Extreme Makeover

It's been forever and a day since I've blogged and I have big news! I am switching schools to work at a different elementary library in my district next year and I'm so excited for the challenge! Even though it's the middle of summer, I've already been thinking about cool things to do next school year. Take a look at the fun summer project I just finished for my new library:

My new library (not actually a new library, but it's new to me) already had the letters to spell out the word "read", and there is this AH-MAY-ZING mural painted by the art teacher that inspired me to buy scrapbook paper, duct tape, and Mod Podge:

The completed letters will hang vertically on a large, bright red post and will be one of the first things visible when entering the library. Hopefully this will always be a fun reminder for the students to read a lot of books!

Another project I completed for the new library is getting a poster designed and printed for a student-authored book section. I had one at my last school called the Lonestar Library (you can read about that here) and totally loved it! Here's a peek:

I used "Reading Kids" clipart purchased from Scrappin Doodles on the poster, along with a fabulous leopard picture drawn by the talented art teacher. I love how it turned out!

I'm pretty proud of my summer so far--2 projects down and only a million more to go! What summer projects do you have planned? I'd love to hear about them in your comments!

~Swersty

"Whoooo" is Rocket's New Friend?

Last week in the library we made some new friends.  We literally MADE friends--for one of our favorite story characters, Rocket the dog from the book "Rocket Writes a Story" by Tad Hills! In this sequel to "How Rocket Learned to Read", Rocket befriends a shy owl and learns about the writing process at the same time. The kids loved this project! Take a look at a few of their masterpieces:

These new friends are cute for sure, but also WISE, because they have the very important job of holding word cards for their primary-grade owners. First, have students write words they can use in their own stories: 

Each student's cards are then stored inside the owl, providing motivation to collect lots more great words to use when writing stories!

If you are interested in more unique and educational activities to go with the Rocket stories, click the following links that will take you directly to my TPT store and the corresponding unit for that book:

"Rocket Writes a Story" Book Study Unit

"How Rocket Learned to Read" Book Study Unit

I can't resist one more picture of these cuties before signing off. "Whoooo" else thinks they're adorable?!

~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

The Cure for Writer's Block

Calling all writers! I definitely have writing on the brain, especially now that 4th graders across the state of Texas are writing their little hearts out this week with the debut of Texas' newest standardized test, STAAR.

Writing is something I've always enjoyed doing--whether it was helping my dad proofread and publish his poetry magazine when I was a kid, writing in diaries and journals (elementary school all the way through college), or more recently, blogging (thanks, Reagan!). Writing is a creative release for me.  Fortunately my two youngest children also love to write, and a couple of years ago they begged inspired me to create a student-made book section in the library. Here it is:

The Lonestar Library--an opportunity for students to get their books "published" and read by others!

The Lonestar Library bookcase is shaped like a huge book, so of course it needed a huge spine label. How cool is that?!

The Lonestar Library is designed for student writers in grades 2-5. We spend an entire lesson discussing writing and what real authors do when creating good stories.  The program is optional; students who are interested can submit original works of fiction to their teachers for review. We talk about presentation and how their published books might be read by lots of people in our school (not just kids--teachers, parents, visitors, and maybe even the principal will read them!), so only a student's best effort is accepted. Once a teacher approves a book, it is sent to me for final approval. I prepare each approved submission by laminating pages and binding the book, then I add a spine label and library card that goes in a pocket. I take a picture of the student author with his/her book to display on the inside of the Lonestar Library. Like in the real world, each author gets paid for having a published book (we use "Hawk Bucks", which is our school currency--used for purchasing items at our school store). The books can be read and enjoyed only in the library, and at the end of the year I send the books home with the student authors. The books they create are AMAZING! Such imaginations...

Cover details of the Lonestar Library. The budding authors pictured are
my 2 youngest children and the inspiration for the Lonestar Library.

Inside the Lonestar Library. Student-made books are organized in labeled
baskets alphabetically by last name. All authors and illustrators get
pictures taken with their books!

Each student-made book has a card with signatures of everyone who read the book.

Currently there are 9 books that have been published to the Lonestar Library, with 4 more waiting for my review and final approval. That's a pretty good amount, but just a few weeks ago there were only 3 books and I'll be honest--I was panicking about the low number of student authors. All I could think of is that last year we had at least 15 books in the Lonestar Library by March. Where were the student authors this year? Why weren't they writing stories? What if this year the Lonestar Library just kind of...fizzled? So out of desperation I came up with a sneaky little plan. The week before Spring Break I announced to the upper grade classes that our school was having...(drumroll, please) the first ever Annual Creative Writing Contest. The kids were so excited! And then I showed them the prizes--you should have heard the oooohs and aaahhs!

These are the prizes I used for the Creative Writing Contest. Who knew that huge pens and hamburger squeeze toys could be so motivational?

I explained that in addition to the standard Hawk Bucks payment, the first student in each class to turn in a story worthy of publishing to the Lonestar Library would win a prize. That was all it took. Within the week I had book submissions out the wa-zoo. And the good news is, students are still writing books for the Lonestar Library!
So there you have it--a writing contest and cheap prizes, the ultimate cure for writer's block!