Author Celebration & The End of Reading Week

Spring break is HERE folks and I am one happy camper :)

I have a recently loaded Starbucks card, my laptop, and a whole DVR full of shows to keep me occupied this week!

I was looking through my phone this morning and I wanted to share with you from our day on Friday.

It was our last day of Nevada reading week which meant pajamas, blankets, and stuffed animals to cuddle up and ENJOY reading! My kids loved their day and I ran around like a crazy person - what else is new?! Amidst all the reading, we prepared all day for our author celebration. We invited the parents to come and enjoy the afternoon reading our All About Books we finally finished.

Early in the morning, I got my students in their animal groups and they got to work together to create a "tear art" poster to display during the party. They were loud and crazy and loved every second of this art project. I needed a pair of earplugs, but I can tell you I loved what their creative craziness created!

 

Before the parents came, my teaching bestie and I went out a bit early and got some snacks ready for the adults and kids to enjoy!

While we were setting up the snacks, we let the kids hang out while they anxiously awaited their parents and their published books.

Our All About Books - DONE!

Our students reading their books with their parents - they were so proud!

As an added bonus, our whole school read over 30,000 minutes during reading week! Our reward?! Our principal and assistant principal spent ALL day Friday on the roof! Each class had a special time to go out and visit them up there! They had water balloons to throw at the kids and they even had a pulley system with a bucket to transfer notes back and forth.

 

 {Thank you Alyssa for the pictures!}

It was the perfect way to end our week AND start our spring break!

*If you are looking for some things to get your author celebration going in your own classroom, check out my author celebration packet!*

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All About Books - We're Almost Finished!

Valentine's Day, President's Day, and lots of staff development has gotten in the way of us completing our All About Books, but I am happy to say we are in the final stages!!

I wanted to show you all a sneak peek of our hard work:

Cover Pages:

 

Dedication pages:

 I dedicate this book to my brother, Max, because if I'm sick he will do my chores for me.

Hahahaha!

 I dedicate this book to my mom and dad because they help me learn to do math, reading, and writing. And I love them more than chocolate ice cream.

Diagram:

Different Kinds:

Over the next two days we are editing and finishing our how-to pages, our research paragraphs, and our about the author pages! This year I asked my students to write their "About the Author" in the third person and they are AH-DOR-UH-BLE!

If all goes as planned we will be having goldfish, animal crackers, and sparkling cider next Friday to celebrate our hard work :)

If you would like to make your own All About Books, just click on the cover image below and you can see more about it!

Happy Hump Day!

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All About Books - Our Non-fiction Research Project!

I may have said it 3728970423498320 times...

but this project is MY FAVORITE!

FAY-VOR-UT!

We have finally started our All About Books!

 Our "sloppy-copy" folders are piling up and ready for their first round of editing!

We are only about a week in, but my kids are already loving reading AND writing about their animals!

This was the schedule for week one:

Here are my students during their book walk:

I spread out the books all over the room. Sharks on one table, bears on the carpet, etc. and students spend the first day just enjoying the different animal books and trying to choose which animal they want to write about.

After they find out their animal, I have them complete a fascinating facts page:

Students get to spend the second day with their research group, reading and exploring all the fun facts about their animals. When students find a new fact, they write it down - in their OWN words - and write the page number they found it on.

Next, we made a diagram and a dedication page! My pictures of those are on my real camera... which is dead... so next time I will add 'em to the post!

Some how-to writing:

How to Save Owls
  When people cut down trees we need to make sure the owls out of the tree. If an owl gets trapped in a tree we need to help them so they can go free. When owls are hurt we need to help them when owls are hurt.

How to Find Food for an Owl
 First, you go to the forest and find a dead rat at night and some worms. Next, you climb a tree and find an owl...

Okay...So.... We need to work on these lol, but they crack me up and they are just the "sloppy copies." I will be sure to take more pictures of the process as we go!

If you'd like to start this all About Book with your kids you can read more about it by clicking the picture below:

This unit is also in my Common Core Writing for 1st Grade Bundle which includes a unit for writing narratives and opinion pieces!

Now, I'm off to eat some dark chocolate and catch up on my DVR!

Snooki and JWoww here I come ;)

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