A Wild Library Orientation!

The library finally opened to students last week with a "Wild about Reading" theme. My new library aide, Jumoke the pet gorilla, helped to make the lesson super fun for the kids!

Look closely at my right hand--it is totally a fake! My real right hand is shoved up inside the gorilla to operate the puppet. 

 I named her Jumoke because it is a real gorilla name and means "loved by everybody" in Nigerian. Although she didn't say a word, the kids were fascinated by her and wanted to know if she was real!  Jumoke and I led the kids around the library to check on the animals and make sure none of them had escaped from their cages.

For each cage there was at least one animal that had "escaped", which the students had to help find and return to the cage. Of course all of the escapees were discovered reading books not too far from their cages! This activity served to give the students a tour of the different sections of the library and a chance for me to go over rules and procedures. 

Wild animals have taken over the library! These 5 cages are placed in different sections of the library and will stay out all year long.

This has been a fun theme to decorate for because animal print is so popular and easy to find. I did have to make the cages (with a little help from hubby). We used 1x2 boards to make the frames, then primed and painted them. 

Once they were painted black, it was time to add the "bars". We cut pieces from a 1/4 inch soaker hose (50 feet per package) and stapled them to the cages. 

They were fairly easy to make and inexpensive, although I have no idea where I'll store them next year! Here's a close-up of a finished cage:

The kids fell in love with Jumoke and begged to touch her. She was a big help with behavior management--if a class was too noisy she would hide her head down into my side until they got quiet. 

Jumoke was such a hit with the students that she'll definitely be coming back to visit. So far we're off to a great start, and hopefully with Jumoke's help my students will be WILD about READING this school year!

~Swersty

Wild about Reading!

TA DA!  My bulletin board is finally done. Every year I embarrass showcase my teachers on the library's bulletin board. Students love to see their favorite teachers promote reading by flying, cooking, or, as is the case this year, squeezing into child-sized animal masks! (I have to add that my teachers are such good sports! There was hardly any grumbling at all about taking a picture while wearing a silly mask. I think they secretly liked it...)

Can you "spot" my pigeon-loving bloggy buddy Reagan Tunstall?

This year our whole school has adopted the popular "wild about learning" theme, and I already have some fun surprises up my sleeve for the students and their teachers! Classes will experience a wild library orientation lesson beginning the first week of September, where my goal is for kids to totally go BANANAS for BOOKS! Be sure to stay tuned--I have a feeling that some "wild" pictures from that orientation will be posted here soon!

~Swersty

Bow Wow! It's a Puppy Palooza and a Huge TpT Sale!

What do you get when you mix puppies, learning to read, and learning to write stories?

These two great books!

Click here to learn more about Tad Hills and his awesome books!

Some of you will remember that I've recommended Tad Hills' "Rocket" stories before, but with the start of school right around the corner for many of us, I wanted to remind everyone about these fabulous books. They are perfect for the beginning of the year! And what kid doesn't like puppies?

Even before the first "Rocket" story was published, we were mixing puppies and reading here at my house.

That's my daughter (in 2008) reading to Butterball and Samson, our brand new Labrador puppies!

Samson and Butterball were birthday gifts for my kids, and were featured on my daughter's 8th birthday invitation in this picture from four years ago:

Two high-energy puppies, a hammock and one 8-year old girl made for a fun photo shoot!

When Samson and Butterball were about 6 months old, we took them to our church for Animal Blessing Day. And believe me, they needed all the blessings they could get because, let's just say they were not always on their best behavior!

2 dogs + holidays = FUN!

Halloween 2008

Christmas 2008

But out of all the "kids with dogs" pictures, these two are my favorites:

Now that's some serious Puppy Love!

It's obvious that kids and puppies are a good mix. Look what happens when you share "How Rocket Learned to Read" and then introduce your class to a basket of puppies (the stuffed animal kind):

 Adopt us!

Choosing a name collar for puppy

 We're gonna be best buds!

 Reading to puppy

"Teaching" puppy to read important words

All ready for a Puppy Reading Parade!

See all the cool stuff that can happen when you add puppies to your classroom? Go out and buy "How Rocket Learned to Read" and "Rocket Writes a Story" by Tad Hills and then head over to my TpT store and pick up both "Puppy Palooza" units for a whole lot of fun, educational activities to go along with the books. The units are only $4.00 each, but TpT is having a gigantic sale August 12-13, so you can get them (and everything else in my store) for nearly 30% off!

While you're there, take a look at a few other "puppy" items in my store you might be interested in as well:

Puppy Palooza Transportation Bracelets $2.50

Puppy Palooza Student Desk Tags (5 different designs) FREE!

Here's hoping that you find enough goodies in TpT's Back to School Sale to say "Bow WOW"!

~Swersty

Help! I've (bloggy) fallen and I can't get up!

Yikes! Is it August already? Seriously? Where has the summer gone? I have less than 2 weeks left before district meetings, work days, inservice, etc. start up again and I am NOT ready, people! I didn't get all the things checked off my summer "to do" list yet, and I have been an absentee blogger to boot. 

What happened to June and July? You didn't ask for it, but here it is--my summer in pictures: 

JUNE ~ We kicked off summer with a marshmallow roast in the backyard!

I listened to the sounds of summer in June. A LOT. This noisy bug evidently loves Texas and was out in force. Multiply him by like a gazillion and you have so much noise you can't hear yourself think! 

I met (and melted) with a Squirrel at the Central Texas Blogger Meet-Up!

Went to Mexico with the family, but left early due to a family situation back home. Definitely the low-point of my summer.

More melting! Fun in the sun at Six Flags Fiesta Texas with Reagan.

I played a lot of Words With Friends and even got a word worth 143 points! Can you say "word nerd"? How sad is it that this was a highlight of my summer?!

Umm, speaking of words, I learned some new ones. I found time to do a little summer reading (and blushed 50 shades of RED)!!!  I'm pretty sure if I had an "inner goddess", she'd be blushing, too.

I finally got a new car! Well, new to me, anyway--it's a 2010 Acura MDX. Here I am trying to be patient while filling out all the paperwork. 

And here it is in my driveway--ain't she purty?!!

Did you notice that there was no mention of school? That's crazy because I have a ton of stuff to prepare for this year and I haven't really worried about it, at least not until I got this text from an over-achieving friend yesterday:

I love her last response! "Forever" isn't much of an exaggeration--that girl has been working hard and her room is looking so good! In fact, while I've been writing this post I got another text from her about going up to school to work! I'm sure many of you, like Reagan, are  spending your time off working on school projects--I just haven't fully gotten into "school mode" yet.

The only school-related project I have worked on is another Puppy Palooza unit for my TpT store. Puppy Palooza 2 is based on the book "Rocket Writes a Story", which is a sequel to "How Rocket Learned to Read" by Tad Hills.

This is a great book and perfect for primary-aged kids just beginning to write! Even if you don't get the unit, consider buying this newly-released book--you won't regret it! 

If you are interested in fun activities to go with the book, click here to go to my TpT store. For some reason, there are glitches with downloading the preview file from TpT that haven't been resolved yet, so I've included the preview here:

Are you wondering about all the owl stuff in a unit called Puppy Palooza 2? Rocket's new friend in the book is a shy owl, so there you go...

And here I go--off to soak up the summer sun and NOT think about school!

~Swersty

A freebie!

With the start of school right around the corner, I thought I'd share a fun little freebie with everyone. If you have an ocean/beach/surfing themed-classroom, you may want to download these student desk tags from my TpT store:

Click here to grab this freebie!

There are eight different surfboard desk tags, with the alphabet and numbers 1-20 on each.

And don't forget to link up to my Old School, New School linky party! You have the rest of July to dig out those old photos and share your first year teacher stories!
~Swersty

Old School, New School Linky Party

Do you remember being a brand-new teacher? I was looking at some old photo albums the other day and stumbled across pictures from the first few years of my teaching career. I started teaching in 1990, so needless to say the fashion trends from back then are, ummm, no longer in style. Cringe-worthy, even.  I'm talking big wooden "teacher" jewelry, button covers for shirts, floral print dresses (remember Laura Ashley clothes?), shoulder pads, and white Keds shoes with socks to match the outfit. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you must be very young, which makes me very jealous!

My teaching career started with my college graduation:

My mom and me, May 1990. Despite not having a job yet and just a month away from getting married, life was good!

Mrs. Wersterfer's very first class (otherwise known as my 1st grade guinea pigs)! I was hired one week before school started. I remember freaking out at Meet the Teacher Night when a student's dad introduced me to his son as "the lady who is going to teach you how to read". Yikes--that's a lot of responsibility!

That first year I cried almost every night. I had a challenging group of kids and I was so overwhelmed!

Field trip to the San Antonio Zoo. See the parent volunteer on the left? When this picture was taken I had no idea that she would end up being my principal at a different school one day!

The last day of school with my first class (sure could have used Reagan's Candy Awards then)! I remember feeling relieved and a little sad at the same time. My students learned a lot that year, and I did too!

After surviving my first year, I started to get the hang of this teaching thing. By my third year, I was planning with an experienced teacher who taught meaningful lessons, had great classroom management, and really enjoyed getting to know her students. I learned so much from her, and most likely would have left the profession had it not been for her willingness to share! I was eager to learn, and wearing the latest fashions in teacher apparel.

Aside from the obnoxious clothes I wore, the pictures brought back a flood of memories about those early years of teaching. I realize that although there have been lots of changes in education, there are still many things the same about it. For one, sharing great books with kids is instrumental to their learning!

"New School" picture--about to read to first graders. Yes, that's a chef's hat and apron I'm wearing, and years from now I'm sure I'll be laughing at this! Will I ever learn?! 

This got me to thinking that every teacher probably has similar "old school" pictures and memories tucked away, and how fun it would be to share them with the blogging world!  So now that you've taken a walk down memory lane with me, link up with your own "Old School, New School" blog post! This is my first ever linky party, so hopefully things will go smoothly. You have until the end of July to link up--plenty of time to dig out those old photos. 

I'm hoping that I've been a better teacher than a fashionista. And please remember that although trends may come and go, year in and year out teachers have the awesome responsibility to make a positive difference in children's lives (regardless of what the current fashions are)! Now go link up--I can't wait to read your stories!

~Swersty

July Currently

Yay for Currently! Thank you Farley--these are always fun to do and I love reading other people's responses. Here's mine (completed last night):

I can't believe it's already July; before you know it school will be starting! Even though this has been a tough summer for my family, I am not quite ready to say goodbye to it yet. There's something to be said for staying up late and sleeping in, don't you think?

~Swersty