Blog about my giveaway and leave a comment

This giveaway ends on Saturday night before I go to bed, which will probably be pretty late because I'm a night owl! If you just can't wait until the weekend to find out if you've won this book, you can always go to Amazon and buy it. Click here to go there.

That's it for now. I hope lots of you will download my "Chef de la YOU!" unit (for FREE, remember?!) and treat your students to some FROGS, FOOD & FUN!