Trade Book Tuesday: Two Bad Ants

I am really  excited to introduce my Weekly Feature: Trade Book Tuesday! I can not tell you how many trade books I've hoarded collected over the years, but I just can not get enough of them! A GREAT trade book is priceless and when it's good, it's good! 

Click on the book to order from Amazon.com! 

The first book I think every teacher should have in their collection of Children's Literature is Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. Have you read it? If you haven't, you need to. You {yes, you, the teacher} will get a good laugh at this quirky book with hilarious antics {ANTics...HA! Get it?! No pun intended!} of two naughty ants that stray from their colony into a giant mountain {...a house} full of swirling, brown whirlpools {...or coffee as you may know it} and giant, shiny crystals {those would be sugar crystals, SHUGAH!}. They have a shockingly not so good time in this fantastic story of adventure, drama, and cheeky humor!

This book is PERFECT for teaching Perspective/Point of View. I have used this book to teach this skill with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders and they ALL love this book! It's a great introduction to perspective and it truly lays a great foundation for understanding why we all have opinions or certain points of views on things based on age, life experiences, height, beliefs, etc, etc.

The illustrations are fantastic, and in classic Chris Van Allsburg style, the story {secretly} teaches a lesson that is sure to bring about great conversation with your little readers! It's a great way to reinforce those listening skills....Wait? Kids forget listening skills???

Naaahhhhhhh....

I have a great little packet you can check out at either one of my teacher stores that uses Two Bad Ants for this exact skill! The mini unit can be used to introduce or review point of view/perspective based on Common Core RL.3.6!

Simply click on any of these pictures to link to the packet! :)

Here's some examples of two of the activities from the packet! The "Personal Perspective" activity is so fun for the kiddos {and was for ME, too!}. It was so fun to find out everyone's point of view/perspective on different topics and most importantly, why! It was a great conversation piece and definitely a higher order thinking activity!

I hope you enjoy this book with your little friends as much as I do! Get ready for LOTS of Chris Van Allsburg trade books! I use them ALL the time!

**P.S. -- The first three people to COMMENT on this post, get this mini unit FO' FREE!!! Leave your email address and I'll send it to you tonight!! WOOHOO!!! Don't forget to Follow my TPT and TN stores, too!**

HAPPY READING!

"THE" Room, Part 1

So since today is the first official day of my blogging life I would like to take a moment and say to all of those that are reading this, I'm sorry. You might get sick of me quickly with all the jumbled up blogging madness genius running through my little brain!

The entire time I was working in my room today and sitting through a meeting, all I kept thinking about was blogging and what my first "official school post" would be, and if someone would read it, or if I should take pictures, and would I have time to blog, and on and on and on...

So, here I am, making finding time {priorities, people!} to blog about my sweet little classroom.

Let me explain to you my classroom history: It CHANGES frequently! I have never, since the very beginning of my teaching time {5 whole years ago}, stayed in the same classroom. Each year, I lovingly throw all my crap put all of my things into boxes, and ship it next door or down the hall.

Last year, when my husband and I moved from Kentucky to Louisiana, my husband found out how much I hoard classroom materials of a treasure cove of classroom resources I have managed to come across!

So, a year later, a state later, and 3 classrooms later {yes, I've moved to 3 classrooms in 1 school year...that's a different story!}, I can finally say I am making this classroom mine, and can hopefully turn this room into my own little polka dot sanctuary.

Since the kids aren't coming for 2 more weeks, I still have time to finagle things around a bit, but this is what I've managed to accomplish in a few days {and a tireless summer creating materials like a mad woman}.

Because there is limited wall space {we have pods...ummm...Yippie?!}, I like to use the fronts of as many magnetic surfaces as possible. I am going to use these numbers printed on card stock with a magnet on the back to assign jobs. CLICK on the picture to directly link you to my Leopard & Zebra Classroom Themed classroom signs at my TpT store!

Put these up above my desk area...have blank space, will use! I LOVED how they turned out! :)

{Check out these "Asking Questions Posters" Posters at my store by clicking on the picture!}

OH MY WORD! One of my most FAVORITE things I have now are my 6 Traits "VOICES" headers I got HERE, from Ladybug's Teacher Files. SO CUTE and I am very excited to utilize them on a daily basis in my classroom during writing. It's a GREAT reference point for students each day. Whenever we touch on a specific trait, I'm going to put on a sentence strip something we learned about that trait and add it underneath each heading! :) 

My writing center is also something I'm looking forward to using more often with my kiddos this year! I have *some* things added, but really not a whole lot. Also, since my classroom is small and I'm trying to maximize my space, I also have the bottom row as part of my library! :)  

Here is my library {I'm going to post on how I have it set up this year soon...I L-O-V-E it and I KNOW it will function well with my students and their learning!!!}. Yes, notice the gaping hole in my wall...that's my neighbor. Yup. ALLLLL-righty then. :)

AND the other half of my sweet little library... :)

Well, that's a brief introduction into my third grade classroom. I have lots of things marked off my list, with a couple million more things left to do before the babies show up! :) 

Until then,

Here we go!!

My very first post on my very first teacher's blog. I feel like a big girl now!

Please bear with me as I have procrastinated in started this blog just learned how to navigate this magical world of teacher blogging! I look forward to linking up with the most phenomenal teachers across the country, and world in this adventure! I am excited to share my ideas and learn from the best, and along the way, have a little fun doing it!

Hop aboard this nutty adventure learning train I like to call teaching! I am excited you are here!