January 2016 - Queen of the First Grade Jungle

A year's worth of AMAZING Picture Books

I am a self proclaimed picture book SNOB.  I admit it.  Every time a new list of "Top" whatever books comes out, I run to make sure I have read most, if not all the books.  So trust me when I tell you that Amy and I take book selection time VERY seriously.  Whenever I check out through Amazon Prime and order another batch of books, it takes about .2 seconds for my husband to yell from the next room..."Again?!?! Really Katie?  Do you really need MORE books?"

With all that being said, Amy is also very practical (she is not me) and we know that the planners out there would LOVE to know what books we are going to use each month....more than a few weeks in advance. So we spent about a bazillion hours compiling this list of books for the whole year.  My old Kentucky teaching partners will recognize a lot of the books to come as I fell in love with a lot of these books in my 7 years teaching first.  We try and do a nice mix of classic/new, fun/serious, boy/girl, and any other combination you can think of to make this a dynamic list that both you and your students will love.  When we started out, we had planned on trying to do more of a mix of non-fiction, but there is a serious lack of engaging non-fiction read alouds. Minus Gail Gibbons, because, she is amazing of course! So Amy and I decided to go for the best books possible and then add in nonfiction readers when applicable! 


A lot of our Rooted in Reading users have told us that their administrators are purchasing the books for our units for them! Have you asked? It can't hurt to try :)  You can just print out this handy printable below and slip it under your principal's door! Ha!  Click on the graphic and head to my store to snag it!



Now if you are chomping at the bit to go ahead and get the rest of the books for this year, here are the Amazon links for the books!  You may be able to find them other places for a better price...just giving you an easy option!

August:
    
September:
   
October:
   
November:
   
December:
   
January (along with biographies about MLK):
  
February:
   
March:
   
April:
   
May:
   
As the months approach we will continue to share the books and where you can find online read-alouds or better shopping deals.  Many of these books are also available on Scholastic... use those bonus points you have saved up!


We are ALREADY hard at work on March and love, love, love all your sweet comments about Rooted in Reading and its successes in your classroom. We feel the love for sure!!!

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February Rooted in Reading and Update


Look at my little buddy's cheeks!  Smith is quickly approaching 8 months old, and I am pretty sure he is the best baby ever. I know, I know I am biased!

So if you follow me on instagram or Facebook you know, Amy and I were working away for weeks on Rooted in Reading!  The shot below is the face I made when I finally got to the point that I knew I was going to be finished in a few hours!  I LOVE creating these units, but they are a beast!
Here's a peek in my office as well!  Instead of having a formal sitting room, we decided to make this space my office!  In our last two living spaces, I didn't have an office and my teaching/blogging stuff TOOK.OVER.THE.HOUSE.

Just to give you an idea of how I work (which is completely different than Amy by the way). I am the type that has to jump in the pool and stay in there. Do you know what I mean?  I can't get into a book and work a little bit, walk away, do some stuff, and go back.  If I am going to work, I am going to need like 5 solid hours at least!


So that being said, here is February Rooted in Reading!!! 


I am really excited to add this vocabulary game to our repertoire! I always love doing fun ways to practice our words in my room, so I am happy to have found a way to turn it into a game!


Here's is a sneak at some of the anchor charts included in this unit. I love, love making charts that the kids are involved in as well, but I have very limited wall space in my room so these are small enough they can stay up for reference!

The last couple of units we have really bumped up our expectations for asking students to analyze portions of the texts.  Isn't it amazing how much our kids mature through the year?


And last but definitely not least, aren't these art projects AH-MAZING! My kids get so excited about doing these, and I love the writing results that I get from them! 


If you want to snatch up our unit, just click on one of the pictures! It is on SALE for the rest of the night!!





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