Thank you!

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week!  It’s the week where we are showered with love, thanks, FOOD, and maybe some trinkets.  I know I’ve been feeling the love from my school as our PTO and administrators are spoiling us rotten!  I love it!  But this post is not about me.  It’s about the great teacher bloggers out there who are not just bloggers.  They are creators, geniuses, lifesavers, whatever you want to call them.  They are the teacher bloggers who also create awesome products and make them available to us all.  Either free or paid for, we know what we’re getting is tried and true useable products for our classroom.  They give us what we need.  To you all who do this, this post is for you.

Those of you who make these awesome products really put so much into them.  I have only just started creating things and it tires me out!  What floors me are the ones who create the 10+ page or even the 100+ page products!  Wow!  I know that they don’t just do this all in one night.  There’s no way.  I just recently created 2 things that I’m using in my classroom right now and I did them both in a night and I spent HOURS on them.  Yeah.  Need to plan further ahead on these things.  But I digress…

What I’m getting at is this: Not only do you create these awesome products, then you decided to share them.  Even if you’re making it a paid item, there is a little something that you give as a freebie to entice us.  You sly dogs!    But we all appreciate that!  I know that right now I’m only getting freebies because one we’re living on a tight budget (thank you school loans) and because I know I’ll go hog-wild if I’m allowed to purchase anything.    My name is Shibahn and I am addicted to teaching products.    So I’m always so happy when I can get a freebie.  It still lets me be part of the club while keeping my checkbook and husband happy.  What could be better?

Thank you for being creative.  Thank you for allowing that creativity to flow.  Thank you for feeling the need to share it.  Thank you for making it available to others in some way so that more kiddos can be taught more effectively.  Thank you for sharing your love and enthusiasm for our profession.  Thank you for inspiring and encouraging the rest of us.  Just…thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.

If you want to know where I’m getting all my great free things, check out Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook.  OR you could just look to your right ———> and see who I’m following and check out their stores!  They are wonderful ladies and you will only be impressed with what they do.  It’s because of what they create and share that I’m following them.  They are masters of the trade.  Go check them out and follow them.  Show them love.  They deserve it!

Happy Teaching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 3 Five for Friday

Well it’s Friday.  That means it’s time for…

YAY!!  Let’s get started!

Okay first up, I think my tea leaves were trying to tell me something.  I drink hot tea almost every morning and many times I don’t get to make it until I get to school.  Thankfully our new principal got us a Keurig for the office!!!  So anyways as I was checking BEACH Books and trying to eat my breakfast and drink my tea, I looked down and saw the smiley face.  And yes my Monday went pretty smooth! 

Next up is our new classroom toy.  I finally got my act together and got the classroom iPad up and running for the kiddos.  They love it!!  I’m going to do a separate post on that later and I’ll go into better detail what the rules are all about.  But I wrote them out and went through them and let me tell you something…no problems so far!  They love this thing!  I love that I still have my personal iPad to use at my table while the kiddos in stations have one to use.  I’ll share pictures of them in action on my special iPad post later. 

Thirdly, I decided it was time to really teach my kiddos how to write friendly letters.  So first I started with the book above.  One of my absolute favorites!!!!  I remember hearing my teacher read this in elementary school (wait…does that date me at all?!) and when I got into college I was determined to have it!  Now whenever I start my friendly letter unit, I always start with this book as it’s got so many examples of different types of letters.

Then I showed the kiddos how to write a letter as well as what the different parts are.  The above anchor chart was an inspiration from a pin I have on one of my boards.  Go here to see the pin.  Next week we’ll really get into the writing part of it.  I’ll post more on that as it develops.

Fourth up, I…finished…DIBELS!!!!  I finished up this week and I’m so glad all my reading benchmarks are done!  Next week we start our math benchmarks (AIMSWeb) but that’s not as tedious as listening to the same 3 stories 20 times.  Hence the chocolate.  Once I got to the last 3 kiddos, I used each section to keep me awake and alert.  Horrible I know but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. 

And last but not least I leave you with this cute little story by one of my kiddos.  He was at stations and was doing what looked like graphic organizers of some sort.  Then he called me over to show me what he did.  He remembered one of our stories from a while back in our reading program “The Tree” from Poppleton Forever.  Basically it’s a story about a pig that plants a tree and does everything to take care of it but it gets sick.  After trying to figure out what it needs to no avail, Poppleton asks a friend.  They figure out that the tree needs birds.  So he puts a bird feeder in the tree, the birds come, the tree gets better.  Well apparently this little loved that story because this is what his said (with this exact spellings too):

There were a few trees.

But Poplton hade to pick 1 uv his frafrits.

It was a hard disjn.

But he finly made his disjn.

The End

Cute right?!  He was so proud of what he did!  I loved the way he wrote it out.  It’s times like this that remind me why I do what I do!  I love my job!!!!

Happy Teaching!

Currently May

So May is here.  I’m happy.  The year is almost done.  I love my kiddos.  But they are becoming more and more fried.  We all need the summer.  But I’m going off track!  It’s the first of the month (okay technically the second) so let’s kick it off the right way with Farley’s Currently linky!  (click the link to see other great currently posts!)

Listening- I’m busy cutting out laminating for new stations and have my random shows that I DVR running while I work.  I’ve watched a plethora of shows the past 3 days.  It’s either this or music…

Loving- Summer is almost here.  While I’m not that excited about the extreme Texas heat I’m sure we’re going to get, it’s still exciting knowing that the season is in sight.  We are all needing a break right now.  We can survive!  20 days!

Thinking- I am soooooooo proud of my husband!  He’s been working hard at his full-time job, being a daddy, a husband, and a student.  This weekend, I’m proud to say he’s graduating with his master’s degree in psychology.  Another year of course work and then he’s ready for his state license.  He can do this!  (I can do this too!)  He’s done so well in his program- excellent grades and has been impressing his professors.  What I love is watching him realize how smart he is.    The teacher in me is beaming for him!  I just hope his professors realize the impact they are having on him (it’s all online so we’ll meet them for the first time this weekend).

Wanting- I really need to put the hair cut on the need part.  It’s so long.  I usually have short.  But I started growing it out for the weddings I was in the past year and then my husband begged me to grow it out more.  And I’ve always wanted to donate my hair to Locks for Love.  I’m needing the hair cut, but wanting a spa day.    I need a massage.

Needing- I feel like I’m doing more catch up than I am looking ahead.  Correction.  I am doing more catch up than looking ahead.  I’m still behind.  So this summer I’m working to fix that.  Fingers crossed.

Summer Bucket List- my house is still not fully unpacked as now we have to have tile floors replaced as they were damaged during renovations (this replacement really should have been done BEFORE we moved back in but the contractor got sneaky and I’m going to stop before I blow a gasket…).  So once they are done I can finally unpack everything.  My sister will be coming to help me paint and then the real fun of decorating can begin!  I’ve yet to go to the Houston Zoo and I’ve lived in the Houston area for over 6 years.  And I’ve been in and out of Houston as a kid.  What gives?  No clue.  Working to correct that.    And I M-I-S-S scrapbooking!  I’m part of a club that meets every month and I’ve not been able to go for quite some time as my husband has to study and I have to keep the child occupied.  So I’m hoping that maybe I can go once twice over the summer.  AND/OR I get the study cleaned up and be able to scrapbook at home.  So many projects await…Sigh…

So there you have it!  Tune back in soon!  I’ve got a freebie or 2 for you if you do! 

Happy Teaching!

Last Five for Friday in April

Can you believe today is the last Friday of the month?!  Where has the time gone?  I have 5 Monday’s left (which means 6 Tuesdays but who cares?).  No I’m not counting.  Not at all.    So I was looking back at my pictures from this week…Yeah not much there.  That’s all due in part to testing.  I finished TPRI and have moved on to DIBELS.  But then I also helped out 3rd grade and gave the STAAR test to a couple of students.  (Geez…all these acronyms makes me feel like I’m back in my Army brat days…too bad I can’t go to the PX anymore!)  So yeah…I’ve been busy.  But I’m bound and determined to participate in Doodle Bugs Teaching weekly Five for Friday linky so I’m going to start my weekly happenings with last Friday actually.  So here we go…

(click the image to go see other great posts in the linky)

So Friday was totally awesome!  Well the end part of it was for sure, although that school day wasn’t bad at all.    Friday was Relay for Life in the local community and I was a member of my school’s team.  The highlight of the evening?  I was there WITHOUT my personal child OR husband!  Now please know that I love them dearly and love spending every moment I can with them.  But ever since my husband started his masters program about 2 years ago, I’ve rarely been alone.  While not a bad thing, I enjoyed being out there on my own not needing to look over my shoulder ever 2 seconds looking for my small one or wondering what my hubby was doing.  I just enjoyed!  And as you can see…

I went a little crazy and sprayed my hair frightening colors.    It was our little fundraiser while we were there- spray your hair for a dollar.  I was the walking advertisement.  It worked!  I was spraying hair left and right!  I have a knack for creating polka-dots, zigzags, and other random designs with colored hairspray is seems.  But overall the whole night was touching and fun at the same time!  Relay for Life is a great organization!

Next up is this lovely illustration done by a student on an assignment.  I think she followed directions well!

It certainly made me laugh outright when I was grading that stack of papers earlier this week!  My husband thought I had gone nuts! 

Then Monday being Earth Day, we spent the week talking about recycling and natural resources.  Today we capped things off with a project on how important trees are to us.  They had a list of items that come from trees and they drew a tree and cut the lists apart to glue the items on.  I challenged them further by trying to put the items on the part of the tree that they came from- trunk for furniture, etc.  It was a great way to end the week!

And start next week  for those that need to finish…

Then we have this here:

Here are those fact family flowers I talked about in a previous post.  This is my class combined with my doormate’s.  We share a lot.    Anyways, as the kiddos completed their flowers and we checked for correctness (good thing too- they forgot fact families!), we hung them up.  This little green valley is not bursting with blooms!  Definitely adds a good color on those stark white walls!

Now I’ll leave you with this…

My daughter vacuuming dried up play-doh before heading off to bed.  I was honestly surprised she did it because she usually runs from that thing and the regular vacuum…I smell a new chore for this child!    Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Teaching!

If you give a …

Okay wow.  This week just flew by.  I’ve been trying to get this post done since Sunday and something (or me falling asleep) keeps getting my attention away for this.  Gotta work on that…

So Friday was our only non-testing day of last week.  Finally.  This meant we had our full reading block but I had nothing structured or really set up that we had to do.  So I decided that since my kiddos had worked themselves so hard, I would do a fun project.  I went to my bookshelf to see what might inspire me.  Then I saw them.  My Laura Numeroff books If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Party.  Then I just knew what I wanted to do.  I would read the books to them and then let them write their own stories starting with the phrase, “If you give a ________ a ______, then he/she will want…”  So I went home to think about how we were going to do this.

I thought about making a template for them to follow but I couldn’t seem to figure out how (I’m still figuring out this product making stuff) so I decided we’d just go for it.  So I read the stories to them.  And then we discussed how the story came back to where it started.  So then I told them the big news…They were going to get to write their own in their groups!  They were floored and couldn’t wait!  Yes my students are weird…they love to write.  You can imagine what our 10 minutes of writing workshop is like!    So anyways…

Now I did not just turn them loose.  I gave them an example.  Which is right here (please don’t laugh!):

Remember this is only an example- hence the messing writing.  I kept it short and sweet so that they would get some good writing time in.  My point was how I looped it back to where I started.  So then I set the parameters- no copying the books I read or my story!  I then set them loose as shown here:

I somehow didn’t get pictures of all my groups.  I missed one.  Not sure how…  So they worked!  They were busy the whole time and loved it!  I circled and observed and conferenced where needed.  They really did all the work.  They worked well together which really made me happy.  Whenever there started to be a dispute I just told them that they wouldn’t like what I would suggest if they didn’t come to an agreement.  That’s all I had to say!  By the end of the school day (one or two of the groups needed to finish during reading stations time) all the books were done and they were so happy!

TA-DA!!!!!  So proud of them!!  Their books are now in the Library Station (they begged me to put them there) and they are loving the chance they now have to read those books.    So I’ve gotta just share one of the books that a group wrote.  Now their connections are not always obvious but what I’m proud of is that it’s their writing.  They did this and they are so proud of themselves.  So enjoy the story:

(If you give a parrot some pumpkin pie)

(Look at those contractions!  Oh and the ellipses!)

(Yes I know the sentence structure is not exactly there…they were just so busy getting the words down!)

The end!!

So there you have it!  It took a lot for me to just let them go and not control every aspect of it.  Then it would not have been as much fun and they probably never would have finished these things.  So I’m super proud of my kiddos and then just proud of myself for just letting them enjoy it.  And believe me…they did!

So how about you?  Have you ever just let something go and let your students just do it?  Please share!  And thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Teaching!

Five for Friday

So I thought I’d try this Five for Friday by Doodle Bugs Teaching as everyone is doing it and it looks like fun!  Click the button above to go see other great Five for Friday posts.  So here we go…

So this week was ITBS testing week and it was brutal.  We tested for 4 days and my room had to be covered so that the kiddos couldn’t get any help.  Made for a slightly gloomy week and a little crazy too.  Thursday, after the last test was completed, I started pulling the coverings off the walls and the kids acted like I was unwrapping giant Christmas gifts.  Ahhh to have such simple pleasures in life!  I’ve got some more paper to take down but that involves climbing on a footstool or chair.  I’ll do it Monday. 

I have a fun fact family craftivity in my math stations right now.  You can read all about it as well as get all the materials for it here.  This was created by one of my kiddos.  She did so good!  I’m combining my kids’ with those of my doormate’s class on a field scene on our wall across from our classrooms.  That field will covered with beautiful fact family flowers!

I was super impressed with this kiddo’s reasoning to this problem.  We’re doing another addition unit and we were learning about facts called doubles plus one- like 7+6.  You double the smallest part (6) and then add 1 more.  He did a great job giving  his reasons and of course I always love their creative spellings! 

Today was no testing for the first time all week!  So I decided that for our reading time, since we didn’t have anything structured to do, we’d explore the world of Laura Numeroff and we read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Party.  I then had the kiddos write their own If You Give a… stories and they did great!  I’ll be doing a separate post on that so be sure to check back later!

Finally, it was an absolutely, down right perfect day outside.  My doormate and I are doing our end of the year ritual of rewarding those who don’t move their clips down all week with lunch with us.  This keeps them motivated a little more as we wind the year down and they start to go, as some of my favorite bloggers use, cray-cray.    Today (and everyday that is weather appropriate) we dined outside at the picnic tables there in front of the swings (if you can see them).  It was so nice having that relaxing time with them.  Of course I forgot my keys to get us back in the building so that made for an interesting experience of knocking on doors until someone heard us. 

So there you have it!  My Five for Friday!  How was your week?

Happy Teaching!

 

Bugs and Blossoms in Math

Warning- lots of photos!

Testing is done!  Yay!  Now specifically ITBS is done.  Next up, TPRI.  Bring it.  But anyways…I got to take down all my wall coverings and have my room back.  Yay!  The kids were excited as I took down the paper off the Word Wall.  You’d think I had unwrapped a giant Christmas gift.  Too cute!  So life is slowly coming back to normal.  Today is a take-it-easy day as we take care of make-up tests and just finish the week out.  Since we have not been doing formal reading lessons, I’ve got something fun planned for my kiddos.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

So the math stations.  I got them from this great pack I got from SunnyDays.  You can get it here.  You’ll love it!!  Anyways I’m just using the math stations in the pack right now.  We’re getting back in to addition and subtraction real heavily again and I wanted some stations that got my kiddos in full adding and subtracting mode.  Well when I saw the first math game in this pack, I was like, “Yes!  Perfect!”  Then I kept saying it 2 more times when I realized I could use all 3 stations.  Score!  What I love best about these stations is that, while they may have been geared towards second grade specifically, it gave my first graders the challenge they need without discouraging them.  I have several GT kiddos and I’ve been wanting to amp things up and this was perfect.  Oh and so sorry for the fuzzy pictures!  I guess I moved around too much when I took them.  So here we go:

Math Station Bucket #1- Capture the Crickets

The kiddos sort cards with number pairs by their sums- less than 20, equal to 20, and greater than 20.  To help them out (and test their determination to get their hands on a new toy…more on that later) I included a calculator.  After they sort the cards, they fill out the recording sheet.  Love it!  I’m so into the accountability factor with recording sheets.  It just really helps me know what they are really doing while I’m working with my small groups…

Math Station Bucket #2- Buzzing by Tens!

They pick a bee, add 10 to the number, find the flower with that number.  Perfect!  We had already learned how moving up and down a 100 chart moves you by 10s.  We’ve also been practicing counting by 10s starting at different numbers (i.e. 7 or 3) during our math meeting.  So I put a 100 chart to give them a hand.  They are loving it!  I have them work it together first, then they see who can do it the fastest.  It’s really great practice.

Math Station Bucket #3- The Great Snail Race

Very simple game- roll a sum of 7 or greater, move 1 space.  Less than 7 stay put.  You should hear them when they don’t get that 7 or greater!  “Oh man!”  They are figuring out why it’s called a snail race.    This was the last activity in the pack.  I’m telling you, go check this pack out and say hi to Denise while you’re there!

Math Station Bucket #4- Geo Boards

So simple yet so much fun!  Since we finished our shape unit a little bit ago (and quite frankly I needed a new idea) I pulled these out.  They are loving creating shapes and pictures with those rubber bands!

Math Station Bucket #5- enVision topic starter game

Kicking our addition topic off with the opening game.  Love the easiness of these games!

Math Station Bucket #6- Sprouting Fact Family Flowers

So this is something I’m particularly proud of.  My doormate, another teammate, and myself loved some of the roll and create number sentence stations.  Earlier this year I did it with turkeys and tail feathers (see that here) and then again with Christmas trees and ornaments (look here).  So we were thinking it was time to do another one but with a spring theme in mind.  So we decided they should roll, color flower petals, and then write the number sentences on leaves.  Got it!  So I said I would make circles and try to find leaves we could use.  Well I did more than that.  I made the leaves AND I made petals (of course I did that after we decided and had copied the turkey tail feathers from Math Wire- hey you can’t tell they’re feathers!).  We also wanted a directions page.  So I decided to have some fun with some of the clipart and digital paper I’ve acquired from some awesome teacher stores for free.  Then I got the bug.  The creating bug.  After I fiddled around with some things, I managed to make the leaves and petals like I said and the pack just… just… made itself.  Now I’m starting to see what the big fuss is with all these teachers creating all this awesome stuff!  So here it is:

Now I’m not going to sell this.  You can get it for free here.  Please let me know what you think.  My kids are loving it because we are doing it with a 10-sided die with the numbers 0-9.  The flowers look great and they are going on a bulletin board in the hall.  I’ll post a picture as soon as more flowers get added.  But here’s a picture of my example for the kiddos:

Oops!  Didn’t realize my toes were in the shot!  Glad I painted them.    Anyways I hope you enjoyed this.  These stations will be staying put for a while as testing has not allowed us to use them that often and I need to make sure all the kiddos get through them.  This weekend’s project is to revamp all my reading stations and finally share that.  Plus I’m working on another project that I hope to be sharing.  Until then…

Happy Teaching!

It has begun…

So it’s that time of year.  Testing season.  I’ve got one word for that- yuck.  While my firsties don’t take a state test like the STAAR test, that doesn’t mean we let them off free.  Nope.  We give them the ITBS- Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  Unfortunately for my kiddos, it will last until Thursday and we started yesterday.  We have several sections to get through.  It’s tough work on these kiddos but it’s something we’ve gotta do.  Sorry babies!  So due to all this, here’s what my classroom looks like for this week:

Thank you panorama feature on the iPhone!  I didn’t cover my calendar wall until Monday because I use old bed sheets as that’s easier to cover what I’ve got as well as remove if I have a chance to do my calendar routine.  Here’s what it looked like covered:

Not a very pretty view is it?  End of the week.  Then I put my room back to normal.

Interesting thought though…After testing Monday, I was talking with other teammates and we got onto the subject of how many times we circled our room and we jokingly wondered how far we walked just during the testing period.  Since we have to actively monitor the kids, this means we’re on our feet the whole time moving around the room.  So I decided to pull out my trusty pedometer and see just how much distance I covered.  So I clipped it on this morning before leaving the house and away we went.  Here’s a shot of its reading when I went to close my door with my testing sign out to officially start my testing time:

Here is what it read when I went to open my door to take my sign down, officially marking the end of my testing time:

(Sorry for the fuzzy pictures- weird angle.)  The difference- 295 steps, which equals (all according to my pedometer so this is all approximate) 0.093 miles, which equals 10.7 calories burned.  I shared this with my doormate and we agreed that we burned way more than that Monday because we tested for a lot longer time.  So I’ve decided to continue logging my steps throughout this testing week to see just how much I move in that room.  I always suspected that I burned more calories than I thought in a work day as I hardly get to sit down.  And even when I do sit down I’m working so I don’t even get to enjoy it consciously.  So I’ll keep you posted on my steps taken each day.

But rather than do a blog post each day for that, you could just check in with me on… Facebook!  Yep!  Mrs. Landry’s Land of Learning has a page!  I’m excited about this and would love to have some likes!  Go here to see the page and join up!

I’ve gotten new math stations going and I got pictures together on them so I’ll be posting about those as well.  My reading stations need some help though.  I’ll be working on those big time during this testing week as we’re not teaching a formal reading lesson due to time constraints.  By Monday I hope to be back on track with all that and ready to roll.

After this week the end of year testing continues for me as we will be starting TPRI (Texas Primary Reading Inventory) and then DIBELS, ending with AimsWeb Math assessment.  I can’t believe we have less than 2 months to go…Time flies!

Happy Teaching!

Currently April

Well I’m a little late but it’s still the first!  I’m just late in the day.    See how I worked that?    So I’m linking up with Farley over at Oh’ Boy 4th Grade for her monthly currently.  I’ve missed doing these while I was in transition.  So without further ado…

Listening- My husband was watching.  I’m just sitting here working…sort of…more like blogging. 

Loving- We are back in our house and while it’s still not put together (work keeps getting in the way), we are just content to be here.  My family is happy.  Makes me happy. 

Thinking- I’ve got some ideas rolling around.  I’m trying to see if I’ve got the courage and/or ability to pull them off.  I’ll let you know if anything happens.

Wanting- My poor babies.  I’ve got some that just keep getting sick.  My asthma sufferers can’t seem to catch a break and the rest of them have the usual germs to fight.  I honestly can’t remember the last time all my kids were in my room 2 days in a row for the WHOLE day.    This makes for interesting time trying to get work caught up and such.  Hoping they get better as the weather warms!

Needing- Pretty self-explanatory.  Being ahead would just really make things easier.

Advice- I got this piece of advice while at a workshop for something.  The presenter could see the looks in our eyes that we were going to try to use all the new ideas and it was the middle of the year!  So he quickly said make 1 or 2 large goals and several very small goals.  Do not add on to those until the current ones are completed.  So don’t overwhelm yourself!

So anyways there’s my currently!  Go check out Farley’s blog for more great Currently posts!

Happy Teaching

The Books That Tell My Story

So the fabulous Charity over at The Organized Classroom Blog has shared a wonderful story about books that played special roles in her life growing up.  It was heartwarming to read as it made me think about what I love about reading.  As a matter of fact, it made me remember when I read my first story to my mother.  I was so proud of myself!  You can read about that here.  But I’m straying from the point here.  So let me share with you the books that tell my story.

After I learned to read and started unlocking the magic of books, I read anything I could.  I remember getting the Little House on the Prairie series and I devoured that.  I’ve read the series several times and absolutely love it!  My favorite parts?  The love story of Laura and Almanzo.    I love love stories!  I know I’m a sap.  So anyways here’s a picture of my series.  WARNING: It was housed in my brothers’ (yes plural- there were 2 of them) for a time for some unknown reason.  The damage you see was incurred by them.  It pains my heart but now they are safe and cherished with me.  I think though that I’ll have to get my daughter her own copy so we don’t worry about these falling apart.

After that, I was given another series, Anne of Green Gables.  Now this one took me a little bit of time to get through.  But I want you to realize something- I got the series in like 4th or 5th grade.  It was probably a little advanced for me.  But I loved them just the same.  Anne was so vibrant and fun!  I loved reading about her journey through life.  Her passion for those that she loved and the things that she did just oozed from the page.  Below is a picture of my beloved books.  Please excuse them being out of order- my husband unpacked them and just simply placed them on the shelf.  I haven’t been able to organize the study yet.  It’s on the project list!  Obviously I kept this series out of my brothers’ reach as they are still in great condition.  I can’t wait to have my little girl read them!

Now around this same time (Easter time as I recall correctly…how perfect!) I received a special book from my parents.  It’s one I still love reading to this day.  Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.  A classic book.  But my parents didn’t just get me a copy of the book.  Oh no.  They got me this beautiful hardback edition that includes colored prints and other sketched illustrations.  I love it!  I have also worked to keep this book in great shape.  I’ve read it several times and I still find something new that I didn’t realize.  I definitely relate to the amount of siblings as I’m the oldest of 5 kids- 2 sisters and 2 brothers in that order.  Thinking about it, I think I’m most like Meg, the oldest.  She and I take care of our younger siblings and act way more grown up than we probably needed to at times.  But that’s what happens when you’re the oldest in a large family.  But I admire Jo’s ability to write good stories and be so passionate about life.  Beth is sweet and loving while Amy is…well…Amy.  Actually Amy reminds me of one of my sisters- Gweneth, #2 in the line up.  Both artists.  Both very different personality wise compared to the rest (Amy is in my opinion).  But both have good hearts and come through in the end.  Jo and Gweneth are also a lot alike.  Anyways I’m starting to overanalyze and now I want to read the book again with these thoughts to see if I’m right (it’s been a while!). 

I also loved and enjoyed the classics.  I have read everything from The Scarlet Letter (5-6 times by the end of high school), Mark Twain (see the book below of the collection of stories my mom got me), Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, and…I can’t remember any more but I’m sure they are there!  This was all between middle school and high school.  Not joking.  Now while I could read all the words and such I don’t know if I really truly understood the books, at least the first time I read them.  If I went back and read them again, they were much clearer and I could concentrate on finer details.  Later, when I got my Kindle a few years ago I was able to stock up on classics for free.  Now I’ve read and fallen in love with Jane Austen.  Remember, I love a good love story!

Now a days, when I’m not reading professional books and such, it’s romance, fiction, and more classics.  Thanks to my Kindle and the tons of free books I’ve found, I’ve been reading more nonfiction (mainly biographies) and other types of books that I would have otherwised missed.  But while I absolutely love my Kindle, I still sometimes have to read an actual book.  I have to feel the pages and look at the cover.  I guess I either connect better with them that way or holding an old favorite book brings back memories.  Regardless, I love to read.  It’s always been a part of my life and I’m working to instill this love in my daughter- so far so good!  Reading is a huge reason as to why I became a teacher.  Watching my babies read something and know that they did it on their own is a priceless experience that I cherish always. 

So what books did you love growing up?  What do you love to read now?  Please share!

Happy Teaching!