A New Role

I am writing this blog post as I listen to Emmie and her friends make chocolate chip pancakes! I am also rounding out my first full week "staying at home." If you follow my accounts on FB or Instagram, then you know that I resigned from my teaching position at the end of last year.

I have debated writing this post for lots of reasons. One- I know there are many of you who would love to be at home with your littles.  I am SO aware of that.  I don't ever want to come across as being insensitive to that.  Two-  I don't want anyone to think I have lost my LOVE for teaching.  Three- I kind of feel in limbo right now. 

I have written on this blog for 6 years being 100% honest about what is going on in my life and I want to continue to do so.  {No oversharing I promise :) }  I would just hate to give the impression that I am balancing a full time job, being a mom to three, AND TPT'ing when I am not.

So I wanted to give you a little insight into what life is like for me right now....

1.  First and foremost- mom to Nash, Emmie, and Smith.

(The first day of school)

Those teacher kids are the best aren't they??  Able to entertain themselves and hang while mommy gets her work done! 

Like many of you, I will be running mine all over Creation after school to their activities.  Emmie is very into music and dance.  Nash LOVES his football!

Smith and I are enjoying a little slower pace.  The big kids' school (my former school) is very close to the beach so twice this week, we dropped the kids at school and headed straight out to the beach. Literally toes in the sand by 7:30 a.m.

2. PTA Mom/Room Mom

I love, love, love doing bulletin boards and other displays in the classroom and around school.  Three different grade levels let me scratch my creative side by helping with their boards. 

I am also doing things for the teachers that I haven't necessarily had the time for before.  Yesterday I picked up dinner for both my kids' teachers and made dessert.  I texted a few other moms and we all chipped in toward the meals!  I'm thinking after a FULL week their first week back that the teachers weren't really planning on making dinner :)

3. Actually cooking for my family (and with Emmie- my chef in training)

I have really relied on my husband to handle dinner a lot over the years.  Lately I have had the desire to find and make meals for my family!

The pizza sliders definitely aren't healthy, but many of my new recipes revolve around making healthier versions of our favorites- like this chicken salad which was delicious!  We also love zucchini boats, zucchini lasagna, and black bean burgers. 

4.  TPT.  I won't be abandoning this blog or my creating.  I will have some work time when Smith goes to socialize with other kids or during his nap time.  I have a HUGE list of projects that I am going to get started on very soon.  

I have this freebie in the works and I will be uploading it today or tomorrow- I will let y'all know!

Being a mom is the hardest and most amazing thing I have ever done.  We all question our decisions, but for my family- I know I am in the right place.  I wasn't able to give all the people in my life EVERYTHING they needed at the same time. I was headed in too many directions. Will I go back?  Most definitely.  Teaching is a part of my soul. In this season of life I just needed more flexibility than the classroom allows. Thank you so much for reading this post and your support in my new journey <3 

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Establishing a Kind Classroom Using Picture Books

About 12 or 13 years ago I remember sitting in a college psychology and learning about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  I hope I didn't lose you out of boredom with that first sentence.  Really, I promise it is relevant.  It has always stuck with me through my teaching (because of that pyramid and the discussion with our professor) that my students needed to feel loved and accepted long before they can worry about learning anything.  As teachers we know and see it every day, kids that are bullied on the bus or have a stressful home life struggle focusing or act out in your classroom.  

While we may feel helpless sometimes about what goes on outside the four walls of our classroom, we CAN make an impact.  We can teach those kids in our own class to stick up for each other. We can teach them to stop a bully and to not be a bystander.  We can teach our students that exclusion can be as hurtful as mean words.  

We can do all that with the help of picture books.  We don't have to have all the answers.  Kids will see how to act based on the author's words and the illustrator's drawings.  It is just our job to help them flesh it out with classroom discussion and reflection on paper.  That is what Amy and I tried to do in our August edition of Rooted and Reading.  We thought it was extremely important to choose books that set the tone for the entire year. 

I wanted to give a quick run down on each of the four books in our unit and how it will help you establish the class atmosphere you desire!

One of my teammates introduced me to The Invisible Boy this past school year.  I am so glad I read it in a dark classroom while my students were at specials because y'all I melted into a puddle of tears right there on my horseshoe table.  One of my favorite Christian writers, Glennon Melton, wrote a beautiful blog post about how her son's teacher identifies lonely children.  If you haven't read it before, please do!  Imagine how much better the world would be if we were able to help the excluded children find connections and relationships!  This book is the PERFECT tool for having those discussions with your students.   To accompany every book in our unit, Amy and I include questioning cards that guide your discussion with your students.  We also include follow-up activities that ask your students to reflect about when they have ever felt like the character in the book.  

Amy also includes these darling crafts that help your students write and talk about their feelings and connections!

Next up we have two of my absolute FAVORITE Kevin Henkes books.  

Now I know many of you will use Chrysanthemum the first week of school, but we wanted you to explore two of his other fantastic books!  Chester's Way and Sheila Rae, the Brave will allow you and your students explore some big ideas.  Chester's Way is the perfect book to talk about enjoying those friendships from previous school years, but also allowing the growth of new friendships to start blossoming!  I always think of the song my first grade teacher taught us about "Making new friends, one is silver and the other in gold."  Anyone else know that one?  Sheila Rae offers opportunity to talk about being brave and learning to depend on each other.  One of the Common Core standards that we chose to address in this week's lessons is the idea of comparing two works by the same author.  Here is an picture of the printable we included. 

And also because I am ALWAYS looking for ways to talk about the craft of writing, check out this question included in our questioning cards.  What a great way to talk about the author "showing and not telling!"

A Bad Case of Stripes was new to me when I started teaching 2nd grade three years ago, but now I love it so much!

People in general (NOT just kids) are weary about things that are different.  This book will help you and your class talk about how awesome it is to have a variety of interests, skin colors, types of family, etc.  A great chance to set firmly the idea that different is beautiful and accepted.  You can also explore the idea of peer pressure in conjunction to how Camilla won't eat lima beans because the other kids would make fun of her! We also learn how to start exploring character traits in one of our follow up activities!

And how fun is this directed drawing where you can have your students write about Camilla as a character or the lesson that she learned in the book!

The last book for August is of course, another one of my favorites :)   You DO NOT need Edwina the Emu, but I wanted you to be aware there is a second book because I guarantee your students will be begging for more after reading Edward the Emu.  Besides the fact that the illustrations in this book are phenomenal, it is also a great opportunity for students to talk about being who they are and not trying to "fit in."  Many of your students will naturally make connections to Edward acting like Camilla Cream and how they try to fit in to the crowd!

I think it is fair to say that children who are more aware of how they feel and WHY they feel that way, tend to be more understanding and kinder to their classmates.  In Edward the Emu you can lead thoughtful discussions about why Edward acts the way he does.  

The first month of school is the absolute BEST time to be focusing on your students being kind and compassionate to their classmates. I hope these books will allow you to do that in your classroom!

Just in case you need to see MORE, here is the preview for all four weeks of unit plans:

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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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January Rooted in Reading

Well HELLOOOOO!  I have been thoroughly enjoying my break! How about you?  We have been busy hanging out with family, organizing the house, and keeping up with three crazy kids.  I haven't shown any personal pics on the blog lately so here are a few pics we got taken downtown a couple of weeks ago!

Emma thoroughly enjoyed the camera...just in case you couldn't tell!

A little update on my trio- Nash is 8 years old and one of the smartest, kindest kids I know.  He is a HUGE star wars nerd and loves all things to do with sharks and football! He is a second grader!

Emmie is 6 years old.  Emmie is the princess of extremes (some would blame her artist heart).  She has a mind of her own and keeps us on out toes.  She loves painting, dancing, reading, and writing.

And we can't forget oh-so-sweet Smith! He is seven months old and the easiest baby on the planet.  He is off the charts...literally- in height, weight, AND head circumference haha. He is getting his top two front teeth and besides that, loving life!

 Here are just a couple more for fun!

I forgot to check in and tell you about  Rooted in Reading January because there's so much included in the unit!

For MLK, Jr. we made it to where you can use the unit with lots of different MLK, Jr. biographies and books that you probably already own!  We didn't want to limit you to a specific selection!

Comprehension Focus:  Locating Key Events and Nonfiction Text Features

Grammar Focus:  Commas in Dates and Commas in a Series

Here are some books that would be great to use throughout the week!

And, YouTube has tons of great videos to watch!

We thought that Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday would be a great book to use after New Year's.  The lesson of saving/spending money would be a great fit with New Year's Resolutions!  My husband would tell you that I could learn a thing or two- HA!

Comprehension Focus:  Identifying the Lesson of a Story

Grammar:  Pronouns

We also found this really great video to incorporate with our identifying the lesson of a story.  You'll use this in one of the lessons!

 Kids love learning about the Iditarod and the traditions of other states in our nation.  We just adore the book Akiak written by Robert Blake.  The perseverance and courage shown in the book is just so inspiring!  You'll definitely want to watch THIS video (click HERE and HERE) to learn more about sled dogs!

Comprehension Focus:  Fact vs. Opinion

We also included a nonfiction reader about Alaska so that you can identify key facts in a nonfiction story!

Grammar Focus:  Possessives

Oh my goodness, y'all! Have you read Snow Day by Lester Laminack?!  I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Laminack speak a couple of years ago and I have been in love with his style of writing ever since!  Another one of his books that you just HAVE to have is Saturdays and Teacakes. This is a great video to watch before reading Snow Day with your students.  The author gives some read-aloud tips!

In this unit we also compare the book to Brave Irene by William Steig.  This book can also be found as a read aloud on Storyline Online.  It's such a cute book so we just HAD to use it somehow!

Comprehension Focus:  Identifying the Lesson, Somebody/Wanted/But/So, Comparing 2 Books

Grammar:  Singular vs Plural Nouns

And last but not least... my munchkins!!

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