elementary classroom

Book Exchange

Our student council has a great event that they do every year called a book exchange. We had our book exchange this morning in the cafeteria when kids came to school. Basically, a few weeks ago, the student council collected books from students that they had read and were willing to give away. For each book that they brought it, they received a ticket. Then, on the day of the book exchange, all the collected books are put on the cafeteria tables. Each kid gets to choose from the selection of books, depending on how many tickets they have.

It’s a great way for kids to get new books to read and get excited to read. It’s nice having it at the end of the year, because by now, students have exhausted library and classroom books. Also, they will have some new books that they can read during the summer as well.


Here are the books that one of my students got from the exchange. He told me came to school by 7:30am (School starts at 8:10am) in order to be one of the first people there! I love his eagerness to get books!

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Guest Blog Post: Writing to Mo Willems

Julia is an experienced Kindergarten teacher who enjoys using the reading and writing workshop model in her classroom. She even had Lucy Calkins as a professor at Teacher’s College. She is a fellow New Yorker, co-worker and friend. We are excited for her next journey!

My last year’s Kindergarten class loved Mo Willems. We read every single Mo Willems’ book available at the school library and I purchased titles unavailable at school. Naturally, Mr. Willems was chosen for our Aurthor Study unit.

During Reading Workshop, we discussed Mo Willems’ writing and illustration style.
During Writing Workshop, we tried one or two of his styles in our own writing.
Towards the end of the unit, children wanted to meet Mo Willems. They wanted to know if he could come to Korea or if we could take a class trip to his office.

We didn’t get to go to his office in New York, but we went to the local post office to mail our letters to Mr. Willems. Each child wrote a letter and lined up at the post office to mail their letters! Children asked me if we’ll ever hear back from him. I didn’t think we would, so I told them, “Mr. Willems is reaaaalllly busy.”

The school year ended. I enjoyed my summer vacation and came back to work a week before school started. And there sat a large brown envelope in my mailbox. An envelope from Mo Willems office in New York!!!! “Ahhhh Ahhhhh Ahhhhh!”

I brought it to my classroom, shut the door, and opened the envelope like a little kid opening a Christmas present. Mo Willems wrote back to us and sent us an autographed book poster! Mo Willems ROCKS!

*I highly encourage you to allow each child to send their own letter at the post office. (Rather than sending it in one large envelope.) They loved it. For most of them, it was their first time mailing something, let alone their first time at the post office.

Poetry is back!

Poetry is definitely one of my favorite units to teach in reading and writing workshop. I love poetry because it is a nice refreshing break from writing literary essays and reading challenging historical fiction books. It is a unit where the students get completely immersed in poetry in both reading and writing. This week, we are launching our poetry unit in my class. I’m hoping to tweak this unit from the past, by using some of the suggestions and ideas from the 5th grade Curricular Plan for the Writing Workshop unit from Lucy Calkins.

Some of things that I like to do during this unit is have a poetry wall in my classroom. I just get a large sheet of colored paper that I put on the wall. I have the students write down poetry on the wall. They can write sentences, verses, complete poems, and even draw. It’s a wall to inspire them and others. It’s like poetry graffiti that is totally allowed.

Some other good ideas that are in the Lucy Calkins’ curricular plan is to start off with a class anthology of poetry. Usually I have them create a self portrait poetry anthology at the end of the unit, but it might be fun to have them doing a whole class anthology in the beginning of the unit as well.  I will brainstorm with my students this week on different possible topics we could do a class anthology on.

One of my personal goals for this poetry unit is to write more of my own poems and write in my writer’s notebook along with the kids. I would like to say in theory that I do that all year long, but that unfortunately doesn’t happen. So, I’m hoping to write more with my students in this unit and use my writing as an example of mentor text as well. So let the poetry begin…

Guest Blog Post: Resources for the Teacher

Jane is a talented, creative, and experienced fourth grade teacher from Chicago. Among her many talents we are amazed by her font like perfect teacher handwriting!  It would make any teacher jealous. It’s been a privilege to work with her at our school here in Seoul as she has become one of my closest friends. 

Ever since I started teaching I have always been attracted to the many teacher resource books you could find at teacher stores and bookstores.  I always wondered how it was possible that teachers could have so many great ideas to make learning so much fun.  I now realize that teachers probably have the most resources in books and now unlimitedly on the Internet (and each other of course).  Over the past few years I have been teaching in Korea I have not passed up the opportunity to pick up a few new teacher resource books while being at home during break.  It’s usually hard to determine in the few minutes you have whether the book will be really helpful to you until you actually start using the activities.  Here is one book and one Internet resource that I can genuinely say have been useful to me.

The Creative Teacher: An Encyclopedia of Ideas to Energize your Curriculum
This is a book that has something for every subject in short and long term project form for book reports, social studies reports, major math concepts, a random variety of science experiments, writing prompts, and even art projects.  What I particularly appreciate is that the templates can be copied directly from the book.  Although not everything that you will be teaching is included in this book, there are still a lot of creative and useful ideas.  Personally, I like to use the “Submarine Sandwich Book Report” and assign it for students to do over a longer break.  I also think these ideas can be used for a variety of grade levels and are a nice way to change up formats of reports and projects.

The Internet is also the home to an unending supply of resources, but I will share with you the one math website that I am always going to: Math Drills–http://www.math-drills.com  The math textbook we have been using is limited when it comes to reviewing or more practice with students which is why I find myself returning to this site.  It is very easy to print out these pre-made worksheets that are organized by the major math concept.  There are sites out there that can help you customize your worksheet, but I find I haven’t had any trouble finding the concepts I want my students to continue practicing with or review on.  The answers are also all available so no need for doing calculations!

Part 1: Benefits of Book Clubs

I ❤ book clubs. Even as an adult, I find it so much more rewarding when I read books that my friends are reading. It’s always a different experience when you are reading a book with someone else.  That’s part of the reason why I try to recommend good books that I’ve read to the people around me (ahem…The Hunger Games series!)

Every year in reading workshop, students have reading partners and book clubs. The great thing about a book club is that there are 3 or 4 students reading the same book together. This allows for great conversations about the text and helps create more excitement for the students. Right now, we are in a round of book clubs for our historical fiction unit. All of the students have chosen historical fiction book clubs.

Fantastic historical fiction books about Korea's history!

Other historical fiction books about American history.

Book clubs are great to use for students from elementary to high school! Some of the benefits are:

1.  Differentiation – You can put book club groups together based on reading levels and also interests.

2. Book Choice– Students can choose within book clubs their top choices on what book they want to read. For my fifth grade students, I always give them a number of different choices of books to choose from.  Then, they rank their top 3 choices. This allows them to feel like they have a choice in what they are reading and you are not just assigning them a book that they have to read. It makes a big difference!

3. Deep Discussions– Successful book clubs allow for deeper discussion about the text! Each student will bring a different lens or viewpoint on the story. It is important to help scaffold how to exactly have deep discussions. I require my students to bring at least 3 post-its notes with them to book club discussions.

4. Socializing– Book clubs give my fifth grade students a good chance to socialize in class, but it’s focused around reading, instead of other things. Of course, as the teacher, I need to walk around and help monitor their discussions. However, they love getting the opportunity to “talk” with their peers.

5. Excitement about reading– There is definitely a difference that I notice in the level of excitement and interest in book club books, especially for my struggling readers. They enjoy talking about interesting parts of the story with their peers. Also, I noticed during our fantasy book club groups a while ago, my struggling readers were reading the first book of a series for their book club. After they finished, they wanted to continue reading the books from the series. Some of them even ordered the rest of the series online!

Have you ever been part of a book club? What did you enjoy about being part of a book club?

Stay tuned for Part 2: Launching Book Clubs. I’ll give some tips on how to launch successful book clubs in the classroom!

Celebrating Read Aloud

I still remember the Korean picture book my mom used to read to me when I was little, 101 Dalmations. I know it sounds so random, but I can still remember some of the pictures from the book and of course the story, everyone is familiar with. I used to love getting books read by my mom, don’t know why she stopped! 🙂

As I started teaching fifth grade here in Korea, I’ve really enjoyed being able to read aloud to my students. I try to spend a good chunk of time everyday reading aloud. Sometimes the read aloud might relate to what we’re learning in science. Other times we are reading through a chapter book that can last over a few weeks. I love reading picture books with great illustrations. Those are my absolute favorite.

Here is a really interesting article about the importance of read aloud by the Donalyn Miller. She’s the author of one of my favorite teacher books, The Book Whisperer.

Make Every Day Read Aloud Day Article by the Book Whisperer

Also, did you know that there’s a world read aloud day?? How cool is that.

World Read Aloud Day on March 7th

There’s also Read Across America every year, and this year it’s based on the book The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, just in time of when the movie comes out. Our school does something similar to this, but we pick our own theme that works. In the past, we’ve done Read Across Asia and Dr. Seuss theme. This year’s theme it’s Kevin Henkes. I’m sure either Melody or I will be post more about that later!

NEA- Read Across America

My friend and co-worker Elaine will be presenting at Korcos at Chadwick International School on March 7th about using read aloud in your classroom. We will be modeling and giving helpful tips! Please make sure to join us if you’re interested.

Some of my favorite read alouds!

What was your favorite book you got read to you?

What books do you like to read aloud to your students?

Summer Learning Opportunities!

I’ve actually been waiting for quite a while for February 13th. That was the day registration started for the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project summer institute! I feel really dorky admitting this, but it’s true.

I’ve been going for the past 3 summers and it has been one of the best professional development opportunities I’ve had as a teacher. Each time, I come back fired up and excited to teach reading and writing workshop. This year, I’m not sure which one to sign up for. At first, I thought that I would go to the writing institute, but after reading through the brochure at the course offerings, I decided to sign up for the reading institute institute advanced session. I submitted my application yesterday and now I’m just waiting and hoping I get in!  I have absolutely loved going to the writing ones in the past as well. If you are interested, you should definitely apply this week. The spots get filled up really quickly.

For the July reading institute, here are the speakers! Soo excited….

Lucy Calkins

Kathy Collins

Christopher Paul Curtis

Mary Ehrenworth

Lois Lowry (Number the Stars & The Giver author!!!!!)

Jennifer Serravallo

Is anyone else planning on going to either the writing or reading institute this summer?

I was in a class led by author James Howe, two summers ago at the writing institute!

Loved meeting an actual author and getting feedback from him on my writing!

Simple Valentine’s Day Cards

It’s February, which means Valentine’s day is around the corner. I always like to make something for my students. However, living in Korea, you can’t find the cute Valentine’s day card sets that I could easily pick up at Duane Reade or CVS back home. Therefore, it can become a time consuming DIY project for the already busy teacher! So, in an effort to keep things cheap and time efficient, I found a few great Valentine’s day card downloadable templates, and they are free!

All you need to do is download the template onto your computer. Then, you can print them out on white card stock or the thicker printer paper. You can find that type of paper easily in Homeplus, E-Mart, Alpha or other stationary stores here in Korea.

Here are the links to a few of the different blogs that you can download the free printable.

Blogs with free Valentine’s day card templates

Valentine’s Day Card Templates from Bunny Cakes – LOVE these templates!

Boy Valentines from One Charming Party – Valentine’s your boys would be happy to receive.

Other Valentine’s day craft ideas for the classroom:

Martha Stewart always has a lot of creative craft and card ideas.

101 Handmade Valentine’s Day Ideas. A lot of different fun DIY ideas if you are feeling ambitious!

My  Pinterest Valentine’s day page. Just a bunch of random cute valentine’s day ideas. Some of them could be used in the classroom.

I’m still trying to decide which card template I will use for my students.  I’ve also been watching Cupcake Wars on TV, and I’m considering making cupcakes as well. However,  we’ll see how much energy I have on Monday night!

I hope you have a happy Valentine’s day!

Papercutter, envelope sets & cardstock paper

Printed card templates on cardstock.

Valentine's day cards are done!

Valentine’s Day: For the Younger Elementary Class

Valentine’s Day is one of my absolute FAVORITE holidays, and I didn’t even have this revelation until last year. I was thinking about what my class could do to celebrate the holiday, and in doing so began to re-live my childhood. I discovered that I have the best memories of Valentine’s Day. I was home-schooled (yes, hard to believe if you actually know me) and every year my mom would take me and my siblings to Chuck-E-Cheeses (a.k.a. The Greatest Pizza Place on Earth), where we would meet up with a bunch of other home-schooled kids and exchange valentines, eat pizza, and get a goody bag (this is probably where my addiction to candy first began).

Before we went to The Greatest Pizza Place on Earth we had to decorate some type of container/bag to hold all of our valentines from our friends. My mom would save tissue boxes for us to paint/cover in paper/make beautiful.

This is exactly what I have my students do! I have saved all of our tissue boxes since the beginning of the year and will have them decorate them tomorrow (Friday). Over the weekend their homework will be to make a valentine for each of their classmates (in Korea, they don’t sell the cute and easy valentine’s they have in the states) . I will give them paper and materials if they need them.

It’s simple, it’s easy, and the kiddies love it! Though… I probably love it more.

Happy *almost* Valentine’s Day!

Here is a picture of the box I decorated last year (it’s falling apart a bit, I just had to tape it), I used a small tissue box because I didn’t have enough big ones, but I would recommend a big box for younger students. My grade teaching partner uses shoe boxes, which is another great option. I like the tissue box because it already has a hole on the top for the valentines to go in.

*Stay tuned for a post from Jee Young tomorrow about how to find free printables for Valentine’s cards on the web!*